Mind Over Matter - Investigating the Influence of Driver's Perception in the Misuse of Automated VehiclesAs vehicles with several levels of automation become increasingly common, there is an increase in incidents involving the misuse of Driving Automation Systems (DAS). The manner in which drivers interact with DAS indicates that the problem extends beyond UI design. We investigate how drivers' perceptions and expectations affect the understanding and consequent usage of DAS. The study employed a Wizard-of-Oz approach to simulate a vehicle with a Level 2 and Level 3 DAS on a public highway. Sixteen participants were exposed to the two driving modes and two distinct UIs. Observations, think-aloud protocols, and in-depth interviews documented their interaction with the different DAS. Irrespective of the UI, various errors were detected, including omission, commission, mode confusion. Deeper investigation into the sources led to the conclusion that drivers' preconceptions of the DAS were a major contributor, resulting in misuse. This highlights the need to look beyond UI design as a sole solution to address driver-vehicle interaction.2025FNFjollë Novakazi et al.Head-Up Display (HUD) & Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)AI-Assisted Decision-Making & AutomationAutoUI
Hearing Ambiguity: Exploring Beyond-Gender Impressions of Artificial Ambiguous VoicesVoice perception plays a fundamental role in all types of interactions, from human-to-human communication to human-technology interaction. When it comes to technology, we sometimes have the option to choose the type of voice we want to hear. But why is the default (almost) always a feminine or masculine voice? In this research, we evaluated user perceptions of gender-ambiguous voices, a relatively unexplored option. In our novel comparative study, we evaluated six gender-ambiguous voices with participants of diverse gender identities (men, women, and non-binary individuals), with 74 participants in each group. Additionally, half of the participants were told in advance that the voices had been designed to be gender-ambiguous, and half were not. We aimed to move beyond subjective perceptions of voice gender by exploring how such voices are perceived across different dimensions: trustworthiness, appeal, comfort, anthropomorphism, and aversion. Our findings reveal that while men and women had similar perceptions, non-binary participants rated the voices more negatively, with lower trust and higher aversion. Interestingly, priming participants about the voices' ambiguity did not significantly affect overall perceptions, though it increased critical evaluations from non-binary individuals. These findings contribute to growing research on gender-ambiguous voices by providing perceptual comparisons of multiple voices and highlighting the need for more inclusive voice designs that appeal to non-binary users.2025MCMartina De Cet et al.Voice User Interface (VUI) DesignMultilingual & Cross-Cultural Voice InteractionAgent Personality & AnthropomorphismCUI
Making Intimate Technologies TogetherFeminist research highlights the urgent need to challenge the oppressive design of commercial intimate technologies, particularly how the FemTech industry restricts access to intimate bodily knowledge through paywalls and proprietary systems. Yet, for decades, women and marginalized communities have turned to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) or 'hacking' practices to reclaim control over their own gynecology and intimate health, addressing gaps often ignored by medical research and healthcare. Inspired by visual themes from these movements, this pictorial critically explores how designers and HCI researchers might advance DIY approaches to intimate technologies. We exemplify this with reflections from a series of workshops on handmade intimate sensors, and draw out the joyful potential of collaborative making—building alliances, destigmatizing intimate health, and using craft to subvert gender stereotypes. We discuss matters of safety when making together and contribute to ongoing work on building feminist makerspaces.2025NWNadia Campo Woytuk et al.LGBTQ+ Community Technology DesignParticipatory DesignFood Culture & Food InteractionDIS
AiModerator: A Co-Pilot for Hyper-Contextualization in Political Debate VideoPolitical debates are essential in political discourse for democratic societies. Advancements in technology have significantly transformed the structure of political debates, the ways in which politicians communicate, and the platforms through which audiences engage with them. Originally a forum for improving understanding, political debates have increasingly favored theatrics over substance, risking young adult disengagement. To bring substance back to this medium we developed AiModerator, a political debate co-pilot acting as a Multimodal Conversational Agent (MCA). AiModerator aims to promote engagement while improving understanding by analyzing video content to provide contextually relevant information. This consolidated information facilitates understanding while keeping users synchronized with the debate viewing experience. Our system builds upon multimodal techniques, integrating computer vision and large language models to demonstrate ways of improving content delivery and engagement. AiModerator's backend system extracts