Scaffolding Metacognition with GenAI: Exploring Design Opportunities to Support Task Management for University Students with ADHDFor university students transitioning to an independent and flexible lifestyle, having ADHD poses multiple challenges to their academic task management, which are closely tied to their metacognitive struggles—difficulties in awareness and regulation of one’s own thinking processes. The recently surged Generative AI shows promise to mitigate these gaps with its advanced information understanding and generation capabilities. As an exploratory step, we conducted co-design sessions with 20 university students diagnosed with ADHD, followed by interviews with five experts specialized in ADHD intervention. Adopting a metacognitive lens, we examined participants’ ideas on GenAI-based task management support and experts’ assessments, which led to three design directions: providing cognitive scaffolding to enhance task and self-awareness, promoting reflective task execution for building metacognitive abilities, and facilitating emotional regulation to sustain task engagement. Drawing on these findings, we discuss opportunities for GenAI to support the metacognitive needs of neurodivergent populations, offering future directions for both research and practice.2026ZZZihao Zhu et al.City University of Hong KongGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Cognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCHI
EmoFlow: From Tracking to Sense-Making of Emotions Through Creative DrawingWhile previous research has attempted to link features of individuals' drawings to their emotional states, it often overlooks the deeply personal and context-driven nature of visual expression. To bridge the gap, we conducted a two‑week diary study with 21 participants, who used a custom‑built app to track daily emotions through free drawings, followed by interviews reflecting on their artwork. Among the 252 drawings gathered, we found no strong correlations between reported emotions and measurable drawing behaviors; instead, participants expressed emotions through diverse approaches, from illustrations of emotion sources (e.g., events, objects) and metaphors, to emojis, literal text and spontaneous, random mark-making. Participants developed consistent personal styles and described drawing as an intuitive, playful, and safe outlet, though some faced challenges with the ambiguity of visual expressions and interpreting their creations afterwards. With the lessons learned, we discuss opportunities for designing expression-centered emotion tracking technologies that embrace individuality and creativity.2026SSShannon Sie Santosa et al.City University of Hong KongEmotion Recognition & DetectionAffective Feedback & Emotion Regulation InterfacesCreative Coding & Computational ArtCHI
Moments That Matter: Co-designing Just-in-Time Support for Disordered Eating BehaviorsEating disorder (ED) is a psychiatric condition that involves behaviors like binge and restrictive eating with severe health consequences, particularly prevalent among young women. While technology interventions exist, they typically focus on retrospective reflection or general management, missing the time window when an ED behavior is taking place. In this work, we conducted co-design sessions with 22 young women experiencing EDs to develop ideas for Just-in-Time (JIT) interventions, followed by interviews with five experts specialized in ED treatment. We found that eating plays varied roles in participants' lives—from a means of gaining autonomy to automatic physiological responses—leading to design ideas including behavioral warnings, appetite management, food option redirection, psychological support systems, etc. By examining the characteristics of these designs with expert perspectives, we discuss what JIT support means for ED care and how to make it effective and sustainable.2026MLMinhui Liang et al.City University of Hong KongMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesSleep & Stress MonitoringBehavior Change & Reflection TechnologyCHI
Participatory Design in Human-Computer Interaction: Cases, Characteristics, and LessonsParticipatory Design (PD) has become increasingly prevalent in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. However, there remains a lack of comprehensive understanding of how PD has been used by HCI scholars. To bridge this gap, we sampled PD application cases (N = 185) from the SIGCHI conferences {over the past decade} and examined these cases through the dimensions of application features (e.g., contexts and functions of PD) and PD principles (e.g., its political commitment and mutual learning principle). Our analysis reveals the various ways PD has been applied in HCI and how its core features have been or have not been manifested in these cases. Based on these findings, we reflect on the conceptual understanding of PD within the HCI community and discuss potential misconceptions. Ultimately, we hope this work can serve as a useful reference for HCI researchers and beyond who are interested in incorporating PD into their design and research practices.2025XQXiang QI et al.The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of DesignParticipatory DesignUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)CHI
