Breaking Barriers in Remote Client-Therapist Interaction: Exploring Design Spaces of Sensing and Sharing Non-Verbal Cues in Remote PsychotherapyIn remote psychotherapy, challenges arising from remote client-therapist interactions can impact the therapeutic alliance and overall outcomes. HCI research has focused on leveraging sensing technology to bridge gaps in remote interactions. In this work, we investigate the values and risks of integrating sensing technology in remote psychotherapy, specifically to capture and interpret non-verbal cues, by conducting a speculative design study with both clients and therapists. Our findings reveal that sensing technology has the potential to facilitate self-reflection in therapy. The sharing of tracked non-verbal cues could also possibly foster mutual disclosure, supporting therapists’ judgments and balancing power dynamics between clients and therapists. However, clients and therapists were concerned about the accuracy of sensing systems, potential privacy threats, and additional cognition burden. Our insights into system values imply how sensing technology could potentially balance power dynamics in client-therapist relationships as well as general interpersonal relationships. We also emphasize the increased considerations in sensing-technology-empowered communication for remote psychotherapy than in non-vulnerable settings.2025LGLan Gao et al.Caring at a DistanceCSCW
Working Together Toward Interdependence: Chatbot-Based Support for Balanced Social Interactions Between Neurodivergent and Neurotypical IndividualsWhile many technologies have been developed for facilitating interaction between neurodivergent and neurotypical people to bridge communication differences and reduce social exclusion, most focus on supporting and teaching neurodivergent people to adapt to neurotypical standards and norms. To promote a more balanced approach to bridging the social gap, we conducted a 5-day diary study and semi-structured interviews with 16 participants (8 neurotypical and 8 with intellectual disability) to examine the current factors and barriers to their social interactions and to explore the design of social support chatbot systems. Our findings revealed diverging views between the groups on factors they valued in their interaction, and identified social uncertainty and differing social expectations as the main barriers to successful interactions. Based on the results, we outline three pitfalls that social support chatbots can fall into if not designed mindfully, and suggest design approaches that promote bidirectional social support and interdependence.2025HKHa-Kyung Kong et al.Rochester Institute of Technology, School of InformationConversational ChatbotsCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Participatory DesignCHI
Private Yet Social: How LLM Chatbots Support and Challenge Eating Disorder RecoveryEating disorders (ED) are complex mental health conditions that require long-term management and support. Recent advancements in large language model (LLM)-based chatbots offer the potential to assist individuals in receiving immediate support. Yet, concerns remain about their reliability and safety in sensitive contexts such as ED. We explore the opportunities and potential harms of using LLM-based chatbots for ED recovery. We observe the interactions between 26 participants with ED and an LLM-based chatbot, WellnessBot, designed to support ED recovery, over 10 days. We discovered that our participants have felt empowered in recovery by discussing ED-related stories with the chatbot, which served as a personal yet social avenue. However, we also identified harmful chatbot responses, especially concerning individuals with ED, that went unnoticed partly due to participants’ unquestioning trust in the chatbot's reliability. Based on these findings, we provide design implications for safe and effective LLM-based interventions in ED management.2025RCRyuhaerang Choi et al.KAIST, School of Electrical EngineeringConversational ChatbotsHuman-LLM CollaborationMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCHI
Research-Education Partnerships: A Co-Design Classroom for College Students with IDDCo-design of technology encourages participation and decision-making input of end-users. In the case of technologies for individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), the end-users are historically left out of the design process. Further deepening the disconnect between this group and technology, they are also excluded from formal technology design knowledge sharing, such as college courses. To address this, our study investigates the efficacy of a formal classroom adaptation of co-design activities to encourage learning and participation. Through collaboration between educators and designers, we adopted user-centered co-design activities to facilitate knowledge and application of technological design methods within a class of 13 students with IDD. Findings uncovered factors contributing to co-teaching collaboration planning and reflection between educators and designers, and ways that activities can provide accessible collaborative learning environments for students with IDD by supporting collaboration, cognitive engagement, and meta-cognition. We discuss how these factors can support successful co-teacher collaborations that promote student empowerment. Finally, we contribute collaborative co-teaching strategies for educational co-design activities for individuals with IDD.2024RLRachel Lowy et al.Session 3c: Designing for Empathy and CareCSCW
