Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Boolean Satisfiability Solvers to Help Reduce Cognitive Load and Improve Decision Making when Creating Common Academic Schedules

Manual schedule creation often involves satisfying numerous unique and conflicting constraints, which becomes more cognitively demanding when creating a common academic schedule with other individuals. Poor decision making caused by cognitive overload can result in unsuitable schedules. This study proposes the use of Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solvers in an academic scheduling system to help students balance scheduling preferences and satisfy necessary constraints. Based on the availability of courses and the scheduling preferences of users, the system automatically resolves conflicts and presents possible schedules. In a controlled experiment with 42 undergraduate students, cognitive demand was reduced by eliminating menial decisions, which significantly optimized the creation of a common schedule among peers. We found that human errors and emotional stress were diminished, and schedules created using the system were more satisfactory to participants. Finally, we present recommendations and design implications for future academic scheduling systems.
Sticky Goals: Understanding Goal Commitments for Behavioral Changes in the Wild

A commitment device, an attempt to bind oneself for a successful goal achievement, has been used as an effective strategy to promote behavior change. However, little is known about how commitment devices are used in the wild, and what aspects of commitment devices are related to goal achievements. In this paper, we explore a large-scale dataset from stickK, an online behavior change support system that provides both financial and social commitments. We characterize the patterns of behavior change goals (e.g., topics and commitment setting) and then perform a series of multilevel regression analyses on goal achievements. Our results reveal that successful goal achievements are largely dependent on the configuration of financial and social commitment devices, and a mixed commitment setting is considered beneficial. We discuss how our findings could inform the design of effective commitment devices, and how large-scale data can be leveraged to support data-driven goal elicitation and customization.
On Smartphone Users’ Difficulty with Understanding Implicit Authentication

Implicit authentication (IA) has recently become a popular approach for providing physical security on smartphones. It relies on behavioral traits (e.g., gait patterns) for user identification, instead of biometric data or knowledge of a PIN. However, it is not yet known whether users can understand the semantics of this technology well enough to use it properly. We bridge this knowledge gap by evaluating how Android’s Smart Lock (SL), which is the first widely deployed IA solution on smartphones, is understood by its users. We conducted a qualitative user study (N=26) and an online survey (N=331). The results suggest that users often have difficulty understanding SL semantics, leaving them unable to judge when their phone would be (un)locked. We found that various aspects of SL, such as its capabilities and its authentication factors, are confusing for the users. We also found that depth of smartphone adoption is a significant antecedent of SL comprehension.
On Activism and Academia: Reflecting Together and Sharing Experiences Among Critical Friends

In recent years HCI and CSCW work has increasingly begun to address complex social problems and issues of social justice worldwide. Such activist-leaning work is not without problems. Through the experiences and reflections of an activist becoming academic and an academic becoming an activist, we outline these difficulties such as (1) the risk of perpetuating violence, oppression and exploitation when working with marginalised communities, (2) the reception of activist-academic work within our academic communities, and (3) problems of social justice that exist within our academic communities. Building on our own experiences, practices and existing literature from a variety of disciplines we advocate for the possibility of an activist-academic practice, outline possible ways forward and formulate questions we need to answer for HCI to contribute to a more just world.
The Technology-Mediated Reflection Model: Barriers and Assistance in Data-Driven Reflection

Current personal informatics models consider reflection as an important stage in users’ journeys with trackers. However, these models describe reflection from a meta perspective and it remains unclear what this stage entails. To design interactive technologies that support reflection, we need a more thorough understanding of how people reflect on their personal data in practice. To that end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with users of fitness trackers and an online survey to study practices in reflecting on fitness data. Our results show that users reported reflecting on data despite lacking reflection support from their tracking technology. Based on our results, we introduce the Technology-Mediated Reflection Model, which describes conditions and barriers for reflection on personal data. Our model consists of the temporal and conceptual cycles of reflection and helps designers identify the possible barriers a user might face when using a system for reflection.
Situated Buttons: A User Interface to Support Users with Complex Needs and Promote Independent Living

