More than Human-Centred Design: CMU at DIS 2020

July 31, 2020

News

Like many other conferences this year, the 2020 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) was held virtually in July. The theme for the online event was "More than Human-Centered Design." 

ACM DIS is an interdisciplinary conference, encompassing all issues related to the design and deployment of interactive systems, such as design theory, methods, critical perspectives, experiences, artifacts, technologies, diverse application domains, and design for societal, cultural, economic, environmental, or political change.

Carnegie Mellon University researchers earned four Honorable Mention awards and had numerous works accepted.

Explore the CMU paper abstracts and pre-recorded presentations from DIS 2020 by clicking through the work in the accordion below.

 

"Exploring Hybrid Virtual-Physical Homes" -- Honorable Mention Award

Authors:

Lauren Herckis, Jessica Cao, Jacqui Fashimpaur, Anna Henson, Rachel Rodgers, Thomas W. Corbett, Jessica Hammer

Abstract:

There has been a great deal of research regarding the ways that people conceptualize and interact with places they call "home." This work has been extended to virtual reality primarily in the context of design tools. Here, we explore the idea of a hybrid virtual-physical home that uses virtual space to supplement an existing physical home. We identify variation in the spatial context of place attachment to homes. A user study (N = 25) revealed the expectations and needs these groups have for virtual home spaces, including security, familiarity, and community. We prototyped and playtested three virtual rooms, and identified design features that supported feelings of home. Finally, we present challenges to designing home-like VR environments that can shape future research in this area. As virtual reality grows increasingly accessible, these findings will inform the design of virtual spaces.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395561
 

Video:

 

"Robotic Futures: Learning about Personally-owned Agents through Performance" -- Honorable Mention Award

Authors:

Michal Luria, Judeth Oden Choi, Rachel Karp, John Zimmerman, Jodi Forlizzi

Abstract:

Agents that support spoken interaction (e.g., Amazon Echo) are designed for social spaces like the home, yet designers know little about how they should respond to social activity around them. We set out to reconsider current one-on-one interactions with agents, and explore the design space of future socially sophisticated agents. To do so, we use an iterative co-design process with designers and theatre experts to devise an immersive performance, "Robotic Futures." Theatre is a form of knowing through doing-by examining the interactions that persisted in the devising process and those that fell through, we conclude with a proposition for design considerations for future agents. Based on emerging research in this space, we focus on the characteristics of personally-owned agents in comparison to shared agents, and consider the roles and functions each introduce in their integration in the home.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395488
 

Video:

"Understanding How People Reason about Aesthetic Evaluations of Artificial Intelligence" -- Honorable Mention Award

Authors:

Changhoon Oh, Seonghyeon Kim, Jinhan Choi, Jinsu Eun, Soomin Kim, Juho Kim, Joonhwan Lee, Bongwon Suh

Abstract:

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are making remarkable achievements even in creative fields such as aesthetics. However, whether those outside the machine learning (ML) community can sufficiently interpret or agree with their results, especially in such highly subjective domains, is being questioned. In this paper, we try to understand how different user communities reason about AI algorithm results in subjective domains. We designed AI Mirror, a research probe that tells users the algorithmically predicted aesthetic scores of photographs. We conducted a user study of the system with 18 participants from three different groups: AI/ML experts, domain experts (photographers), and general public members. They performed tasks consisting of taking photos and reasoning about AI Mirror's prediction algorithm with think-aloud sessions, surveys, and interviews. The results showed the following: (1) Users understood the AI using their own group-specific expertise; (2) Users employed various strategies to close the gap between their judgments and AI predictions overtime; (3) The difference between users' thoughts and AI pre-dictions was negatively related with users' perceptions of the AI's interpretability and reasonability. We also discuss design considerations for AI-infused systems in subjective domains.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395430

Video:

"Crafting Everyday Resistance through Lightweight Design" -- Honorable Mention Award

Authors:

Sarah E Fox; Samantha Shorey; Franchesca Spektor; Daniela Rosner

Pictorial Abstract:

This pictorial examines the relationship between inquiry and activism within academic settings through the design of protest artifacts. Inspired by lineages of feminist print production, we illustrate our own process of creating simple acts of resistance through electronic posters and buttons. Naming these interventions "lightweight design interactions," we hold on to the ways design practice might work as modest, partial, and incremental shifts in the circumstances through which design futures unfold. Lightweight design interactions encourage us as design researchers to look beyond the bold creation of alternatives (new design artifacts) to the subtle nurturing of the circumstances that make alternatives possible.

