- Indiana University, School of Informatics and Computing, Faculty Memberadd
- Human Computer Interaction, Health Informatics, Social Computing, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Ubiquitous Computing, Human Computation, and 7 moreCommunity Informatics, Creativity, Data Science, Data Visualization, Interspecies Computing, Deliberative Democracy, and Sport and Event Tourismedit
- Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science at University of California, Irvine, 2011 M.S. in Information Networking at... morePh.D. in Information and Computer Science at University of California, Irvine, 2011
M.S. in Information Networking at Carnegie Mellon University, 2005
B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles, 2003edit
This study examined the concordance between accelerometry-measured and self-reported physical activity (PA) and sedentary time in adults with autism. Twenty-four participants wore an ActiGraph GT3X + accelerometer for seven consecutive... more
This study examined the concordance between accelerometry-measured and self-reported physical activity (PA) and sedentary time in adults with autism. Twenty-four participants wore an ActiGraph GT3X + accelerometer for seven consecutive days and completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) on the last day of their study participation. Bland-Altman plots assessed the magnitude of agreement between the two measures. Nearly 80% of the participants accumulated the recommended ≥ 150 min of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA)/week, but were also sedentary for over nine hours/day according to accelerometry data. Findings showed that adults with autism tended to overreport MVPA (b = 1.606, p < 0.01) and underreport sedentary time (b = 1.161, p = 0.03) via the IPAQ-SF, as compared to objective measurements.
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To assess the feasibility and acceptability of using BACtrack Skyn wearable alcohol monitors in a college student population. Method: In September 2019, we enrolled n=5 Indiana University undergraduate students in a study to wear alcohol... more
To assess the feasibility and acceptability of using BACtrack Skyn wearable alcohol monitors in a college student population. Method: In September 2019, we enrolled n=5 Indiana University undergraduate students in a study to wear alcohol monitor wristbands continuously over a 5-day period. Concurrently, participants completed daily surveys querying details about their alcohol use in the previous 24 hours. We measured acceptability at endline with the Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM) scale (min=1, max=5). We measured feasibility with process measures: 1) amount of alcohol monitor data produced, and 2) correlation between drinking events identified by the alcohol monitors and drinking events reported by participants. Result: Participants reported high acceptability of the wearable alcohol monitors with a mean AIM score of 4.3 (range: 3.3 to 5.0). Feasibility of monitor use was high: A total of 589 hours of alcohol use data was collected. All participants were able to successfully use the alcohol monitors, producing a total of 24 out of 25 possible days of alcohol monitoring data. Participants reported a total of 15 drinking events during follow-up and we detected 12 drinking events with the alcohol monitors. The self-reported drinking event start times were highly correlated with the monitor detected event start time (Spearman's ρ=0.9, p<0.0001). The self-reported number of drinks during a drinking event was correlated with the area under the curve of each drinking event peak (Pearson's r=0.7, p=0.008). Conclusion: Wearable alcohol monitors are a promising data collection tool for more objective real-time measures of alcohol use in college student populations.
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Background: Physical activity (PA) has an impact on physical and mental health in neurotypical populations, and addressing these variables may improve the prevalent burden of anxiety in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Gamified... more
Background: Physical activity (PA) has an impact on physical and mental health in neurotypical populations, and addressing these variables may improve the prevalent burden of anxiety in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Gamified mobile apps using behavior change techniques present a promising way of increasing PA and reducing sedentary time, thus reducing anxiety in adults with ASD. Objective: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a gamified and behavior change technique-based mobile app, PuzzleWalk, versus a commercially available app, Google Fit, on increasing PA and reducing sedentary time as an adjunct anxiety treatment for this population. Methods: A total of 24 adults with ASD were assigned to either the PuzzleWalk or Google Fit group for 5 weeks using a covariate-adaptive randomization design. PA and anxiety were assessed over 7 days at 3 different data collection periods (ie, baseline, intervention start, and intervention end) using triaxial accelerometers and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Group differences in outcome variables were assessed using repeated-measures analysis of covariance, adjusting for age, sex, and BMI. Results: The findings indicated that the PuzzleWalk group spent a significantly longer amount of time on app use compared with the Google Fit group (F 2,38 =5.07; P=.01; partial η 2 =0.21), whereas anxiety was unfavorably associated with increases in light PA and decreases in sedentary time after intervention (all P<.05). Conclusions: Further research is needed to clarify the determinants of physical and mental health and their interrelationship in adults with ASD to identify the factors that facilitate the use and adoption of mobile health technologies in these individuals. Despite these mixed results, the small changes in PA or anxiety may be clinically significant for adults with ASD.
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Environmental enrichment is adding complexity to an environment that has a positive impact on a captive animal as a necessity of care. Computing technology is being rapidly weaved throughout the space in both enrichment devices as well as... more
Environmental enrichment is adding complexity to an environment that has a positive impact on a captive animal as a necessity of care. Computing technology is being rapidly weaved throughout the space in both enrichment devices as well as evaluating enrichment outcomes. In this article, we present a scoping review of 102 captive animal enrichment studies and propose a contextual lens for exploring current practices. We discuss the importance of directed growth in species inclusion, transitioning beyond anthro-centric designs, and utilizing shared methodologies.
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Virtual reality (VR) has seen increased use for training and instruction. Designers can enable VR users to gain insights into their own performance by visualizing telemetry data from their actions in VR. Our ability to detect patterns and... more
Virtual reality (VR) has seen increased use for training and instruction. Designers can enable VR users to gain insights into their own performance by visualizing telemetry data from their actions in VR. Our ability to detect patterns and trends visually suggests the use of data visualization as a tool for users to identify strategies for improved performance. Typical tasks in VR training scenarios are manipulation of 3D objects (e.g., for learning how to maintain a jet engine) and navigation (e.g., to learn the geography of a building or landscape before traveling on-site). In this paper, we present the results of the RUI VR (84 subjects) and Luddy VR studies (68 subjects), where participants were divided into experiment and control cohorts. All subjects performed a series of tasks: 44 cube-matching tasks in RUI VR, and 48 navigation tasks through a virtual building in Luddy VR (all divided into two sets). All Luddy VR subjects used VR gear. RUI VR subjects were divided across three setups: 2D Desktop (with laptop and mouse), VR Tabletop (in VR, sitting at a table), and VR Standup (in VR, standing). In an intervention called "Reflective phase," the experiment cohorts were presented with data visualizations, designed with the Data Visualization Literacy Framework (DVL-FW), of the data they generated during the first set of tasks before continuing to the second part of the study. For Luddy VR, we found that experiment users had significantly faster completion times in their second trial (p 0.014) while scoring higher in a mid-questionnaire about the virtual building (p 0.009). For RUI VR, we found no significant differences for completion time and accuracy between the two cohorts in the VR setups. however, 2D Desktop subjects in the experiment cohort had significantly higher rotation accuracy as well as satisfaction (p rotation 0.031, p satisfaction 0.040). We conclude with suggestions for adjustments to the Reflective phase to boost user performance before generalizing our findings to performance improvement in VR with data visualizations.
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A virtual reality (VR) controller plays a key role in supporting interactions between users and the virtual environment. This paper investigates the relationship between the user experience and VR control device modality. We developed a... more
A virtual reality (VR) controller plays a key role in supporting interactions between users and the virtual environment. This paper investigates the relationship between the user experience and VR control device modality. We developed a VR firefighting training system integrated with four control devices adapted from real firefighting tools. We iteratively improved the controllers and VR system through a pilot study with six participants and conducted a user study with 30 participants to assess two salient human factor constructs—perceived presence and cognitive load—with three device modality conditions (two standard VR controllers, four real tools, and a hybrid of one real tool and one standard VR controller). We found that having more realistic devices that simulate real tools does not necessarily guarantee a higher level of user experience, highlighting a strategic approach to the development and utilization of VR control devices. Our study gives empirical insights on establishing appropriate combinations of VR control device modality in the context of field-based VR simulation and training.
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Working with organs and extracted tissue blocks is an essential task in many medical surgery and anatomy environments. In order to prepare specimens from human donors for further analysis, wet-bench workers must properly dissect human... more
Working with organs and extracted tissue blocks is an essential task in many medical surgery and anatomy environments. In order to prepare specimens from human donors for further analysis, wet-bench workers must properly dissect human tissue and collect metadata for downstream analysis, including information about the spatial origin of tissue. The Registration User Interface (RUI) was developed to allow stakeholders in the Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) to register tissue blocks-i.e., to record the size, position, and orientation of human tissue data with regard to reference organs. The RUI has been used by tissue mapping centers across the HuBMAP consortium to register a total of 45 kidney, spleen, and colon tissue blocks, with planned support for 17 organs in the near future. In this paper, we compare three setups for registering one 3D tissue block object to another 3D reference organ (target) object. The first setup is a 2D Desktop implementation featuring a traditional screen, mouse, and keyboard interface. The remaining setups are both virtual reality (VR) versions of the RUI: VR Tabletop, where users sit at a physical desk which is replicated in virtual space; VR Standup, where users stand upright while performing their tasks. All three setups were implemented using the Unity game engine. We then ran a user study for these three setups involving 42 human subjects completing 14 increasingly difficult and then 30 identical tasks in sequence and reporting position accuracy, rotation accuracy, completion time, and satisfaction. All study materials were made available in support of future study replication, alongside videos documenting our setups. We found that while VR Tabletop and VR Standup users are about three times as fast and about a third more accurate in terms of rotation than 2D Desktop users (for the sequence of 30 identical tasks), there are no significant differences between the three setups for position accuracy when normalized by the height of the virtual kidney across setups. When extrapolating from the 2D Desktop setup with a 113-mm-tall kidney, the absolute performance values for the 2D Desktop version (22.6 seconds per task, 5.88 degrees rotation, and 1.32 mm position accuracy after 8.3 tasks in the series of 30 identical tasks) confirm that the 2D Desktop interface is well-suited for allowing users in HuBMAP to register tissue blocks at a speed
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There are over three million people living with epilepsy in the U.S. People with epilepsy experience multiple daily challenges such as seizures, social isolation, social stigma, experience of physical and emotional symptoms, medication... more
There are over three million people living with epilepsy in the U.S. People with epilepsy experience multiple daily challenges such as seizures, social isolation, social stigma, experience of physical and emotional symptoms, medication side effects, cognitive and memory deficits, care coordination difficulties, and risks of sudden unexpected death. In this work, we report findings collected from 3 focus groups of 11 people with epilepsy and caregivers and 10 follow-up questionnaires. We found that these participants feel that most people do not know how to deal with seizures. To improve others' abilities to respond safely and appropriately to someone having seizures, people with epilepsy and caregivers would like to share and educate the public about their epilepsy conditions, reduce common misconceptions about seizures and prevent associated stigma, and get first aid help from the public when needed. Considering social stigma, we propose design implications of future technologies for effective delivery of appropriate first aid care information to bystanders around individuals with epilepsy when they experience a seizure.
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Music therapists provide critical, evidence-based care to a diverse range of clients. However, despite their active role in empowering individuals affected by disability, stigma, grief, and trauma, music therapists remain understudied by... more
Music therapists provide critical, evidence-based care to a diverse range of clients. However, despite their active role in empowering individuals affected by disability, stigma, grief, and trauma, music therapists remain understudied by the HCI community. We present the results of a mixed methods study of 10 interviewees and 20 survey respondents in the U.S., all of whom are practicing music therapists. Our results show that music therapists engage in technology-aided practices such as making personalized connections with clients, assisting in identity formation, encouraging musicking (music-making), and preserving legacies. Results also show that music therapists face key challenges such as environmental, societal, and financial constraints, including high workload, lack of awareness of the value of music therapy among the general community, and limited access to secure technologies for remote client care. In light of these challenges, we present a set of design implications for creating future technologies for music therapists. This work diverges from previous studies on music therapy technologies, which focus largely on interventions with music therapy clients, by highlighting the often-neglected perspectives from music therapists.
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Preadolescence substance exposure, which increases the risk of regular substance use, has been a public health concern. Although studies found that impulsivity is a predisposing factor of early substance exposure, the pathways through... more
Preadolescence substance exposure, which increases the risk of regular substance use, has been a public health concern. Although studies found that impulsivity is a predisposing factor of early substance exposure, the pathways through which impulsivity is associated with early substance exposure remain unclear. This study examined how family conflict mediates this association among U.S. preteens as family environment plays an essential role in pre-adolescent development. Methods: Respondents (N = 11,800, 9-10 years old) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study Release 2.01 (July 2019) were included in this study. Generalized structural equation modeling was performed to investigate the mediation effects of family conflict on the associations between childhood impul-sivity and early exposure to alcohol and tobacco use, controlling for covariates based on the Problem Behavior Theory. Results: Pre-adolescents with high impulsivity levels (≥90 th percentile) were more likely to report early alcohol and tobacco exposure (total effect: ORs = 1.49 and 1.70, respectively), where 4.13% and 12.41% of the associations , respectively, were meditated by family conflict (indirect effect: ORs = 1.02 and 1.07; Sobel test ps = 0.022 and 0.005, respectively). Conclusions: Family conflict mediates the associations between childhood impulsivity and early substance exposure among preteens, with higher impulsivity leading to more severe family conflicts that are, in turn, associated with a higher likelihood of early substance exposure. To prevent preteens with high impulsivity level from early use of substances, interventions may focus on reducing family conflicts such as parenting counseling that guides parents to strengthen conflict-resolution skills and create a stable home environment for preteens.
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People living with HIV experience a high level of stigma in our society. Public HIV-related stigma often leads to anxiety and depression and hinders access to social support and proper medical care. Technologies for HIV, however, have... more
People living with HIV experience a high level of stigma in our society. Public HIV-related stigma often leads to anxiety and depression and hinders access to social support and proper medical care. Technologies for HIV, however, have been mainly designed for treatment management and medication adherence rather than for helping people cope with public HIV-related stigma specifically. Drawing on empirical data obtained from semi-structured interviews and design activities with eight social workers and 29 people living with HIV, we unpack the ways in which needs for privacy and trust, intimacy, and social support create tensions around key coping strategies. Reflecting on these tensions, we present design implications and opportunities to empower people living with HIV to cope with public HIV-related stigma at the individual level.
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The purpose of this study was to conduct the first usability inquiry of a gamified, behavior change theory-guided mobile app PuzzleWalk for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior in adults with and without autism... more
The purpose of this study was to conduct the first usability inquiry of a gamified, behavior change theory-guided mobile app PuzzleWalk for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Eighteen adults with and without ASD participated in a mixed-methods study that consisted of cognitive walkthrough, system usability assessment, and qualitative interviews. The results of the system usability testing indicated satisfactory quality of the PuzzleWalk system that can be readily applicable to both adults with and without ASD. Several notable issues were identified from the qualitative interviews that address critical insights into unique health and social needs in adults with ASD. Future work is warranted to examine the long-term effects of the PuzzleWalk system on increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior in adults with and without ASD in real-world settings.
