Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selling Glossy, Easy Futures: A Feminist Exploration of Commercial Mental-Health-focused Self-Care Apps’ Descriptions in the Google Play Store

Self-care apps offer a wide variety of different therapy paradigms, pedagogies and concepts for people to maintain and make sense of their mental health. However, as human-made artefacts, these apps are being imbued with their designers’ interests, opinions, biases and assumptions about self-care. This paper is interested in making these (often) implicit notions visible. After selecting 69 apps from the Google Play Store, we use Feminist Content Analysis to investigate the store descriptions of these apps: Inductively through thematic analysis and deductively through charting concepts found within the descriptions. Our findings indicate that commercial self-care apps portray themselves as “future creating” tools for individual self-discovery, but they also create narratives that propagate an overly simplistic, individualistic and potentially harmful view of mental distress. We conclude this paper by sketching out alternative design considerations for how self-care apps can portray themselves and communicate in a more transparent, plurality-embracing fashion.
VirtualLadder: Using Interactive Projections for Agility Ladder Training

Agility is the ability to change your body’s position in a fast and efficient way while maintaining control of speed and direction. To develop this skill, the use of agility ladders is a widespread and well-known training method. While drills vary, having a human expert explaining and monitoring the exercises is usually advantageous. So far, only a few approaches to interactive systems for agility ladder training have been presented. In this work, we propose an interactive projection system to support an athlete in performing those drills. To investigate the effects of the location of those projections, we conducted an initial study with twelve participants using qualitative and quantitative methods. We found that while projecting instructions and feedback on the floor was favored, participants who were presented the same information in front of them on a projected screen partially performed better in a subsequent agility assessment.
Unpacking “Boardgames with Apps”: The Hybrid Digital Boardgame Model

Increasingly, modern boardgames incorporate digital apps and tools to deliver content in novel ways. Despite disparate approaches to incorporating digital tools in otherwise non-digital boardgames, there has to date been no detailed classification of the different roles that these tools play in supporting gameplay. In this paper, we present a model for understanding hybrid boardgame play as performing a set of discrete functions. Through a mixed-methods approach incorporating critical play sessions, a survey of 237 boardgame players, and interviews with 18 boardgame designers and publishers, we identified the key functions performed by the digital tools in these games. Using affinity mapping, we grouped these functions into eight core categories, which were tested and refined using a survey of 44 boardgame players and designers. This model defines and classifies the diverse functions that digital tools perform in hybrid digital boardgames, demonstrating their range and potential application for researchers and game designers.
Comparison of Different Types of Augmented Reality Visualizations for Instructions

Augmented Reality (AR) is increasingly being used for providing guidance and supporting troubleshooting in industrial settings. While the general application of AR has been shown to provide clear benefits regarding physical tasks, it is important to understand how different visualization types influence user’s performance during the execution of the tasks. Previous studies evaluating AR and user’s performance compared different media types or types of AR hardware as opposed to different types of visualization for the same hardware type. This paper provides details of our comparative study in which we identified the influence of visualization types on the performance of complex machine set-up processes. Although our results show clear advantages to using concrete rather than abstract visualizations, we also find abstract visualizations coupled with videos leads to similar user performance as with concrete visualizations.
“I Got Some Free Time”: Investigating Task-execution and Task-effort Metrics in Mobile Crowdsourcing Tasks

Using a mixed-methods approach over six weeks, we studied 30 smartphone users’ task choices, task execution and effort devoted to two commercial mobile crowdsourcing platforms in the wild. We focused on the influence of activity contexts, characterized by breakpoint situations and activity attributes. In line with their stated preferences, the participants were more likely to proactively perform mobile crowdsourcing tasks during transitions between activities than during an ongoing activity and during long breaks, respectively. Their task choices were influenced by various activity attributes, and more impacted by their current and preceding activities than their upcoming ones. Two of our three target outcomes, task execution and task choice, were also influenced by individuals’ stress and energy levels. Our qualitative data provide further insights into participants’ decisions about which crowdsourcing tasks to perform and when; and our results’ implications for the design of future mobile crowdsourcing task-prompting mechanisms are also discussed.
ThermoCaress: A Wearable Haptic Device with Illusory Moving Thermal Stimulation

We propose ThermoCaress, a haptic device to create a stroking sensation on the forearm using pressure force and present thermal feedback simultaneously. In our method, based on the phenomenon of thermal referral, by overlapping a stroke of pressure force, users feel as if the thermal stimulation moves although the position of temperature source is static. We designed the device to be compact and soft, using microblowers and inflatable pouches for presenting pressure force and water for presenting thermal feedback. Our user study showed that the device succeeded in generating thermal referrals and creating a moving thermal illusion. The results also suggested that cold temperature enhance the pleasantness of stroking. Our findings contribute to expanding the potential of thermal haptic devices.
IM Receptivity and Presentation-type Preferences among Users of a Mobile App with Automated Receptivity-status Adjustment