We present situated buttons, a highly personalized, affordable system to support users with complex needs such as people with learning disabilities and autism, dementia, etc., and promote independent living. The system addresses concerns many users with mental health issues have with accessing assistive services and technologies as a result of their health condition. The solution consists of a wireless push button that via a simple click can launch a video on a device such as a smartphone or a tablet. A trusted person like a family member or carer can appear in the video to illustrate how to complete certain activities of interest to the end-user. The button can be placed anywhere where support is needed, e.g. on a washing machine or at the kitchen table. We conducted workshops and online discussions with social and healthcare organizations, potential end-users (people with learning disabilities and older adults), and their carers. The results show that our solution has the potential to support individuals with complex needs, improve independence, and increase their quality of life, by giving simple access to helpful instructions in their daily life.
The Quirks of Being a Wallflower: Towards Defining Lurkers and Loners in Games Through A Systematic Literature Review

Research support that online multiplayer games build social capital and contribute to people’s well-being. Players build meaningful, strong relationships through games, resulting in complex communities, similar to traditional Online Social Networks (OSNs). In OSNs, the vast majority of the population consists of invisible users consuming content rather than actively engaging with the community: lurkers. While lurkers have been well-researched in OSNs, they have been under-investigated in games. In games, their behaviour may limit the social potential a game provides. Besides the big knowledge gap concerning lurkers in multiplayer environments, it is also yet unclear how lurkers differ from another class of non-social players: loners. In this work, we review and analyze the Games User Research (GUR) literature to understand (a) how lurkers and loners are defined in games and (b) which characteristics they exhibit. Our contributions are definitions of lurkers and loners in games and a future research agenda outlining opportunities to study them.
Decolonizing HCI Across Borders

The HCI Across Borders (HCIxB) community has been growing in recent years, starting with the Development Consortium at CHI 2016 and the HCIxB Symposia at CHI since. This year, we intend to hold an HCIxB workshop that aims to foster the scholarship potential of student and early career HCIxB researchers across the world, particularly those from and in the Global South, engaging on the topic of decoloniality. Through this symposium, we aim to create space for discussions that have been emerging in pockets of the HCI community, but could benefit from greater focus and attention in the interest of demarginalizing members and research areas of the community that have thus far remained on the margins of the discipline. We expect this virtual workshop at CHI 2021 to be an inaugural session for a series of virtual events that will help continue this conversation on decolonizing HCI’s borders.
A Critique of Electrodermal Activity Practices at CHI

Electrodermal activity data is widely used in HCI to capture rich and unbiased signals. Results from related fields, however, have suggested several methodological issues that can arise when practices do not follow established standards. In this paper, we present a systematic methodological review of CHI papers involving the use of EDA data according to best practices from the field of psychophysiology, where standards are well-established and mature. We found severe issues in our sample at all stages of the research process. To ensure the validity of future research, we highlight pitfalls and offer directions for how to improve community standards.
Social Support is Contagious: Exploring the Effect of Social Support in Online Mental Health Communities

It is known that social support is beneficial for mental health. With the development of social media, social support could also influence the development of online mental health communities. However, few studies examined these effects from the perspective of online mental health communities. This study focused on 22 mental health related subreddits and conducted causal analysis by matching and comparing users (1) who received social support with who did not receive social support; (2) who received positive social support with who received negative social support. The results shows that social support is “contagious”: users who received social support on their first post would be more likely and quickly to post again and provide support for others; users who received positive support would also provide more positive social support for others in the future. Our findings indicate the potential chain reaction of social support. This study also provides insights into how online mental health communities can better facilitate people to spread social support and deal with mental problems.
SAFRANAL AMELIORATES SODIUM VALPROATE-INDUCED LIVER TOXICITY IN RATS BY TARGETING GENE EXPRESSION, OXIDATIVE STRESS AND APOPTOSIS.

Sodium valproate (VPA) is a potentially hepatotoxic antiepileptic drug. Safranal(SAF), an essential oil derived from saffron, possesses a potent antioxidant, anti-apoptotic and anticancer properties. The current study aimed to investigate the protective effect and underlying mechanisms of SAF on the hepatotoxicity induced by VPA. SAF at the dose of 25 mg/kg was orally administered prior to VPA treatment (500 mg/kg) to rats once daily for 14 consecutive days. SAF treatment attenuated VPA-induced liver dysfunction, structural damage, hepatic ATP depletion and reduction in total antioxidant content. Moreover, SAF attenuated VPA-induced elevation in hepatic oxidant contents and lipid peroxidation. These effects were accompanied by a significant increase in gene expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A, fibroblast growth factor 21, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma 1, cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) and heme oxygenase 1. SAF combat these effects especially in the group of rats treated VPA plus SAF. Furthermore, VPA provoked apoptotic responses evidenced by increasing protein expression of Bax and caspases-3. SAF pretreatment significantly ameliorated these apoptotic signals indicating its anti-apoptotic actions. SAF attenuates VPA-induced liver injury through decreasing the expression CYP2E1 with consequently, alleviation of oxidative stress and apoptotic signals as well as depletions of ATP. Keywords: Liver damage, Safranal, Sodium valproate, Oxidative stress, Apoptosis.
Deaf Users’ Preferences Among Wake-Up Approaches during Sign-Language Interaction with Personal Assistant Devices