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Primary symptoms of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), such as pervasive social deficits in social interaction and communication, cause adults with ASD to adopt a sedentary lifestyle. Meanwhile, gamified and behavioral... more
Primary symptoms of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), such as pervasive social deficits in social interaction and communication, cause adults with ASD to adopt a sedentary lifestyle. Meanwhile, gamified and behavioral theory-based interventions have been shown to improve physical activity in a fun and unobtrusive way. In this paper, we describe the iterative design inquiry process of PuzzleWalk, a gamified, physical activity-promoting mobile app designed for adults with ASD. We report the design rationales and lessons learned across four user-centered design phases with ASD experts and adults with ASD, including user requirement gathering, iterative participatory design, usability evaluation, and field deployment. The design insights generated from this work could inform future research focusing on designing sociotechnical systems, games, and interventions for people with ASD.
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This resource was created to support researchers who might be newly conducting crisis informatics research in light of the pandemic of 2020. It also might support creation of new course syllabi on related topics. It has been produced by... more
This resource was created to support researchers who might be newly conducting crisis informatics research in light of the pandemic of 2020. It also might support creation of new course syllabi on related topics. It has been produced by members of the crisis informatics research community in May 2020 to consolidate and organize the literature on informatics of disaster mitigation, warning, response, and recovery. This guided bibliography is a living resource, and will continue to be updated.
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This study explores current drinking practices and attitudes of college students and design opportunities for encouraging safe and responsible drinking behaviors in this population. With 86 participants in total, we conducted surveys,... more
This study explores current drinking practices and attitudes of college students and design opportunities for encouraging safe and responsible drinking behaviors in this population. With 86 participants in total, we conducted surveys, interviews, and a two-week user study that involved the use of BACtrack Mobile Pro, an FDA-approved personal breathalyzer which can be connected to a smartphone app. For the user study, we conducted pre-study and weekly surveys, user experience evaluations, and in-depth post-study interviews with 24 college students who regularly consume alcohol. We identified and compared two groups of participants based on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), which is a screening test for risky drinking behaviors. We propose a new system, smartphone app user interface, and experience based on our findings. Finally, we discuss the role and implications of future technological interventions that could lead to safe and responsible drinking behaviors among college students.
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Previous research shows that fewer female players participate in competitive games than male players. However, it has been reported that there are more female than male players in King of Glory (KoG), one of the most popular multiplayer... more
Previous research shows that fewer female players participate in competitive games than male players. However, it has been reported that there are more female than male players in King of Glory (KoG), one of the most popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games on the mobile platform in China. This study aims to investigate how KoG captures the interest of female players at a higher level than other games. We compared the game design of KoG with League of Legends (LoL), one of the most popular MOBA games on the PC platform. We followed up with a semi-structured interview study with 20 participants about their gameplay experiences on the two different platforms. Our analysis indicates that mobility, sociability, and lower barrier to entry are the main factors that drove female players to participate in KoG.
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Research is scarce on how direct and indirect support seeking strategies affect support exchange in online health communities. Moreover, prior research has relied mostly on content analysis of forum posts at the post level. In order to... more
Research is scarce on how direct and indirect support seeking strategies affect support exchange in online health communities. Moreover, prior research has relied mostly on content analysis of forum posts at the post level. In order to generate a more fine-grained analysis of support exchange, we conducted content analysis at the utterance level, taking directness of support seeking, quality of provision, forum type, and seeker gender into account. Our analysis of four popular online support forums for people living with human immunodeficiency virus found that type of support sought and provided, support seeking strategy, and quality of emotional support provision differed in care provider/formal forums versus social/informal forums. Interestingly, indirect support seeking tended to elicit more supportive emotional responses than direct support seeking strategies in all forums; we account for this in terms of type of support sought. Practical implications for online support communities are discussed.
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Contributing to research on social activism as a form of collective action, we report on Diba, a sizable group of Chinese nationalists, who overcame the Great Firewall in order to troll Taiwan's political leadership. Diba's political... more
Contributing to research on social activism as a form of collective action, we report on Diba, a sizable group of Chinese nationalists, who overcame the Great Firewall in order to troll Taiwan's political leadership. Diba's political activism can be characterized as negotiating a tension between two seemingly opposed goals. On the one hand is their construction of a pro-PRC message using the tactics of Internet subcultures (memes, trolling, etc.), but toned down to meet standards of civility. On the other hand, by collectively breaching the Great Firewall and establishing Facebook accounts, the group transgressed PRC technical and legal norms, which were designed to prevent unsanctioned collective action. We argue that the Diba Expedition exemplifies the coordinated use of a complex, transnational social media ecology to support and produce a mass-scale event and newsworthy spectacle, loosened if not severed from state control, and a discursively innovative polysemous message targeted at diverse international audiences: civilized trolling.
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Timebanking and volunteering in local nonprofits are major extant paradigms for citizen cooperation, civic contribution, and community building. Both paradigms are currently growing rapidly worldwide. In this paper, we review and analyze... more
Timebanking and volunteering in local nonprofits are major extant paradigms for citizen cooperation, civic contribution, and community building. Both paradigms are currently growing rapidly worldwide. In this paper, we review and analyze key challenges in timebanking and nonprofit volunteering. We argue that both paradigms could benefit from an integrated information infrastructure for volunteering interactions. We validated and developed this design concept through a scenario probe study, and through discussions with timebanks and other nonprofit organizations. We illustrate our design and its rationale through a walkthrough of screen shot mock-ups. Finally, we identify and discuss design issues and future research steps.
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Advancements in personal data collection and visualization – commonly referred to as the quantified self (QS) movement – allow individuals to self-track health and other attributes. We extend quantified self (QS) concepts to the... more
Advancements in personal data collection and visualization – commonly referred to as the quantified self (QS) movement – allow individuals to self-track health and other attributes. We extend quantified self (QS) concepts to the quantified other (QO) to explore how the use of technology, collection of data on one's pet dog, and personal visualization affect pet owners' understandings of, and relationships with, their pets. We introduce the term Human–pet–computer interaction (HPCI) as the study of how technology can be designed and used to advance human–pet companionships. As an example, we describe CompanionViz, a personal information visualization prototype designed to inform pet owners on their dogs' caloric inputs/outputs, as well as exercise and movement habits. We present a user study of CompanionViz featuring a twelve-participant survey and one field study, consisting of three unique use cases, and show that by providing pet owners with quantifiable awareness of their dogs' health and exercise habits using personal visual representations, pet owner–dog bonds can benefit.
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Educational data science (EDS) is an emerging, interdisciplinary research domain that seeks to improve educational assessment, teaching, and student learning through data analytics. Teachers have been portrayed in the EDS literature as... more
Educational data science (EDS) is an emerging, interdisciplinary research domain that seeks to improve educational assessment, teaching, and student learning through data analytics. Teachers have been portrayed in the EDS literature as users of pre-constructed data dashboards in educational technologies, with little consideration given to them as active producers of data analytics. This article presents the case study results of an EDS program at a large university in Midwestern U.S.A. in which faculty and instructors were provided with access to institutional data and data analytics technologies in order to explore questions related to their classroom and departmental environments. Semi-structured interviews of program participants were conducted to examine the participants' experiences as practitioner researchers in EDS. The analysis showed that participants were motivated to participate to improve their learning and educational environments through data analytics, as opposed to developing a research agenda in EDS; that participants experienced a range of barriers related to data literacy; and that participant community support in addition to administrative support are vital to teacher-focused EDS programs. This study adds to a small but growing body of research in EDS that considers teachers as producers and not just consumers of data analytics.
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Understanding the impacts and consequences of information and communications technology in local communities through theoretical and practical approaches has long been studied. Among different types of technologies, mobile technology... more
Understanding the impacts and consequences of information and communications technology in local communities through theoretical and practical approaches has long been studied. Among different types of technologies, mobile technology suggests new opportunities for community informatics because a growing number of people across different age groups have adopted smartphones, which have become an indispensable part of people’s daily lives. Because mobile technology transcends the limitations of time and place, it expands the ways of accessing and interacting with local community information and lowers the barrier to participation. In this paper, we present our ongoing initiatives in community informatics including digital cultural heritage and local volunteer efforts mediated by mobile technology. We highlight how mobile technology, together with increased mobility, immediacy and social presence, shows a significant influence on local communities with respect to community identity, awa...
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Learning can be engaged by dialectic, that is, by identifying pros and cons that inhere in propositions, and more generally, by raising questions about the validity of claims. We report here on a classroom case study of dialectical... more
Learning can be engaged by dialectic, that is, by identifying pros and cons that inhere in propositions, and more generally, by raising questions about the validity of claims. We report here on a classroom case study of dialectical constructivist pedagogy: Students created dialectical analyses of two lectures and four books as core activities in a freshman seminar ''Information, People and Technology''. We adapted the functionality of Piazza, a free wiki-style question–answer course management infrastructure, and Toulmin argumentation structures to organize and facilitate these dialectical learning activities. In this paper, we motivate this approach, describe our implementation of it, and present interaction log data and content analysis of Piazza debates, and analysis of student self-reflections on learning activity and consequences, to assess issues in this approach, and directions for further instructional design and research.
Research Interests: Constructivism, Critical Thinking, Argumentation, Social Constructivism, Social Constructionism/ Constructivism, and 9 moreArgumentation Theory, Constructivism (Education), Argumentation Theory and Critical Thinking, Scaffolding, Questions and Answers, Scaffolds, Online Forums, Dialectical Logic, and Online Student Forums
Context The power of open source software peer review lies in the involvement of virtual communities, especially users who typically do not have a formal role in the development process. As communities grow to a certain extent, how to... more
Context
The power of open source software peer review lies in the involvement of virtual communities, especially users who typically do not have a formal role in the development process. As communities grow to a certain extent, how to organize and support the peer review process becomes increasingly challenging. A universal solution is likely to fail for communities with varying characteristics.
Objective
This paper investigates differences of peer review practices across different open source software communities, especially the ones engage distinct types of users, in order to offer contextualized guidance for developing open source software projects.
Method
Comparative case studies were conducted in two well-established large open source communities, Mozilla and Python, which engage extremely different types of users. Bug reports from their bug tracking systems were examined primarily, complemented by secondary sources such as meeting notes, blog posts, messages from mailing lists, and online documentations.
Results
The two communities differ in the key activities of peer review processes, including different characteristics with respect to bug reporting, design decision making, to patch development and review. Their variances also involve the designs of supporting technology. The results highlight the emerging role of triagers, who bridge the core and peripheral contributors and facilitate the peer review process. The two communities demonstrate alternative designs of open source software peer review and their tradeoffs were discussed.
Conclusion
It is concluded that contextualized designs of social and technological solutions to open source software peer review practices are important. The two cases can serve as learning resources for open source software projects, or other types of large software projects in general, to cope with challenges of leveraging enormous contributions and coordinating core developers. It is also important to improve support for triagers, who have not received much research effort yet.
The power of open source software peer review lies in the involvement of virtual communities, especially users who typically do not have a formal role in the development process. As communities grow to a certain extent, how to organize and support the peer review process becomes increasingly challenging. A universal solution is likely to fail for communities with varying characteristics.
Objective
This paper investigates differences of peer review practices across different open source software communities, especially the ones engage distinct types of users, in order to offer contextualized guidance for developing open source software projects.
Method
Comparative case studies were conducted in two well-established large open source communities, Mozilla and Python, which engage extremely different types of users. Bug reports from their bug tracking systems were examined primarily, complemented by secondary sources such as meeting notes, blog posts, messages from mailing lists, and online documentations.
Results
The two communities differ in the key activities of peer review processes, including different characteristics with respect to bug reporting, design decision making, to patch development and review. Their variances also involve the designs of supporting technology. The results highlight the emerging role of triagers, who bridge the core and peripheral contributors and facilitate the peer review process. The two communities demonstrate alternative designs of open source software peer review and their tradeoffs were discussed.
Conclusion
It is concluded that contextualized designs of social and technological solutions to open source software peer review practices are important. The two cases can serve as learning resources for open source software projects, or other types of large software projects in general, to cope with challenges of leveraging enormous contributions and coordinating core developers. It is also important to improve support for triagers, who have not received much research effort yet.
Research Interests:
Social media has been widely adopted for assisting the efforts in emergency response and recovery, but it has been underutilized for emergency planning purposes. Emergency planning in a local community context must leverage accessible and... more
Social media has been widely adopted for assisting the efforts in emergency response and recovery, but it has been underutilized for emergency planning purposes. Emergency planning in a local community context must leverage accessible and free resources such as social media, because it is largely a volunteer enterprise. We describe our fieldwork with local annual festival emergency planning teams that led to the design of Community Incident Report (CIR). CIR is a novel emergency planning system that externalizes community knowledge on persisting issues and common mitigation strategies by integrating police reports, local crisis information, and social multimedia content to foster citizens' awareness of local emergency information and to assist emergency planners in planning for recurring and cyclical events. We provide a use case analysis of CIR and its evaluation with 20 local residents, and discuss how it could be extended to inform emergency planning for other community event...
Research Interests: Community Informatics, Crisis communication and management, Crisis Management, Crisis Communication, Social Media, and 8 moreEmergency Management, Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science, Emergency planning and management, Crisis Informatics, Community Information Services, Risk and crisis management, and Emergency Planning
The pervasiveness of online health communities and recent exponential growth of health tracking technologies provide new possibilities for weight management, an important health issue that remains prevalent. To enhance the understanding... more
The pervasiveness of online health communities and recent exponential growth of health tracking technologies provide new possibilities for weight management, an important health issue that remains prevalent. To enhance the understanding of how to support them to succeed, we investigate people’s practices and experiences over the course of weight management, interviewing users from a well-established online peer-to-peer weight management community that integrates a calorie tracking tool. We find that support for weight loss maintenance was surprisingly overlooked, which we identify as a missed opportunity both for recognizing and leveraging individual member’s success and for enhancing community development. Our findings further characterize the changes people experience when they have transited from weight loss to weight loss maintenance. These changes of experience converge onto four facets, including motivation, goal recognition, social support, and social presence. We discuss the specific challenges and associated design opportunities these changes of experience afford for supporting long-term success of weight management.
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One trajectory for community informatics is sociotechnical innovation: integrated innovations in the information and technology infrastructures of communities that enable innovation in communities themselves as social systems. We describe... more
One trajectory for community informatics is sociotechnical innovation: integrated innovations in the information and technology infrastructures of communities that enable innovation in communities themselves as social systems. We describe community informatics research emphasizing technology affordances of mobility and hyperlocality, aggregation and suprathresholding, information analytics, local digital currencies, reputation management systems, and crowd-based coordination. We present an envisionment scenario for a community innovation infrastructure incorporating and leveraging these technologies.
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Timebanking refers to community-based volunteering in which participants provide and receive services in exchange for time credits. Although timebanking takes advantage of web technologies, the lack of flexibility in managing web-based... more
Timebanking refers to community-based volunteering in which participants provide and receive services in exchange for time credits. Although timebanking takes advantage of web technologies, the lack of flexibility in managing web-based timebanking transactions and the difficulty of attracting younger adults whose contributions would be highly valuable to the community still remain as major challenges. Our design research attempts to address these issues by leveraging the unique affordances of smartphones and their attractiveness to young adults. In this paper, we introduce a timebanking smartphone application and present a 5-week user study with 32 young adults. The results highlight the potential of timebanking for young population with an application that facilitates access to communications and transaction-management activities, and strengthens social connection and the sense of community attachment. We in particular present new affordances of smartphone technology on timebanking, including (1) transaction time reduction, (2) location and time-sensitive timebanking activity support, and (3) real-time coordination. We discuss design challenges and opportunities of smartphone-based timebanking.
