Values Across Contexts: Understanding How Older Adults Enact What Matters Through TechnologyAs populations age and technology becomes more pervasive, understanding the alignment between older adults' values and technology design is paramount. More research is needed to understand how older adults’ living contexts shape their values and the use of technology. To address this, through a multi-context study, we explored how values differ for older adults and how their context of living might influence the adoption and use of technology. We conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with older adults in various residential contexts. We show that older adults tend to prioritize the same core values across living contexts, yet how they express values in each context differs. Technology can amplify or inhibit key values. We describe implications for context-responsive technology and design for continuity, to allow older adults to continually uphold important values through technology use.2026HSHugo Simão et al.Universidade de LisboaAging-Friendly Technology DesignAging-in-Place Assistance SystemsCHI
Exploring the Role of Interaction Data to Empower End-User Decision-Making in UI PersonalizationUser interface personalization enhances digital efficiency, usability, and accessibility. However, in user-driven setups, limited support for identifying and evaluating worthwhile opportunities often leads to underuse. We explore a reflexive personalization approach where individuals engage with their digital interaction data to identify meaningful personalization opportunities and benefits. We interviewed 12 participants, using experimental vignettes as design probes to support reflection on different forms of using interaction data to empower decision-making in personalization and the preferred level of system support. We found that people can independently identify personalization opportunities but prefer system support through visual personalization suggestions. Interaction data can shape how users perceive and approach personalization by reinforcing the perceived value of change and data collection, helping them weigh benefits against effort, and increasing the transparency of system suggestions. We discuss opportunities for designing personalization software that raises end-users' agency over interfaces through reflective engagement with their interaction data.2026SASérgio Alves et al.Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de LisboaBehavior Change & Reflection TechnologyData-Driven Personal Decision-MakingPrototyping & User TestingCHI
Between Control and Uncertainty: Understanding Self-Tracking Practices in Enigmatic Disease ManagementSelf-tracking tools are often built around the assumption that tracking the “right” health variables will lead to actionable insights and greater control over one’s health. Yet, it remains unclear how these assumptions hold up in contexts marked by uncertainty, unpredictability, and frequent fluctuations in health needs. We explore this question in the management of enigmatic diseases - conditions such as fibromyalgia, Crohn’s disease, and endometriosis that are poorly understood and highly individualized. Through interviews with 23 participants living with disparate enigmatic conditions, we examine goals, motivations, and how tracking practices evolve across different disease states. Our findings show that tracking was strongly shaped by shifting needs, with goals emerging, evolving, or being abandoned in response to health fluctuations. Tracking was often double-edged: at times empowering, fostering a sense of control, but also frustrating, leading to self-blame and negative views of everyday activities being tracked.2026MJMaria Jerónimo et al.Universidade de LisboaHealth Self-TrackingBehavior Change & Reflection TechnologyPrivacy & Data Ownership in Self-TrackingCHI
Exploring Collaboration in Programming Activities with Children with Visual Impairments: a 10-Session Study in a School SettingIntroductory coding environments have been used in early education to promote computational thinking, supporting the development of cognitive, critical, and social skills. Many environments focus on individual use, which has limited benefits compared to collaborative learning. In this paper, we present the results of a 10-session study at a local primary school engaging eleven children with visual impairments and three inclusive education teachers in collaborative programming activities. Based on participants’ behavior, reactions, and feedback, we contribute an improved understanding of collaborative design in educational settings, focusing on the impact of Goals, Workspace, Interdependence, and Shared Awareness. Our main findings outline how collaboration dynamics can be shaped by asymmetric tasks, workspace proximity, and group awareness. We further discuss factors that led to a lack of investment in the shared goal and instances of unbalanced collaboration, reflecting on challenges and opportunities for designing collaborative inclusive coding kits.2025FRFilipa Rocha et al.Working together (with other people)CSCW
