Us-Reflection: Designing for Meaningful Social InteractionsTechnology increasingly shapes our social interactions, both online and in person. Strong social connections and face-to-face interactions are vital for wellbeing, especially with close relationships. In this context, technology can play an ambivalent role: whereas it often has a negative impact on the quality of these interactions, it carries potential to enrich conversations and improve social interactions if used in a meaningful way. We design a prototype that implements subtle intervention strategies to foster meaningful technology use, specifically aimed at enhancing close relationships during in-person interactions. We evaluate the prototype within an exploratory, two-week in-the-wild user study with 6 tandems (N=12). Our findings suggest that the strategy of "us-reflection" – a social approach to reflection – contributes to mutual awareness of participants' shared time. Our prototype encouraged more meaningful interactions by proposing conversation topics or suggesting activities, ultimately strengthening close relationships and fostering more intentional, engaging, and rewarding social experiences.2025SSSophia Sakel et al.Cyberbullying & Online HarassmentTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIMobileHCI
Eliciting Change Towards Better Virtual Worlds: A Workshop Process to Foster Ethical Reflection in Creative Technology Design ProcessesThe concept of the metaverse, recently re-emerging in public discourse, is viewed by some as the internet’s next evolutionary stage, while others regard it as a dubious promise of a future where physical and digital worlds merge seamlessly. As the metaverse takes shape, it is crucial to question whether its design will embody the values of the societies it aims to serve. Emphasizing ethical and inclusive technology development is essential, particularly through educating about the social impacts and ethical challenges in computer science and design. Our research contributes to this goal by introducing a five-day workshop process designed to encourage ethically reflective technology development. This workshop process integrates speculative design, service design, and digital ethics methodologies. We showcase its effectiveness by detailing the outcomes of its implementation in two distinct educational settings: a seminar in Germany and a summer school in Taiwan, both centered on the development of metaverse applications.2025MHMichel Hohendanner et al.Technology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)C&C
Initiating the Global AI Dialogues: Laypeople Perspectives on the Future Role of genAI in Society from Nigeria, Germany and JapanWith the rapid development and release of generative AI (genAI) applications, policy discourses primarily take place on an expert level. Little space is given to laypeople - who have to adapt to and adopt the genAI innovations - to share their opinions and experiences. Addressing this gap, we organized 6h/3.5h laypeople dialogues in Nigeria, Japan, and Germany in July and August 2024. During the dialogues, participants discussed what a desirable future in light of genAI development could look like in one of three contexts: education, public service, and arts & culture. Participants explored the consequences of technology deployment, assessed the risks, mapped stakeholders, and derived measures to achieve a desirable goal. This study contributes to policy debates on genAI by providing recommendations derived from participants' identified requirements and suggested measures for genAI to create value and to foster a socially desirable future. We reflect on the results through a cross-national lens.2025MHMichel Hohendanner et al.Technical University of Munich, Department of Computer Science; Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences, Munich Center for Digital Sciences and AIGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Activism & Political ParticipationTechnology Ethics & Critical HCICHI
How Do People Perceive Bundling? An ExperimentWe present an exploratory study on how people perceive visualizations of spatial social networks generated by edge bundling algorithms. Although these algorithms successfully minimize clutter in node-link diagrams, they do so through various methods that can sometimes create false connections between nodes. We conducted a qualitative experiment involving participants with technical expertise but no prior knowledge of edge bundling algorithms. Participants described their perceptions of both bundled and straight-line visualizations in open-ended tasks. Analysis of their annotations and transcripts revealed a general preference for bundled visualizations. However, when it came to false connections, participants tended to follow them in tightly bundled diagrams while also vocalizing that these drawings were more ambiguous. The routing of bundles influenced the perception of clusters and participants assigned more or fewer nodes to the clusters, depending on the routing of bundles. Participants' unfamiliarity with the dataset led them to use analogies to describe the bundled drawings, potentially adding perceived semantic meaning to the data.2025MWMarkus Wallinger et al.Technical University of Munich, Chair for Efficient AlgorithmsInteractive Data VisualizationUncertainty VisualizationVisualization Perception & CognitionCHI
