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Technological objects present themselves as necessary, only to become obsolete faster than ever before. This phenomenon has led to a population that experiences a plethora of technological objects and interfaces as they age, which become associated with certain stages of life and disappear thereafter. Noting the expanding body of literature within HCI about appropriation, our work pinpoints an area that needs more attention, “outdated technologies.” In other words, we assert that design practices can profit as much from imaginaries of the future as they can from reassessing artefacts from the past in a critical way. In a two-week fieldwork with 37 HCI students, we gathered an international collection of nostalgic devices from 14 different countries to investigate what memories people still have of older technologies and the ways in which these memories reveal normative and accidental use of technological objects. We found that participants primarily remembered older technologies with positive connotations and shared memories of how they had adapted and appropriated these technologies, rather than normative uses. We refer to this phenomenon as nostalgic reminiscence. In the future, we would like to develop this concept further by discussing how nostalgic reminiscence can be operationalized to stimulate speculative design in the present.
New cars are increasingly "connected" by default. Since not having a car is not an option for many people, understanding the privacy implications of driving connected cars and using their data-based services is an even more pressing issue than for expendable consumer products. While risk-based approaches to privacy are well established in law, they have only begun to gain traction in HCI. These approaches are understood not only to increase acceptance but also to help consumers make choices that meet their needs. To the best of our knowledge, perceived risks in the context of connected cars have not been studied before. To address this gap, our study reports on the analysis of a survey with 18 open-ended questions distributed to 1,000 households in a medium-sized German city. Our findings provide qualitative insights into existing attitudes and use cases of connected car features and, most importantly, a list of perceived risks themselves. Taking the perspective of consumers, we argue that these can help inform consumers about data use in connected cars in a user-friendly way. Finally, we show how these risks fit into and extend existing risk taxonomies from other contexts with a stronger social perspective on risks of data use.
When dialogues with voice assistants (VAs) fall apart, users often become confused or even frustrated. To address these issues and related privacy concerns, Amazon recently introduced a feature allowing Alexa users to inquire about why it behaved in a certain way. But how do users perceive this new feature? In this paper, we present preliminary results from research conducted as part of a three-year project involving 33 German households. This project utilized interviews, fieldwork, and co-design workshops to identify common unexpected behaviors of VAs, as well as users’ needs and expectations for explanations. Our findings show that, contrary to its intended purpose, the new feature actually exacerbates user confusion and frustration instead of clarifying Alexa's behavior. We argue that such voice interactions should be characterized as explanatory dialogs that account for VA’s unexpected behavior by providing interpretable information and prompting users to take action to improve their current and future interactions.
Since stationary self-checkout is widely introduced and well understood, previous research barely examined newer generations of smartphone-based Scan&Go. Especially from a design perspective, we know little about the factors contributing to the adoption of Scan&Go solutions and how design enables consumers to take full advantage of this development rather than being burdened with using complex and unenjoyable systems. To understand the influencing factors and the design from a consumer perspective, we conducted a mixed-methods study where we triangulated data of an online survey with 103 participants and a qualitative study with 20 participants. Based on the results, our study presents a refined and nuanced understanding of technology as well as infrastructure-related factors that influence adoption. Moreover, we present several implications for designing and implementing of Scan&Go in retail environments.
Reducing energy consumption is one of the most pursued economic and ecologic challenges concerning societies as a whole, individuals and organizations alike. While politics start taking measures for energy turnaround and smart home energy monitors are becoming popular, few studies have touched on sustainability in office environments so far, though they account for almost every second workplace in modern economics. In this paper, we present findings of two parallel studies in an organizational context using behavioral change oriented strategies to raise energy awareness. Next to demonstrating potentials, it shows that energy feedback needs must fit to the local organizational context to succeed and should consider typical work patterns to foster accountability of consumption.
Reducing energy consumption is one of the most pursued economic and ecologic challenges concerning societies as a whole, individuals and organizations alike. While politics start taking measures for energy turnaround and smart home energy monitors are becoming popular, few studies have touched on sustainability in office environments so far, though they account for almost every second workplace in modern economics. In this paper, we present findings of two parallel studies in an organizational context using behavioral change oriented strategies to raise energy awareness. Next to demonstrating potentials, it shows that energy feedback needs must fit to the local organizational context to succeed and should consider typical work patterns to foster accountability of consumption.