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Open source projects leverage a large number of people to review products and improve code quality. Differences among participants are inevitable and important to this collaborative review process—participants with different expertise,... more
Open source projects leverage a large number of people to review products and improve code quality. Differences among participants are inevitable and important to this collaborative review process—participants with different expertise, experience, resources, and values approach the problems differently, increasing the likelihood of finding more bugs and fixing the particularly difficult ones. To understand the impacts of member differences on the open source software peer review process, we examined bug reports of Mozilla Firefox. These analyses show that these various types of differences increase workload as well as frustration and conflicts. However, they facilitate situated learning, problem characterization, design review, and boundary spanning. We discuss implications for work performance and community engagement, and suggest several ways to leverage member differences in the open source software peer review process.
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Being aware of local community information is critical to maintaining civic engagement and participation. The use of online news and microblog content to create and disseminate community information has long been studied. However,... more
Being aware of local community information is critical to maintaining civic engagement and participation. The use of online news and microblog content to create and disseminate community information has long been studied. However, interactions in the online spaces dedicated to local communities tend to only garner very limited usage, and people often do not consider microblog content as a meaningful source of local community information. Local News Chatter (LNC) was designed to address these challenges by augmenting local news feeds with microblog content and presenting them in a tag cloud that displays news topics of varying popularity with different tag sizes. Our study with 30 local residents highlights that LNC increases the visibility of hyperlocal community news information and successfully utilizes microblog as an additional information layer. LNC also increases one's community awareness and shows the potential for leveraging community knowledge as a deliberation platform...
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Public stigma on the Human Immunodefciency Virus (HIV) afects the physical and psychological wellbeing of those living with the condition in a severe way. There is work around the design of technology for medication adherence and HIV... more
Public stigma on the Human Immunodefciency Virus (HIV) afects the physical and psychological wellbeing of those living with the condition in a severe way. There is work around the design of technology for medication adherence and HIV treatment. Yet, there is still a lack of empirical research that investigates how people could cope with stigma more efectively using technology. Thus, we obtained data from co-design workshops conducted remotely from the U.S. with 25 people living with HIV. Our fndings foreground key needs and values via the discussion of features and functionality of speculative co-designed technologies that would allow people to leverage key stigma coping strategies. Based on these insights, we forward design implications for social media, which is the most common type of technology that people living with HIV currently use to cope with public stigma. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; Empirical studies in interaction design.
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Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disease. People with epilepsy (PWE) and their caregivers face several challenges related to their epilepsy management, including quality of care, care coordination, side efects, and stigma... more
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disease. People with epilepsy (PWE) and their caregivers face several challenges related to their epilepsy management, including quality of care, care coordination, side efects, and stigma management. The sociotechnical issues of the information management contexts and challenges for epilepsy care may be mitigated through efective information management. We conducted 4 focus groups with 5 PWE and 7 caregivers to explore how they manage epilepsy-related information and the challenges they encountered. Primary issues include challenges of fnding the right information, complexities of tracking and monitoring data, and limited information sharing. We provide a framework that encompasses three attributes-individual epilepsy symptoms and health conditions, information complexity, and circumstantial constraints. We suggest future design implications to mitigate these challenges and improve epilepsy information management and care coordination.
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Millions of Americans forego medical care due to a lack of nonemergency transportation, particularly minorities, older adults, and those who have disabilities or chronic conditions. Our study investigates the potential for using... more
Millions of Americans forego medical care due to a lack of nonemergency transportation, particularly minorities, older adults, and those who have disabilities or chronic conditions. Our study investigates the potential for using timebanks-community-based voluntary services that encourage exchanges of services for "time dollars" rather than money-in interventions to address healthcare transportation barriers to seed design implications for a future affordable ridesharing platform. In partnership with a timebank and a federally qualifed healthcare center (FQHC), 30 participants completed activity packets and 29 of them attended online workshop sessions. Our fndings suggest that promoting trust between drivers and riders requires systems that prioritize safety and reliability; yet, there were discrepancies in the ability of the timebank and FQHC to moderate trust. We also found that timebank supports reciprocity,
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With aerial systems becoming more accessible, animal-drone interaction opportunities for improving wellness are expanding. Payload drones may provide new ways to encourage space utilization in zoo contexts, as well as minimize human... more
With aerial systems becoming more accessible, animal-drone interaction opportunities for improving wellness are expanding. Payload drones may provide new ways to encourage space utilization in zoo contexts, as well as minimize human interaction in wildlife rehabilitation. In this paper, we outline the technical details of an early aerial system prototype that uses computer vision navigation for target destinations via an Android app. We also propose a payload system evaluation for testing the efficacy and accuracy of future systems and recommend customizing animal-centric evaluations. Lastly, we discuss challenges for deploying payload systems in animal contexts including drone safety and context specific design considerations.
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The rise of ridesharing platforms has transformed traditional transportation, making it more accessible for getting to work and accessing grocery stores and healthcare providers, which are essential to physical and mental well-being.... more
The rise of ridesharing platforms has transformed traditional transportation, making it more accessible for getting to work and accessing grocery stores and healthcare providers, which are essential to physical and mental well-being. However, such technologies are not available everywhere. Additionally, there is a scarcity of HCI work that investigates how vulnerable populations such as rural-dwelling people with HIV face and overcome transportation barriers. To extend past research, we conducted 31 surveys and 18 interviews with people living with HIV (22 surveys, 14 interviews) and their case coordinators (9 surveys, 4 interviews) in rural areas. Contrary to past research, we found that the use of alternative vehicles, extensive support networks, and nonprofit health organizations facilitated transportation. However, distance, the lack of trust and infrastructure, stigma, and other cultural underpinnings made popular forms of urban transportation unappealing. We contextualize our findings with prior research and contribute implications for future research and design. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing~Collaborative and social computing~Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing. Additional
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Recent research on creativity support tools (CST) adopts artificial intelligence (AI) that leverages big data and computational capabilities to facilitate creative work. Our work aims to articulate the role of AI in supporting creativity... more
Recent research on creativity support tools (CST) adopts artificial intelligence (AI) that leverages big data and computational capabilities to facilitate creative work. Our work aims to articulate the role of AI in supporting creativity with a case study of an AI-based CST tool in fashion design based on theoretical groundings. We developed AI models by externalizing three cognitive operations (extending, constraining, and blending) that are associated with divergent and convergent thinking. We present FashionQ, an AI-based CST that has three interactive visualization tools (StyleQ, TrendQ, and MergeQ). Through interviews and a user study with 20 fashion design professionals (10 participants for the interviews and 10 for the user study), we demonstrate the effectiveness of FashionQ on facilitating divergent and convergent thinking and identify opportunities and challenges of incorporating AI in the ideation process. Our findings highlight the role and use of AI in each cognitive operation based on professionals' expertise and suggest future implications of AI-based CST development.
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Controller-based Treadmill-based Model-based Figure 1: Three conditions of movement applied in the user study. We proposed a model designed to detect backward movement. ABSTRACT Movement is one of the key elements in virtual reality (VR)... more
Controller-based Treadmill-based Model-based Figure 1: Three conditions of movement applied in the user study. We proposed a model designed to detect backward movement. ABSTRACT Movement is one of the key elements in virtual reality (VR) and significantly influences user experience. In particular, walking-in-place is a method of supporting movement in a limited space, and many studies are being conducted on its effective support. However, most studies have focused on forward movement despite many situations in which backward movement is needed. In this paper, we present the development of a prediction model for forward/backward movement while considering a user's orientation and the verification of the model's effectiveness. We built a deep learning-based model by collecting sensor data on the movement of the user's head, waist, and feet. We developed three realistic VR scenarios that involve backward movement, set three conditions (controller-based, treadmill-based, and model-based) for movement, and evaluated user experience in each condition through a study of 36 participants. As a result, the model-based condition showed the highest sensory sensitivity, effectiveness, and satisfaction and similar cognitive burden compared with the other two conditions. The results of our study demonstrated that movement support through modeling is possible, suggesting its potential for use in many VR applications.
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Respite care can provide a chance for family caregivers to take a temporary and flexible break from their long-term caregiving work. Despite its beneficial aspects and value, there is little research on how technology might mitigate... more
Respite care can provide a chance for family caregivers to take a temporary and flexible break from their long-term caregiving work. Despite its beneficial aspects and value, there is little research on how technology might mitigate barriers to using respite care. The purpose of this paper is to understand the current practices and challenges that people face within the ecosystem of respite care work in the context of in-home care. Based on an in-depth interview study of 18 primary family caregivers, respite family caregivers, and respite professional caregivers, we identified different relationships, phases, and needs of each stakeholder and issues of trust and information sharing that need improvement. We discuss design considerations on how future information and communication technologies (ICTs) could mitigate the barriers identified in this work.
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Outdoor enrichment has a variety of potential uses for increasing physical activity and strengthening companion animal bonds. In this pilot protocol, we aim to explore a species-centric evaluation of drone flying patterns and distances... more
Outdoor enrichment has a variety of potential uses for increasing physical activity and strengthening companion animal bonds. In this pilot protocol, we aim to explore a species-centric evaluation of drone flying patterns and distances for enrichment purposes. This includes presenting participants with introductory and training phases to encourage positive familiarization before evaluating flight patterns, with the ability to walk away at any time. Sessions will be repeated within participants to explore any novelty or familiarization effects, as well as collect guardian perceptions of impact. From this pilot, we aim to explore our evaluation methods, characterize pet guardian perspectives, and narrow preferred movement patterns and distances for a future deploy.
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Animal enrichment in zoos is evolving faster than ever, with more technical approaches being found across disciplines, particularly in Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI). Captive orangutans are a unique population that are commonly... more
Animal enrichment in zoos is evolving faster than ever, with more technical approaches being found across disciplines, particularly in Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI). Captive orangutans are a unique population that are commonly im-pacted by health concerns that may be alleviated through increased physical activity. In this study protocol, we aim to examine the potential for a drone delivery system to distribute food to encourage natural foraging behaviors while minimizing animal care staff burden. We discuss conducting a survey with animal care staff and the general public to look at zoo perceptions, use case feedback, and perceptions of technology in enrichment. We also outline conducting observations of a specific population of captive orangutans to establish a baseline for a future system deployment, as well as compare to their wild counterparts.
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Care and support of discordant chronic comorbidities (DCCs) are challenges not only for patients but also for their healthcare providers. DCCs are health conditions in which patients have multiple, often unrelated, chronic illnesses that... more
Care and support of discordant chronic comorbidities (DCCs) are challenges not only for patients but also for their healthcare providers. DCCs are health conditions in which patients have multiple, often unrelated, chronic illnesses that may need to be addressed concurrently but may also be associated with conflicting treatment instructions. Previous studies show that patients with DCCs reported multiple challenges. Here, we conducted interviews (N = 8) and focus groups (N = 7) with healthcare providers to obtain providers' perspectives. We compare the challenges and views reported by patients and healthcare providers. We suggest design guidelines and technology-mediated ways to address convergent and divergent issues between patients and providers. We recommend future exploration of strategies to simplify and better understand how treatment choices for one condition may impact another and how that exacerbates DCCs care costs. CCS CONCEPTS • Health care information systems → Health informatics; KEYWORDS Discordant chronic comorbidity; provider perspective; patient perspective , decision making and prioritization; collaboration; design strategy; treatment plans ACM Reference Format:
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The dog park going experience has the potential for many positive experiences for dogs. Through observations, interviews and focus groups, we designed Barks & Rec, a cooperative system that encourages community connections and behaviors... more
The dog park going experience has the potential for many positive experiences for dogs. Through observations, interviews and focus groups, we designed Barks & Rec, a cooperative system that encourages community connections and behaviors awareness in dogs park goers through interweaving the dog park community. With activity tracking integration, our design allows for owners to keep tabs on their dog's activity while contributing to community goals and encourages pet awareness.
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Wildlife rehabilitation involves caring for sick, injured, and orphaned non-domesticated native animals to re-release into the wild. While rehabilitators face similar hurdles as animal shelters such as limited funding and technology... more
Wildlife rehabilitation involves caring for sick, injured, and orphaned non-domesticated native animals to re-release into the wild. While rehabilitators face similar hurdles as animal shelters such as limited funding and technology challenges, wildlife rehabilitation requires minimal human contact to ensure a successful reintroduction to the wild. However, the animals cared for require frequent monitoring and tending for health concerns. In this paper we document our process and design considerations for a smart habitat unique for the American opossum, a common intake at a local rehabilitation center, to limit human interaction while monitoring animal health. Our process includes interviews with volunteers and participatory observation, resulting in specifications of future design work for the American opossum.
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Analysis of social support in online forums for people living with HIV has been relying, for the most part, on self-report instrumentation and manual coding of data. Our study applies a fully automated data analysis method based on... more
Analysis of social support in online forums for people living with HIV has been relying, for the most part, on self-report instrumentation and manual coding of data. Our study applies a fully automated data analysis method based on clustering and network embedding of the largest online support forum (POZ forum)for people living with HIV. Results show that there are three sub communities of members within the forum differing in terms of member engagement, topics discussed, and types of support exchanged. This paper analyses the similarities and differences among these communities as a way to identify members that comprise each community and how they exchange support. The result can be generalized to show current situation of HIV discussion online and how social supports change in different group of people related to HIV. Therefore, better social support plans can be applied to help HIV patients relief their pain.
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Animal shelter and rescue facilities in the United States provide a vital service to over 6 million animals in dire need each year. Unfortunately, these facilities are running on limited resources and will need to adjust to accommodate... more
Animal shelter and rescue facilities in the United States provide a vital service to over 6 million animals in dire need each year. Unfortunately, these facilities are running on limited resources and will need to adjust to accommodate the number of growing homeless animals in the coming years. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 individuals from different parts of the adoption process ranging from adopters to shelter administrators to gain insight into areas of improvement as well as to understand the current needs of these facilities. We found that volunteer and shelter management , awareness and communication of shelter needs, and fundraising and facilitating adoption were the prominent areas that need attention. From this, we discuss implications for design of future technological solutions that could address these needs.
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This paper presents Capsule, a design prototype using augmented reality to encourage students to learn the cultural heritage on campus. Based on a pilot study with prospective and current students, Capsule not only provides students the... more
This paper presents Capsule, a design prototype using augmented reality to encourage students to learn the cultural heritage on campus. Based on a pilot study with prospective and current students, Capsule not only provides students the cultural histories of campus but strengthens the connection between students and heritage by adding features of improving the interaction between students and the heritage. The performance of the prototype was evaluated in a user study with 10 students, which provides design implications for future cultural heritage.