Awareness in Collaborative Mixed-Visual Ability Tangible Programming ActivitiesIn the context of computational thinking tasks, which often require problem-solving and critical thinking skills, awareness of a partner’s actions can play a significant role in fostering a balanced collaboration. Understanding how awareness influences mixed- visual ability group collaboration in a tangible environment can provide insights into inclusive design for learning environments. To address this issue, we ran a user study where 6 mixed-visual ability pairs engaged in a tangible programming activity. The study had three experimental conditions, representing 3 different levels of awareness. Our findings reveal that while pre-existing power dynamics heavily influenced collaboration, workspace awareness feedback was essential in fostering engagement and improving communication for both children. This paper highlights the need for designing inclusive collaborative programming systems that account for workspace awareness and individual abilities, offering insights into more effective and balanced collaborative environments.2025FRFilipa Rocha et al.Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, LASIGE; Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, ITI/LARSySProgramming Education & Computational ThinkingCollaborative Learning & Peer TeachingSpecial Education TechnologyCHI
Co-designing Customizable Clinical Dashboards with Multidisciplinary Teams: Bridging the Gap in Chronic Disease CareProviding care to individuals with chronic diseases benefits from a multidisciplinary approach and longitudinal symptom, event, and disease monitoring, in and out of clinical facilities. Technological advancements, including the ubiquitous presence of sensors and devices, present opportunities to collect large amounts of data and extract evidence-based insights about the patient and disease. Nevertheless, practical examples of clinical utility of those technologies remain sparse, and in specific focus areas (e.g, insights from a single device). This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of multidisciplinary clinical dashboards to support clinicians caring for people with chronic diseases. We report on a focus group and co-design workshops with a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and HCI researchers. We offer insights into how technological outcomes and visualizations can enhance clinical practice and the intricacies of information-sharing dynamics. We discuss the potential of dashboards to trigger actions in clinical settings and emphasize the benefits of customizable dashboards.2024DBDiogo Branco et al.LASIGE, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de LisboaInteractive Data VisualizationIntelligent Tutoring Systems & Learning AnalyticsChronic Disease Self-Management (Diabetes, Hypertension, etc.)CHI
The Trick is to Stay Behind?: Defining and Exploring the Design Space of Player Balancing MechanicsIn multiplayer gaming, skill disparity can lead to frustrating and excluding experiences. Balancing approaches exist to level the playing field (e.g., providing aim assistance to low-performing players), but it is unclear how different design choices affect individual player experience. We first introduce a design space for balancing mechanics encompassing six categories: Determination, Timing, Targeting, Effect, Feedback, and Information. We then present a mixed-methods study, focused on the effect of two subcategories: Targeting Direction and Effect Dependency on skill. In this study, eight pairs of participants played a game prototype and experienced seven balancing mechanics. We collected data from questionnaires and group interviews, revealing implications for future designs, including the importance of 1) merited victory that does not ignore individual achievements, 2) sense of agency when determining the balancing before and during gameplay, and 3) balancing as an intrinsic part of the game that does not disrupt the core gameplay.2024DGDavid Gonçalves et al.Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de LisboaGame UX & Player BehaviorSerious & Functional GamesCHI
Investigating the Tradeoffs of Everyday Text-Entry Collection MethodsTyping on mobile devices is a common and complex task. The act of typing itself thereby encodes rich information, such as the typing method, the context it is performed in, and individual traits of the person typing. Researchers are increasingly using a selection or combination of experience sampling and passive sensing methods in real-world settings to examine typing behaviours. However, there is limited understanding of the effects these methods have on measures of input speed, typing behaviours, compliance, perceived trust and privacy. In this paper, we investigate the tradeoffs of everyday data collection methods. We contribute empirical results from a four-week field study (N=26). Here, participants contributed by transcribing, composing, passively having sentences analyzed and reflecting on their contributions. We present a tradeoff analysis of these data collection methods, discuss their impact on text-entry applications, and contribute a flexible research platform for in the wild text-entry studies.2022ARAndré Rodrigues et al.Universidade de Lisboa360° Video & Panoramic ContentComputational Methods in HCICHI