Frequently the main purpose of domestic artifacts equipped with smart sensors is to hide technology, like previous examples of a Smart Mirror show. However, current Smart Homes often fail to provide meaningful IoT applications for all residents’ needs. To design beyond efficiency and productivity, we propose to realize the potential of the traditional artifact for calm and engaging experiences. Therefore, we followed a design case study approach with 22 participants in total. After an initial focus group, we conducted a diary study to examine home routines and developed a conceptual design. The evaluation of our mid-fidelity prototype shows, that we need to study carefully the practices of the residents to leverage the physical material of the artifact to fit the routines. Our Smart Mirror, enhanced by digital qualities, supports meaningful activities and makes the bathroom more appealing. Thereby, we discuss domestic technology design beyond automation.
Recent publications propose concepts of systems that integrate the various services and data sources of everyday food practices. However, this research does not go beyond the conceptualization of such systems. Therefore, there is a deficit in understanding how to combine different services and data sources and which design challenges arise from building integrated Household Information Systems. In this paper, we probed the design of an Integrated Household Information System with 13 participants. The results point towards more personalization, automatization of storage administration and enabling flexible artifact ecologies. Our paper contributes to understanding the design and usage of Integrated Household Information Systems, as a new class of information systems for HCI research.
Smart home systems change the way we experience the home. While there are established research fields within HCI for visualizing specific use cases of a smart home, studies targeting user demands on visualizations spanning across multiple use cases are rare. Especially, individual data-related demands pose a challenge for usable visualizations. To investigate potentials of an end-user development (EUD) approach for flexibly supporting such demands, we developed a smart home system featuring both pre-defined visualizations and a visualization creation tool. To evaluate our concept, we installed our prototype in 12 households as part of a Living Lab study. Results are based on three interview studies, a design workshop and system log data. We identified eight overarching interests in home data and show how participants used pre-defined visualizations to get an overview and the creation tool to not only address specific use cases but also to answer questions by creating temporary visualizations.
Taste is a complex phenomenon that depends on the individual experience and is a matter of collective negotiation and mediation. On the contrary, it is uncommon to include taste and its many facets in everyday design, particularly online shopping for fresh food products. To realize this unused potential, we conducted two Co-Design workshops. Based on the participants’ results in the workshops, we prototyped and evaluated a click-dummy smart-phone app to explore consumers’ needs for digital taste depiction. We found that emphasizing the natural qualities of food products, external reviews, and personalizing features lead to a reflection on the individual taste experience. The self-reflection through our design enables consumers to develop their taste competencies and thus strengthen their autonomy in decision-making. Ultimately, exploring taste as a social experience adds to a broader understanding of taste beyond a sensory phenomenon.
So far, sustainable HCI has mainly focused on the domestic context, but there is a growing body of work looking at the organizational context. As in the domestic context, these works still rest on psychological theories for behaviour change used for the domestic context. We supplement this view with an organizational theory-informed approach that adopts organizational roles as a key element. We will show how a role-based analysis could be applied to uncover information needs and to give em-ployee’s eco-feedback, which is linked to their tasks at hand. We illustrate the approach on a qualitative case study that was part of a broader, ongoing action research conducted in a German production company.
Focus on what matters: improved feature selection techniques for personal thermal comfort modelling
(2022)
Occupants' personal thermal comfort (PTC) is indispensable for their well-being, physical and mental health, and work efficiency. Predicting PTC preferences in a smart home can be a prerequisite to adjusting the indoor temperature for providing a comfortable environment. In this research, we focus on identifying relevant features for predicting PTC preferences. We propose a machine learning-based predictive framework by employing supervised feature selection techniques. We apply two feature selection techniques to select the optimal sets of features to improve the thermal preference prediction performance. The experimental results on a public PTC dataset demonstrated the efficiency of the feature selection techniques that we have applied. In turn, our PTC prediction framework with feature selection techniques achieved state-of-the-art performance in terms of accuracy, Cohen's kappa, and area under the curve (AUC), outperforming conventional methods.
Critical consumerism is complex as ethical values are difficult to negotiate, appropriate products are hard to find, and product information is overwhelming. Although recommender systems offer solutions to reduce such complexity, current designs are not appropriate for niche practices and use non-personalized intransparent ethics. To support critical consumption, we conducted a design case study on a personalized food recommender system. Therefore, we first conducted an empirical pre-study with 24 consumers to understand value negotiations and current practices, co-designed the recommender system, and finally evaluated it in a real-world trial with ten consumers. Our findings show how recommender systems can support the negotiation of ethical values within the context of consumption practices, reduce the complexity of finding products and stores, and strengthen consumers. In addition to providing implications for the design to support critical consumption practices, we critically reflect on the scope of such recommender systems and its appropriation.