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Wars are often described and discussed from a single point of view. Vietnam War Stories: Stories from All Sides is an interactive digital storytelling platform that incorporated video interviews recorded from over 150 Vietnam War veterans... more
Wars are often described and discussed from a single point of view. Vietnam War Stories: Stories from All Sides is an interactive digital storytelling platform that incorporated video interviews recorded from over 150 Vietnam War veterans and survivors from all sides, including U.S., North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Europe, and Asia on a historically accurate map. This project utilizes the perspectives of network science to integrate digital historical multimedia artifacts into a coherent network of linked resources that can then be visualized and represented in an interactive prototype. This allows the historians, researchers, and scholars to easily access the previously undocumented and segmented historical content, and easily explore connections between them. It also serves as an educational platform, allowing the public to navigate war stories in a highly personal and engaging fashion. Most importantly, "Vietnam War Stories" enables historical argumentation and interpretations of the individual experiences of Vietnam War by presenting multiple accounts and perspectives from primary sources as previously undocumented evidence of both sides of the Vietnam War. Furthermore, "Vietnam War Stories" will inform the design of future platforms that will offer the veterans a way to connect with other veterans and survivors and empower them with a channel to share their own stories.
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Patients with discordant chronic comorbidities (DCCs) have multiple, often unrelated, chronic illnesses with opposing treatment instructions that need to be addressed concurrently. While many tools are available for a single chronic... more
Patients with discordant chronic comorbidities (DCCs) have multiple, often unrelated, chronic illnesses with opposing treatment instructions that need to be addressed concurrently. While many tools are available for a single chronic condition or a set of well-defined health behaviors, there is a lack of tools designed to support patients in managing multiple conditions whose suggested treatments may be in opposition to each other. This paper reports on a 2-week photo elicita-tion interview study of 15 patients with type-2 diabetes and either depression, arthritis, or end-stage renal disease. Participants discussed the barriers they encountered in managing their health and strategies they used to overcome those barriers. Our findings highlight the difficulties faced by patients with type-2 diabetes and DCCs, including adjusting to having multiple health problems, maintenance of their support networks, and financial concerns. Here we present design implications grounded in the current literature as well as the results of our study. Our work points to a new, novel strategies for care and treatment not only of DCCs but also of other complex conditions.
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Research shows that adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are less physically active than those without ASD. Persuasive augmented reality smartphone apps may be an effective intervention to target this health disparity. A gamified... more
Research shows that adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are less physically active than those without ASD. Persuasive augmented reality smartphone apps may be an effective intervention to target this health disparity. A gamified mobile app, Puzzle Walk was developed to elevate physical activity (PA) engagement in the target population following an iterative user-centered design process, including a literature review, identification of target behaviors, needs analysis, health behavior theory evaluation, and prototype design. We found that walking is the most common form of PA in the target users and they have an affinity to using technology devices. These insights led us to design the Puzzle Walk app that incorporates behavior change techniques (BCTs) (e.g., user instruction, self-monitoring, visual rewards, feedback on performance, and goal-setting). We describe the emerged design that includes animated gamification and visualized user interfaces. The usability assessment plan is discussed as future work.
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The widespread adoption of home robots shows a high demand of in-home assistance. Since single women account for a large proportion of the Chinese population, it is important to design home robots to support their lives at home. This... more
The widespread adoption of home robots shows a high demand of in-home assistance. Since single women account for a large proportion of the Chinese population, it is important to design home robots to support their lives at home. This study aims to explore the possible design features of home robots to support single women in China. Interviews and an online survey were used to gauge user perception and expectations of home robots. Our research reveals the unique lifestyle preferences of single women in China and how home robots could be designed to support their needs. We discuss our findings and design implications based on three aspects: lifestyle, intelligence, and sense, to inspire better robot design for women.
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Previous research shows that female players participate less in competitive games than male players. However, it is reported that there are more female players are than male players in King of Glory (KoG), one of the most popular... more
Previous research shows that female players participate less in competitive games than male players. However, it is reported that there are more female players are than male players in King of Glory (KoG), one of the most popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games on the mobile platform in China. This study aims to investigate how can KoG capture the interest of female players. We compared the game design of KoG with League of Legends (LoL), one of the most popular MOBA games on the PC platform. We followed up with a semi-structured interview study with 20 participants about their gameplay experiences on the two different platforms. Our analysis indicates that mobility, sociability, and lower barrier to entry are the main factors that drove female players to participate in KoG.
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WalkSafe is a location-based app that notifies users of emergencies around them. The app is compared to The Pennsylvania State University's emergency notification system-PSUAlert, which provides time-based alerts. We identify weakness of... more
WalkSafe is a location-based app that notifies users of emergencies around them. The app is compared to The Pennsylvania State University's emergency notification system-PSUAlert, which provides time-based alerts. We identify weakness of the existing PSUAlert system and address them by introducing a location-based emergency notification system with the records of past incidents along with the type of emergency with respect to the user's location. We gathered user perception from 43 survey respondents that informed the design of the WalkSafe app. We use mixed-methods approach to evaluate WalkSafe with PSUAlert system as a baseline. We assess both systems with 22 participants by notifying them of the fake emergencies and asking them to use both systems to understand details regarding the emergency and its location. The pre-and post-surveys are evaluated using content analysis and paired t-test. Participant reported higher perceived convenience, perceived security, willingness to use, and willingness to share when using WalkSafe.
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Researchers in HCI have typically relied on face to face (FtF) methods for recruitment and data collection in their research with people living with HIV, whereas social scientists have adopted computer-mediated approaches to address... more
Researchers in HCI have typically relied on face to face (FtF) methods for recruitment and data collection in their research with people living with HIV, whereas social scientists have adopted computer-mediated approaches to address concerns about data validity and access to this stigmatized population. In this paper, we use the asynchronous remote community (ARC) research method to leverage HCI instruments in an online format. ARC successfully engaged people living with HIV in terms of participation and retention by providing a safe space to discuss their experiences. By expanding on past ARC studies, we contribute to an ongoing conversation about defining ARC and working towards increased data validity – especially in stigmatized communities.
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The experience of grief and death is an inevitable part of life. Grief, a natural response to death, can be a challenging and emotionally taxing journey. Bereaved individuals often feel lost in a fog, unaware of resources available to... more
The experience of grief and death is an inevitable part of life. Grief, a natural response to death, can be a challenging and emotionally taxing journey. Bereaved individuals often feel lost in a fog, unaware of resources available to them and unsure of which resources could be useful for supporting their healing process. Complicated grief, a more intense form of grief that extends beyond six months following the death of a loved one, presents both a unique challenge and a design opportunity for the HCI community. In this work, we present the results of a survey and interview study on the technological practices of complicated grievers. Based on themes found in the data, we propose a new model for complicated grief in the digital age, consisting of the following phases: Fog, Isolation , Exploration, Immersion, and Stabilization. We then present a set of design considerations for designers seeking to create tools for complicated grievers navigating their unique grief journeys.
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In this article, social media in the academic context is summarized, differences between social media usage patterns in China and the United States are contrasted, Research methods are described and final results are presented. Our... more
In this article, social media in the academic context is summarized, differences between social media usage patterns in China and the United States are contrasted, Research methods are described and final results are presented. Our specific contribution is to clearly delineate the unique social media ecosystem as found in Mainland China and its subsequent impact on social media as applied to academic settings. Social media is very helpful in auxiliary academic activities but is not a suitable way for people to obtain specialty information due to insufficient credibility, information management functions and Chinese users' usage pattern. Expectation on social media to support academic relationship building has generally failed. We hope to suggest how to integrate the power of social media to promote academic activities while avoiding these negative effects. The article concludes by evaluating social media as a tool to support academic purposes with the facets of user experience and suggests future research directions.
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This study explores how initial perceptions of initial trust in a provider of social support and person-centeredness in supportive messages affect outcomes in video-mediated social support interactions. A controlled study was conducted... more
This study explores how initial perceptions of initial trust in a provider of social support and person-centeredness in supportive messages affect outcomes in video-mediated social support interactions. A controlled study was conducted with 240 participants who were randomly assigned to a condition in a 3 (initial trust of the support provider: affective, cognitive, and neutral) x 2 (person-centeredness of the support message: high or low) experimental setup. Results show that the effects of person-centeredness in support messages are the same as reported elsewhere for Face-to-Face (FtF) or text-based computer-mediated scenarios: high person-centered messages led to higher perceptions of support quality than low person-centered messages regardless of perceptions of initial trust in the support provider. Results also show that participants perceived the support provider's quality to be higher if personal information (affective trust) about the support provider was available over expertise information (cognitive trust). Ethnicity of participants also had a significant effect on perceptions of support provider's quality. Participants that self-reported to be White Americans were much more sensitive to person-centeredness in the message delivery. They reacted much more positively to the message with high person-centeredness and much more negatively to the message with low person-centeredness than other ethnic groups.
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Though video games have become increasingly popular among female players, competitive game genres are still dominated by male players. Research has explored the factors influencing male and female participation in competitive games, but... more
Though video games have become increasingly popular among female players, competitive game genres are still dominated by male players. Research has explored the factors influencing male and female participation in competitive games, but little has focused on analysing gendered character choice and playing style preferences based on large in-game dataset. This research utilizes a mix-methods approach to examine gender differences in one of the most popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games, League of Legends (LoL). The results show that gender stereotypes affect the in-game character design, players' perception of abilities, and social convention in LoL, which further caused the gender differences of in-game character choice and playing style. We discuss design implications to make LoL more inclusive to female players.
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We present the results of a study of eNABLE , a distributed, collaborative volunteer effort to design and fabricate upper-limb assistive technology devices for limb-different users. Informed by interviews with 14 stakeholders in eNABLE ,... more
We present the results of a study of eNABLE , a distributed, collaborative volunteer effort to design and fabricate upper-limb assistive technology devices for limb-different users. Informed by interviews with 14 stakeholders in eNABLE , including volunteers and clinicians, we discuss differences and synergies among each group with respect to motivations, skills, and perceptions of risks inherent in the project. We found that both groups are motivated to be involved in eNABLE by the ability to use their skills to help others, and that their skill sets are complementary, but that their different perceptions of risk may result in uneven outcomes or missed expectations for end users. We offer four opportunities for design and technology to enhance the stakeholders' abilities to work together.
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Information and Communications Technology (ICT) affords new opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in the workforce. However, little research has investigated how people with disabilities access and perform work through... more
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) affords new opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in the workforce. However, little research has investigated how people with disabilities access and perform work through ICT. This paper presents a study of how people with disabilities, particularly those who are wheelchair users, perform online crowd work in China. We highlight an online crowd work practice that is highly embedded in social relationships that are developed through ICT over time. We call this socially embedded work to distinguish it from previous studies describing online crowd work as being devoid of social relationships. Our study uncovers the unique developmental dynamics of the online crowd work community self-organized by wheelchair users in China. Findings suggest that an ecosystem that focuses on fostering social relationships among the stakeholders can potentially address the wide range of issues of online crowd work reported in current crowd work literature.
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Research has suggested that teens are more active and engaged than adults on social media. Most of such observations, however, have been made through the analysis of limited ethnographic or cross-sectional data. Using a temporally... more
Research has suggested that teens are more active and engaged than adults on social media. Most of such observations, however, have been made through the analysis of limited ethnographic or cross-sectional data. Using a temporally extended, large-scale dataset and comparative analyses to remedy this shortcoming, we examined how and why the age difference in the behaviors of users in Instagram might have occurred through the lenses of social cognition, developmental psychology, and human-computer interaction. We proposed two hypotheses — teens as digital natives and the need for social interactions — as the theoretical framework for understanding the factors that help explain the behavioral differences. Our computational analysis identified the following novel findings: (1) teens post fewer photos than adults; (2) teens remove more photos based on the number of Likes the photos received; and (3) teens have less diverse photo content. Our analysis was also able to confirm prior ethnographic accounts that teens are more engaged in Liking and commenting, and express their emotions and social interests more than adults. We discussed theoretical and practical interpretations and implications as well as future research directions from the results. Our datasets are available at: https://goo.gl/LqTYNv
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Literature has studied students learning in inverted (flipped) classes. However, little attention has been paid to another important set of stakeholders – the instructors. While past research indicates that the inverted paradigm is... more
Literature has studied students learning in inverted (flipped) classes. However, little attention has been paid to another important set of stakeholders – the instructors. While past research indicates that the inverted paradigm is effective, there has been no analysis of preparing, creating and delivering this instruction model from an instructor's point of view. We argue that education technology designers must understand the socio-technical aspects of what instructors teaching in this paradigm need for course preparation and delivery. In this paper, we report a first step in this direction, reporting on scenario-based design work conducted in response to interviews with instructors of flipped courses. We construe this as an interactive system design problem; in that teachers must create and deliver technology-mediated content that will support their goals for student learning. We summarize our design process, comment on findings from scenario-based analysis and design interviews conducted to evaluate and refine our design concepts.
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Capturing, uploading, and presenting social media content online have become the standard way for people to share their experiences with friends, family members, and others. In this paper, we describe our effort to extract, aggregate, and... more
Capturing, uploading, and presenting social media content online have become the standard way for people to share their experiences with friends, family members, and others. In this paper, we describe our effort to extract, aggregate, and visualize, in a smartphone app, real-time and historical hyperlocal social media discussions and photos created at a regional arts festival that attracted over 100,000 visitors over a period of 5 days. Participants reported that the resulting content enriched their festival experience, and that it helped to create a social scaffold encouraging them to further engage and interact with others both physically and virtually through sharing even more user-contributed content.
Research Interests: Digital Curation, Social Media, Spectatorship, Digital Heritage, Crowdsourcing, and 8 moreDigital Cultural Heritage, Human Computation, Spectator Participation, Digital Data Curation, Community Heritage, Festival and Events Management: An International Arts and Culture Perspective, Arts Festivals, and Active Spectatorship
The emergence of social media has had a significant impact on how people communicate and socialize. Teens use social media to make and maintain social connections with friends and build their reputation. However, the way of analyzing the... more
The emergence of social media has had a significant impact on how people communicate and socialize. Teens use social media to make and maintain social connections with friends and build their reputation. However, the way of analyzing the characteristics of teens in social media has mostly relied on ethnographic accounts or quantitative analyses with small datasets. This paper shows the possibility of detecting age information in user profiles by using a combination of textual and facial recognition methods and presents a comparative study of 27K teens and adults in Instagram. Our analysis highlights that (1) teens tend to post fewer photos but highly engage in adding more tags to their own photos and receiving more Likes and comments about their photos from others, and (2) to post more selfies and express themselves more than adults, showing a higher sense of self-representation. We demonstrate the application of our novel method that shows clear trends of age differences as well as substantiates previous insights in social media.
Research Interests:
Timebanking is a service-based community currency, built on the principle that everyone's time is valued equally. It has potential for community building and reenergizing neighborhoods, but it faces several adoption challenges. We report... more
Timebanking is a service-based community currency, built on the principle that everyone's time is valued equally. It has potential for community building and reenergizing neighborhoods, but it faces several adoption challenges. We report on the largest investigation of timebanking practices to date by analyzing a combination of service exchange records from the three largest hOurworld timebanks with over 3,500 members with 33,000 completed service exchanges, and a survey of 446 members of over 120 hOurworld timebanks. Our findings suggest that the ideal of 'equal time, equal value' that is at the foundation of timebanking is a source of tension between members with instrumental versus idealistic and altruistic motivations. We suggest that future peer-to-peer systems must incorporate different rewards and incentives in order to accommodate users with different motivations.