events from identified speech data, allowing the user to interact with these events through a touch interface on an iPad application. We address three key topics: evaluating young adults' engagement, satisfaction, and preference compared to traditional second screening, and determining whether AiModerator can improve subjective understanding. To evaluate these measures we conducted a mixed-method evaluation (n=20) within-group design A-B study. Our analysis found AiModerator excelled in promoting engagement and satisfaction while delivering clear, contextually relevant information to the user which improved their understanding of debate topics more than the second screening mode. Our qualitative analysis offers broader insights, particularly in terms of a trade-off between automation and information consolidation versus autonomy and control.2025PAPeter Andrews et al.Agent Personality & AnthropomorphismHuman-LLM CollaborationContext-Aware ComputingIUI
Prefer2SD: A Human-in-the-Loop Approach to Balancing Similarity and Diversity in In-Game Friend RecommendationsIn-game friend recommendations significantly impact player retention and sustained engagement in online games. Balancing similarity and diversity in recommendations is crucial for fostering stronger social bonds across diverse player groups. However, automated recommendation systems struggle to achieve this balance, especially as player preferences evolve over time. To tackle this challenge, we introduce Prefer2SD (derived from Preference to Similarity and Diversity), an iterative, human-in-the-loop approach designed to optimize the similarity-diversity (SD) ratio in friend recommendations. Developed in collaboration with a local game company, Prefer2D leverages a visual analytics system to help experts explore, analyze, and adjust friend recommendations dynamically, incorporating players' shifting preferences. The system employs interactive visualizations that enable experts to fine-tune the balance between similarity and diversity for distinct player groups. We demonstrate the efficacy of Prefer2SD through a within-subjects study (N=12), a case study, and expert interviews, showcasing its ability to enhance in-game friend recommendations and offering insights for the broader field of personalized recommendation systems.2025XWXiyuan Wang et al.Recommender System UXGamification DesignIUI
Breaking the Binary: A Systematic Review of Gender-Ambiguous Voices in Human-Computer InteractionVoice interfaces come in many forms in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), such as voice assistants and robots. These are often gendered, i.e. they sound masculine or feminine. Recently, there has been a surge in creating gender-ambiguous voices, aiming to make voice interfaces more inclusive and less prone to stereotyping. In this paper, we present the first systematic review of research on gender-ambiguous voices in HCI literature, with an in-depth analysis of 36 articles. We report on the definition and availability of gender-ambiguous voices, creation methods, user perception and evaluation techniques. We conclude with several concrete action points: clarifying key terminology and definitions for terms such as gender-ambiguous, gender-neutral, and non-binary; conducting an initial acoustic analysis of gender-ambiguous voices; taking initial steps toward standardising evaluation metrics for these voices; establishing an open-source repository of gender-ambiguous voices; and developing a framework for their creation and use. These recommendations provide important insights for fostering the development and adoption of inclusive voice technologies.2025MCMartina De Cet et al.Chalmers University of TechnologyVoice User Interface (VUI) DesignAgent Personality & AnthropomorphismInclusive DesignCHI
Identifying Critical Points of Departure for the Design of Self-Fashioning TechnologiesDesigning technologies that clothe, adorn, or are otherwise placed on the body raises questions concerning the role they will play in dressing ourselves. We situate self-fashioning – or the process through which we stylise and present our bodies – as a complex practice where a series of social, material, and contextual factors shape how we present ourselves. Informed by reflective discussions and projective design tools, we contribute three critical points of departure for self-fashioning technologies: (i) Purposeful examining discomfort as an ongoing phenomenon, (ii) Supporting mimesis and visibility as qualities to be negotiated, and (iii) Envisioning the multiplicity of the body. We call for the design community to help devise fashionable technologies that are sensitive, caring, and responsive to the complexities of fashioning our bodies.2025RCRebeca Blanco Cardozo et al.KTH Royal Institute of TechnologyHaptic WearablesInclusive DesignCHI