Link to Pictorial: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395571

Video:

"Investigating Underdetermination Through Interactive Computational Handweaving"

Authors:

Lea Albaugh, Scott Hudson, Lining Yao, Laura Devendorf

Abstract:

Computational handweaving combines the repeatable precision of digital fabrication with relatively high production demands of the user: a weaver must be physically engaged with the system to enact a pattern, line by line, into a fabric. Rather than approaching co-presence and repetitive labor as a negative aspect of design, we look to current practices in procedural generation (most commonly used in game design and screen-based new media art) to understand how designers can create room for surprise and emergent phenomena within systems of precision and constraint. We developed three designs for blending real-time input with predetermined pattern features. These include: using camera imagery sampled at weaving time; a 1:1 scale tool for composing patterns on the loom; and a live "Twitch'' stream where spectators determine the woven pattern. We discuss how experiential qualities of the systems led to different balances of underdetermination in procedural generation as well as how such an approach might help us think beyond an artifact/experience dichotomy in fabrication.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395538

Video:

"'All Rise for the AI Director': Eliciting Possible Futures of Voice Technology through Story Completion"

Authors:

Julia Cambre, Samantha Reig, Queenie Kravitz, Chinmay Kulkarni

Abstract:

How might the capabilities of voice assistants several decades in the future shape human society? To anticipate the space of possible futures for voice assistants, we asked 149 participants to each complete a story based on a brief story stem set in the year 2050 in one of five different contexts: the home, doctor's office, school, workplace, and public transit. Story completion as a method elicits participants' visions of possible futures, unconstrained by their understanding of current technological capabilities, but still reflective of current sociocultural values. Through a thematic analysis, we find these stories reveal the extremes of the capabilities and concerns of today's voice assistants---and artificial intelligence---such as improving efficiency and offering instantaneous support, but also replacing human jobs, eroding human agency, and causing harm through malfunction. We conclude by discussing how these speculative visions might inform and inspire the design of voice assistants and other artificial intelligence.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395479

"Hacked Time: Design and Evaluation of a Self-Efficacy Based Cybersecurity Game"

Authors:

Tianying Chen, Margot Stewart, Zhiyu Bai, Eileen Chen, Laura Dabbish, Jessica Hammer

Abstract:

A major reason why people don't use security tools online is that they perceive them as difficult and challenging, resulting in the lack of self-efficacy. Previous research has looked at improving user security attitude and practices through a variety of interventions, including transformational games. These games, targeted at improving security attitude and promoting change through gameplay, offer a new perspective on cybersecurity education. In this research we present the design and evaluation of Hacked Time, a desktop game that uses an integrative approach that incorporates Bandura's self-efficacy design framework to improve player self-efficacy. Using a randomized control trial (n=178), we demonstrate that our game is effective in improving player's security attitude and self-efficacy for using cybersecurity tools. We discuss how our design pattern can serve as an exemplar to enhance player self-efficacy in other fields.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395522

Video:

"Cultivating Material Knowledge: Experiments with a Low Cost Interface for 3D Texture Scanning"

Authors:

Wei Wei Chi, Daragh Byrne

Abstract:

Inspired by the Bauhaus material sensory training, we examine the role that texture plays in contemporary design workflows. To do this, we prepare a prototype texture scanning device that allows near real-time sampling of physical textures at microscopic scale. Its implementation as a low-cost, portable, open-source device is first described. Next and through this tool, we examine the value and opportunities created by incorporating 3D textures into design workflows. To do this, we present a series of case studies of scanned materials, and discuss the fidelity of the textures produced, and its rendering of materiality. This explores both typical (wood, fibers) and atypical (bioplastics, state changes) materials. Additionally, three expert users examine these cases and reflect on potential opportunities for material inquiry enabled by this tool. Finally, we discuss how this tool might augment design processes and reintroduce material sensibility training, similar to that of the Bauhaus sensory training.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395579

"Moving for the Movement: Applying Viewpoints and Composition Techniques to the Design of Online Social Justice Campaigns"

Authors:

Judeth Oden Choi, Jessica Hammer, Jon Royal, Jodi Forlizzi

Abstract:

By leveraging approaches from other disciplines, designers can expand the boundaries of interaction design to tackle complex socio-technical problems. To address the challenges of networked social justice movements, we developed a workshop for designers and social justice activists based in Viewpoints and Composition, a philosophy and set of techniques for the theatre. Building on other experience prototyping and somatic methods, the workshop leads participants through the design of a hypothetical internet-enabled social justice campaign, encouraging them to imagine the felt-experience of networked social justice movement building in a socio-spatial context. We conclude with insights from the workshop and plans to further develop these techniques.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395435

Video:

"Designing Interactive Scaffolds to Encourage Reflection on Peer Feedback"

Authors:

Amy Cook, Steven Dow, Jessica Hammer

Abstract:

Feedback is a key element of project-based learning, but only if students reflect on and learn from the feedback they receive. Students often struggle to deeply engage with feedback, whether due to lack of confidence, time, or skill. This work seeks to identify challenges that make reflecting on feedback difficult for students, and to design possible solutions for supporting reflection. Through observing two university game design courses, our research found that without concrete reflection strategies, students tended to be attracted to feedback that looks useful, but does not necessarily them move forward. When we introduced three different reflection scaffolds to support students, we found that the most effective approach promoted interactive learning by allowing time for self-reflection before team reflection, offering time limits, providing activities for feedback prioritization, helping teams align their goals, and equalizing team member participation. We present design guidelines for future systems to support reflection on feedback.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395480

Video:

"Replay Enactments: Exploring Possible Futures through Historical Data"

Authors:

Kenneth Holstein, Erik Harpstead, Rebecca Gulotta, Jodi Forlizzi

Abstract:

As we design increasingly complex systems, we run up against fundamental limitations of human imagination. To support practice, it becomes essential to use authentic data and algorithms as design materials to augment designers' intuitions. Recent work has explored some dimensions of using data as a design material, suggesting the contours of a new space of design and prototyping methods. In this paper, we present Replay Enactments (REs, an extension of the User Enactments methods that uses data replay as a boundary object, making complex system behavior tangible to designers and stakeholders. We reflect on a set of case studies that have instantiated REs in diverse ways and discuss trade-offs between different ways of using data replays in design. We conclude by highlighting opportunities and challenges for future work.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395427

"Sleep Ecologies: Tools for Snoozy Autoethnography"

Authors:

Dan Lockton, Tammar Zea-Wolfson, Jackie Chou, Yuhan Song, Erin Ryan, CJ Walsh

Abstract:

Autoethnographic and other first-person research methods are a topic of increasing interest in design and HCI. This focus parallels the boom in self-tracking and personal informatics, perhaps most intriguingly in the intersection of quantitative and qualitative data and the noticing of patterns in one's own life and everyday wellbeing. But how can design support this? One opportunity is for research probes, or tools, which enable forms of self-inquiry, by design researchers themselves, or others. In this paper-with the broad scope of healthier student sleep as a domain-we present a series of artifacts designed by undergraduates as tools to enable autoethnographic exploration, and detail how they have been used to investigate bedtime routines, personal scheduling of time, focus, sleep data, and sleeping in non-traditional places. We also reflect on the notion of combination autoethnographic 'kits' as a way forward for forms of self-inquiry.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395482

Video:

"Using Remote Controlled Speech Agents to Explore Music Experience in Context"

Authors:

Nikolas Martelaro, Sarah Mennicken, Jennifer Thom, Henriette Cramer, Wendy Ju

Abstract:

It can be difficult for user researchers to explore how people might interact with interactive systems in everyday contexts; time and space limitations make it hard to be present everywhere that technology is used. Digital music services are one domain where designing for context is important given the myriad places people listen to music. One novel method to help design researchers embed themselves in everyday contexts is through remote-controlled speech agents. This paper describes a practitioner-centered case study of music service interaction researchers using a remote-controlled speech agent, called DJ Bot, to explore people's music interaction in the car and the home. DJ Bot allowed the team to conduct remote user research and contextual inquiry and to quickly explore new interactions. However, challenges using a remote speech-agent arose when adapting DJ Bot from the constrained environment of the car to the unconstrained home environment.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395440

Video:

"Understanding and Supporting Knowledge Decomposition for Machine Teaching"