Designing for Strengths: Opportunities to Support Neurodiversity in the WorkplaceSupported employment programs have demonstrated the ability to enhance employment outcomes for neurodivergent individuals by offering personalized job coaching that aligns with the strengths of each individual. While various technological interventions have been designed to support these programs, technologies that hyperfocus on users' assumed challenges through deficit-based design have been criticized due to their potential to undermine the agency of neurodivergent individuals. Therefore, we use strengths-based co-design to explore the opportunities for a technology that supports neurodivergent employees using their strengths. The co-design activities uncovered our participants' current strategies to address workplace challenges, the strengths they employ, and the technology designs that our participants developed to operationalize those strengths in a supportive technology. We find that incorporating strengths-based strategies for emotional regulation, interpersonal problem solving, and learning job-related skills can provide a supportive technology experience that bolsters neurodiverse employees’ agency and independence in the workplace. In response, we suggest design implications for using neurodiverse strengths as design requirements and how to design for independence in workplace.2024KHKaely Hall et al.Georgia Institute of TechnologyCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Universal & Inclusive DesignEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
Understanding Online Job and Housing Search Practices of Neurodiverse Young Adults to Support Their IndependenceSecuring employment and housing are key aspects of pursuing independent living. As these activities are increasingly practiced online, web accessibility of related services becomes critical for a successful major life transition. Support for this transition is especially important for people with autism or intellectual disability, who often face issues of underemployment and social isolation. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews and contextual inquiries with neurotypical adults and adults with autism or intellectual disability to understand common and unique goals, strategies, and challenges of neurodiverse adults when searching for employment and housing resources online. Our findings revealed that current interfaces adequately support practical (e.g., finance) goals but lack information on social (e.g., inclusivity) goals. Furthermore, unexpected search results and inaccessible social and contextual information diminished search experiences for neurodivergent users, which suggests the need for predictability and structured guidance in searching online. We conclude with design suggestions to make neurodivergent users' online search experience an opportunity to demonstrate their independence.2024HKHa-Kyung Kong et al.Rochester Institute of TechnologyCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Job Search & Employment SupportCHI
V-DAT (Virtual Reality Data Analysis Tool): Supporting Self-Awareness for Autistic People from Multimodal VR Sensor DataVirtual reality (VR) has become a valuable tool for social and educational purposes for autistic people, as it provides flexible environmental support to create a variety of experiences. A growing body of recent research has examined the behaviors of autistic people using sensor-based data to better understand autistic people and investigate the effectiveness of VR. Comprehensive analysis of the various signals that can be easily collected in the VR environment can promote understanding of autistic people. While this quantitative evidence has the potential to help both autistic people and others (e.g., autism experts) to understand behaviors of autistic people, existing studies have focused on single signal analysis and have not determined the acceptability of signal analysis results from the autistic person's point of view. To facilitate the use of multiple sensor signals in VR for autistic people and experts, we introduce V-DAT (Virtual Reality Data Analysis Tool), designed to support a VR sensor data handling pipeline. V-DAT takes into account four sensor modalities - head position and rotation, eye movement, audio, and physiological signals - that are actively used in current VR research for autistic people. We explain the characteristics and processing methods of the data for each modality as well as the analysis with comprehensive visualizations of V-DAT. We also conduct a case study to investigate the feasibility of V-DAT as a way of broadening understanding of autistic people from the perspectives of both autistic people and autism experts. Finally, we discuss issues with the process of V-DAT development and complementary measures for the applicability and scalability of a sensor data management system for autistic people.2023BKBogoan Kim et al.VR Medical Training & RehabilitationCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Visualization Perception & CognitionUIST
It Takes Two to Avoid Pregnancy: Addressing Conflicting Perceptions of Birth Control Pill Responsibility in Romantic RelationshipsWhile birth control pills are one of the most common forms of contraception, their usage has several emotional and physical costs, such as taking the pill daily and experiencing hormonal side effects. The burden of these tasks in relationships generally falls on the pill user with minimal involvement from their partner. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with pill users and their partners to investigate the differences between their perceived current and ideal divisions of birth control responsibility. During the interview, we presented a collaborative birth control tracking app prototype to examine how such technology can overcome these discrepancies. We found that pill users were unsatisfied with their partners' engagement in contraceptive tasks but did not communicate this well. Meanwhile, partners wanted to contribute more to pregnancy prevention but did not know how. When presented with our app prototype, users and partners stated that our design could address these issues by improving communication between users and partners. In particular, users appreciated how the app would increase engagement and support from their partner, and partners liked that the app presented several concrete ways to become more involved and show emotional support. However, privacy issues exist given the sensitive nature of contraception. We discuss how design considerations should be kept in mind about privacy while recognizing pill users' efforts and promoting partners' involvement.2023MMMarcus Ma et al.HealthCSCW
