Engaging Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in the Design of Self-Management AppsGestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is an increasingly prominent health issue in pregnant women. While various technology solutions have been developed to support self-management of women with GDM, usability and functionality limitations have precluded their adoption. More active engagement with women with GDM in the design process could mitigate these limitations, thus we developed a design method to support the involvement of women with GDM in the design phase of a GDM self-management system. Thirteen online workshops were conducted involving five women with GDM and two postpartum women with previous GDM, who participated in idea generation, paper-based sketching, and group discussions, followed by interviews to gather their experiences of participation. We found that women valued their inclusion in these design workshops and felt confident sharing their ideas, from which we introduce recommendations for design procedures that enhance the contributions of women with GDM in the design of self-management apps.2024DRDaniel Rough et al.Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesChronic Disease Self-Management (Diabetes, Hypertension, etc.)DIS
Vergence Matching: Inferring Attention to Objects in 3D Environments for Gaze-Assisted SelectionGaze pointing is the de facto standard to infer attention and interact in 3D environments but is limited by motor and sensor limitations. To circumvent these limitations, we propose a vergence-based motion correlation method to detect visual attention toward very small targets. Smooth depth movements relative to the user are induced on 3D objects, which cause slow vergence eye movements when looked upon. Using the principle of motion correlation, the depth movements of the object and vergence eye movements are matched to determine which object the user is focussing on. In two user studies, we demonstrate how the technique can reliably infer gaze attention on very small targets, systematically explore how different stimulus motions affect attention detection, and show how the technique can be extended to multi-target selection. Finally, we provide example applications using the concept and design guidelines for small target and accuracy-independent attention detection in 3D environments.2023LSLudwig Sidenmark et al.Lancaster UniversityEye Tracking & Gaze InteractionHuman Pose & Activity RecognitionCHI
"I'm Surprised So Much is Connected": A Study on Users' Online Account Security ConnectionsA person's online security setup is tied to the security of their individual accounts. Some accounts are particularly critical as they provide access to other online services. For example, an email account can be used for external account recovery or to assist with single-sign-on. The connections between accounts are specific to each user's setup and create unique security problems that are difficult to remedy by following generic security advice. In this paper, we develop a method to gather and analyze users' online accounts systematically. We demonstrate this in a user study with 20 participants and obtain detailed insights on how users' personal setup choices and behaviors affect their overall account security. We discuss concrete usability and privacy concerns that prevented our participants from improving their account security. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for service providers and security experts to increase the adoption of security best practices.2022SHSven Hammann et al.ETH ZürichPrivacy by Design & User ControlPasswords & AuthenticationPrivacy Perception & Decision-MakingCHI
Prototyping Things: Reflecting on Unreported Objects of Design Research for IoTPrototypes and other ‘things’ have had many uses in HCI research—to help understand a problem, as a stepping stone towards a solution, or as a final outcome of a research process. However, within the messy context of a research through design project, many of these roles do not form part of the final research narratives, restricting the ability of other researchers to learn from this practice. In this paper we revisit prototypes used in three different design research projects, conducted over a period when the Internet of Things emerged into everyday life, exploring complex hidden relationships between the internet, people and physical objects. We aim to explore the unreported roles that prototypes played in these projects, including brokering relationships with participants and deconstructing opaque technologies. We reflect on how these roles align with existing understandings of prototypes in HCI, with particular attention to how these roles can contribute to design around IoT.2021NTNick Taylor et al.Context-Aware ComputingUbiquitous ComputingPrototyping & User TestingDIS