Authors:

Felicia Ng, Jina Suh, Gonzalo Ramos

Abstract:

Machine teaching (MT) is an emerging field that studies non-machine learning (ML) experts incrementally building semantic ML models in efficient ways. While MT focuses on the types of knowledge a human teacher provides a machine learner, not much is known about how people perform or can be supported in this essential task of identifying and expressing useful knowledge. We refer to this process as knowledge decomposition. To address the challenges of this type of Human-AI collaboration, we seek to build foundational frameworks for understanding and supporting knowledge decomposition. We present results of a study investigating what types of knowledge people teach, what cognitive processes they use, and what challenges they encounter when teaching a learner to classify text documents. From our observations, we introduce design opportunities for new tools to support knowledge decomposition. Our findings carry implications for applying the benefits of knowledge decomposition to MT and ML.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395454

Video:

"Keeping Designers in the Loop: Communicating Inherent Algorithmic Trade-offs Across Multiple Objectives"

Authors:

Bowen Yu, Ye Yuan, Loren Terveen, Zhiwei Steven Wu, Jodi Forlizzi, Haiyi Zhu

Abstract:

Artificial intelligence algorithms have been used to enhance a wide variety of products and services, including assisting human decision making in high-stake contexts. However, these algorithms are complex and have trade-offs, notably between prediction accuracy and fairness to population subgroups. This makes it hard for designers to understand algorithms and design products or services in a way that respects users' goals, values, and needs. We proposed a method to help designers and users explore algorithms, visualize their trade-offs, and select algorithms with trade-offs consistent with their goals and needs. We evaluated our method on the problem of predicting criminal defendants' likelihood to re-offend through (i) a large-scale Amazon Mechanical Turk experiment, and (ii) in-depth interviews with domain experts. Our evaluations show that our method can help designers and users of these systems better understand and navigate algorithmic trade-offs. This paper contributes a new way of providing designers the ability to understand and control the outcomes of algorithmic systems they are creating.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357236.3395528

Video:

"Fictional, Interactive Narrative as a Foundation to Talk about Racism"

Authors:

Hilary Carey, Alexandra To, Jessica Hammer, Geoff Kaufman

Abstract:

As a means of exploring the design space for supporting individuals who have had personal experiences with racism, we developed a Participatory Design (PD) method, Foundational Fiction, that addresses some unique concerns with using traditional PD to explore deeply sensitive topics. Challenging the assumption that PD must begin with a solicitation of participants' real lived experiences, we instead created a fictional interactive narrative for participants to work from. In the preliminary analysis, we observe that the use of a shared fiction relieved participants of the requirement to disclose very personal experiences, but nonetheless established a group understanding of what makes racist experiences difficult and supported a generative conversation about how technology might ease these situations.

Link to provocation: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3393914.3395885

"Medieval Robots: The Role of Historical Automata in the Design of Future Robots"

Authors:

Michal Luria, Juliet Pusateri, Judeth Oden Choi, Reuben Aronson, Nur Yildirim, Molly Wright Steenson

Abstract:

In this work, we ask about the relevance of medieval automata in modern culture, and about what we can learn from imagined robots in the distant past about the future design of robots. Using an iterative and critical making process, we plan to reconstruct "The Alabaster Chamber", or "Chambre de Beautes", a room-sized robotic structure that was described in Le Roman de Troiein the beginning of the 12th century. By prototyping and tangibly introducing this robotic space among multi-disciplinary scholars in the fields of human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction and digital humanities, we set out to provoke discussion about alternative interactions and experiences with technology that we may or may not want to consider.

Link to provocation: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3393914.3395890

Video:

"Mine, Yours or Amazon's? Designing Agent Ownership and Affiliation"

Authors:

Michal Luria

Abstract:

Current designs of social agents (chatbots, conversational agents, robots) do not explicitly communicate affiliation to their users-it is unclear whether an agent is intended to be "owned" by an individual or by several users (e.g., a family). As a result, users do not know who has access to information and functions within the agent. In addition, the extent to which agents are affiliated with a service provider may prevent users from engaging in valuable agent features due to privacy concerns. My work explores how design can be used to indicate agent ownership models to users, and how service providers might alter their services to convey that people's agents, and more importantly, the information they hold, is theirs.

Link to paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3393914.3395830