Metaverse Perspectives from Japan: A Participatory Speculative Design Case StudyCurrently, the development of the metaverse lies in the hands of industry. Citizens have little influence on this process. Instead, to do justice to the pluralism of (digital) societies, we should strive for an open discourse including many different perspectives on the metaverse and its core technologies such as AI. We utilize a participatory speculative design (PSD) approach to explore Japanese citizens’ perspectives on future metaverse societies, as well as social and ethical implications. Our contributions are twofold. Firstly, we demonstrate the effectiveness of PSD in engaging citizens in critical discourse on emerging technologies like the metaverse by presenting our workshop framework and participants' processes. Secondly, we identify key themes from participants' perspectives, providing insights for culturally sensitive design and development of virtual environments. Our analysis shows that participants imagine the metaverse to have the potential to solve a variety of societal issues; for example, breaking down barriers of physical environments for communication, social interaction, crisis preparation, and political participation, or tackling identity-related issues. Regarding future metaverse societies, participants’ imaginations raise critical questions about human-AI relations, technical solutionism, politics and technology, globalization and local cultures, and immersive technologies. We discuss implications and contribute to expanding conversations on metaverse developments.2024MHMichel Hohendanner et al.Session 3c: Speculative Design and Emerging TechnologiesCSCW
Interactive Shape Sonification for Tumor Localization in Breast Cancer SurgeryAbout 20 percent of patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery require reoperation due to cancerous tissue remaining inside the breast. Breast cancer localization systems utilize auditory feedback to convey the distance between a localization probe and a small marker (seed) implanted into the breast tumor prior to surgery. However, no information on the location of the tumor margin is provided. To reduce the reoperation rate by improving the usability and accuracy of the surgical task, we developed an auditory display using shape sonification to assist with tumor margin localization. Accuracy and usability of the interactive shape sonification were determined on models of the female breast in three user studies with both breast surgeons and non-clinical participants. The comparative studies showed a significant increase in usability (p<0.05) and localization accuracy (p<0.001) of the shape sonification over the auditory feedback currently used in surgery.2024LSLaura Schütz et al.Technical University of Munich, Stanford UniversityVibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationSurgical Assistance & Medical TrainingCHI
Simulator-based Mixed Reality eVTOL Pilot Training: The Instructor Operator StationAdvanced Air Mobility aircraft designs following the Simplified Vehicle Operations (SVO) concept require novel environments for practical and intuitive pilot training. Mixed Reality (MR) technologies can support immersive and interactive learning methods for operating several SVO aircraft, including electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) systems. Despite this potential, regulatory guidelines for simulator-based eVTOL pilot training, especially concerning the Instructor Operator Station (IOS) design, are nascent and require substantive development. This paper investigates the feasibility of an MR eVTOL research simulator as a training tool for instructors. A user study forms the basis for a bottom-up categorization of the instructor's performance shaping factors, which are pivotal for the design of an MR IOS. This paper contributes to the discourse on MR integration in pilot training by identifying key enhancements necessary for an IOS design.2024SKSharina Kimura et al.Technical University of MunichTeleoperated DrivingMixed Reality WorkspacesCHI
Going Incognito in the Metaverse: Achieving Theoretically Optimal Privacy-Usability Tradeoffs in VRVirtual reality (VR) telepresence applications and the so-called "metaverse" promise to be the next major medium of human-computer interaction. However, with recent studies demonstrating the ease at which VR users can be profiled and deanonymized, metaverse platforms carry many of the privacy risks of the conventional internet (and more) while at present offering few of the defensive utilities that users are accustomed to having access to. To remedy this, we present the first known method of implementing an "incognito mode" for VR. Our technique leverages local ε-differential privacy to quantifiably obscure sensitive user data attributes, with a focus on intelligently adding noise when and where it is needed most to maximize privacy while minimizing usability impact. Our system is capable of flexibly adapting to the unique needs of each VR application to further optimize this trade-off. We implement our solution as a universal Unity (C#) plugin that we then evaluate using several popular VR applications. Upon faithfully replicating the most well-known VR privacy attack studies, we show a significant degradation of attacker capabilities when using our solution.2023VNVivek C Nair et al.Privacy by Design & User ControlContext-Aware ComputingTeleoperation & TelepresenceUIST
