Tool-Assisted CVSS Vulnerability Scoring: A Controlled Quantitative Study of Human AssessmentQuantitative vulnerability assessment is central to security management, guiding how risks are prioritized and mitigated. Yet, severity scoring relies on human judgment and is therefore subject to differences in experience, interpretation, and diligence; prior work has even shown expert disagreement. We examine an NLP-based assistive tool that visualizes keyword cues during assessment. In a controlled survey of 389 participants recruited via Amazon MTurk and Prolific, we statistically analyze how participant skills/demographics, vulnerability characteristics, and tool support affect outcomes. Results show the tool does not consistently improve assessment accuracy across expertise levels, but can help for specific vulnerability types (e.g., CWE-787) and CVSS metrics (AC, PR, Scope), and can increase user confidence. Beyond immediate performance, the tool can support training for manual assessment tasks that are hard to automate, as learning effects yield significant improvements on subsequent tasks. This work informs the design of cybersecurity decision-support tools and motivates future research on security training and human-centered security.2026SZSiqi Zhang et al.Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamExplainable AI (XAI)AI-Assisted Decision-Making & AutomationPrivacy by Design & User ControlCHI
Understanding Home Router Configuration Habits & AttitudesHome routers serve as a gateway to the Internet and configuration issues such as weak passwords can simply be introduced by users that configured them, potentially leading to severe consequences. The most critical phase in the lifecycle of a home router is perhaps the initial setup intended for users to complete. Yet, the mindset and behavior of users during this process remain under-explored. In a comprehensive online survey of 392 participants across several regions, we find that router settings and user behavior vary significantly between China and English-speaking countries, influenced by factors like IT background, age, gender, and education. A majority of participants go through the configuration of their own routers, but many also admit keeping the default settings and are not actively maintaining their router firmware up-to-date, leaving security vulnerabilities unfixed. We estimate that 91% of participant routers run with default settings, which should push router manufacturers to focus on safe defaults. Moreover, while default passwords are often changed, some participants report coping strategies. With noteworthy differences that we have observed across user backgrounds, we believe that our takeaways can shed some light on advancing the area of home network security.2025JYJunjian Ye et al.Nanjing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsPrivacy by Design & User ControlPasswords & AuthenticationPrivacy Perception & Decision-MakingCHI
DIY Digital Interventions: Behaviour Change with Trigger-Action ProgrammingWhether it is sleep, diet, or procrastination, changing behaviours can be challenging. Individuals could design and build their own personalised digital interventions to help them reach their goals, but little is known about this process. Building upon previous research we propose the Behaviour Change with Trigger-Action Programming (BC-TAP) model which describes how individuals could bridge the gap between their current and desired behaviour through the creation of `Do-It-Yourself' (DIY) digital interventions. We conducted a two-day participatory workshop based on the BC-TAP model with 28 participants. Participants articulated plans to change a behaviour of their choice and represented these plans in mobile device automations. After using their interventions for up to three weeks, participants reflected on their experience. Our findings report opportunities and challenges at each stage of the process. While formulating a digital proxy for certain behaviours was challenging, both failures and successes facilitated participants’ awareness of their behaviour, and their ability to change it.2024ASAva Elizabeth Scott et al.Creative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsKnowledge Worker Tools & WorkflowsMobileHCI
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
Designing a Couples-Based Conversational Agent to Promote Safe Sex in New, Young Couples: A User-Centred Design ApproachThe uptake of conversational agents (CAs) to deliver digital sexual health interventions is growing. While current CAs only address one user at a time, research suggests that couples-based interventions may be more effective at promoting safe sex in non-casual relationships by improving relationship functioning. In this paper, we describe user-centred design activities undertaken towards the design of a couples-based chatbot to address safe sex in new, young couples. A two-step approach was undertaken, in which young people were interviewed about their preferences and ideas, and sexual health professionals took part in a design thinking workshop. The design activities yielded a rich set of design guidelines from both groups, as well as a paper-and-pen prototype of the proposed CA from the workshop. As expected, trust was raised by both stakeholders as an important determinant of use and therefore heavily informs the design guidelines.2024DBDivyaa Balaji et al.Conversational ChatbotsMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesReproductive & Women's HealthCUI