Promoting Self-Efficacy Through an Effective Human-Powered Nonvisual Smartphone Task AssistantAccessibility assessments typically focus on determining a binary measurement of task performance success/failure, and often neglect to acknowledge the nuances of those interactions. Although a large population of blind people find smartphone interactions possible, many experiences take a significant toll and can have a lasting negative impact on the individual and their willingness to step out of technological comfort zones. There is a need to assist and support individuals with the adoption and learning process of new tasks to mitigate these negative experiences. We contribute with a human-powered nonvisual task assistant for smartphones to provide pervasive assistance. We argue, in addition to success, one must carefully consider promoting and evaluating factors such as self-efficacy and the belief in one's abilities to control and learn to use technology. In this paper, we show effective assistant positively affects self-efficacy when performing new tasks with smartphones, affects perceptions of accessibility and enables systemic task-based learning.2021ARAndré Rodrigues et al.Accessibility and Assistive TechnologiesCSCW
Exploring Asymmetric Roles in Mixed-Ability GamingThe landscape of digital games is segregated by player ability. For example, sighted players have a multitude of highly visual games at their disposal, while blind players may choose from a variety of audio games. Attempts at improving cross-ability access to any of those are often limited in the experience they provide, or disregard multiplayer experiences. We explore ability-based asymmetric roles as a design approach to create engaging and challenging mixed-ability play. Our team designed and developed two collaborative testbed games exploring asymmetric interdependent roles. In a remote study with 13 mixed-visual-ability pairs we assessed how roles affected perceptions of engagement, competence, and autonomy, using a mixed-methods approach. The games provided an engaging and challenging experience, in which differences in visual ability were not limiting. Our results underline how experiences unequal by design can give rise to an equitable joint experience.2021DGDavid Gonçalves et al.Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de LisboaUniversal & Inclusive DesignSerious & Functional GamesGame AccessibilityCHI
Vulnerability & Blame: Making Sense of Unauthorized Access to SmartphonesUnauthorized physical access to personal devices by people known to the owner of the device is a common concern, and a common occurrence. But how do people experience incidents of unauthorized access? Using an online survey, we collected 102 accounts of unauthorized access. Participants wrote stories about past situations in which either they accessed the smartphone of someone they know, or someone they know accessed theirs. We describe the context leading up to these incidents, the course of events, and the consequences. We then identify two orthogonal themes in how participants conceptualized these incidents. First, participants understood trust as performative vulnerability: trust was necessary to sustain relationships, but building trust required displaying vulnerability to breaches. Second, participants were self-serving in their sensemaking: they blamed the circumstances, or the other person's shortcomings, but rarely themselves. We discuss the implications of our findings for security design and practice.2019DMDiogo Marques et al.Universidade de LisboaPrivacy by Design & User ControlPrivacy Perception & Decision-MakingCHI
Hybrid-Brailler: Combining Physical and Gestural Interaction for Mobile Braille Input and EditingBraille input enables fast nonvisual entry speeds on mobile touchscreen devices. Yet, the lack of tactile cues commonly results in typing errors, which are hard to correct. We propose Hybrid-Brailler, an input solution that combines physical and gestural interaction to provide fast and accurate Braille input. We use the back of the device for physical chorded input while freeing the touchscreen for gestural interaction. Gestures are used in editing operations, such as caret movement, text selection, and clipboard control, enhancing the overall text entry experience. We conducted two user studies to assess both input and editing performance. Results show that Hybrid-Brailler supports fast entry rates as its virtual counterpart, while significantly increasing input accuracy. Regarding editing performance, when compared with the mainstream technique, Hybrid-Brailler shows performance benefits of 21% in speed and increased editing accuracy. We finish with lessons learned for designing future nonvisual input and editing techniques.2018DTDaniel Trindade et al.INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of LisbonVisual Impairment Technologies (Screen Readers, Tactile Graphics, Braille)Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)CHI