Building Causal Agency in Autistic Students through Iterative Reflection in Collaborative Transition PlanningTransition planning is a collaborative process to promote agency in students with disabilities by encouraging them to participate in setting their own goals with team members and learn ways to assess their progress towards the goals. For autistic young adults who experience a lower employment rate, less stability in employment, and lower community connections than those with other disabilities, successful transition planning is an important opportunity to develop agency towards preparing and attaining success in employment and other areas meaningful to them. However, a failure of consistent information sharing among team members and opportunities for agency in students has prevented successful transition planning for autistic students. Therefore, this work brings causal agency theory and the collaborative reflection framework together to uncover ways transition teams can develop students' agency by collaboratively reflecting on students' inputs related to transition goals and progress. By interviewing autistic students, parents of autistic students, and professionals who were involved in transition planning, we uncovered that teams can better support student agency by accommodating their needs and encouraging their input in annual meetings, building relationships through transparent and frequent communication about day-to-day activities, centering goals on student's interests, and supporting student's skill-building in areas related to their transition goals. However, we found that many teams were not enacting these practices, leading to frustration and negative outcomes for young adults. Based on our findings, we propose a role for autistic students in the collaborative reflection framework that encouraged participation and builds causal agency. We also make design recommendations to encourage autistic students' participation in collaborative reflection around long-term and short-term needs in ways that promote their causal agency.2023RLRachel Lowy et al.Teaching and LearningCSCW
Toward Inclusive Mindsets: Exploring Virtual Reality Design Opportunities to Represent Neurodivergent Work Experiences to Neurotypical Co-WorkersInclusive workplaces require mutual efforts between neurotypical (NT) and neurodivergent (ND) employees to understand one another’s viewpoints and experiences. Currently, the majority of inclusivity training places the burden of change on NDs to conform to NT social-behavioral standards. Our research examines moving toward a more equal effort distribution by exploring virtual reality (VR) design opportunities to build NTs’ understanding of ND workplace experiences. Using participatory design, including generative toolkits and design meetings, we surfaced two main themes that could bridge gaps in understanding: (1) NTs’ recognition of NDs’ strengths and efforts at work, and (2) NTs’ understanding of NDs’ differences. We present a strengths-based assessment of ND traits in the workplace, focusing on how workplaces can support NDs’ success. Finally, we propose VR simulation designs that communicate these themes to represent ND experiences, emphasizing their strengths and viewpoints so that NT co-workers can better empathize and accommodate them.2023RLRachel Lowy et al.Georgia Institute of TechnologySocial & Collaborative VRCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)CHI
Supporting the Contact Tracing Process with WiFi Location Data: Opportunities and ChallengesContact tracers assist in containing the spread of highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19 by engaging community members who receive a positive test result in order to identify close contacts. Many contact tracers rely on community member's recall for those identifications, and face limitations such as unreliable memory. To investigate how technology can alleviate this challenge, we developed a visualization tool using de-identified location data sensed from campus WiFi and provided it to contact tracers during mock contact tracing calls. While the visualization allowed contact tracers to find and address inconsistencies due to gaps in community member’s memory, it also introduced inconsistencies such as false-positive and false-negative reports due to imperfect data, and information sharing hesitancy. We suggest design implications for technologies that can better highlight and inform contact tracers of potential areas of inconsistencies, and further present discussion on using imperfect data in decision making.2022KHKaely Hall et al.Georgia Institute of TechnologyInteractive Data VisualizationGeospatial & Map VisualizationCHI
Enriched Social Translucence in Medical CrowdfundingSocial translucence theory argues that online collaboration systems should make contributors' activities visible to better achieve a common goal. Currently in medical crowdfunding sites, various non-monetary contributions integral to the success of a campaign, such as campaign promotions and offline support, are less visible than monetary contributions. Our work investigates ways to enrich social translucence in medical crowdfunding by aggregating and visualizing non-monetary contributions that reside outside of the current crowdfunding space. Three different styles of interactive visualizations were built and evaluated with medical crowdfunding beneficiaries and contributors. Our results reveal the perceived benefits and challenges of making the previously invisible non-monetary contributions visible using various design features in the visualizations. We discuss our findings based on the social translucence framework--visibility, awareness, and accountability--and suggest design guidelines for crowdfunding platform designers.2020JKJennifer G Kim et al.Interactive Data VisualizationVisualization Perception & CognitionContent Moderation & Platform GovernanceDIS