Rethinking People Analytics With Inverse Transparency by DesignEmployees work in increasingly digital environments that enable advanced analytics. Yet, they lack oversight over the systems that process their data. That means that potential analysis errors or hidden biases are hard to uncover. Recent data protection legislation tries to tackle these issues, but it is inadequate. It does not prevent data misusage while at the same time stifling sensible use cases for data. We think the conflict between data protection and increasingly data-driven systems should be solved differently. When access to an employees' data is given, all usages should be made transparent to them, according to the concept of inverse transparency. This allows individuals to benefit from sensible data usage while addressing the potentially harmful consequences of data misusage. To accomplish this, we propose a new design approach for workforce analytics software we refer to as inverse transparency by design. To understand the developer and user perspectives on the proposal, we conduct two exploratory studies with students. First, we let small teams of developers implement analytics tools with inverse transparency by design to uncover how they judge the approach and how it materializes in their developed tools. We find that architectural changes are made without inhibiting core functionality. The developers consider our approach valuable and technically feasible. Second, we conduct a user study over three months to let participants experience the provided inverse transparency and reflect on their experience. The study models a software development workplace where most work processes are already digital. Participants perceive the transparency as beneficial and feel empowered by it. They unanimously agree that it would be an improvement for the workplace. We conclude that inverse transparency by design is a promising approach to realize accepted and responsible people analytics.2023VZValentin Zieglmeier et al.Workplace IICSCW
Breaking the Silence: Investigating Which Types of Moderation Reduce Negative Effects of Sexist Social Media ContentSexist content is widespread on social media and can reduce women’s psychological well-being and their willingness to participate in online discourse, making it a societal issue. To counter these effects, social media platforms employ moderators. To date, little is known about the effectiveness of different forms of moderation in creating a safe space and their acceptance, in particular from the perspective of women as members of the targeted group and users in general (rather than perpetrators). In this research, we propose that some common forms of moderation can be systematized along two facets of visibility, namely visibility of sexist content and of counterspeech. In an online experiment (N = 839), we manipulated these two facets and tested how they shaped social norms, feelings of safety, and intent to participate, as well as fairness, trustworthiness, and efficacy evaluations. In line with our predictions, deletion of sexist content – i.e., its invisibility – and (public) counterspeech – i.e., its visibility – against visible sexist content contributed to creating a safe space. Looking at the underlying psychological mechanism, we found that these effects were largely driven by changes in what was perceived normative in the presented context. Interestingly, deletion of sexist content was judged as less fair than counterspeech against visible sexist content. Our research contributes to a growing body of literature that highlights the importance of norms in creating safer online environments and provides practical implications for moderators for selecting actions that can be effective and accepted.2023JSJulia Sasse et al.Moderation IICSCW
The Unsung Heroes of Facebook Groups Moderation: A Case Study of Moderation Practices and ToolsVolunteer moderators have the power to shape society through their influence on online discourse. However, the growing scale of online interactions increasingly provides significant hurdles for meaningful moderation. Further, limited tools exist to assist volunteers with their work. With our work, we aim to meaningfully explore the potential of AI-driven, automated moderation tools for social media to assist volunteer moderators. One key aspect is to investigate to which degree tools must become personalizable and context-sensitive to not just delete unsavory content and ban trolls, but to adapt to the millions of online communities on social media mega-platforms that rely on volunteer moderation. In this paper, we conduct semi-structured interviews with 26 Facebook Group moderators in order to better understand moderation tasks and their associated challenges. Through qualitative analysis of the interview data, we identify and address the most pressing themes in the challenges they face daily. Using interview insights, we conceptualize three tools with automated features that assist in their most challenging tasks and problems. We then evaluate the tools for usability and acceptance using an adapted TAM survey with 22 of the same moderators. Qualitative and descriptive analyses of the survey data show that context-sensitive, agency-maintaining tools in addition to trial experience are key to mass-adoption by volunteer moderators in order to build trust in the validity of the moderation technology.2023TKTina Kuo et al.Platform Mediated EconomiesCSCW