GeneyMAP: Exploring the Potential of GenAI to Facilitate Mapping User Journeys for UX DesignGenerative AI (GenAI) has been widely applied in UX design, yet its potential in the Journey Map (JM) creation process remains under-explored. We conducted a formative study (N = 24) to identify designers' needs for GenAI in JM creation, resulting in six design goals implemented (e.g., Acting as Different Stakeholders) in our tool, GeneyMAP. GeneyMAP streamlines the JM creation process, allowing designers to map interview data efficiently with flexibility, uncovering design opportunities through visual inspiration. A subsequent user study (N = 20) demonstrated that GeneyMAP, compared with the common tool, accelerated JM creation and fostered creativity mainly by providing diverse inspirations and facilitating progressive discussions. Our findings proved GeneyMAP‘s utility and effectiveness while challenges in maintaining control and trust in GenAI outputs were noted. Our research highlights the promising role of GenAI in refining JM creation practices and suggests implications for incorporating GenAI in JM and design workflows.2025YMYihan Mei et al.The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of DesignGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Human-LLM CollaborationCHI
Technologies for Children’s AI Learning: Design Features and Future OpportunitiesWith the growing integration of AI into daily life, various technologies have been developed to teach children about AI. However, differences in their designs highlight the need for a thorough understanding of these tools to make the most of current technological resources and guide the effective development of future learning tools. Through a systematic search, we identified 64 different AI learning tools for children and analyzed their design features, including both static design features (i.e., presentation formats and learning content) and interactive design features (i.e., learning activity types and design features that potentially enhance the effectiveness of the activities). Our findings reveal the current trends and gaps in the design of children’s AI learning technologies. Based on these insights, we reflect on future design opportunities and provide recommendations for creating new, effective learning technologies to advance AI education for the next generations.2025KJKaiyue Jia et al.The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of DesignHuman-LLM CollaborationProgramming Education & Computational ThinkingSTEM Education & Science CommunicationCHI
Exploring the Design of Human Speech Indicators to Enhance Waiting Experience in Voice User InterfaceWaiting for system loading is a common scenario that often diminishes user experience, leading to dissatisfaction. Well-established visual indicators like progress bars can not directly apply to the interactions with voice assistants (VAs) like Siri. As VAs continue to rise in popularity, this research aims to explore the design of auditory indicators, particularly human speech, for optimizing waiting experiences in Voice User Interfaces (VUIs). We first organized focus groups (N=35) to identify design considerations for speech indicators, uncovering design opportunities in integrating explanations and humor. Subsequently, we conducted an empirical study (N=30) to evaluate the effects of speech indicators with two levels of explanation and humor on the waiting experience, measured by attention, perceived time, pleasure, and overall satisfaction, during both short and long loading durations. Our findings suggest significant potential for incorporating explanations and humor into VUIs, offering actionable insights for designing effective speech indicators that improve waiting experiences.2025WLWenan Li et al.Information Hub, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (GuangZhou)Voice User Interface (VUI) DesignAgent Personality & AnthropomorphismCHI
Parent-Child Joint Media Engagement within HCI: A Scoping Analysis of the Research LandscapeParents play essential roles in children's play and learning with various media, often leading to positive and productive engagement outcomes for both parties. As such, an increasing number of HCI research has focused on understanding parent-child joint media engagement (JME) and designing new technologies to foster productive joint media experiences for children and parents. However, we currently lack a systematic view of this emerging field, which hinders the research and design of new joint media experiences and technologies for families. In this work, we conduct a scoping review of parent-child JME research within HCI (N = 89) and analyze the included papers from three lenses: publication features, methodological features, and JME features. Based on these findings, we identify gaps and opportunities in parent-child JME research and further expand the theoretical framing of JME by developing a framework that captures different JME dimensions.2024JYJunnan Yu et al.The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityUniversal & Inclusive DesignCollaborative Learning & Peer TeachingCHI
Reinforcing and Reclaiming The Home: Co-speculating Future Technologies to Support Remote and Hybrid WorkWith the rise of remote and hybrid work after COVID-19, there is growing interest in understanding remote workers' experiences and designing digital technology for the future of work within the field of HCI. To gain a holistic understanding of how remote workers navigate the blurred boundary between work and home and how designers can better support their boundary work, we employ humanistic geography as a lens. We engaged in co-speculative design practices with 11 remote workers in the US, exploring how future technologies might sustainably enhance participants’ work and home lives in remote/hybrid arrangements. We present the imagined technologies that resulted from this process, which both reinforce remote workers’ existing boundary work practices through everyday routines/rituals and reclaim the notion of home by fostering independence, joy, and healthy relationships. Our discussions with participants inform implications for designing digital technologies that promote sustainability in the future remote/hybrid work landscape.2024JCJanghee Cho et al.National University of SingaporeRemote Work Tools & ExperienceDistributed Team CollaborationSustainable HCICHI