Researchers have long attempted to estimate instant-messaging (IM) users’ attentiveness, responsiveness, and interruptibility. Yet, IM users’ self-presentation of their receptivity, and their perceptions of automated adjustment/revelation of their receptivity status (e.g., Facebook Messenger’s green dot that deems a user to be “active”), remain under-explored. We therefore told our 43 participants that our IM app, IMStatus, was capable of automatically estimating and adjusting their receptivity status to responsive, attentive, or interruptible based on their smartphone activity. These statuses were also presented to their IM contacts in three different styles. Over a two-week period, the participants rarely chose the status interruptible, and when they did, it was usually to indicate low availability. Textual presentation was usually chosen to express statuses precisely, especially at high and low extremes of receptivity; while graphical and numeric presentations were preferred when self-perceived receptivity levels were more ambiguous. Conflicts between recipients’ and senders’ perspectives are also discussed.
Armstrong: An Empirical Examination of Pointing at Non-Dominant Arm-Anchored UIs in Virtual Reality

In virtual reality (VR) environments, asymmetric bimanual interaction techniques can increase users’ input bandwidth by complementing their perceptual and motor systems (e.g., using the dominant hand to select 3D UI controls anchored around the non-dominant arm). However, it is unclear how to optimize the layout of such 3D UI controls for near-body and mid-air interactions. We evaluate the performance and limitations of non-dominant arm-anchored 3D UIs in VR environments through a bimanual pointing study. Results demonstrated that targets appearing closer to the skin, located around the wrist, or placed on the medial side of the forearm could be selected more quickly than targets farther away from the skin, located around the elbow, or on the lateral side of the forearm. Based on these results, we developed Armstrong guidelines, demonstrated through a Unity plugin to enable designers to create performance-optimized arm-anchored 3D UI layouts.
Design Heuristics for Artificial Intelligence: Inspirational Design Stimuli for Supporting UX Designers in Generating AI-Powered Ideas

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will provide novel User Experience (UX) solutions if UX designers understand how AI can be best utilized. They need to understand AI capabilities and envisage potential applications. To aid the ideation processes, design heuristics for AI are needed to support UX designers in the conceptual design stage. Forty design heuristics were extracted from 1,755 granted AI patents through a four-step process. The feasibility of the heuristics was verified with two AI-powered case studies: a smart canteen and an online smart shopping system. Case studies suggest that AI design heuristics can be used as design stimuli in the early conceptual design phase to support practitioners in exploring a larger design space for the generation of AI-powered ideas.
“I Might be Using His… But It is Also Mine!”: Ownership and Control in Accounts Designed for Sharing

A user's ownership perception of virtual objects, such as cloud files, is generally uncertain. Is this valid for streaming platforms featuring accounts designed for sharing (DS)? We observe sharing practices within DS accounts of streaming platforms and identify their ownership characteristics and unexpected complications through two mixed-method studies. Casual and Cost-splitting are the two sharing practices identified. The owner is the sole payer for the account in the former, whereas profile holders split the cost in the latter. We distinguish two types of ownership in each practice—Primary and Dual. In Primary ownership, the account owner has the power to allow others to use the account; in Dual ownership, Primary ownership appears in conjunction with joint ownership, notably displaying asymmetric ownership perceptions among users. Conflicts arise when the sharing agreements collapse. Therefore, we propose design recommendations that bridge ownership differences based on sharing practices of DS accounts.
Head-Worn Displays for Emergency Medical Services Staff: Properties of Prehospital Work, Use Cases, and Design Considerations