Close a door to open a window: Unpacking strategies and know-how in making comfortable.Together with 11 lower-income households, we explored how assumptions embedded in domestic energy interfaces match their needs, expectations, and everyday practices around domestic energy use and comfort. Catalyzed by cultural probes, residents (1) shared the diverse strategies and know-how involved in making themselves comfortable, (2) offered arguments for their everyday futures, and (3) explained what we can learn from them. A first tentative definition of energy interfaces opens the door to what we consider interfaces, how they support developing know-how and how they co-construct everyday practices. Residents’ resourceful solutions elicit reflections on what is considered valid participation in the energy transition. From the findings, we synthesize alternative starting points for the design of energy interfaces: We outline design opportunities to expand the (un)comfortable by revisiting comfort as fluid and multi-sensory. Furthermore, we sensitize how design can build on residents’ existing strategies for making comfortable, rather than replace them.2024PKPiet de Koning et al.Sustainable HCIEnergy Conservation Behavior & InterfacesDIS
Staying at the Roach Motel: Cross-Country Analysis of Manipulative Subscription and Cancellation FlowsSubscribing to online services is typically a straightforward process, but cancelling them can be arduous and confusing --- causing many to resign and continue paying for services they no longer use. Making the cancellation process intentionally difficult is recognized as a dark pattern called Roach Motel. This paper characterizes the subscription and cancellation flows of popular news websites from four different countries and discusses them in the context of recent regulatory changes. We study the design features that make it difficult to cancel a subscription and find several cancellation flows that feature intentional barriers, such as forcing users to call a representative or type in a phrase. Further, we find many subscription flows that do not adequately inform users about recurring charges. Our results point to a growing need for effective regulation of designs that trick, coerce, or manipulate users into paying for subscriptions they do not want.2024ASAshley Sheil et al.Maynooth UniversityDark Patterns RecognitionCHI
Starving the Newsfeed for Social Media Detox: Effects of Strict and Self-regulated Facebook Newsfeed DietsDoomsurfing, doomscrolling or zombie scrolling. These new additions to the tech vocabulary have become part of our everyday routine, scrolling endlessly through social media feeds. Furthermore, some users report a sense of compulsion, a decrease in mental wellbeing and an increased sense of distraction. A common complaint among users harks back to the Facebook newsfeed. In a field experiment with real Facebook users n=138, we investigate the difference between a strict newsfeed diet (where the newsfeed is automatically reduced to a minimum) and self-regulated newsfeed diet (where the newsfeed is reduced, but users can then manage its content). Our results indicate that both of these newsfeed diets are effective at reducing the time spent on Facebook's platform (-64% for the strict diet, -39% for the self-regulated diet). Our findings also suggest that these design interventions come with positive and negative user experiences such as increased self-awareness and fear of missing out (FOMO).2023APAditya Kumar Purohit et al.Radboud UniversityOnline Harassment & Counter-ToolsSocial Platform Design & User BehaviorCHI
Do humans imitate robots? An investigation of strategic social learning in Human-Robot Interaction.Theories on social learning indicate that imitative choices are usually performed whenever copying the others’ behaviour has no additional cost. Here, we extended such investigations of social learning to Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Participants played the Economic Investment Game with a robot banker while observing another robot player also investing in the robot banker. By manipulating the robot banker payoff, three conditions of unfairness were created: (1) unfair payoff for the participants, (2) unfair payoff for the robot player and (3) unfair payoff for both. Results showed that when the payoff was low for the participants and high for the robot player, participants invested more money in the robot banker than when both parties received a low return. Also, for this specific condition, participants’ investments increased further with a more interactive robot player (defined as demonstrating increased attention, congruent movements and speech) This suggests that social and cognitive human competencies can be used and transposed to non-human agents. Further, imitation can potentially be extended to HRI, with interactivity likely having a key role in increasing this effect.2020DZDebora Zanatto et al.Human Pose & Activity RecognitionSocial Robot InteractionHuman-Robot Collaboration (HRC)HRI