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Wearable activity trackers are becoming widely adopted, yet challenges continue to exist in effective longterm use and adoption. Existing research focuses mostly on the use and adoption challenges associated with technical- or... more
Wearable activity trackers are becoming widely adopted, yet challenges continue to exist in effective longterm use and adoption. Existing research focuses mostly on the use and adoption challenges associated with technical- or device-related issues and respective workaround strategies. Little is known about how personal preferences and other individual characteristics affect use and adoption of wearable activity trackers. In this paper, we present a six-week user study of 26 users using physical activity trackers embedded in clip-on and smart watch physical devices. We describe novel implications of the usage patterns, including the need to help people be mindful of their physical activity trackers, to understand and further articulate gender differences in use and adoption of wearable devices, to incorporate big data analytics in informing and coaching people’s practices, and to reframe data inaccuracy as a byproduct of mismanagement of expectations of the device’s capabilities and its expected usage.
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Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have recently experienced rapid development and garnered significant attention from various populations. Despite the wide recognition of MOOCs as an important opportunity within educational practices,... more
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have recently experienced rapid development and garnered significant attention from various populations. Despite the wide recognition of MOOCs as an important opportunity within educational practices, there are still many questions as to how we might satisfy students' needs, as evidenced by very high dropout rates. Researchers lack a solid understanding of what student needs are being addressed by MOOCs, and how well MOOCs now address (or fail to address) these needs. To help in building such an understanding, we conducted in-depth interviews probing student motivations, learning perceptions and experiences towards MOOCs, paying special attention to the MOOC affordances and experiences that might lead to high drop rates. Our study identified learning motivations, learning patterns, and a number of factors that appear to influence student retention. We proposed that the issue of retention should be addressed from two perspectives: retention as a problem but also retention as an opportunity.
Research Interests:
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are commonly used to disseminate up-to-date news information, but they also contain a lot of noise and irrelevant content. The contents of social media platforms are typically filtered... more
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are commonly used to disseminate up-to-date news information, but they also contain a lot of noise and irrelevant content. The contents of social media platforms are typically filtered by followship or friendship oriented relationships, and is almost always driven by trending news topics at the national scale, making it difficult for users to gather useful information that is most pertinent to a local community context. Research has utilized content analysis techniques to gain insights on the sentiment expressed about political topics on social media sites. However, there has been little attempt to understand how users would perceive this information if opinions and sentiments about news topics were externalized and made aware to them. We designed Community Poll, a smartphone application that aggregates local news feeds with relevant tweets about the local news topics. A Public Attitude Meter is calculated based on the sentiment sc...
Dialectical constructivism considers that the source of knowledge comes from constant and complex interactions between the evolving individual and the developing environment (Moshman, 1982). Dialectical constructivism informs dialectical... more
Dialectical constructivism considers that the source of knowledge comes from constant and complex interactions between the evolving individual and the developing environment (Moshman, 1982). Dialectical constructivism informs dialectical learning pedagogy, where students constantly interact with each other in developing and refining arguments over an issue from multiple perspectives. With the advancement of the Internet, it is possible to design dialectical learning activities with technologies that can be seamlessly integrated into curriculum and facilitate learning. In this paper, we designed a prototype of a dialectical learning system, CriticalThinker, that engages students with dialectical constructivist activities, with technology affordances such as anchoring the group discussion on top of screen to serve as a reference for following discussions, displaying multiple arguments in one screen, and visualizing relationships among the arguments as a structured way for students to ...
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The automatic extraction of metadata and other information from scholarly documents is a common task in academic digital libraries, search engines, and document management systems to allow for the management and categorization of... more
The automatic extraction of metadata and other information from scholarly documents is a common task in academic digital libraries, search engines, and document management systems to allow for the management and categorization of documents and for search to take place. A Web-accessible API can simplify this extraction by providing a single point of operation for extraction that can be incorporated into multiple document workflows without the need for each workflow to implement and support its own extraction functionality. In this paper, we describe CiteSeerExtractor, a RESTful API for scholarly information extraction that exploits the fact that there is duplication in scholarly big data and makes use of a near duplicate matching backend. The backend stores previously extracted metadata and avoids extracting metadata from a document if it has already been extracted before. We describe the design, implementation, and functionality of CiteSeerExtractor and show how the duplicate document matching results in a difference of 8.46% in the time required to extract header and citation information from approximately 3.5 million documents compared to a baseline.
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The emergence of social media provides an additional channel for broadcasting information to the public and support two-way communication between governmental stakeholders and the public during crisis. Research has focused on large-scale... more
The emergence of social media provides an additional channel for broadcasting information to the public and support two-way communication between governmental stakeholders and the public during crisis. Research has focused on large-scale events, and few have investigated how social media can contribute to civic awareness and participation of small-scale incidents in a community-oriented context. Moreover, social media have been criticized because it is overabundant with noisy, inaccurate, and unprofessional information that are often misleading. This presents a serious challenge for community members to identify information that are relevant to a local incident. We introduce Community Incident Chatter (CIC), a smartphone application that is designed to aggregate information reported by formal news agencies and social media surrounding local incidents. Participants in a preliminary user study indicate that the community-oriented information presented in CIC is informative, relevant t...
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Commercial peer-to-peer service exchange businesses, such as AirBnB, Lyft and TaskRabbit, are expanding rapidly, but their non-profit counterparts are lagging behind. We conducted a field study of the most prominent of these, timebanking;... more
Commercial peer-to-peer service exchange businesses, such as AirBnB, Lyft and TaskRabbit, are expanding rapidly, but their non-profit counterparts are lagging behind. We conducted a field study of the most prominent of these, timebanking; a system in which 'time dollars' are earned and spent by people providing services for and receiving them from each other. Our study exposed problems with the very metaphor of banking itself, which deter participation. In this paper we discuss how these problems can be tackled with user experience design for systems supporting timebanking. Our design ideas emphasize the personal and social benefits of participation, and avoid such unappealing concepts as debt and neediness that the timebanking metaphor falls afoul of.
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One goal of local communities is to create and reinforce community identity by connecting residents to their local heritage. Technologies have enabled and facilitated the creation and consumption of digitized history content provided by... more
One goal of local communities is to create and reinforce community identity by connecting residents to their local heritage. Technologies have enabled and facilitated the creation and consumption of digitized history content provided by official history institutions as well as individuals. Although much research has been conducted to understand technical and social aspects of digital cultural heritage, little empirical research has investigated how people perceive, experience, and interact with community content that is socially generated and tied to locations, particularly with respect to building community heritage. To address this, we developed a mobile application called Lost State College (LSC) and conducted a user study with 34 local residents. The study results indicate that meaningful historic places evoked special attention from the participants, and that those who have lived in the community longer tended to contribute more to the community heritage effort. Participants utilized social features as a way of learning local history, reflecting personal experiences and stories, and co-creating rich layers of local history information from their perspectives.
Research Interests:
Previous research has shown that diversity within distributed collaborative teams can lead to innovation, but trust must exist for the open expression of innovative ideas and establishment of idea credibility. Initial trust is pivotal for... more
Previous research has shown that diversity within distributed collaborative teams can lead to innovation, but trust must exist for the open expression of innovative ideas and establishment of idea credibility. Initial trust is pivotal for distributed teams where team members have never met face-to-face and have only a very limited time to accomplish a task. Our goal is to determine if knowing specific information about other team members could enhance initial trust and improve productivity and satisfaction in idea generation and idea evaluation sessions. In an experiment, we showed that cognitive and affective trust could be successfully enhanced by presenting relevant information elements, such as domain expertise and personal hobbies, and could have positive effects on the quality and quantity of ideas in idea generation sessions as well as the satisfaction of the participants with the rating result in idea evaluation sessions. However, participants receiving personal information often misconstrue this as professional competency. We also describe gender differences observed in the idea generation sessions and discuss how to better design future systems for supporting idea generation and idea evaluation activities.
Research Interests:
Geographically distributed work has become a popular way to work. Past CSCW research has shown that remote workers rely on innovative communication platforms but still face challenges being remote. Research has also provided... more
Geographically distributed work has become a popular way to work. Past CSCW research has shown that remote workers rely on innovative communication platforms but still face challenges being remote. Research has also provided organizational and managerial strategies to bridge the distance gap. Our study in contrast investigates how individuals develop strategies to cope with the daily challenges of working remotely and alone, and what managers can do to help them. We interviewed seventeen individuals involved in remote work about their experiences, identifying unique challenges and their workarounds. Our interview results suggest that, although people may work alone, the process of conducting distributed work is actually very social. Individual remote workers establish a unique kind of work rhythm, visibility management for evaluation, social support infrastructure, and personal connection as a part of their coping strategies to balance their professional and personal lives.
Research Interests: Collaboration, Cross-Cultural Collaborations, Virtual Teams, Best Practices, Virtual Teams (Virtual Communication), and 7 moreGlobal virtual teams, Distributed Teams, Distributed Collaboration, REMOTE WORK, Challenges in working with remote communities, Communications and Time Zones, and Visibility Management
The latest in the most popular head-to-head fighting video series, Super Street Fighter IV by Capcom, now features spectating functionality. Coupled with audio chat, players can both watch and participate in matches with anyone in the... more
The latest in the most popular head-to-head fighting video series, Super Street Fighter IV by Capcom, now features spectating functionality. Coupled with audio chat, players can both watch and participate in matches with anyone in the world. We describe a video analysis of over 36 hours of gameplay in SSF4. Our results show that players can deftly structure audio when spectating to transform gameplay in SSF4. This new hybrid spectator sport in which boundaries between actor and audience are blurred exhibits three significant characteristics: the audio recreates the arcade culture, appropriates "invisible" but real players, and symbolically creates power relations between mute and speaking gamers. We also present exploratory evidence that suggests a starkly different experience for female gamers who wish to audibly join in virtual spectating.
Research Interests:
Group brainstorming is widely adopted as a design method in the domain of software development. However, existing brainstorming literature has consistently proven group brainstorming to be ineffective under the controlled laboratory... more
Group brainstorming is widely adopted as a design method in the domain of software development. However, existing brainstorming literature has consistently proven group brainstorming to be ineffective under the controlled laboratory settings. Yet, electronic brainstorming systems informed by the results of these prior laboratory studies have failed to gain adoption in the field because of the lack of support for group well-being and member support. Therefore, there is a need to better understand brainstorming in the field. In this work, we seek to understand why and how brainstorming is actually practiced, rather than how brainstorming practices deviate from formal brainstorming rules, by observing brainstorming meetings at Microsoft. The results of this work show that, contrary to the conventional brainstorming practices, software teams at Microsoft engage heavily in the constraint discovery process in their brainstorming meetings. We identified two types of constraints that occur in brainstorming meetings. Functional constraints are requirements and criteria that define the idea space, whereas practical constraints are limitations that prioritize the proposed solutions.
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Personal health records (PHR) have enormous potential to improve both documentation of health information and patient care. The adoption of these systems, however, has been relatively slow. In this work, we used a multi-method approach to... more
Personal health records (PHR) have enormous potential to improve both documentation of health information and patient care. The adoption of these systems, however, has been relatively slow. In this work, we used a multi-method approach to evaluate PHR systems. We interviewed potential end users---clinicians and patients---and conducted evaluations with patients and caregivers as well as a heuristic evaluation with HCI experts. In these studies, we focused on three PHR systems: Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault, and WorldMedCard. Our results demonstrate that both usability concerns and socio-cultural influences are barriers to PHR adoption and use. In this paper, we present those results as well as reflect on how both PHR designers and developers might address these issues now and throughout the design cycle.
Research Interests:
Collaborative brainstorming can be a challenging but important part of creative group problem solving. Mind-mapping has the potential to enhance the brainstorming process but has its own challenges when used in a group. We introduce... more
Collaborative brainstorming can be a challenging but important part of creative group problem solving. Mind-mapping has the potential to enhance the brainstorming process but has its own challenges when used in a group. We introduce GroupMind, a collaborative mind-mapping tool that addresses these challenges and opens new opportunities for creative teamwork, including brainstorming. We present a semi-controlled evaluation of GroupMind and its impact on teamwork, problem solving and collaboration for brainstorming activities. GroupMind performs better than using a traditional whiteboard in both interaction group and nominal group settings for the task involving memory recall. The hierarchical mind-map structure also imposes important framing effects on group dynamics and idea organization during the brainstorming process. We also present design ideas to assist in the development of future tools to support creative problem solving in groups.
Research Interests:
In this paper, we draw inspiration from the Discordant Chronic Comorbidity Care (DC 3) model. The model recognizes the complexities of DCCs and incorporates key strategies for assessing and addressing the complexities of DCCs care. We... more
In this paper, we draw inspiration from the Discordant Chronic Comorbidity Care (DC 3) model. The model recognizes the complexities of DCCs and incorporates key strategies for assessing and addressing the complexities of DCCs care. We worked with user experience design experts over several design sprints to come up with a conceptual design. It became clear early on that because of the changing DCCs care needs, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for DCCs needs. Thus, the effective care of DCCs requires a holistic approach. The holistic approach involves designers collecting multiple individual tools and mapping those tools to specific needs for DCC care and treatment, which ultimately results in the creation of an ecosystem. We discussed how this ecosystem may be optimized and personalized using machine learning to address individual DCCs needs. Furthermore, putting together these multiple sets of tools could introduce an engineering challenge. We provide strategies and recommendations for future work to address these engineering challenges and how to make a theoretical concept adaptable to technology.
Research Interests:
Patients with complex conditions and treatment plans often find it challenging to communicate with multiple providers and to prioritize various management tasks. The challenge is even greater for patients with discordant chronic... more
Patients with complex conditions and treatment plans often find it challenging to communicate with multiple providers and to prioritize various management tasks. The challenge is even greater for patients with discordant chronic comorbidities (DCCs), a situation where a patient has conditions that have unrelated and/or conflicting treatment plans. We present results that highlight these challenges from two studies. The first is a photo-elicitation study with patients with DCCs (n=16), and the second is an interview study of health providers (n=8). In an attempt to address these challenges, we introduce a model that captures the different stages of synthesizing information about symptoms and suggested medical treatments, decision making around possible treatment plans including prioritizing different portions of the plan, and implementing their plan. This model is iterative, such that changes in a plan can impact symptoms and necessitate revisiting the plan. We call this model the Discordant Chronic Condition Care (DC 3) model.
Research Interests:
Concerns regarding the environment and the impact humans constantly have on the environment has been a growing concern for decades, but there is still a substantial lack of environmental literacy and action among most of the population in... more
Concerns regarding the environment and the impact humans constantly have on the environment has been a growing concern for decades, but there is still a substantial lack of environmental literacy and action among most of the population in what they can do to reduce the damage they may be indirectly causing. Given that many people express an interest in helping the environment, this paper presents a prototype of a carbon footprint calculator which interprets a carbon footprint estimate into a form that can be more accessible to people so that they may be empowered to make more informed decisions with greater awareness of their own impact.