Emotion Embodied: Unveiling the Expressive Potential of Single-Hand GesturesHand gestures are widely used in daily life for expressing emotions, yet gesture input is not part of existing emotion tracking systems. To seek a practical and effortless way of using gestures to inform emotions, we explore the relationships between gestural features and commonly experienced emotions by focusing on single-hand gestures that are easy to perform and capture. First, we collected 756 gestures (in photo and video pairs) from 63 participants who expressed different emotions in a survey, and then interviewed 11 of them to understand their gesture-forming rationales. We found that the valence and arousal level of the expressed emotions significantly correlated with participants' finger-pointing direction and their gesture strength, and synthesized four channels through which participants externalized their expressions with gestures. Reflecting on the findings, we discuss how emotions can be characterized and contextualized with gestural cues and implications for designing multimodal emotion tracking systems and beyond.2024YLYuhan Luo et al.City University of Hong KongHand Gesture RecognitionFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputCHI
Technology-Mediated Strategies for Coping with Mental Health Challenges: Insights from People with Bipolar DisorderTechnology plays an increasingly pivotal role in mediating mental health support in people’s everyday lives. However, it is not clear how that mediation is occurring, to what end, and what technologies are implicated. In this study, we examine these questions with a mixed-methods analysis of conversations among participants in several Bipolar Disorder (BD) communities on Reddit. Analyzing posts produced over four years, we identify a wide variety of technologies that people employ to manage their mental conditions, such as communication technologies, online communities and tracking tools. Using this taxonomy of technologies as a framework, we then summarize three technology-mediated management strategies that these technologies enable, including serving as community, episode, and information mediators. We argue that with a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of people’s in situ technology use, we can identify research and design opportunities for designing human-centered technologies to help people manage mental health challenges more effectively.2023TXTian Xu et al.Mental Health ICSCW
Examining Gender-oriented Design Features in Computational Toys and Kits for Young ChildrenComputational toys and apps, or coding kits, are the primary learning media for young children to engage in Computational Thinking concepts and skills. However, how coding kits are designed to welcome children of different genders remains unclear, a critical research gap given that computing is mostly a male-dominated field. Drawing on relevant literature, we develop a framework of gender-related design features in toys (i.e., boy-oriented, girl-oriented, or gender-neutral features) and employ it to examine gender-related design features in commercially available coding kits for young children aged seven and under (N=110). The findings reveal the lopsided gender representation in coding kits, e.g., their physical forms and supported coding activities are predominantly boy-oriented. We discuss design and research implications for coding kits to welcome participation from children of different genders, especially young girls whose preferred design features are underrepresented in current designs.2023JCJingyao Cen et al.The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Special Education TechnologyInclusive DesignCHI
Family Negotiation in Joint Media Engagement with Creative ComputingHCI researchers have been investigating family dynamics with new and emerging technologies during joint media engagement (JME) experiences. However, most studies describe family dynamics from parents’ perspectives, such as their roles and mediation practices, while the roles and agency of other family members are less understood. In this paper, we examine family dynamics through the lens of negotiation between family members. Our study is located within an informal learning program called Family Creative Learning, where families from non-dominant groups were invited to participate in a series of workshops to create with a programming app called ScratchJr. Through analysis of data that included process, artifact, and reflective data, we identify negotiation practices of family members as they advocate for device and creative control. We further discuss how the lens of negotiation expands the meaning of productive JME in family contexts and highlight design considerations to facilitate engaging joint family experiences with educational technologies.2023JYJunnan Yu et al.The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityCollaborative Learning & Peer TeachingParticipatory DesignClimate Change Communication ToolsCHI