Adaptive Subtitles: Preferences and Trade-Offs in Real-Time Media AdaptionSubtitles can help improve the understanding of media content. People enable subtitles based on individual characteristics (e.g., language or hearing ability), viewing environment, or media context (e.g., drama, quiz show). However, some people find that subtitles can be distracting and that they negatively impact their viewing experience. We explore the challenges and opportunities surrounding interaction with real-time personalisation of subtitled content. To understand how people currently interact with subtitles, we first conducted an online questionnaire with 102 participants. We used our findings to elicit requirements for a new approach called Adaptive Subtitles that allows the viewer to alter which speakers have subtitles displayed in real-time. We evaluated our approach with 19 participants to understand the interaction trade-offs and challenges within real-time adaptations of subtitled media. Our evaluation findings suggest that granular controls and structured onboarding allow viewers to make informed trade-offs when adapting media content, leading to improved viewing experiences.2021BGBenjamin M. Gorman et al.Bournemouth UniversityVoice AccessibilityDeaf & Hard-of-Hearing Support (Captions, Sign Language, Vibration)CHI
Parallels, Tangents, and Loops: Reflections on the ‘Through’ Part of RtDWhile attention in Research Through Design (RtD) is often on the findings, in this pictorial, we choose to attend to the ‘through’ part of RtD in order to reveal the messy stories of how those insights were arrived at—stories that are often untold, truncated, or streamlined. We use a yearlong RtD project on human-data entanglements in the home as a case study to explore the contours of this process. We detail how our messy lines of inquiry crossed, dead ended, wove together, and looped. Grounded in illustrations of lines, we offer practical reflections on experiences we encountered while navigating these scribbly lines.2020ADAudrey Desjardins et al.User Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)Prototyping & User TestingResearch Ethics & Open ScienceDIS
Emoji Accessibility for Visually Impaired PeopleEmoji are graphical symbols that appear in many aspects of our lives. Worldwide, around 36 million people are blind and 217 million have a moderate to severe visual impairment. This portion of the population may use and encounter emoji, yet it is unclear what accessibility challenges emoji introduce. We first conducted an online survey with 58 visually impaired participants to understand how they use and encounter emoji online, and the challenges they experience. We then conducted 11 interviews with screen reader users to understand more about the challenges reported in our survey findings. Our interview findings demonstrate that technology is both an enabler and a barrier, emoji descriptors can hinder communication, and therefore the use of emoji impacts social interaction. Using our findings from both studies, we propose best practice when using emoji and recommendations to improve the future accessibility of emoji for visually impaired people.2020GTGarreth W. Tigwell et al.Rochester Institute of TechnologyVisual Impairment Technologies (Screen Readers, Tactile Graphics, Braille)Universal & Inclusive DesignCHI
IoT Data in the Home: Observing Entanglements and Drawing New EncountersInternet of Things (IoT) technologies for the home are gaining in popularity, generating exponential data byproducts. Yet, everyday relationships between home dwellers and domestic IoT data often remain secondary interactions, preventing deeper understanding and awareness of data tracked in the home. Our paper offers a design ethnography and design inquiry which examine these human-data entanglements. Findings from working with 10 inhabitants who interact with their IoT data illustrate five characteristics of current data encounters: manifesting, inquiring, exposing, repositioning, and broadening. In response, we used speculative sketches to refine, refract and complicate these encounters. We argue that data do not have to be laborious, tidy or the byproduct of a service, but rather lively and affecting. We further suggest new modes of engagement with data which expand or step away from self-improvement and reflection: through diverse acts of noticing, by allowing data to remain invisible, and by embracing imaginative practices.2020ADAudrey Desjardins et al.University of WashingtonContext-Aware ComputingSmart Home Privacy & SecurityCHI
Household Surface Interactions: Understanding User Input Preferences and Perceived Home ExperiencesHouseholds contain a variety of surfaces that are used in a number of activity contexts. As ambient technology becomes commonplace in our homes, it is only a matter of time before these surfaces become linked to computer systems for Household Surface Interaction (HSI). However, little is known about the user experience attached to HSI, and the potential acceptance of HSI within modern homes. To address this problem, we ran a mixed methods user study with 39 participants to examine HSI using nine household surfaces and five common gestures (tap, press, swipe, drag, and pinch). We found that under the right conditions, surfaces with some amount of texture can enhance HSI. Furthermore, perceived good and poor user experience varied among participants for surface type indicating individual preferences. We present findings and design considerations based on surface characteristics and the challenges that users perceive they may have with HSI within their homes.2020GTGarreth W. Tigwell et al.Rochester Institute of TechnologyVoice User Interface (VUI) DesignSmart Home Interaction DesignCHI