Research Interests:
Over the past twenty years, people have seen considerable growth in film industry. There are two common measurements for movie quality, financial metric of net profit and reception metric in the form of ratings assigned by moviegoers on... more
Over the past twenty years, people have seen considerable growth in film industry. There are two common measurements for movie quality, financial metric of net profit and reception metric in the form of ratings assigned by moviegoers on websites. Researchers have utilized these two metrics to build models for movie success prediction separately , while few of them investigate the combination. Therefore, in this paper, we analyze movie success from perspectives of financial and critical metrics in tandem. Here, optimal success is defined as a film that is both profitable and highly acclaimed, while its worst outcome involves financial loss and critical panning at the same time. Salient features that are salient to both financial and critical outcomes are identified in an attempt to uncover what makes a "good" movie "good" and a "bad" one "bad" as well as explain common phenomenons in movie industry quantitatively.
Research Interests:
Timebanking refers to community-based volunteering in which participants provide and receive services in exchange for time credits. Although timebanking takes advantage of web technologies, the lack of flexibility in managing web-based... more
Timebanking refers to community-based volunteering in which participants provide and receive services in exchange for time credits. Although timebanking takes advantage of web technologies, the lack of flexibility in managing web-based timebanking transactions and the difficulty of attracting younger adults whose contributions would be highly valuable to the community still remain as major challenges. The authors' design research attempts to address these issues by leveraging the unique affordances of smartphones and their attractiveness to young adults. In this paper, the authors introduce a timebanking smartphone application and present a 5-week user study with 32 young adults. The results highlight the potential of timebanking for young population with an application that facilitates access to communications and transaction-management activities, and strengthens social connection and the sense of community attachment. The authors in particular present new affordances of smartphone technology on timebanking, including (1) transaction time reduction, (2) location and time-sensitive timebanking activity support, and (3) real-time coordination. The authors discuss design challenges and opportunities of smartphone-based timebanking.
Research Interests:
Advances in data analytics and human computation are transforming how researchers conduct science in domains like bioinformatics, computational social science, and digital humanities. However, data analytics requires significant... more
Advances in data analytics and human computation are transforming how researchers conduct science in domains like bioinformatics, computational social science, and digital humanities. However, data analytics requires significant programming knowledge or access to technical experts, while human computation requires in-depth knowledge of crowd management and is error-prone due to lack of scientific domain expertise. The goal of this research is to empower a broader range of scientists and end-users to conduct data analytics by adopting the End-User Development (EUD) models commonly found in today's commercial software platforms like Microsoft Excel, Wikipedia and WordPress. These EUD platforms enable people to focus on producing content rather than struggling with a development environment and new programming syntax or relying on disciplinary non-experts for essential technical help. This research explores a similar paradigm for scientists and end-users that can be thought of as End-User Data Analytics (EUDA), or Transparent Machine Learning (TML).
Research Interests:
Excessive drinking among college students is a significant public health issue. Electronic Screening Brief Intervention (e-SBI) has been shown to be an effective prevention tool, and it has been implemented on personal computers, web,... more
Excessive drinking among college students is a significant public health issue. Electronic Screening Brief Intervention (e-SBI) has been shown to be an effective prevention tool, and it has been implemented on personal computers, web, mobile phones and social networking platforms. In this research, we asked college students to discuss about their perception of BACtrack Mobile Pro, the FDA-approved and consumer-oriented smart breathalyzer. We recruited 15 college students who have consumed alcohol regularly, asked them to use the smart breathalyzer for two weeks, and conducted pre-and post-study surveys and interviews. We identified five barriers with design opportunities for the smart breathalyzer: (1) Support from immediate family members or close friends, (2) Personalized results, (3) Intuitive status display, (4) Ac-cessorizing the form factor, and (5) Quicker access. Future mobile and smart wearable e-SBI interventions targeted at college students should take these design considerations into account.
Research Interests:
The Internet of Things integrates entities of the physical world by making them addressable through the Internet, and making the Internet accessible through physical objects. We draw on our own previous design research in community... more
The Internet of Things integrates entities of the physical world by making them addressable through the Internet, and making the Internet accessible through physical objects. We draw on our own previous design research in community informatics to explore a critical elaboration of the Internet of Things: The Internet of Places (IoP). IoP seeks to support awareness, engagement, and interaction pertaining to individual and collective human experiences, meaning making, activity, intentions, and values by computationally leveraging and integrating a wide range of human data with places to which those data refer. We describe design scenarios, prototypes, and user research at the scale of local community. We identify a critical alternative for humankind of hyperlocal community, enabling greater citizen awareness , engagement, participation, and power. We suggest that the Internet of Places at community-scale is the next generation-infrastructure for community networks in the 40-year tradition of the Berkeley Community Memory.
Research Interests:
This chapter seeks to elaborate on two points. First, the authors would like to focus on the inverted (flipped) classroom, by providing a detailed understanding of it, as well as, current practices. Second, the authors want to propose... more
This chapter seeks to elaborate on two points. First, the authors would like to focus on the inverted (flipped) classroom, by providing a detailed understanding of it, as well as, current practices. Second, the authors want to propose that instructors become end-user developers, in other words, becoming content creators and designers of their technology usage in the inverted classroom. For instance, several issues arise when using this teaching approach, such as resources, costs, time constraints, and the process of learning new technology. The authors believe that allowing instructors to harness technical ability is beneficial and critical to their success in implementing the inverted classroom.
Research Interests:
A prominent issue in community informatics is community awareness: the awareness of community members of activity in their community. Community awareness helps community members understand and appreciate their community, motivates them to... more
A prominent issue in community informatics is community awareness: the awareness of community members of activity in their community. Community awareness helps community members understand and appreciate their community, motivates them to participate and reciprocate, and evokes feelings of empathy, intimacy and solidarity. In this chapter we analyze community awareness technologies as helping community members feel more present to others and feel that others are more present to them. We draw upon several design investigations of supporting community awareness through aggregation of RSS feeds and Tweets, digital cultural heritage, volunteer efforts, and fieldwork understanding community awareness designs in the LiveStrong health community. Social presence is the feeling of being engaged with, and connected to others, the phenomenal sense of being together (see also Chapter 1, this volume). Conceptions of social presence derive from Goffman's (1959, 1963) analysis of co-presence a...
Research Interests:
African Americans/Blacks continue to be underrepresented as participants in Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia (ADRD) and brain research. Numerous challenges such as lack of information about the Alzheimer’s Disease and related... more
African Americans/Blacks continue to be underrepresented as participants in Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia (ADRD) and brain research. Numerous challenges such as lack of information about the Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia (ADRD), socioeconomic barriers, historical and systemic racism, and distrust of research goals and processes persist in research participation. Research approaches tend to be more recruitment oriented rather than partnership driven that do not address these challenges. As a result, community engagement approaches are increasingly being recognized as a means of building trust and creating new pathways for participation in ADRD studies. This poster focuses on the preliminary work of the Collaborative on Aging Research and Engagement (CARE) --- a community academic partnership comprising the CARE Advisory Team (a community action team of 10 African American leaders), Alzheimer’s Association, the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Indiana Chapter, IU Schools of Nursing, Public Health, and Informatics, Computer Science, and Engineering, and the Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. The goal of the partnership is to facilitate active engagement of African Americans aged 45 years and older in research opportunities taking place in in Central and Northwest Indiana. Experiences and perspectives shared at the CARE Advisory Team meetings as well as memos from the researcher staff generated five lessons learned in building relationship oriented, as opposed to recruitment driven, processes. These lessons will be used to develop a community engagement framework focused on the integration of culturally relevant outreach practices in promoting ADRD research opportunities in African American/Black communities.
Research Interests:
Anxiety is a prevalent mental health condition in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and physical activity (PA) presents potential for the alleviation of this symptom. Gamified mobile apps using behavior change techniques (BCTs)... more
Anxiety is a prevalent mental health condition in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and physical activity (PA) presents potential for the alleviation of this symptom. Gamified mobile apps using behavior change techniques (BCTs) demonstrate a promising way to increase PA and consequently reduce anxiety in adults with ASD.
PURPOSE: To compare the efficacy of a gamified BCT-based mobile app (PuzzleWalk) vs. a commercial app Google Fit on increasing PA and reducing sedentary time as an adjunct anxiety treatment for the target population.
METHODS: Using a covariate adaptive randomization design, 24 adults with ASD were assigned to either the PuzzleWalk or Google Fit group. PA, sedentary time, and anxiety were assessed for 7 days over three different data collection periods (i.e., baseline at 1st week, intervention start at 4th week, and intervention end at 8th week) using triaxial accelerometers (ActiGraph, Pensacola, FL) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. PA app usage time was also assessed at the intervention start and end time points using self-report surveys. Group differences in outcome variables were analyzed by repeated measures ANCOVA adjusting for age, sex, and body mass index as covariates.
RESULTS: (1) There was a significant overall within-group effect on increasing moderate to vigorous PA (F2, 38 = 3.47, p = 0.041, partial η2 = 0.15) and reducing sedentary time (F2, 38 = 6.83, p = 0.003, partial η2 = 0.26) from baseline to intervention start. (2) PuzzleWalk group spent a significantly larger amount of time for app use compared to Google Fit group (F2, 38 = 5.07, p = 0.011, partial η2 = 0.21). (3) Unexpectedly, anxiety was positively associated with light PA, steps, and total activity counts and negatively associated with sedentary time after intervention (all p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: A gamified, BCTs-based mobile app, PuzzleWalk, was comparable to Google Fit as both apps were effective at decreasing sedentary time and creating a short-term impact on increasing moderate to vigorous PA among adults with ASD. Further longitudinal research is warranted to evaluate the sustainability of and adoption factors for PuzzleWalk use and its relationship with anxiety symptoms in adults with ASD. Supported by the ACSM Foundation Doctoral Student Research Grant from the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation.
PURPOSE: To compare the efficacy of a gamified BCT-based mobile app (PuzzleWalk) vs. a commercial app Google Fit on increasing PA and reducing sedentary time as an adjunct anxiety treatment for the target population.
METHODS: Using a covariate adaptive randomization design, 24 adults with ASD were assigned to either the PuzzleWalk or Google Fit group. PA, sedentary time, and anxiety were assessed for 7 days over three different data collection periods (i.e., baseline at 1st week, intervention start at 4th week, and intervention end at 8th week) using triaxial accelerometers (ActiGraph, Pensacola, FL) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. PA app usage time was also assessed at the intervention start and end time points using self-report surveys. Group differences in outcome variables were analyzed by repeated measures ANCOVA adjusting for age, sex, and body mass index as covariates.
RESULTS: (1) There was a significant overall within-group effect on increasing moderate to vigorous PA (F2, 38 = 3.47, p = 0.041, partial η2 = 0.15) and reducing sedentary time (F2, 38 = 6.83, p = 0.003, partial η2 = 0.26) from baseline to intervention start. (2) PuzzleWalk group spent a significantly larger amount of time for app use compared to Google Fit group (F2, 38 = 5.07, p = 0.011, partial η2 = 0.21). (3) Unexpectedly, anxiety was positively associated with light PA, steps, and total activity counts and negatively associated with sedentary time after intervention (all p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: A gamified, BCTs-based mobile app, PuzzleWalk, was comparable to Google Fit as both apps were effective at decreasing sedentary time and creating a short-term impact on increasing moderate to vigorous PA among adults with ASD. Further longitudinal research is warranted to evaluate the sustainability of and adoption factors for PuzzleWalk use and its relationship with anxiety symptoms in adults with ASD. Supported by the ACSM Foundation Doctoral Student Research Grant from the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation.
Research Interests:
Despite the overall poor health profiles documented in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is little information on physical activity (PA) and sedentary time in this population, and the agreement between objective and... more
Despite the overall poor health profiles documented in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is little information on physical activity (PA) and sedentary time in this population, and the agreement between objective and subjective measures of these variables in adults with ASD is unknown.
PURPOSE: To examine the concordance between accelerometry-measured and self-reported PA and sedentary time in adults with ASD.
METHODS: Twenty-four adults with ASD wore GT3X+ tri-axial accelerometers (ActiGraph, Pensacola, FL) for seven consecutive days and completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) on the last day of their study participation to estimate PA and sedentary time. The standardized IPAQ-SF guidelines and commonly used ActiGraph data cleaning principles were employed to process subjective and objective measurements, respectively. Paired sample t-tests and Bland-Altman plots were utilized to assess the difference and magnitude of agreement between the two measures.
RESULTS: (1) Nearly 80% of the participants accumulated the recommended ≥150 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) while they were also highly sedentary (593.8 ± 106.9 min/day) according to accelerometry data. (2) Bland-Altman plots demonstrated that adults with ASD tended to overreport MVPA and underreport sedentary time via the IPAQ-SF, as compared to objective accelerometry-based measurements.
CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that PA intervention strategies for adults with ASD focus on reducing sedentary time as an independent health risk factor. Caution should be used when interpreting MVPA and sedentary time assessed by the IPAQ-SF due to potential over- and underestimation, respectively, in adults with ASD. Supported by the ACSM Foundation Doctoral Student Research Grant from the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation.
PURPOSE: To examine the concordance between accelerometry-measured and self-reported PA and sedentary time in adults with ASD.
METHODS: Twenty-four adults with ASD wore GT3X+ tri-axial accelerometers (ActiGraph, Pensacola, FL) for seven consecutive days and completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) on the last day of their study participation to estimate PA and sedentary time. The standardized IPAQ-SF guidelines and commonly used ActiGraph data cleaning principles were employed to process subjective and objective measurements, respectively. Paired sample t-tests and Bland-Altman plots were utilized to assess the difference and magnitude of agreement between the two measures.
RESULTS: (1) Nearly 80% of the participants accumulated the recommended ≥150 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) while they were also highly sedentary (593.8 ± 106.9 min/day) according to accelerometry data. (2) Bland-Altman plots demonstrated that adults with ASD tended to overreport MVPA and underreport sedentary time via the IPAQ-SF, as compared to objective accelerometry-based measurements.
CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that PA intervention strategies for adults with ASD focus on reducing sedentary time as an independent health risk factor. Caution should be used when interpreting MVPA and sedentary time assessed by the IPAQ-SF due to potential over- and underestimation, respectively, in adults with ASD. Supported by the ACSM Foundation Doctoral Student Research Grant from the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation.
Research Interests:
PURPOSE: Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are purportedly inactive, but this conclusion is inferred from data on children and youth, and parent proxy reports. Objective assessment using activity monitors is needed to better... more
PURPOSE: Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are purportedly inactive, but this conclusion is inferred from data on children and youth, and parent proxy reports. Objective assessment using activity monitors is needed to better understand physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior in this population segment. The purpose of this study was to examine the general levels of PA and sedentary time in adults with ASD using accelerometry.
