Shared Stories, Shared Bonds: People with Dementia Exploring Generative AI TogetherPeople with dementia often experience social isolation in daily life. Generative AI (GenAI) technologies, producing seemingly new content on the spot and tailoring it to users' wishes, open new avenues for promoting meaningful social connections in dementia care. This study involved 17 people with dementia in 6 workshops and explored how they responded to and perceived three GenAI models, Copilot, Midjourney, and Suno, with a focus on social connectedness. Our results reveal that people with dementia engage in a relational process when using GenAI together: they collectively evaluate the outcomes of the models and negotiate further prompts. Moreover, they gradually develop an understanding of GenAI and become more critical about its output. We contribute to HCI by demonstrating how GenAI can foster social bonding between people with dementia through the co-creation of shared realities, and by discussing guidelines for designing effective and ethically responsible GenAI for people with dementia.2026TATeis Arets et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Elderly Care & Dementia SupportEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
Temporal Snapshots: Probing and Designing for Subjective Time in DementiaTime is increasingly researched in HCI, yet design often remains tied to normative temporal constructs, e.g., clocks and calendars. This is especially limiting in dementia contexts, where temporal experience is altered. Existing approaches largely enforce normative time and overlook futures, prioritizing the past for people with dementia. To explore how people with dementia and their partners experience time, we designed the Temporal Snapshots probe for 12 participants to reflect on temporal subjectivity across past and future moments. The probe surfaced layered narratives. Participants articulated fluid temporal associations, anchored narratives to personally meaningful moments, and situated themselves within future and past trajectories. We contribute empirical insights into how couples experience subjective time, a dual temporal lens for HCI, design directions for reframing time in dementia contexts, and methodological reflections on researching temporality. We foreground time as relational and co-constructed, challenging assumptions of linearity and fixed orientation in interaction design.2026RKRucha Khot et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyElderly Care & Dementia SupportEmpathy & Emotional DesignPrototyping & User TestingCHI
Does Care Lead to Bonds? Exploring the Relationship Between Human Caregiving for Robots and Human-Robot BondingThis study investigates how interaction scenarios of human caregiving for robots affect humans’ perceived bond with robots. In a between-subjects lab experiment (n = 88), participants played a game with a social robot during which they provided either 1) emotional care (comforting the robot); 2) instrumental care (helping with battery charging); or 3) no care for the robot. Results indicated that caregiving did not significantly affect human-robot bonding according to explicit relationship measures including closeness, social attraction, or desire for future interaction. However, caregiving mattered when bonding was measured implicitly. Those in the emotional caregiving scenario were more hesitant to replace the robot and invested more effort in a voluntary task requested by the robot than those who provided no care. These findings provide empirical evidence that emotional caregiving interactions can effectively foster initial human-robot bonding, highlighting a promising design scenario for human-robot interaction.2025JXJiaxin Xu et al.Eindhoven University of Technology, Human Technology Interaction groupSocial Robot InteractionHuman-Robot Collaboration (HRC)CHI
Mano: Designing for Tactile Experiences in Advanced Dementia CareProfessional caregivers want to provide feelings of security and comfort to people with dementia in advanced care, but limited resources frequently restrict professional caregivers from doing so. One potential solution to make social, non-verbal connections with people in advanced dementia care is the use of artifacts that offer comfort and stimulating tactile experiences. In this study, we explored the role of two design artifacts, the Mano Quilt, a weighted blanket, and the Mano Fold, a foldable pillow, in supporting caregivers to increase feelings of comfort and security in people with advanced dementia through warmth. In a field study, we collected data through observations of 26 residents with dementia who interacted with the two artifacts and 17 interviews with their formal caregivers in three care organizations. We reveal which aesthetic and material qualities evoke haptic and bodily experiences such as presence, comfort, and activity and how the artifacts support existing caregiving practices. We encourage future researchers to design to enrich the senses as an aesthetic experience and provide emotional support and companionship to increase well-being for people with advanced dementia.2025SBSanne Beijer et al.Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Industrial DesignHaptic WearablesElderly Care & Dementia SupportCHI
Open-ended Play For People With DementiaThe progression of dementia leads to a loss of initiative and agency, halting daily activities, hobbies, or social encounters. Open-ended play can encourage initiative but remains underexplored in demen- tia. This paper explores how technology-driven design can support open-ended play, making social interactions more enjoyable and re- newing interest in daily activities. We conducted five workshops at dementia daycare facilities, observing people with dementia engage with playful circuit-building toolkits to identify strategies. Find- ings reveal these toolkits stimulated self-direction and initiative to accomplish self-imposed goals, both independently and collabora- tively. We show how open-ended play fosters confidence, resilience, social engagement, and self-expression, allowing people with de- mentia to exercise choice and share moments of achievement. We provide design implications for technology to stimulate initiative through open-ended play by 1) balancing structure and freedom, 2) emphasizing novelty and material diversity for non-verbal social connection, and 3) considering age-appropriate aesthetics.2025AVAlicia Valencia et al.TU/e, Industrial DesignSerious & Functional GamesElderly Care & Dementia SupportCHI
