CreAItive Collaboration? Users' Misjudgment of AI-Creativity Affects Their Collaborative PerformanceHow does generative AI affect collaborative creative work and humans' capability to carry it out? We tested 52 participant pairs in a standard creativity test, the Alternate Uses Test. The experimental AI group had access to ChatGPT-4, while the control group did not. The intervention did not lead to an improved performance overall. Further, the AI group elaborated their ideas significantly less. This effect carried over to the unaided post-test, pointing to longer-term effects of AI be(com)ing everyday technology, as how people perform a task with a tool shapes how they (learn to) perform the task without it. Analysis of the human-AI collaboration process revealed that participants were selective in using ChatGPT-4 output for the experimental task, misjudging and falsely assessing its output. This actually reduced their number of created ideas and underscores that users need to understand a (generative AI-based) tool's capability for the specific task to support effective performance.2025MBMia Magdalena Bangerl et al.Graz University of Technology, Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science; Know Center Research Gmbh, Area Digital Transformation DesignGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Human-LLM CollaborationCHI
Show me a "Male Nurse"! How Gender Bias is Reflected in the Query Formulation of Search Engine UsersBiases in algorithmic systems have led to discrimination against historically disadvantaged groups, including the reinforcement of outdated gender stereotypes. While a substantial body of research addresses biases in algorithms and underlying data, in this work, we study if and how users themselves reflect these biases in their interactions with systems, which expectedly leads to the further manifestation of biases. More specifically, we investigate the replication of stereotypical gender representations by users in formulating online search queries. Following prototype theory, we define the disproportionate mention of the gender that does not conform to the prototypical representative of a searched domain (e.g., “male nurse”) as an indication of bias. In a pilot study with 224 US participants and a main study with 400 UK participants, we find clear evidence of gender biases in formulating search queries. We also report the effects of an educative text on user behaviour and highlight the wish of users to learn about bias-mitigating strategies in their interactions with search engines.2023SKSimone Kopeinik et al.Know-CenterAI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityAlgorithmic Fairness & BiasCHI
Designing for Knowledge Construction to Facilitate the Uptake of Open Science: Laying out the Design SpaceThe uptake of open science resources needs knowledge construction on the side of the readers/receivers of scientific content. The design of technologies surrounding open science resources can facilitate such knowledge construction, but this has not been investigated yet. To do so, we first conducted a scoping review of literature, from which we draw design heuristics for knowledge construction in digital environments. Subsequently, we grouped the underlying technological functionalities into three design categories: i) structuring and supporting collaboration, ii) supporting the learning process, and iii) structuring, visualising and navigating (learning) content. Finally, we mapped the design categories and associated design heuristics to core components of popular open science platforms. This mapping constitutes a design space (design implications), which informs researchers and designers in the HCI community about suitable functionalities for supporting knowledge construction in existing or new digital open science platforms.2022LDLeonie Disch et al.Know-Center GmbH Research Center for Data-Driven Business & Big Data AnalyticsUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)Research Ethics & Open ScienceCHI
Optimising Encoding for Vibrotactile Skin ReadingThis paper proposes methods of optimising alphabet encoding for skin reading in order to avoid perception errors. First, a user study with 16 participants using two body locations serves to identify issues in recognition of both individual letters and words. To avoid such issues, a two-step optimisation method of the symbol encoding is proposed and validated in a second user study with eight participants using the optimised encoding with a seven vibromotor wearable layout on the back of the hand. The results show significant improvements in the recognition accuracy of letters (97%) and words (97%) when compared to the non-optimised encoding.2019GLGranit Luzhnica et al.Know CenterVibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationCHI
Background Perception and Comprehension of Symbols Conveyed through Vibrotactile Wearable DisplaysPrevious research has demonstrated the feasibility of conveying vibrotactile encoded information efficiently using wearable devices. Users can understand vibrotactile encoded symbols and complex messages combining such symbols. Such wearable devices can find applicability in many multitasking use cases. Nevertheless, for multitasking, it would be necessary for the perception and comprehension of vibrotactile information to be less attention demanding and not interfere with other parallel tasks. We present a user study which investigates whether high speed vibrotactile encoded messages can be perceived in the background while performing other concurrent attention-demanding primary tasks. The vibrotactile messages used in the study were limited to symbols representing letters of English Alphabet. We observed that users could very accurately comprehend vibrotactile such encoded messages in the background and other parallel tasks did not affect users performance. Additionally, the comprehension of such messages did also not affect the performance of the concurrent primary task as well. Our results promote the use of vibrotactile information transmission to facilitate multitasking.2019GLGranit Luzhnica et al.Vibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationHaptic WearablesIUI
A Study on User-Controllable Social Exploratory SearchInformation-seeking tasks with learning or investigative purposes are usually referred to as exploratory search. Exploratory search unfolds as a dynamic process where the user, amidst navigation, trial-and-error and on-the-fly selections, gathers and organizes information (resources). A range of innovative interfaces with increased user control have been developed to support exploratory search process. In this work we present our attempt to increase the power of exploratory search interfaces by using ideas of social search, i.e., leveraging information left by past users of information systems. Social search technologies are highly popular nowadays, especially for improving ranking. However, current approaches to social ranking do not allow users to decide to what extent social information should be taken into account for result ranking. This paper presents an interface that integrates social search functionality into an exploratory search system in a user-controlled way that is consistent with the nature of exploratory search. The interface incorporates control features that allow the user to (i) express information needs by selecting keywords and (ii) to express preferences for incorporating social wisdom based on tag matching and user similarity. The interface promotes search transparency through color-coded stacked bars and rich tooltips. In an online study investigating system accuracy and subjective aspects with a structural model we found that, when users actively interacted with all its control features, the hybrid system outperformed a baseline content-based-only tool and users were more satisfied.2018CSCecilia di Sciascio et al.Recommender System UXInteractive Data VisualizationIUI
Investigating Interactions for Text Recognition using a Vibrotactile Werable DisplayVibrotactile skin-reading uses wearable vibrotactile displays to convey dynamically generated textual information. Such wearable displays have potential to be used in a broad range of applications. Nevertheless, the reading process is passive, and users have no control over the reading flow. To compensate for such drawback, this paper investigates what kind of interactions are necessary for vibrotactile skin reading and the modalities of such interactions. An interaction concept for skin reading was designed taking reading as a process into account. We performed a formative study with 22 participants to assess reading behaviour in word and sentence reading using a six-channel wearable vibrotactile display. Our study shows that word based interactions in sentence reading are more often used and preferred by users compared to character-based interactions and that users prefer gesture-based interaction for skin reading. Finally, we discuss how such wearable vibrotactile displays could be extended with sensors that would enable recognition of such gesture-based interaction. This paper contributes a set of guidelines for the design of wearable haptic displays for text communication.2018GLGranit Luzhnica et al.Vibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationHaptic WearablesHand Gesture RecognitionIUI