METHODS: Eleven adults aged 18-55 (6 females; mean = 31.9, SD = 12.5) and diagnosed with ASD were included in the study. Participants wore a GT3X+ accelerometer on their right hip for 7 days during waking hours except water-based activities, and accelerometers were programmed to collect data in 60-second epochs. ≥ 10 hours of device wear was defined as a valid day and ≥ 3 valid days was required for each participant to be included in the analyses. Activity intensities were determined using the following cutoffs (counts/min): sedentary <100, low 100-499, light 500-2019, moderate 2020-5999, and vigorous >5999 (Tudor-Locke et al., 2010), and non-wear period was determined by a minimum length of 90 min of consecutive 0-counts by Choi algorithm (Choi et al., 2011). Descriptive statistics were calculated for moderate to vigorous PA, light- and low-intensity PA, sedentary time, and walking steps.
RESULTS: The average total monitored length was 761.5 min/day (SD = 76.4). Results of the PA measures are as follows: moderate to vigorous PA - 42.8 min/day (SD = 30.5); light PA - 109.9 min/day (SD = 32.4); low PA - 97.9 min/day (SD = 33.9); and sedentary time - 511 min/day (SD = 84.6). The daily average percentage of time spent in moderate to vigorous PA was 5.8% (SD = 4.4), and the average step counts were 3799.7 steps/day (SD = 2953.9). 81.8% of the participants met the recommended PA guidelines of 150 min of moderate to vigorous PA per week.
CONCLUSION: Although the majority of adults with ASD in this study met the PA guidelines, they were also extremely sedentary. More research is needed to determine if sedentary time, rather than PA, should be targeted to improve preventive health in adults with ASD.
METHODS: Eleven adults aged 18-55 (6 females; mean = 31.9, SD = 12.5) and diagnosed with ASD were included in the study. Participants wore a GT3X+ accelerometer on their right hip for 7 days during waking hours except water-based activities, and accelerometers were programmed to collect data in 60-second epochs. ≥ 10 hours of device wear was defined as a valid day and ≥ 3 valid days was required for each participant to be included in the analyses. Activity intensities were determined using the following cutoffs (counts/min): sedentary <100, low 100-499, light 500-2019, moderate 2020-5999, and vigorous >5999 (Tudor-Locke et al., 2010), and non-wear period was determined by a minimum length of 90 min of consecutive 0-counts by Choi algorithm (Choi et al., 2011). Descriptive statistics were calculated for moderate to vigorous PA, light- and low-intensity PA, sedentary time, and walking steps.
RESULTS: The average total monitored length was 761.5 min/day (SD = 76.4). Results of the PA measures are as follows: moderate to vigorous PA - 42.8 min/day (SD = 30.5); light PA - 109.9 min/day (SD = 32.4); low PA - 97.9 min/day (SD = 33.9); and sedentary time - 511 min/day (SD = 84.6). The daily average percentage of time spent in moderate to vigorous PA was 5.8% (SD = 4.4), and the average step counts were 3799.7 steps/day (SD = 2953.9). 81.8% of the participants met the recommended PA guidelines of 150 min of moderate to vigorous PA per week.
CONCLUSION: Although the majority of adults with ASD in this study met the PA guidelines, they were also extremely sedentary. More research is needed to determine if sedentary time, rather than PA, should be targeted to improve preventive health in adults with ASD.
Research Interests:
Mealtimes serve important social functions in our everyday lives. Public dining spaces on college campuses are positioned to be social and engaging spaces to make new connections. With the prevalence of digital devices, technology usage... more
Mealtimes serve important social functions in our everyday lives. Public dining spaces on college campuses are positioned to be social and engaging spaces to make new connections. With the prevalence of digital devices, technology usage introduces new dynamics into students' mealtimes. In this study, we explored the current mealtime technology usage patterns of college students and rethought the role of technology in eating. We proposed Meal Chat - a technology probe to explore the alternative role of technology during mealtimes by encouraging social interaction for students eating at on-campus public dining areas. Meal Chat aims to provide an opportunity for college students to socialize and reduce the barrier of starting mealtime socialization with a stranger. Rethinking the role of technology in mealtimes, Meal Chat seeks to prompt rather than to replace social interaction during mealtimes.
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Wildlife rehabilitation centers are tasked with the difficult challenge of providing medical care to wildlife while limiting human contact to ensure a successful transition into the wild. Building off of interviews with volunteers and 6... more
Wildlife rehabilitation centers are tasked with the difficult challenge of providing medical care to wildlife while limiting human contact to ensure a successful transition into the wild. Building off of interviews with volunteers and 6 months of participatory observation work, we present a smart habitat design for the rehabilitation of Virginian opossum joeys. Using maker technology, we crafted a prototype utilizing sensors, a microcontroller, and an android application. We then discuss the future direction for this project including improvements and a field deploy.
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Conducting HCI research with people living with HIV in face-to-face settings can be challenging in terms of recruitment and data collection due to HIV-related stigma. In this case study, we share our experiences from conducting research... more
Conducting HCI research with people living with HIV in face-to-face settings can be challenging in terms of recruitment and data collection due to HIV-related stigma. In this case study, we share our experiences from conducting research remotely in two studies using the Asynchronous Remote Communities method with participants recruited from in-person and online support groups, respectively. Our findings and discussion around challenges, best practices, and lessons learned during the phases of recruitment and data collection expand and further support the suitability of the method to conduct research remotely with a highly stigmatized population.
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Asynchronous Research Communities methodology (ARC) has been used to explore HCI topics in a range of contexts. This innovative methodology takes advantage of the technological tools and platforms that are often the subject of HCI... more
Asynchronous Research Communities methodology (ARC) has been used to explore HCI topics in a range of contexts. This innovative methodology takes advantage of the technological tools and platforms that are often the subject of HCI research to extend existing methods of data collection, pushing methodology beyond historical modes and allowing better connection with populations who have previously been left out of the research process. This SIG will make space for researchers and practitioners who are interested in using ARC methodology to connect with people who have already used ARC and discuss challenges and opportunities with this methodology, and how to extend similar kinds of innovative, distributed computing based methods into new contexts.
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The majority of studies of social relationships and cognitive function have focused on the general older population regardless of their living arrangements. Given that older adults living alone (OALA) are more likely to be isolated from... more
The majority of studies of social relationships and cognitive function have focused on the general older population regardless of their living arrangements. Given that older adults living alone (OALA) are more likely to be isolated from social network and formal sources of support than those who reside with others (non-OALA), investigating whether the roles of social relationships in cognitive function of older adults differ by living status is needed to better inform tailored interventions targeted at OALA. Further, little is known about how perceived neighborhood safety and trust of older adults are associated with the trajectory of cognitive function. Using multilevel modeling with data of adults over 65 years from the Health and Retirement Study, this study investigated whether the longitudinal associations of neighborhood disorder and subjective/objective social isolation with cognitive function differ by older adults’ living arrangements. Analyses were conducted on two subsets of 3,455/1,142 older adults who resided with others/lived alone from 2006 to 2016(2016 data released recently), respectively. Neighborhood disorder (non-OALA: β=-0.10; OALA: β=-0.12; both ps<.01) was associated with a decline in cognitive function regardless of living arrangements. Having friends (β=0.84, p<.01), frequently meeting with friends (β=0.19, p<.01) and positive support from children (β=0.41, p=.02) were related to retaining the cognitive function of OALA but not that of non-OALA. Comparing to non-OALA, maintaining the friendship is important to protect the cognitive function of OALA. Future aging-in-place interventions that prevent decline in cognitive function of OALA should enhance neighborhood safety and trust as well as strengthen community bonding.
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The goal of this workshop is to bring together CSCW audiences who engage in studies and interventions related to care work. Our aims are to understand how care has been conceptualized in the extant CSCW community, identify core issues and... more
The goal of this workshop is to bring together CSCW audiences who engage in studies and interventions related to care work. Our aims are to understand how care has been conceptualized in the extant CSCW community, identify core issues and concerns, and formalize how CSCW concepts could be used as a lens to inquire into this domain. We will explore the following themes: the invisibility of care work; the evolution of care labor; how care can often be sentimentalized, formalized, or infantilizing; and how we can attend to—and design for—the multiple experiences of care. Participants of this workshop will be invited to participate in future journal special issues and external grant writing activities.
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Conducting research with communities who are at risk of being stigmatized can be a challenging endeavor. It is often difficult to reach and recruit individuals for research purposes regarding a stigmatized condition or situation. Yet,... more
Conducting research with communities who are at risk of being stigmatized can be a challenging endeavor. It is often difficult to reach and recruit individuals for research purposes regarding a stigmatized condition or situation. Yet, researchers in our field have recognized the importance of work in this area and have individually developed a range of strategies to reach, recruit, and work with these populations. This workshop will invite researchers and practitioners to present, discuss, and compare strategies and experiences when working with stigmatized communities in the context of the ever-evolving nature of technology. The outcomes of the workshop will include an outline for an article that will summarize the strategies and practices discussed as well as identify the approaches that have led to the best outcomes across different populations.
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The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) paradigm has developed rapidly and achieved significant attention from a broad range of populations. However, many people who enroll in MOOCs do not have successful learning experiences. For example,... more
The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) paradigm has developed rapidly and achieved significant attention from a broad range of populations. However, many people who enroll in MOOCs do not have successful learning experiences. For example, some studies suggest that the relatively weak feelings of community and meager opportunities for collaboration may be contributing to a high dropout rate in MOOCs. In light of such problems, we are exploring new design features that could support enhanced social interactions, collaborative learning and feelings of community. We present our design ideas through a set of activity design scenarios, along with an analysis of possible benefits and negative consequences of our design.
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GitHub provides various social features for developers to collaborate with others. Those features are important for developers to coordinate their work (Dabbish et al., 2012; Marlow et al., 2013). We hypothesized that the social system of... more
GitHub provides various social features for developers to collaborate with others. Those features are important for developers to coordinate their work (Dabbish et al., 2012; Marlow et al., 2013). We hypothesized that the social system of GitHub users was bound by system interactions such that contributing to similar code repositories would lead to users following one another on GitHub or vice versa. Using a quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) correlation, however, only a weak correlation among followship and production activities (code, issue, and wiki contributions) was found. Survey with GitHub users revealed an ecosystem on the Internet for software developers, which includes many platforms, such as Forrst, Twitter, and Hacker News, among others. Developers make social introductions and other interactions on these platforms and engage with one anther on GitHub. Due to these preliminary findings, we describe GitHub as a part of a larger ecosystem of developer interactions.
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We introduce our ongoing work in community networks and present a system that aggregates geographical community news and events information from local news and social media. Our goal is to present community information according to its... more
We introduce our ongoing work in community networks and present a system that aggregates geographical community news and events information from local news and social media. Our goal is to present community information according to its content and to make it more visible to local residents, thereby increasing community awareness. We also present a data analysis of how local residents are connected by analyzing the usage of their tweets and discuss future directions for our system.
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Wiki-like or crowdsourcing models of collaboration can provide a number of benefits to academic work. These techniques may engage expertise from different disciplines, and potentially increase productivity. This paper presents a model of... more
Wiki-like or crowdsourcing models of collaboration can provide a number of benefits to academic work. These techniques may engage expertise from different disciplines, and potentially increase productivity. This paper presents a model of massively distributed collaborative authorship of academic papers. This model, developed by a collective of thirty authors, identifies key tools and techniques that would be necessary or useful to the writing process. The process of collaboratively writing this paper was used to discover, negotiate, and document issues in massively authored scholarship. Our work provides the first extensive discussion of the experiential aspects of large-scale collaborative research.
Research Interests: Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Academic Writing, Collaborative Virtual Environments, Crowdsourcing, and 8 moreAuthorship, Collaborative Writing, Open Collaboration, Open Collaboration Research, Distributed Authorship, Cooperative Writing, Scrittura Collaborativa, and Scrittura Collettiva
Transportation has evolved throughout the past several years through developments in HCI and sociotechnical systems. However, there has been a lack of studies examining transportation in rural areas for vulnerable populations. Our study... more
Transportation has evolved throughout the past several years through developments in HCI and sociotechnical systems. However, there has been a lack of studies examining transportation in rural areas for vulnerable populations. Our study focuses on the transportation facilitators and barriers faced by people living with HIV in rural areas. We were informed through 31 surveys and 18 interviews with people living with HIV in rural areas and their case coordinators. We highlight the importance of utilizing a patchwork of transportation methods and having social networks to support transportation needs. Emerging, popular forms of urban transportation do not translate well due to differences in trust, infrastructure, rural culture, and stigma.
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Background: Participation in regular physical activity (PA) helps reduce anxiety in the neurotypical population, but there have been no attempts to use PA as part of a treatment approach for anxiety in people with ASD. Anxiety is one of... more
Background: Participation in regular physical activity (PA) helps reduce anxiety in the neurotypical population, but there have been no attempts to use PA as part of a treatment approach for anxiety in people with ASD. Anxiety is one of the most common and debilitating co-occurring conditions in adults with autism spectrum diagnoses (ASD) and there are few, effective treatment options for this symptom. Research is needed to explore the potential of using PA participation as an adjunct treatment to alleviate anxiety in adults with ASD.
Objectives: The objective of this pilot study was to examine the relationship between PA, sedentary time, and anxiety in adults with ASD using a modified ecological momentary assessment.
Methods: Fourteen adults with ASD and anxiety (10 females; mean age = 28.9, SD = 8.5) were recruited via ASD support groups in social media. A Qulatrics self-report survey addressing PA (modified International Physical Activity Questionnaire), sedentary time, and anxiety occurrence and triggers (Ozsivadjian, Knott, & Magiati 2012) was delivered daily via text message to study participants at 8 pm for seven days. Participants with at least 3 days of valid responses were included in the analyses. Descriptive and correlational analyses were performed using SPSS and significance level was set at p < 0.05.
Results: 65 responses were included in the analyses. Median moderate to vigorous PA and sedentary times were 15 min/day (IQR = 52.5) and 540 min/day (IQR = 420), respectively. The most frequently reported anxiety triggers were specific fears and phobias (46.2%), confusion and worries about social and communication situations (41.5%), and too many demands or expectations (26.2%). Also, participants experienced frequent anxiety feelings during 3 – 5 pm (50.8%), 11 am – 1 pm (40%), and 1 – 3 pm (38.5%). Moderate to strong correlations were found between sedentary time and anxiety (rs = 0.34, p = 0.005) and between moderate to vigorous PA and physical health satisfaction (rs = 0.61, p = 0.027). Moderate to vigorous PA and sedentary time were also moderately negatively correlated (r = -0.42, p = 0.001).
Conclusions: Adults with ASD show low levels of daily PA and are highly sedentary. High levels of sedentary time are associated with anxiety in adults with ASD. Interventions that target reducing sedentary time, rather than PA, as a way to manage anxiety in adults with ASD warrant further study.
Objectives: The objective of this pilot study was to examine the relationship between PA, sedentary time, and anxiety in adults with ASD using a modified ecological momentary assessment.
Methods: Fourteen adults with ASD and anxiety (10 females; mean age = 28.9, SD = 8.5) were recruited via ASD support groups in social media. A Qulatrics self-report survey addressing PA (modified International Physical Activity Questionnaire), sedentary time, and anxiety occurrence and triggers (Ozsivadjian, Knott, & Magiati 2012) was delivered daily via text message to study participants at 8 pm for seven days. Participants with at least 3 days of valid responses were included in the analyses. Descriptive and correlational analyses were performed using SPSS and significance level was set at p < 0.05.