Personal-assistant devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are increasingly popular among consumers. Users activate these systems through some type of wake-up approach, e.g. using a wake-word “Alexa” or “Ok, Google. ” Voice-based interaction poses accessibility barriers for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) users, and technologies for sign-language recognition are improving. We therefore explore wake-up interactions for DHH users for potential personal assistant devices that understand sign language commands. Interviews with DHH users (N=21) motivated the design of six wake-up approaches, and we produced video prototypes demonstrating each using a Wizard-of-Oz approach. These prototypes were evaluated in a follow-up study in which DHH users (N=12) identified factors that influenced their preference among approaches. This study contributes empirical knowledge about DHH ASL signers’ preferences and concerns with wake-up interaction, thereby providing guidance for future designers of these systems.
Diagnosing Bias in the Gender Representation of HCI Research Participants: How it Happens and Where We Are

In human-computer interaction (HCI) studies, bias in the gender representation of participants can jeopardize the generalizability of findings, perpetuate bias in data driven practices, and make new technologies dangerous for underrepresented groups. Key to progress towards inclusive and equitable gender practices is diagnosing the current status of bias and identifying where it comes from. In this mixed-methods study, we interviewed 13 HCI researchers to identify the potential bias factors, defined a systematic data collection procedure for meta-analysis of participant gender data, and created a participant gender dataset from 1,147 CHI papers. Our analysis provided empirical evidence for the underrepresentation of women, the invisibility of non-binary participants, deteriorating representation of women in MTurk studies, and characteristics of research topics prone to bias. Based on these findings, we make concrete suggestions for promoting inclusive community culture and equitable research practices in HCI.
Towards Fairness in Practice: A Practitioner-Oriented Rubric for Evaluating Fair ML Toolkits

In order to support fairness-forward thinking by machine learning (ML) practitioners, fairness researchers have created toolkits that aim to transform state-of-the-art research contributions into easily-accessible APIs. Despite these efforts, recent research indicates a disconnect between the needs of practitioners and the tools offered by fairness research. By engaging 20 ML practitioners in a simulated scenario in which they utilize fairness toolkits to make critical decisions, this work aims to utilize practitioner feedback to inform recommendations for the design and creation of fair ML toolkits. Through the use of survey and interview data, our results indicate that though fair ML toolkits are incredibly impactful on users’ decision-making, there is much to be desired in the design and demonstration of fairness results. To support the future development and evaluation of toolkits, this work offers a rubric that can be used to identify critical components of Fair ML toolkits.
Blending into Everyday Life: Designing a Social Media-Based Peer Support System

Peer support through social media has been shown to have significant potential to improve health care outcomes. Despite this, very little is understood about how to design a social media-based peer support system. We use the model of unplatformed design to structure a multi-phase design process of a WhatsApp-based peer support system, with and for participants undergoing extreme weight loss as part of a health care intervention into diabetes management. From a mixed-methods evaluation of a three-month deployment of the system and reflections upon the design process we explore the value of the model in facilitating the expression of authentic peer support, and identify how the unique characteristics of unplatformed design allowed for the creation of a peer support system that was responsive to participants’ existing everyday use of social media technologies.
Augmented Reality Glasses as an Orientation and Mobility Aid for People with Low Vision: a Feasibility Study of Experiences and Requirements

People with low vision experience reduced mobility that affects their physical and mental wellbeing. With augmented reality (AR) glasses, there are new opportunities to provide visual and auditory information that can improve mobility for this vulnerable group. Current research into AR-based mobility aids has focused mainly on the technical aspects, and less emphasis has been placed on understanding the usability and suitability of these aids in people with various levels of visual impairment. In this paper, we present the results of qualitative interviews with 18 participants using HoloLens v1 and eight prototype augmentations to understand how these enhancements are perceived by people with low vision and how these aids should be adjusted to suit their needs. Our results suggested that participants with moderate vision loss could potentially perceive the most benefit from glasses and underlined the importance of extensive customizability to accommodate the needs of a highly varied low vision population.
KiTT - The Kinaesthetics Transfer Teacher: Design and Evaluation of a Tablet-based System to Promote the Learning of Ergonomic Patient Transfers