Head-worn displays (HWDs) offer their users high mobility, hands-free operation, and “see-what-I-see” features. In the prehospital environment, emergency medical services (EMS) staff could benefit from the unique characteristics of HWDs. We conducted a field study to analyze work practices of EMS staff and the potential of HWDs to support their activities. Based on our observations and the comments of EMS staff, we propose three use cases for HWDs in the prehospital environment. They are (1) enhanced communication between different care providers, (2) hands-free access to clinical monitoring and imaging, (3) and improved realism of training scenarios. We conclude with a set of design considerations and suggest that for the successful implementation of HWDs in EMS environments, researchers, designers, and clinical stakeholders should consider the harsh outdoor environment in which HWDs will be used, the extensive workload of staff, the complex collaboration performed, privacy requirements, and the high variability of work.
Crowdsourcing Design Guidance for Contextual Adaptation of Text Content in Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) can deliver engaging user experiences that seamlessly meld virtual content with the physical environment. However, building such experiences is challenging due to the developer’s inability to assess how uncontrolled deployment contexts may influence the user experience. To address this issue, we demonstrate a method for rapidly conducting AR experiments and real-world data collection in the user’s own physical environment using a privacy-conscious mobile web application. The approach leverages the large number of distinct user contexts accessible through crowdsourcing to efficiently source diverse context and perceptual preference data. The insights gathered through this method complement emerging design guidance and sample-limited lab-based studies. The utility of the method is illustrated by re-examining the design challenge of adapting AR text content to the user’s environment. Finally, we demonstrate how gathered design insight can be operationalized to provide adaptive text content functionality in an AR headset.
SIGHInt: Special Interest Group for Human-Computer Integration

Human-Computer Integration (HInt) is a growing paradigm within HCI which seeks to understand how humans can, and already are, merging with computational machines. HInt’s recent inception and evolution has seen much discussion in a variety of symposiums, workshops, and publications for HCI. This has enabled a democratized and decentralised emergence of its core concepts. While this has allowed for rapid growth in our understanding of HInt, there is some discrepancy in how the proponents of this movement might describe its principles, motivations, definitions, and ultimate goals, with many offshoot concepts of HInt beginning to emerge. SIGHint aims to provide a platform to facilitate high level discussion and collation of information between researchers and designers seeking to learn from and contribute to the development of Human-Computer Integration. It is our intention that through this SIG we may better understand how new and emerging, diverging ideas, and perspectives within Human-Computer Integration relate to each other, ultimately facilitating a mapping of the paradigm and a synthesis of its concepts.
A Case Study of User Experience Design in a Disrupted Context: Design and Development of a Vital Signs Self-monitoring System

We present a case study where we developed an interface for remote vital signs self-monitoring at a large-scale isolation facility for COVID-positive patients, under disrupted conditions. These conditions were: a lack of time, lack of access to end users, changing requirements, high risk of infection and supply chain limitations. We first describe the background of the development of the facility and the vital signs self-monitoring system. We use the 5 commonly prescribed activities of user experience design - Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test- to describe how our work as user experience designers was affected by these disrupted conditions. Finally, we recommend a focus on Empathy, Prototyping and Communication for user experience practitioners and educators, whose training may be needed in similarly mission-critical, time-constrained circumstances.
TiltChair: Manipulative Posture Guidance by Actively Inclining the Seat of an Office Chair

We propose TiltChair, an actuated office chair that physically manipulates the user’s posture by actively inclining the chair’s seat to address problems associated with prolonged sitting. The system controls the inclination angle and motion speed with the aim of achieving manipulative but unobtrusive posture guidance. To demonstrate its potential, we first built a prototype of TiltChair with a seat that could be tilted by pneumatic control. We then investigated the effects of the seat’s inclination angle and motions on task performance and overall sitting experience through two experiments. The results show that the inclination angle mainly affects the difficulty of maintaining one’s posture, while the motion speed affected the conspicuousness and subjective acceptability of the motion. However, these seating conditions did not affect objective task performance. Based on these results, we propose a design space for facilitating effective seat-inclination behavior using the three dimensions of angle, speed, and continuity. Furthermore, we discuss promising applications.
GamesBond: Bimanual Haptic Illusion of Physically Connected Objects for Immersive VR Using Grip Deformation

Virtual Reality experiences, such as games and simulations, typically support the usage of bimanual controllers to interact with virtual objects. To recreate the haptic sensation of holding objects of various shapes and behaviors with both hands, previous researchers have used mechanical linkages between the controllers that render adjustable stiffness. However, the linkage cannot quickly adapt to simulate dynamic objects, nor it can be removed to support free movements. This paper introduces GamesBond, a pair of 4-DoF controllers without physical linkage but capable to create the illusion of being connected as a single device, forming a virtual bond. The two controllers work together by dynamically displaying and physically rendering deformations of hand grips, and so allowing users to perceive a single connected object between the hands, such as a jumping rope. With a user study and various applications we show that GamesBond increases the realism, immersion, and enjoyment of bimanual interaction.
Bedtime Window: A Field Study Connecting Bedrooms of Long-Distance Couples Using a Slow Photo-Stream and Shared Real-Time Inking