A Design Engineering Approach for Quantitatively Exploring Context-Aware Sentence Retrieval for Nonspeaking Individuals with Motor DisabilitiesNonspeaking individuals with motor disabilities typically have very low communication rates. This paper proposes a design engineering approach for quantitatively exploring context-aware sentence retrieval as a promising complementary input interface, working in tandem with a word-prediction keyboard. We motivate the need for complementary design engineering methodology in the design of augmentative and alternative communication and explain how such methods can be used to gain additional design insights. We then study the theoretical performance envelopes of a context-aware sentence retrieval system, identifying potential keystroke savings as a function of the parameters of the subsystems, such as the accuracy of the underlying auto-complete word prediction algorithm and the accuracy of sensed context information under varying assumptions. We find that context-aware sentence retrieval has the potential to provide users with considerable improvements in keystroke savings under reasonable parameter assumptions of the underlying subsystems. This highlights how complementary design engineering methods can reveal additional insights into design for augmentative and alternative communication.2020PKPer Ola Kristensson et al.University of CambridgeMotor Impairment Assistive Input TechnologiesAugmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)CHI
Our Friends Electric: Reflections on Advocacy and Design Research for the Voice Enabled InternetEmerging technologies---such as the voice enabled internet---present many opportunities and challenges for HCI research and society as a whole. Advocating for better, healthier implementations of these technologies will require us to communicate abstract values, such as trust, to an audience that ranges from the general public to technologists and even policymakers. In this paper, we show how a combination of film-making and product design can help to illustrate these abstract values. Working as part of a wider international advocacy campaign, Our Friends Electric focuses on the voice enabled internet, translating abstract notions of Internet Health into comprehensible digital futures for the relationship between our voice and the internet. We conclude with a call for designers of physical things to be more involved with the development of trust, privacy and security in this powerful emerging technological landscape.2019JRJon Rogers et al.University of DundeeVoice User Interface (VUI) DesignAI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityPrivacy by Design & User ControlCHI
Developing Accessible Services: Understanding Current Knowledge and Areas for Future SupportWhen creating digital artefacts, it is important to ensure that the product being made is accessible to as much of the population as is possible. Many guidelines and supporting tools exist to assist reaching this goal. However, little is known about developers' understanding of accessible practice and the methods that are used to implement this. We present findings from an accessibility design workshop that was carried out with a mixture of 197 developers and digital technology students. We discuss perceptions of accessibility, techniques that are used when designing accessible products, and what areas of accessibility development participants believed were important. We show that there are gaps in the knowledge needed to develop accessible products despite the effort to promote accessible design. Our participants are themselves aware of where these gaps are and have suggested a number of areas where tools, techniques and guidance would improve their practice.2019MCMichael Crabb et al.University of DundeeCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Aging-Friendly Technology DesignUniversal & Inclusive DesignCHI
The SelfReflector: Design, IoT and the High StreetWe describe the design of SelfReflector an internet-connected mirror that uses online facial recognition to estimate your age and play music from when it thinks you were 14 years old. The mirror was created for a specific shop (SPeX PisTOls optical boutique), within a research through design project centered on the high street as a space of vital social, economic and environmental exchange that offers a myriad of psychosocial support for people beyond a place to purchase goods. We present in detail how the design emerged as our research interests developed related to IoT and how people use the high street to experiment with, and support sense of self. We discuss SelfReflector in relation to challenges for IoT, facial recognition and surveillance technologies, mirrorness and the values of a craft approach to designing technology centering on the nature of the bespoke and ‘one-off’.2018JWJayne Wallace et al.Northumbria UniversityContext-Aware ComputingUbiquitous ComputingHuman-Robot Collaboration (HRC)CHI