ClueCart: Supporting Game Story Interpretation and Narrative Inference from Fragmented CluesIndexical storytelling is gaining popularity in video games, where the narrative unfolds through fragmented clues. This approach fosters player-generated content and discussion, as story interpreters piece together the overarching narrative from these scattered elements. However, the fragmented and non-linear nature of the clues makes systematic categorization and interpretation challenging, potentially hindering efficient story reconstruction and creative engagement. To address these challenges, we first proposed a hierarchical taxonomy to categorize narrative clues, informed by a formative study. Using this taxonomy, we designed ClueCart, a creativity support tool aimed at enhancing creators' ability to organize story clues and facilitate intricate story interpretation. We evaluated ClueCart through a between-subjects study (N=40), using Miro as a baseline. The results showed that ClueCart significantly improved creators' efficiency in organizing and retrieving clues, thereby better supporting their creative processes. Additionally, we offer design insights for future studies focused on player-centric narrative analysis.2025XWXiyuan Wang et al.ShanghaiTech University, School of Information Science and TechnologyRole-Playing & Narrative GamesInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
Exploring User Engagement Through an Interaction Lens: What Textual Cues Can Tell Us about Human-Chatbot InteractionsMonitoring and maintaining user engagement in human-chatbot interactions is challenging. Researchers often use cues observed in the interactions as indicators to infer engagement. However, evaluation of these cues is lacking. In this study, we collected an inventory of potential textual engagements cues from the literature, including linguistic features, utterance features, and interaction features. These cues were subsequently used to annotate a dataset of 291 user-chatbot interactions, and we examined which of these cues predicted self-reported user engagement. Our results show that engagement can indeed be recognized at the level of individual utterances. Notably, words indicating cognitive thinking processes and motivational utterances were strong indicators of engagement. An overall negative tone could also predict engagement, highlighting the importance of nuanced interpretation and contextual awareness of user utterances. Our findings demonstrated initial feasibility of recognizing utterance-level cues and using them to infer user engagement, although further validation is needed across different content-domains.2024LHLinwei He et al.Conversational ChatbotsExplainable AI (XAI)AI-Assisted Decision-Making & AutomationCUI
Do Your Expectations Match? A Mixed-Methods Study on the Association Between a Robot's Voice and AppearanceBoth physical appearance and voice can elicit mental images of what someone and/or something should sound and look like. This is particularly relevant for human-robot interaction design and research since any voice can be added to a robot. Therefore, it is important to give robots voices that match users' expectations. In this paper, we examined the voice-appearance association by asking participants to match a robot image with a voice (Experiment 1, N = 24), and vice versa, a voice with a robot image (Experiment 2, N = 24), in two mixed-methods studies. We looked at participants' differences that could influence the voice-robot association (gender and nationality) and at voice and robot features that could influence participants' voice preferences (voice gender, pitch and robot's appearance). Results show that nationality influenced participants' association with a robot image after hearing its voice. Furthermore, a content analysis identified that when creating a voice mental image, participants looked at robots' gendered characteristics and height and they paid special attention to human-like and gender-specific cues in a voice when forming a mental image of a robot. Sociological differences also emerged, with Swedish participants suggesting the use of gender-neutral voices to avoid strengthening existing stereotypes, and Italians saying the opposite. Our work highlights the importance of individual differences in the robot voice-appearance association and the importance of involving the end user in designing the voice.2024MCMartina De Cet et al.Agent Personality & AnthropomorphismSocial Robot InteractionCUI
MoodShaper: A Virtual Reality Experience to Support Managing Negative EmotionsNegative emotions such as sadness or anger are often seen as something to be avoided. However, recognising, processing and regulating challenging emotional experiences can facilitate personal growth and is essential for long-term well-being. To support people in regulating and reflecting on negative emotions, we designed MoodShaper — a VR experience where participants autonomously create a virtual environment combined with emotion regulation (ER) interventions. Our system included three different interventions designed based on interviews with psychotherapists. We evaluated MoodShaper in a mixed-method between-subject study with $n=60$ participants. Participants experienced one of the three ER interventions, allowing them to manipulate visual representations of negative emotions through either externalisation, seclusion, or appreciation. We found that MoodShaper significantly increased positive affect while decreasing difficulties in ER and negative affect. Our work demonstrates how VR can provide technology-mediated support to reflect on, engage with and manage negative emotions. We contribute insights for future VR systems which support ER for challenging situations.2024NWNadine Wagener et al.Immersion & Presence ResearchVR Medical Training & RehabilitationMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesDIS
ProtoBricks: A Research Toolkit for Tangible Prototyping & Data PhysicalizationBuilding tangible interfaces or data physicalizations is a resource-intensive endeavour. There is a need for rapid means to prototype tangibles in order to facilitate research and design. To this end, we designed ProtoBricks: a research toolkit that uses capacitive bricks to facilitate rapid prototyping for tangible interfaces. Utilizing toy bricks that do not contain electronics, ProtoBricks can record brick position and color. Specialized knowledge is not required to build our system as it uses widely available components and 3D printing. We contribute the full software and hardware specification of the toolkit. We evaluate the utility of the toolkit by reporting on past use cases and prototyping workshops. We show that the toolkit facilitates creativity and effectively supports prototyping. ProtoBricks lowers the entry threshold for experimenting with tangible interfaces and enables researchers and designers to focus on the interaction with their prototype, delegating implementation to the toolkit.2024JDJulia Dominiak et al.Data PhysicalizationCircuit Making & Hardware PrototypingDIS
Requirements and Attitudes towards Explainable AI in Law EnforcementIn high-stakes areas such as law enforcement, where artificial intelligence has the potential to enhance effectiveness and inclusivity, its decisions must be both informed and accountable. Thus, designing explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) for such settings is a key social concern. Yet, explanations in practice are often overly technical or abstract. To address this, our study engaged with police employees in an EU country, who are users of a text classifier. We found that for them, usability and usefulness are paramount in explanation design, whereas interpretability and understandability are less emphasized. Drawing from these insights, we suggest design guidelines centred on clarity and relevance for domain experts. We contribute recommendations which guide XAI system designers to better cater to the specific needs of specialized users and promote the responsible use of AI tools in public service.2024EHElize Herrewijnen et al.Explainable AI (XAI)AI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityDIS
The Undertable: A Design Remake of the Mediated BodyTables are a ubiquitous piece of furniture, a familiar sight in most environments from intimate to public. The dimensions of social interplay surrounding every single table are profoundly complex. In our project, we lift the importance of the neglected space under the table through the playful development of a tangible prototype. We approached this by a design remake of the Mediated Body: a wearable prototype encouraging touch between strangers using the conductivity of the skin. Instead, we leverage the familiarity of tables as a means to encourage playful explorations of bare-skin touch. We report in visual and textual form on the emerging design knowledge throughout our design process, including first-person narratives by the designers. We contribute with (1) a series of counterfactual table artifacts inspired by the Mediated Body; (2) a sequence of participant studies analysed through reflexive thematic analysis and summarised into the notion of ``an odd invitation'' as a new lens for homo explorens; and (3) an appeal to the importance of design remakes for research-through-design.2024SHSjoerd Hendriks et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)DIS
In Praise of Shadows: Sensibility and Somaesthetic Appreciation for Shadows in Interaction DesignWherever there is light, there is shadow --- an inevitable immaterial material, with an undeniable presence in interaction gestalt. Inspired by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's book In Praise of Shadows, we report on our journey towards building a sensibility and somaesthetic appreciation for shadows physically, metaphorically, and poetically. To investigate the idea of cultivating attentiveness to shadows, we embarked on a "dérive"-inspired adventure, gathering first-person perceptions and photographs of tables. We analysed these examples of tables and their shadows in order to inform the development of a project on interactive tables. Along with the artifact collection, we present a set of concepts, an initial prototype, and reflections on our own experience in developing this sensibility. We discuss shadows as a design material and an example of a design sensibility: a skill that can be sparked, fostered, and ultimately embedded.2024MGMafalda Gamboa et al.Design FictionDIS
The Human Behind the Robot: Rethinking the Low Social Status of Service RobotsRobots in our society are commonly perceived as subordinate servants with a lower social status than humans. This often leads to humans prioritizing themselves during conflict situations. This becomes problematic when robots start to directly represent humans as proxies if people do not think of the human operator behind them. This could be considered a cognitive bias of human representation in HRI. To explore the extent of this problem, we conducted a user study featuring several conflict situations. Participants granted more priority to the robot when the human representation was visible. This paper explores the societal consequences and emerging inequities such as potentially deprioritizing humans by deprioritizing a robot in certain situations. Possible strategies to address potential negative consequences are discussed on a design level while acknowledging that a societal change in how we perceive and treat robots that represent humans might be necessary.2024FBFranziska Babel et al.Privacy by Design & User ControlSocial Robot InteractionHuman-Robot Collaboration (HRC)HRI