Co-Speculating on Dark Scenarios and Unintended Consequences of a Ubiquitous(ly) Augmented RealityThe vision of a `metaverse' may soon bring a ubiquitous(ly) Augmented Reality (UAR) delivering context-aware, geo-located, and continuous blends of real and virtual elements into reach. This paper draws on speculative design to explore, question, and problematize consequences of AR becoming pervasive. Elaborating on Desjardin et al.'s bespoke booklets, we co-speculate together with 12 globally dispersed participants. Each participant received a custom-made design workbook containing pictures of their immediate surroundings, which they elaborated on in situated brainstorming activities. We present an integration of their speculative ideas and lived experiences in 3 overarching themes from which 7 `dark' scenarios caused by UAR were formed. The Scenarios are indicative of deceptive design patterns that can (and likely will be) devised to misuse UAR, and anti-patterns that could cause unintended consequences. These contributions enable the timely discussion of potential antidotes and to which extent they can mitigate imminent harms of UAR.2023CEChloe Eghtebas et al.AR Navigation & Context AwarenessTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIDesign FictionDIS
fAIlureNotes: Supporting Designers in Understanding the Limits of AI Models for Computer Vision TasksTo design with AI models, user experience (UX) designers must assess the fit between the model and user needs. Based on user research, they need to contextualize the model's behavior and potential failures within their product-specific data instances and user scenarios. However, our formative interviews with ten UX professionals revealed that such a proactive discovery of model limitations is challenging and time-intensive. Furthermore, designers often lack technical knowledge of AI and accessible exploration tools, which challenges their understanding of model capabilities and limitations. In this work, we introduced a \textit{failure-driven design} approach to AI, a workflow that encourages designers to explore model behavior and failure patterns early in the design process. The implementation of \system, a designer-centered failure exploration and analysis tool, supports designers in evaluating models and identifying failures across diverse user groups and scenarios. Our evaluation with UX practitioners shows that \system outperforms today's interactive model cards in assessing context-specific model performance.2023SMSteven Moore et al.Technical University Munich (TUM)Explainable AI (XAI)AI-Assisted Decision-Making & AutomationKnowledge Worker Tools & WorkflowsCHI
Upvotes? Downvotes? No Votes? Understanding the relationship between reaction mechanisms and political discourse on RedditA significant share of political discourse occurs online on social media platforms. Policymakers and researchers try to understand the role of social media design in shaping the quality of political discourse around the globe. In the past decades, scholarship on political discourse theory has produced distinct characteristics of different types of prominent political rhetoric such as deliberative, civic, or demagogic discourse. This study investigates the relationship between social media reaction mechanisms (i.e., upvotes, downvotes) and political rhetoric in user discussions by engaging in an in-depth conceptual analysis of political discourse theory. First, we analyze 155 million user comments in 55 political subforums on Reddit between 2010 and 2018 to explore whether users' style of political discussion aligns with the essential components of deliberative, civic, and demagogic discourse. Second, we perform a quantitative study that combines confirmatory factor analysis with difference in differences models to explore whether different reaction mechanism schemes (e.g., upvotes only, upvotes and downvotes, no reaction mechanisms) correspond with political user discussion that is more or less characteristic of deliberative, civic, or demagogic discourse. We produce three main takeaways. First, despite being "ideal constructs of political rhetoric," we find that political discourse theories describe political discussions on Reddit to a large extent. Second, we find that discussions in subforums with only upvotes, or both up- and downvotes black are associated with} user discourse that is more deliberate and civic. Third, and perhaps most strikingly, social media discussions are most demagogic in subreddits with no reaction mechanisms at all. These findings offer valuable contributions for ongoing policy discussions on the relationship between social media interface design and respectful political discussion among users.2023OPOrestis Papakyriakopoulos et al.Sony AISocial Platform Design & User BehaviorContent Moderation & Platform GovernanceActivism & Political ParticipationCHI