Everybody’s Hacking: Participation and the Mainstreaming of HackathonsHackathons have become a popular tool for bringing people together to imagine new possibilities for technology. Despite originating in technology communities, hackathons have now been widely adopted by a broad range of organisations. This mainstreaming of hackathons means they encompass a very different range of attendees and activities than they once did, to the extent that some events billed as hackathons may involve no coding at all. Given this shift away from production of code, they might instead be seen as an increasingly popular participatory design activity, from which designers and researchers in HCI can learn. Through fieldwork at six hackathons that targeted non-technical communities, we identify the types of activities and contributions that emerge through these events and the barriers and tensions that might exist. In doing so, we contribute a greater understanding of hackathons as a growing phenomenon and as a potential tool for participatory research.2018NTNick Taylor et al.University of DundeeParticipatory DesignComputational Methods in HCICHI
Strategies for Engaging Communities in Creating Physical Civic TechnologiesDespite widespread interest in civic technologies, empowering neighbourhoods to take advantage of these technologies in their local area remains challenging. This paper presents findings from the Ardler Inventors project, which aimed to understand how neighbourhoods can be supported in performing roles normally carried out by researchers and designers. We describe the end-to-end process of bringing people together around technology, designing and prototyping ideas, and ultimately testing several devices in their local area. Through this work, we explore different strategies for infrastructuring local residents’ participation with technology, including the use of hackathon-like intensive design events and pre-designed kits for assembly. We contribute findings relating to the ability of these strategies to support building communities around civic technology and the challenges that must be addressed.2018NTNick Taylor et al.University of DundeeCitizen Science & Crowdsourced DataCommunity Engagement & Civic TechnologyParticipatory DesignCHI
MirrorMirror: A Mobile Application to Improve Speechreading AcquisitionMany people around the world have difficulties in day-to-day conversation due to hearing loss. Hearing aids often fail to offer enough benefits and have low adoption rates. However, people with hearing loss find that speechreading can improve their understanding during conversation, but speechreading is a challenging skill to learn. Speechreading classes can improve acquisition, however there are a limited number of classes available and students can only practice effectively when attending class. To address this, we conducted a postal survey with 59 speechreading students to understand students' perspectives on practicing. Using our findings, we developed an Android application called MirrorMirror - a new Speechreading Acquisition Tool (SAT) that allows students to practice their speechreading by recording and watching videos of people they frequently speak with. We evaluated MirrorMirror through three case studies with speechreading students and found that they could effectively target their speechreading practice on people, words and situations they encounter during daily conversations.2018BGBenjamin M Gorman et al.University of DundeeDeaf & Hard-of-Hearing Support (Captions, Sign Language, Vibration)Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)CHI
Maker Movements, Do-It-Yourself Cultures and Participatory Design: Implications for HCI Research.Falling costs and the wider availability of computational components, platforms and ecosystems have enabled the expansion of maker movements and DIY cultures. This can be considered as a form of democratization of technology systems design, in alignment with the aims of Participatory Design approaches. However, this landscape is constantly evolving, and long-term implications for the HCI community are far from clear. The organizers of this one-day workshop invite participants to present their case studies, experiences and perspectives on the topic with the goal of increasing understanding within this area of research. The outcomes of the workshop will include the articulation of future research directions with the purpose of informing a research agenda, as well as the establishment of new collaborations and networks.2018MSMichael Smyth et al.Edinburgh Napier UniversityMakerspace CultureParticipatory DesignComputational Methods in HCICHI
Modeling Perceived Screen Resolution Based on Position and Orientation of Wrist-Worn DevicesThis paper presents a model allowing inferences of perceivable screen content in relation to position and orientation of mobile or wearable devices with respect to their user. The model is based on findings from vision science and allows prediction of a value of effective resolution that can be perceived by a user. It considers distance and angle between the device and the eyes of the observer as well as the resulting retinal eccentricity when the device is not directly focused but observed in the periphery. To validate our model, we conducted a study with 12 participants. Based on our results, we outline implications for the design of mobile applications that are able to adapt themselves to facilitate information throughput and usability.2018FKFrederic Kerber et al.Saarland Informatics CampusFoot & Wrist InteractionVisualization Perception & CognitionCHI