Exploring Mobile Devices as Haptic Interfaces for Mixed RealityDedicated handheld controllers facilitate haptic experiences of virtual objects in mixed reality (MR). However, as mobile MR becomes more prevalent, we observe the emergence of controller-free MR interactions. To retain immersive haptic experiences, we explore the use of mobile devices as a substitute for specialised MR controller. In an exploratory gesture elicitation study (n = 18), we examined users' (1) intuitive hand gestures performed with prospective mobile devices and (2) preferences for real-time haptic feedback when exploring haptic object properties. Our results reveal three haptic exploration modes for the mobile device, as an object, hand substitute, or as an additional tool, and emphasise the benefits of incorporating the device's unique physical features into the object interaction. This work expands the design possibilities using mobile devices for tangible object interaction, guiding the future design of mobile devices for haptic MR experiences.2024CSCarolin Stellmacher et al.University of BremenShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsMixed Reality WorkspacesCHI
Screenless Interactive Tabletop Gaming with Capacitive Surface SensingMany interactive systems that support tabletop games either augment the experience with additional elements or transform game components into digital counterparts, e.g., using mixed reality. However, as many users prefer tangible game elements, digital augmentations can disrupt the immersion they seek to enhance, often due to the complexity of the hardware used. Responding to this challenge, we designed a screenless interactive tabletop system with capacitive sensing. The system is suitable for novice players and provides automatic score-keeping. Our method eliminates the need for external sensors and retains all original game pieces intact. We evaluated our system in a study with a forest planting game (n = 20). Gameplay with our system exhibited shorter turn duration, and participants adopted more effective strategies than in traditional gameplay. These results underscore the potential of screenless interactive tabletops to amplify the gaming experience without causing distractions.2024KAKrzysztof Adamkiewicz et al.Lodz University of TechnologySerious & Functional GamesDigitalization of Board & Tabletop GamesCHI
Exploring Intended Functions of Indoor Flying Robots Interacting With Humans in ProximityWhat will people experience when drones become common in home environments? How will their functions and distances impact human experiences? To explore the potential usage of indoor drones, we conducted a mixed-methods study (N=60) on the reported perceptions of a small flying robot. We employed a factorial experimental design, involving four intended drone functions (\textit{camera}, \textit{education}, \textit{pet}, \textit{unknown}) at two distances (\textit{near}, \textit{far}). Our findings suggest that intended functions significantly influence participants’ perceptions. Among the functions examined, participants found the \textit{camera} useful but annoying, and the \textit{pet} useless but pleasant. The \textit{education} emerged as the most favored function, while the \textit{unknown} function was the least preferred one. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for designing positive interactions between humans and indoor drones, considering aspects such as context, transparency, privacy, technical factors, and personalization.2024ZWZiming Wang et al.Chalmers University of Technology, University of LuxembourgDomestic RobotsSocial Robot InteractionCHI
Narrating Fitness: Leveraging Large Language Models for Reflective Fitness Tracker Data InterpretationWhile fitness trackers generate and present quantitative data, past research suggests that users often conceptualise their wellbeing in qualitative terms. This discrepancy between numeric data and personal wellbeing perception may limit the effectiveness of personal informatics tools in encouraging meaningful engagement with one’s wellbeing. In this work, we aim to bridge the gap between raw numeric metrics and users’ qualitative perceptions of wellbeing. In an online survey with $n=273$ participants, we used step data from fitness trackers and compared three presentation formats: standard charts, qualitative descriptions generated by an LLM (Large Language Model), and a combination of both. Our findings reveal that users experienced more reflection, focused attention and reward when presented with the generated qualitative data compared to the standard charts alone. Our work demonstrates how automatically generated data descriptions can effectively complement numeric fitness data, fostering a richer, more reflective engagement with personal wellbeing information.2024KSKonstantin R. Strömel et al.Osnabrück UniversityHuman-LLM CollaborationExplainable AI (XAI)Sleep & Stress MonitoringCHI