We present a system for connecting partners in long-distance relationships in bedrooms and at bedtime, a space and time that most couples share. Unlike communications explicitly initiated by users, our system is always-on, staying in the background and enabling remote presence without constant use. We present findings from a field study in which the system was deployed into participants’ bedrooms. The system includes an automated photo-stream (rather than video), which was found to provide a balance between the feeling of presence and privacy, and to remove the pressure to communicate. The system also includes a real-time shared inking canvas with disappearing ink, which was found to provide a rich versatile medium allowing for new patterns of communication, live interventions, and collaborative drawing. Learnings from how our system balances privacy and remote connectedness may also have relevance for other domains such as remote healthcare and education.
The Effects of System Interpretation Errors on Learning New Input Mechanisms

Input mechanisms can produce noisy signals that computers must interpret, and this interpretation can misconstrue the user’s intention. Researchers have studied how interpretation errors can affect users’ task performance, but little is known about how these errors affect learning, and whether they help or hinder the transition to expertise. Previous findings suggest that increasing the user’s attention can facilitate learning, so frequent interpretation errors may increase attention and learning; alternatively, however, interpretation errors may negatively interfere with skill development. To explore these potentially important effects, we conducted studies where participants learned commands with various rates of artificially injected interpretation errors. Our results showed that higher rates of interpretation error led to worse memory retention, higher completion times, higher occurrences of user error (beyond those injected by the system), and greater perceived effort. These findings indicate that when input mechanisms must interpret the user’s input, interpretation errors cause problems for user learning.
It’s a Wrap: Toroidal Wrapping of Network Visualisations Supports Cluster Understanding Tasks

We explore network visualisation on a two-dimensional torus topology that continuously wraps when the viewport is panned. That is, links may be “wrapped” across the boundary, allowing additional spreading of node positions to reduce visual clutter. Recent work has investigated such pannable wrapped visualisations, finding them not worse than unwrapped drawings for small networks for path-following tasks. However, they did not evaluate larger networks nor did they consider whether torus-based layout might also better display high-level network structure like clusters. We offer two algorithms for improving toroidal layout that is completely autonomous and automatic panning of the viewport to minimiswe wrapping links. The resulting layouts afford fewer crossings, less stress, and greater cluster separation. In a study of 32 participants comparing performance in cluster understanding tasks, we find that toroidal visualisation offers significant benefits over standard unwrapped visualisation in terms of improvement in error by 62.7% and time by 32.3%.
Cody: An AI-Based System to Semi-Automate Coding for Qualitative Research

Qualitative research can produce a rich understanding of a phenomenon but requires an essential and strenuous data annotation process known as coding. Coding can be repetitive and time-consuming, particularly for large datasets. Existing AI-based approaches for partially automating coding, like supervised machine learning (ML) or explicit knowledge represented in code rules, require high technical literacy and lack transparency. Further, little is known about the interaction of researchers with AI-based coding assistance. We introduce Cody, an AI-based system that semi-automates coding through code rules and supervised ML. Cody supports researchers with interactively (re)defining code rules and uses ML to extend coding to unseen data. In two studies with qualitative researchers, we found that (1) code rules provide structure and transparency, (2) explanations are commonly desired but rarely used, (3) suggestions benefit coding quality rather than coding speed, increasing the intercoder reliability, calculated with Krippendorff’s Alpha, from 0.085 (MAXQDA) to 0.33 (Cody).
How Should I Improve the UI of My App?

UI (User Interface) is an essential factor influencing users’ perception of an app. However, it is hard for even professional designers to determine if the UI is good or not for end-users. Users’ feedback (e.g., user reviews in the Google Play) provides a way for app owners to understand how the users perceive the UI. In this article, we conduct an in-depth empirical study to analyze the UI issues of mobile apps. In particular, we analyze more than 3M UI-related reviews from 22,199 top free-to-download apps and 9,380 top non-free apps in the Google Play Store. By comparing the rating of UI-related reviews and other reviews of an app, we observe that UI-related reviews have lower ratings than other reviews. By manually analyzing a random sample of 1,447 UI-related reviews with a 95% confidence level and a 5% interval, we identify 17 UI-related issues types that belong to four categories (i.e., “Appearance,” “Interaction,” “Experience,” and “Others”). In these issue types, we find “Generic Review” is the most occurring one. “Comparative Review” and “Advertisement” are the most negative two UI issue types. Faced with these UI issues, we explore the patterns of interaction between app owners and users. We identify eight patterns of how app owners dialogue with users about UI issues by the review-response mechanism. We find “Apology or Appreciation” and “Information Request” are the most two frequent patterns. We find updating UI timely according to feedback is essential to satisfy users. Besides, app owners could also fix UI issues without updating UI, especially for issue types belonging to “Interaction” category. Our findings show that there exists a positive impact if app owners could actively interact with users to improve UI quality and boost users’ satisfactoriness about the UIs.