Nurses frequently transfer patients as part of their daily work. However, manual patient transfers pose a major risk to nurses’ health. Although the Kinaesthetics care conception can help address this issue, existing support to learn the concept is low. We present KiTT, a tablet-based system, to promote the learning of ergonomic patient transfers based on the Kinaesthetics care conception. KiTT supports the training of Kinaesthetics-based patient transfers by two nurses. The nurses are guided by the phases (i) interactive instructions, (ii) training of transfer conduct, and (iii) feedback and reflection. We evaluated KiTT with 26 nursing-care students in a nursing-care school. Our results indicate that KiTT provides a good subjective support for the learning of Kinaesthetics. Our results also suggest that KiTT can promote the ergonomically correct conduct of patient transfers while providing a good user experience adequate to the nursing-school context, and reveal how KiTT can extend existing practices.
Taking Mental Health & Well-Being to the Streets: An Exploratory Evaluation of In-Vehicle Interventions in the Wild

The increasing number of mental disorders worldwide calls for novel types of prevention measures. Given the number of commuters who spend a substantial amount of time on the road, the car offers an opportune environment. This paper presents the first in-vehicle intervention study affecting mental health and well-being on public roads. We designed and implemented two in-vehicle interventions based on proven psychotherapy interventions. Whereas the first intervention uses mindfulness exercises while driving, the second intervention induces positive emotions through music. Ten ordinary and healthy commuters completed 313 of these interventions on their daily drives over two months. We collected drivers’ immediate and post-driving feedback for each intervention and conducted interviews with the drivers after the end of the study. The results show that both interventions have improved drivers’ well-being. While the participants rated the music intervention very positively, the reception of the mindfulness intervention was more ambivalent.
Exploring Smartphone Relationships through Roland Barthes using an Instrumented Pillow Technology Probe

We examine a vocabulary of affective language, borrowed from Roland Barthes’ “A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments,” and its applicability to discourse describing smartphone attachment. This vocabulary, adopted from four of Barthes’ terms, waiting, dependency, anxiety, and absence, is used as a discursive lens to illustrate some of the many ways people understand and engage with their relationships to their smartphones. Based on this, a survey is conducted, and a speculative technology probe is created in the form of an instrumented pillow for people to lock away their smartphones during the night. The pillow is deployed in a diary study in which five people sleep with their phone locked away for multiple nights. The self-reported and observed behaviours are presented in a selection of vignettes. The results support the proposed discursive lens and suggest future interdisciplinary strategies to investigate how people relate to interactive technology, using a combined approach of literary theory and a technology probe supported by survey and study data.
Tailoring Persuasive and Behaviour Change Systems Based on Stages of Change and Motivation

Persuasive systems (PS) are effective at motivating behaviour change using various persuasive strategies. Research shows that tailoring these systems increases their effectiveness. However, there is little knowledge on how PS can be tailored to people's Stages of Change (SoC). We conduct a large-scale study of 568 participants to investigate how individuals at different SoC respond to various strategies. We also explore why the strategies motivate behaviour change using the ARCS motivation model. Our results show that people's SoC plays a significant role in the perceived persuasiveness of different strategies and that the strategies motivate for different reasons. For instance, people at the precontemplation stage tend to be strongly motivated by self-monitoring strategy because it raises their consciousness or self-awareness. Our work is the first to link research on the theory of SoC with the theory of motivation and Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model to develop practical guidelines to inform the tailoring of persuasive systems.
Exploring A Reporting Tool to Empower Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to Self-Report Abuse

In the US, abuse of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) is at epidemic proportions. Further, abuse incidents of individuals with I/DD are woefully under-reported. We surveyed practitioners who help individuals with I/DD post-abuse to get a broader context on the problem. We found that abuse of individuals with I/DD was often reported by someone other than the survivor, as survivors faced impediments in reporting. Consequently, we argue for developing a mobile-computing-based reporting tool for empowering individuals with I/DD to self-report abuse. Next, we conducted focus groups of individuals with I/DD to evaluate the tool’s viability, with respect to their ability to recognize/report abuse and use mobile-computing devices. We found individuals with I/DD could recognize/report abuse well when they received appropriate training. We also found individuals with I/DD could independently use their devices, though they shared access to them with family. Based on these findings, we call for several lines of accessibility research in designing an abuse self-reporting tool for individuals with I/DD.