Challenging Futures: Using Chatbots to Reflect on Aging and DementiaIntertemporal reflection, flexibly thinking forward and backward in time, is vital for one's future planning. Yet, cultivating intertemporal reflection about encountering difficult futures, e.g., developing a progressive cognitive condition like dementia, can be challenging. We assessed people's attitudes towards dementia following conversing with a chatbot presented as either neurotypical or simulating dementia symptoms. While neither the chatbot’s presentation nor the framing of participants’ future selves impacted attitudes toward dementia, it influenced participants' experiences. When framed as future selves, the chatbot evoked a strong emotional connection, leading to reflection on aging, particularly with the chatbot simulating dementia symptoms. Participants interacting with the chatbot framed as a stranger with simulated symptoms often felt frustrated, especially when they had a task-oriented mindset. Chatbots can be promising tools for prompting reflections on challenging futures, such as dementia, although their effectiveness varies due to the tensions between simulated cognitive decline and expectations for effective communication.2025RKRucha Khot et al.Eindhoven University of Technology, Industrial DesignAugmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
Seeking Truth, Comfort, and Connection: How Conversational User Interfaces can help Couples with Dementia Manage Reality DisjunctionReality disjunction, when people present contradicting worldviews as true, frequently occurs in conversations between people with dementia and their partners due to memory gaps, distortions, fabrications, or unsuccessful communication. These couples can feel isolated and frustrated when trying to reconcile their memories or diverging perceptions of the world. Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs) can be used to help people with dementia with their cognitive needs, but their role in helping with reality disjunction is unexplored. Through semi-structured interviews, we examined how six couples (composed of people with dementia and their partners) experience reality disjunction and explored CUIs' potential roles in mediating these situations through speculative designs. We found that addressing reality disjunction depended on what couples valued in their interaction. Each person may value the truth of what happened, but may let go of this when aiming for comfort, and empathise with their partner when pursuing connection. Potential roles for CUIs to help couples explore these values include helping them check and explain their memories, reducing their distress during reality disjunction, and helping people practice different responses to reality disjunction.2024YRYvon Ruitenburg et al.Conversational ChatbotsCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)CUI
Text-to-Image AI as a Catalyst for Semantic Convergence in Creative CollaborationsDesign ideation requires both creative and divergent thinking as well as collaboration and exchange to bring forth new insights and design possibilities. In this paper, we investigate such a collaboration with the use of emerging generative AI tools, and we explore how they may help in achieving agreement and semantic convergence between designers. We conducted workshops using Text-to-Image AI with design students and found that in addition to known advantages of brainstorming, the text prompts required by the AI system engaged students in verbal articulations that aided their design process. In collaborative contexts, the generated images shifted the centre of attention for team members to reach convergence through sharing their interpretations. We conclude that text-to-image AI can be beneficial for students' design processes as a catalyst for brainstorming rather than a tool for generating design imagery and presentations.2024PLPei-Ying Lin et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Creative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsDesign FictionDIS
Design Opportunities for Care Transitions in Dementia: Understanding Informal Caregivers' Experiences Through a Practice-Informed ApproachThe transition from home to formal residential care is described as stressful and emotionally difficult for people with dementia and their informal caregivers. While HCI research investigated how technology supports people with dementia at home or in formal care, there still is a need to understand how technology can support care transitions. This paper presents a practice-informed approach to gather insights collaboratively between care professionals and HCI researchers. We interviewed 42 informal caregivers of people with dementia to uncover their experiences before, during, and after care transitions. Our findings reveal how informal caregivers were: 1) navigating hurdles of information on care transitions, 2) caught up in the evolving challenges of informal caregiving, and 3) shifting from uncertainty in decision-making to acceptance of admission. Next, we formulate six design opportunities to support transitions in dementia care and encourage HCI researchers to pursue a practice-informed approach to address societal challenges in dementia.2024MHMaarten Houben et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyElderly Care & Dementia SupportParticipatory DesignCHI
Affective and Cognitive Reactions to Robot-Initiated Social Control of Health Behaviors Health-related social control refers to intentional attempts to influence people's health behaviors, often seen in personal relationships. Social robots hold promise in influencing people’s health by exerting health-related social control, but it is unclear which social control strategies used by robots would be appropriate and potentially effective. This paper explores the effects of positive versus negative, and relationship-oriented versus target-oriented social control strategies from a robot on people’s affective and cognitive reactions. In an online video prototype study, participants viewed scenarios of a robot companion trying to influence them to change their sedentary behaviors by using varied social control strategies. Our results showed that positive (vs. negative) strategies by the robot elicited stronger positive affect, enjoyment, perceived social appropriateness, reduced perceived threats to freedom, and strengthened behavioral intention. Meanwhile, relationship-oriented (vs. target-oriented) strategies elevated people's negative affect, reduced enjoyment and perceived social appropriateness, elevated perceived threats to freedom, and diminished behavioral intention. Given these findings, we give recommendations for designing influence strategies for social robots in the context of health behavior change.2024JXJiaxin Xu et al.Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesSocial Robot InteractionHRI