Results: 65 responses were included in the analyses. Median moderate to vigorous PA and sedentary times were 15 min/day (IQR = 52.5) and 540 min/day (IQR = 420), respectively. The most frequently reported anxiety triggers were specific fears and phobias (46.2%), confusion and worries about social and communication situations (41.5%), and too many demands or expectations (26.2%). Also, participants experienced frequent anxiety feelings during 3 – 5 pm (50.8%), 11 am – 1 pm (40%), and 1 – 3 pm (38.5%). Moderate to strong correlations were found between sedentary time and anxiety (rs = 0.34, p = 0.005) and between moderate to vigorous PA and physical health satisfaction (rs = 0.61, p = 0.027). Moderate to vigorous PA and sedentary time were also moderately negatively correlated (r = -0.42, p = 0.001).
Conclusions: Adults with ASD show low levels of daily PA and are highly sedentary. High levels of sedentary time are associated with anxiety in adults with ASD. Interventions that target reducing sedentary time, rather than PA, as a way to manage anxiety in adults with ASD warrant further study.
Research Interests:
Equine-assisted therapy has provided various treatments and activities with horses to improve one's physical and mental health. Few technologies has been utilized to promote the therapy in terms of its system and influences on clients and... more
Equine-assisted therapy has provided various treatments and activities with horses to improve one's physical and mental health. Few technologies has been utilized to promote the therapy in terms of its system and influences on clients and other stakeholders. We are conducting a study aiming to (1) understand stakeholders and their current practices and issues of the therapy which involve several stakeholders; (2) explore what and how technologies could support the stakeholders; (3) to design and develop technologies to promote equine-assisted therapy for the stakeholders. Observations and interviews have been conducted at a local facility for equine-assisted therapy, and we bring up additional questions considering other subjects (clients and horses) who need to be noticed differently.
Research Interests:
Over two million people in the U.S. are living with epilepsy, which is one of most common chronic neu-rological condition. They have experienced challenges such as quality of health care, care coordination, and risks of sudden unexpected... more
Over two million people in the U.S. are living with epilepsy, which is one of most common chronic neu-rological condition. They have experienced challenges such as quality of health care, care coordination, and risks of sudden unexpected death. People with epilepsy and their caregivers (PWEC) desire for more resources and improvement in self-management. Our goal is to develop a patient-centered web service for them. Before we develop it, we conducted a focus group study to understand their needs, concerns, contexts of health information management, and experiences. Our preliminary findings include: (1) information seeking for treatment and side effect, (2) information sharing challenges with families and caregivers, and (3) preference for personalization and tailored information. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Health care information systems; Health informatics; • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI). INTRODUCTION Epilepsy is a chronic medical condition, which is one of the most common neurological diseases such as migraine, stroke, and Alzheimer's disease [3]. Over two million people in the U.S. are living with epilepsy [2]. Challenges of people with epilepsy include quality of care, care coordination, side effects, stigma, uncertainties of social situations, risks of sudden unexpected death, etc [1, 5]. PWEC desire to find more resources and services and improve their self-management [7]. Our research goal is to develop a patient-centered web service for PWEC which will improve PWEC's activation-the degree to which a person has the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage epilepsy. Our research team will develop a personalized Automated User Resource Atheneum (myAURA) by integrating big data resources into a large-scale epilepsy knowledge graph that will fuel novel network inference methods to recommend and visualize relevant information in a personalized manner. However, before we develop the system, we conducted the first stage of our user study to understand PWEC's needs, concerns, contexts, and experiences in terms of health information management. We present preliminary results of this user study here.
Research Interests:
Background: Limited research indicates that adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not meet physical activity (PA) guidelines and are highly sedentary. Inadequate PA is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide, but little is... more
Background: Limited research indicates that adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not meet physical activity (PA) guidelines and are highly sedentary. Inadequate PA is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide, but little is known about PA, sedentary time (ST), and factors influencing these variables in adults with ASD. Technology is used as an educational and social intervention for people with ASD, yet is also associated with low PA and high ST in the neurotypical population. It is important to determine if technology use is also associated with low PA and high ST in adults with ASD to better understand these health variables in this unique population.
Objectives: (1) Assess PA and ST levels, and technology use in a large sample of adults with ASD and (2) examine factors that influence PA and ST, particularly technology, in adults with ASD.
Methods: A self-report, online survey addressing autism symptoms (Autism Spectrum Quotient-10; AQ10), PA and ST (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), and technology use was developed, assessed for content validity, and pretested with 6 adults with ASD. Participants were recruited via ASD support groups in social media and direct contact with ASD advocacy organizations in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. A 15-minute minimum survey completion time and AQ10 score ⩾6 were used to verify valid responses and meeting the inclusion criteria. Stepwise forward multiple regressions were generated to explain the variation in PA and ST, with demographic variables, time spent in technology use, and AQ10 score as predictor variables. No multicollinearity was observed in the models. Analyses were performed using SPSS and significance level was set at p < 0.05.
Results: Of the 802 survey responses received, 229 were included in the analyses. Adults with ASD engaged in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) x̅=128.3±114.8 min/week. Median sedentary time was similar for weekdays (470 min/day, IQR = 300) and weekends (420 min/day, IQR= 240). Participants spent x̅=590.2±331.7 min/day using technology devices for Internet surfing (x̅=145.8±126.2 min/day), entertainment (x̅ = 106.8±93.4 min/day), and social media (x̅=80±69.1 min/day). Moderate positive correlations were found between technology use and weekdays (r = 0.416, p < 0.001) and weekends (r = 0.417, p < 0.001) ST. AQ10 score was the strongest negative predictor of total PA time in 3 regression models (β = -0.360, p < 0.001; β = -0.323, p < 0.001; β = -0.258, p = 0.001). Technology use time strongly predicted ST in both weekdays (β = 0.399, p < 0.001) and weekends (β = 0.422, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Adults with ASD do not acquire the recommended 150 min/week of MVPA, spend excessive time using technology and are highly sedentary. Additionally, more autistic symptoms and more time spent using technology lead to more ST. These data indicate that PA and ST interventions are needed to meet the unique health needs of adults with ASD, particularly those with more symptoms. It is recommended that technology use to be leveraged as an intervention tool to address these health variables in adults with ASD.
Objectives: (1) Assess PA and ST levels, and technology use in a large sample of adults with ASD and (2) examine factors that influence PA and ST, particularly technology, in adults with ASD.
Methods: A self-report, online survey addressing autism symptoms (Autism Spectrum Quotient-10; AQ10), PA and ST (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), and technology use was developed, assessed for content validity, and pretested with 6 adults with ASD. Participants were recruited via ASD support groups in social media and direct contact with ASD advocacy organizations in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. A 15-minute minimum survey completion time and AQ10 score ⩾6 were used to verify valid responses and meeting the inclusion criteria. Stepwise forward multiple regressions were generated to explain the variation in PA and ST, with demographic variables, time spent in technology use, and AQ10 score as predictor variables. No multicollinearity was observed in the models. Analyses were performed using SPSS and significance level was set at p < 0.05.
Results: Of the 802 survey responses received, 229 were included in the analyses. Adults with ASD engaged in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) x̅=128.3±114.8 min/week. Median sedentary time was similar for weekdays (470 min/day, IQR = 300) and weekends (420 min/day, IQR= 240). Participants spent x̅=590.2±331.7 min/day using technology devices for Internet surfing (x̅=145.8±126.2 min/day), entertainment (x̅ = 106.8±93.4 min/day), and social media (x̅=80±69.1 min/day). Moderate positive correlations were found between technology use and weekdays (r = 0.416, p < 0.001) and weekends (r = 0.417, p < 0.001) ST. AQ10 score was the strongest negative predictor of total PA time in 3 regression models (β = -0.360, p < 0.001; β = -0.323, p < 0.001; β = -0.258, p = 0.001). Technology use time strongly predicted ST in both weekdays (β = 0.399, p < 0.001) and weekends (β = 0.422, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Adults with ASD do not acquire the recommended 150 min/week of MVPA, spend excessive time using technology and are highly sedentary. Additionally, more autistic symptoms and more time spent using technology lead to more ST. These data indicate that PA and ST interventions are needed to meet the unique health needs of adults with ASD, particularly those with more symptoms. It is recommended that technology use to be leveraged as an intervention tool to address these health variables in adults with ASD.
Research Interests:
When older adults develop certain medical or physical challenges , a family member typically fills the role of primary caregiver. These family caregivers can sometimes feel overburdened when juggling their caregiving responsibilities with... more
When older adults develop certain medical or physical challenges , a family member typically fills the role of primary caregiver. These family caregivers can sometimes feel overburdened when juggling their caregiving responsibilities with the rest of their lives, and that can negatively impact their health. Respite care provides a temporary break to family caregivers. Even though there are benefits of using respite care, barriers such as uncertainty and mistrust exist. Our research is focusing on what trust issues caregivers experience and how information sharing through ICT could mitigate the issues and improve the quality of temporary care work. In this position paper, we present a summary of current issues and practices of family caregivers of older adults and respite care, and introduce our ongoing study to find ways to build trust through information sharing between family caregivers and respite care providers.
Research Interests:
Patients with Discordant Chronic Comorbidities (DCCs) either are experiencing multiple conditions that are not related in their treatment plans and management, or are dealing with the simultaneous presence of two or more chronic illnesses... more
Patients with Discordant Chronic Comorbidities (DCCs) either are experiencing multiple conditions that are not related in their treatment plans and management, or are dealing with the simultaneous presence of two or more chronic illnesses with opposing treatment instructions. These conditions can make it difficult for patients and health-care providers to prioritize and manage the treatment of each individual disease. Some difficulties that arise from having DCCs include medication conflicts, social and familial dependencies, seeing multiple health care providers, and managing multiple treatments simultaneously. This paper highlights barriers faced by patients with type 2 diabetes and either depression or arthritis, describes a design process, and presents a design of a digital tool to support patients with DCCs in managing their health. The design ideas presented in this work were influenced by the health care management needs, barriers and opportunities suggested by patients with type 2 diabetes and DCCs.
Research Interests:
Excessive drinking among college students is a significant public health issue. Electronic Screening Brief Intervention (e-SBI) has been shown to be an effective prevention device, and it has been instrumented on personal computer, web,... more
Excessive drinking among college students is a significant public health issue. Electronic Screening Brief Intervention (e-SBI) has been shown to be an effective prevention device, and it has been instrumented on personal computer, web, mobile phones or social networking platforms. In this research, we asked college students to discuss about their perception of BACtrack Mobile Pro, the first FDA-approved personal smart breathalyzer. We recruited 15 college students who have consumed alcohol regularly and asked them to use the smart breathalyzer for two weeks. We conducted online surveys and in-person interviews. We identified five main issues of the smart breathalyzer from the participants: (1) Support from immediate family members or close friends, (2) Personalization, (3) Intuitive display of results, (4) Attachment to users, and (5) Quicker access. Future mobile and smart wearable e-SBI interventions targeted at college students should take these design considerations into account in order.
Research Interests:
The experience of grief and death is an inevitable part of life. Grief, a natural response to death, can be a challenging and emotionally taxing journey. Bereaved individuals often feel lost in a fog of grief, unaware of the resources... more
The experience of grief and death is an inevitable part of life. Grief, a natural response to death, can be a challenging and emotionally taxing journey. Bereaved individuals often feel lost in a fog of grief, unaware of the resources that are available to them or are unsure which resources could be the most useful. The intersection of grief and technology presents both an interesting challenge and opportunity for the HCI community to design technological tools to support the grieving process. In this paper, we present the results of our survey and interview study on the technological practices of the bereaved. We surveyed both online and local in-person support groups. We then used iterative, inductive analysis and open-coding to analyze our survey data. From this analysis, we identified four common themes: connection, research and reading, legacy, and finding a personal preference for support groups. Based on these themes, we prototyped a mobile application to support the bereaved and those close to them. This prototype creates a centralized space for resources for both the bereaved and those in their support network, and includes educational content on grief, links to local and online support groups, and a tool for sharing individual stories of grief and loss.
Research Interests:
The Asynchronous Remote Community (ARC) method draws from existing Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methods such as focus groups, interviews, diaries, and scenarios. It applies them to an online platform to take advantage of the unique... more
The Asynchronous Remote Community (ARC) method draws from existing Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methods such as focus groups, interviews, diaries, and scenarios. It applies them to an online platform to take advantage of the unique properties of qualitative research conducted through online forums. Drawing on existing literature 1, 2 and our experiences running an ARC study with individuals living with HIV, we provide a guide to the most important considerations in conducting an ARC study. This guide emphasizes (1) when and how to use ARC, (2) special considerations for specific populations, and (3) considerations when choosing activities. We end with a discussion of how to move forward to develop a toolkit to assist with future ARC research.
Research Interests:
Decision-making has long been studied to understand a psychological, cognitive, and social process of selecting an effective choice from alternative options. Its studies have been extended from a personal level to a group and... more
Decision-making has long been studied to understand a psychological, cognitive, and social process of selecting an effective choice from alternative options. Its studies have been extended from a personal level to a group and collaborative level, and many computer-aided decision-making systems have been developed to help people make right decisions. There has been significant research growth in computational aspects of decision-making systems, yet comparatively little effort has existed in identifying and articulating user needs and requirements in assessing system outputs and the extent to which human judgments could be utilized for making accurate and reliable decisions. Our research focus is decision-making through human-centered and computational intelligence methods in a collaborative environment, and the objectives of this position paper are to bring our research ideas to the workshop, and share and discuss ideas.
Research Interests:
The Quantified Self movement has resulted in tracking and visualization technologies that allow people to become more aware of their own and their pets' activity levels as incentives for living healthier lifestyles. Zoos provide another... more
The Quantified Self movement has resulted in tracking and visualization technologies that allow people to become more aware of their own and their pets' activity levels as incentives for living healthier lifestyles. Zoos provide another opportunity within this movement to further promote public awareness of human and animal well-being. In this position paper, we extend the possibilities of the Quantified Self movement to those of the Quantified Other and the Smart Habitat. We explore the possibility of engaging virtual and in-person zoo visitors by allowing them to compare their activity data to that of their pets and zoo animals, and also to promote awareness of animal well-being by comparing the activity data of zoo animals in a variety of habitat configurations. We propose the notion of Interspecies Computer Interaction (ICI) to mutually benefit human and non-human animal well-being.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Idea Generation has been a topic of creativity research for centuries. A wealth of creative processes has been devised to overcome difficulties at the perceptual, emotional, and cultural levels. Brainstorming in particular has grown to... more
Idea Generation has been a topic of creativity research for centuries. A wealth of creative processes has been devised to overcome difficulties at the perceptual, emotional, and cultural levels. Brainstorming in particular has grown to become synonymous with idea generation. This paper discusses our preliminary study on current conception of brainstorming and calls for future studies that help understand brainstorming as a set of guidelines rather than strict rules that creative teams follow. We also propose using mind-map as an effective visualization aid for creative processes.