In 1991 the researchers at the center for the Learning Sciences of Carnegie Mellon University were confronted with the confusing question of “where is AI” from the users, who were interacting with AI but did not realize it. Three decades of research and we are still facing the same issue with the AItechnology users. In the lack of users’ awareness and mutual understanding of AI-enabled systems between designers and users, informal theories of the users about how a system works (“Folk theories”) become inevitable but can lead to misconceptions and ineffective interactions. To shape appropriate mental models of AI-based systems, explainable AI has been suggested by AI practitioners. However, a profound understanding of the current users’ perception of AI is still missing. In this study, we introduce the term “Perceived AI” as “AI defined from the perspective of its users”. We then present our preliminary results from deep-interviews with 50 AItechnology users, which provide a framework for our future research approach towards a better understanding of PAI and users’ folk theories.
For most people, using their body to authenticate their identity is an integral part of daily life. From our fingerprints to our facial features, our physical characteristics store the information that identifies us as "us." This biometric information is becoming increasingly vital to the way we access and use technology. As more and more platform operators struggle with traffic from malicious bots on their servers, the burden of proof is on users, only this time they have to prove their very humanity and there is no court or jury to judge, but an invisible algorithmic system. In this paper, we critique the invisibilization of artificial intelligence policing. We argue that this practice obfuscates the underlying process of biometric verification. As a result, the new "invisible" tests leave no room for the user to question whether the process of questioning is even fair or ethical. We challenge this thesis by offering a juxtaposition with the science fiction imagining of the Turing test in Blade Runner to reevaluate the ethical grounds for reverse Turing tests, and we urge the research community to pursue alternative routes of bot identification that are more transparent and responsive.
Smart home systems are becoming an integral feature of the emerging home IT market. Under this general term, products mainly address issues of security, energy savings and comfort. Comprehensive systems that cover several use cases are typically operated and managed via a unified dashboard. Unfortunately, research targeting user experience (UX) design for smart home interaction that spans several use cases or covering the entire system is scarce. Furthermore, existing comprehensive and user-centered longterm studies on challenges and needs throughout phases of information collection, installation and operation of smart home systems are technologically outdated. Our 18-month Living Lab study covering 14 households equipped with smart home technology provides insights on how to design for improving smart home appropriation. This includes a stronger sensibility for household practices during setup and configuration, flexible visualizations for evolving demands and an extension of smart home beyond the location.
Autonomous driving enables new mobility concepts such as shared-autonomous services. Although significant re-search has been done on passenger-car interaction, work on passenger interaction with robo-taxis is still rare. In this paper, we tackle the question of how passengers experience robo-taxis as a service in real-life settings to inform the interaction design. We conducted a Wizard of Oz study with an electric vehicle where the driver was hidden from the passenger to simulate the service experience of a robo-taxi. 10 participants had the opportunity to use the simulated shared-autonomous service in real-life situations for one week. By the week's end, 33 rides were completed and recorded on video. Also, we flanked the study conducting interviews before and after with all participants. The findings provided insights into four design themes that could inform the service design of robo-taxis along the different stages including hailing, pick-up, travel, and drop-off.
Exploring Future Work - Co-Designing a Human-robot Collaboration Environment for Service Domains
(2020)
There has been increasing interest in the application of humanoid robots in service domains like retail or care homes in recent years. Here, most use cases focus on serving customer needs autonomously. Frequently, human intervention becomes necessary to support the robot in exceptional situations. However, direct intervention of service operators is often not possible and requires specialized personnel. In a co-design process with 13 service operators from a pharmacy, we designed a remote working environment for human-robot collaboration that enables first-time experiences and collaboration with robots. Five participants took part in an assessment study and reported on their experiences about the utility, usability and user experience. Results show that participants were able to control and train the robot through the remote control environment. We discuss implications of our results for future work in service domains and emphasize a shift of focus from full robot automatization to human-robot collaboration forms.
The alternative use of travel time is one of the widely discussed benefits of driverless cars. We therefore conducted 14 co-design sessions to examine how people manage their time, to determine how they perceive the value of time in driverless cars and to derive design implications. Our findings suggest that driverless mobility will affect both people’s use of travel time as well as their time management in general. The participants repeatedly stated the desire of completing tasks while traveling to save time for activities that are normally neglected in their everyday life. Using travel time efficiently requires using car space efficiently, too. We found out that the design concept of tiny houses could serve as common design pattern to deal with the limited space within cars and support diverse needs.