Benefits of Human-AI Interaction for Expert Users Interacting with Prediction Models: a Study on Marathon RunningUsers with large domain knowledge can be reluctant to use prediction models. This also applies to the sports domain, where running coaches rarely rely on marathon prediction tools for race-plan advice for their runners' next marathon. This paper studies the effect of adding interactivity to such prediction models, to incorporate and acknowledge users' domain knowledge. In think-aloud sessions and an online study, we tested an interactive machine learning tool that allowed coaches to indicate the importance of earlier races feeding into the model. Our results show that coaches deploy rich knowledge when working with the model on runners familiar to them, and their adaptations improved model accuracy. Those coaches who could interact with the model displayed more trust and acceptance in the resulting predictions.2024HMHeleen Muijlwijk et al.Human-LLM CollaborationAI-Assisted Decision-Making & AutomationIUI
The Effect of Explanation Design on User Perception of Smart Home Lighting Systems: A Mixed-method Investigation It has been shown that providing explanations about AI-based systems’ decisions can be an effective way to increase users’ trust and acceptance. The effect of explanation design in smart home systems on users’ acceptance and perceptions is however less known. We therefore explored the effect of different explanation designs on acceptance in the context of the Philips Hue smart home lighting system. We conducted interviews (N = 10) and an online experiment (N = 452) using three everyday smart home lighting scenarios with different explanation types. The results showed that although participants indicated a positive attitude towards explanations, receiving an explanation can potentially reduce the perceived control of the lighting system. Furthermore, participants preferred system-based explanations rather than user-based explanations. Our study also provides recommendations for the design of explanations in smart home systems.2023JDJiaxin Dai et al.Signify ResearchExplainable AI (XAI)Smart Home Interaction DesignCHI
Improving understandability of feature contributions in model-agnostic explainable AI toolsModel-agnostic explainable AI tools explain their predictions by means of ’local’ feature contributions. We empirically investigate two potential improvements over current approaches. The first one is to always present feature contributions in terms of the contribution to the outcome that is perceived as positive by the user (“positive framing”). The second one is to add “semantic labeling”, that explains the directionality of each feature contribution (“this feature leads to +5% eligibility”), reducing additional cognitive processing steps. In a user study, participants evaluated the understandability of explanations for different framing and labeling conditions for loan applications and music recommendations. We found that positive framing improves understandability even when the prediction is negative. Additionally, adding semantic labels eliminates any framing effects on understandability, with positive labels outperforming negative labels. We implemented our suggestions in a package ArgueView.2022SHSophia Hadash et al.Jheronimus Academy of Data Science, Eindhoven University of TechnologyExplainable AI (XAI)Recommender System UXCHI
People May Punish, Not Blame, RobotsAs robots may take a greater part in our moral decision-making processes, whether people hold them accountable for moral harm becomes critical to explore. Blame and punishment signify moral accountability, often involving emotions. We quantitatively looked into people’s willingness to blame or punish an emotional vs. non-emotional robot that admits to its wrongdoing. Studies 1 and 2 (online video interaction) showed that people may punish a robot due to its lack of perceived emotional capacity than its perceived agency. Study 3 (in the lab) demonstrated that people were neither willing to blame nor punish the robot. Punishing non-emotional robots seems more likely than blaming them, yet punishment towards robots is more likely to arise online than offline. We reflect on if and why victimized humans (and those who care for them) may seek out retributive justice against robot scapegoats when there are no humans to hold accountable for moral harm.2021MLMinha Lee et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologySocial Robot InteractionTechnology Ethics & Critical HCICHI
Beyond Behavior: The Coach's Perspective on Technology in Health CoachingRapid innovations in electronic healthcare and behavior tracking systems are challenging health coaches (dietitians, personal trainers, etc.) to rethink their traditional roles and healthcare practices. At the same time, many current e-coaching systems have been developed without explicitly incorporating the healthcare professionals' perspective into the design process. In the current paper, we present three consecutive qualitative studies, starting from the health coach's perspective on successful coaching, progressively zooming in on the potential role and impact of technology as part of the coaching process. Our main finding is that coaches are concerned that introducing technology in the coaching process puts too much emphasis on behavioral information, lowering the attention for the client's lived experience, while understanding those experiences is key for successful coaching. We summarize our insights in a multi-channel communication model and draw implications for the design of supporting technology in health coaching.2019HRHeleen Rutjes et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyGamification DesignMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesFitness Tracking & Physical Activity MonitoringCHI