Won't You Think of Others?: Interdependent Privacy in Smartphone App PermissionsThe ever increasing amount of data on people's smartphones often contains private information of others that people interact with via the device. As a result, one user's decisions regarding app permissions can expose the information of other users. However, research typically focuses on consequences of privacy-related decisions only for those who make the decisions. Work on the impact of these decisions on the privacy of others is still relatively scant. We fill this gap with an online study that extends prior work on interdependent privacy in social networking sites to the context of smartphone permissions. Our findings indicate that people typically give less consideration to the implications of their actions for the privacy of others, compared to the impact on themselves. However, we found that priming people with information that features others can help reduce this discrepancy. We apply this insight to offer suggestions for enhancing permission-specification interfaces and system architectures to accommodate interdependent privacy.2021MMMaximilian Marsch et al.Privacy and SecurityCSCW
After You! Design and Evaluation of a Human Machine Interface for Cooperative Truck Overtaking Maneuvers on FreewaysTruck overtaking maneuvers on freeways are inefficient, risky and promote high potential for conflict between road users. Collective perception based on V2X communication allow coordination with all parties to reduce the negative impact and could be installed in a timely manner compared to automation. However, the prerequisite for the success of this system is a human-machine interface that the driver can easily operate, trusts and accepts. In this approach, a user-centered conception and design of a human-machine interface for cooperative truck overtaking maneuver on freeways is presented. The development process is separated in two steps: After a prototype is build based on task analysis it is initially evaluated and improved iteratively with a heuristic evaluation by experts. The final prototype is tested in a simulator study with 30 truck drivers. The study provides initial feedback regarding the drivers' attitudes towards such a system and how it can be further improved.2021JFJana Fank et al.Automated Driving Interface & Takeover DesignV2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) Communication DesignAutoUI
Is It Better With Onboarding? Improving First-Time Cryptocurrency App ExperiencesEngaging first-time users of mobile apps is challenging. Onboarding task flows are designed to minimize the drop out of users. To this point, there is little scientific insight into how to design these task flows. We explore this question with a specific focus on financial applications, which pose a particularly high hurdle and require significant trust. We address this question by combining two approaches. We first conducted semi-structured interviews (n=16) exploring users' meaning-making when engaging with new mobile applications in general. We then prototyped and evaluated onboarding task flows (n=16) for two mobile cryptocurrency apps using the minimalist instruction framework. Our results suggest that well-designed onboarding processes can improve the perceived usability of first-time users for feature-rich mobile apps. We discuss how the expectations users voiced during the interview study can be met by applying instructional design principles and reason that the minimalist instruction framework for mobile onboarding insights presents itself as a useful design method for practitioners to develop onboarding processes and also identify when not to.2021MFMichael Froehlich et al.Algorithmic Transparency & AuditabilityAutoML InterfacesDIS
Improving Take-Over Quality in Automated Driving By Interrupting Non-Driving TasksWith automated driving advancing, first production models started to incorporate the technology. However, until full autonomy is achieved, drivers always need to stay available to take over control from the car. This requirement has proven challenging: increased levels of automation reduce drivers’ situational awareness and driving performance can suffer, especially in the critical moments after take-over. While manual-driving research introduced strategies to direct drivers’ attention back to the road, notably interruptions of the non-driving task, the efficacy of these interventions on automated driving remain unclear. To investigate this, 53 participants drove in an automated simulator while performing tasks on an IVIS. With task interruptions, they reported increased situational awareness and showed improved reaction times during take-over, particularly for low-effort tasks (watching movies). Different to manual driving, halting tasks did not suffice; instead, we displayed the driving scene. Results question effects of situational awareness on take-over and offer solutions for manufacturers.2019TKThomas Köhn et al.Automated Driving Interface & Takeover DesignIUI