Family health informatics tools can help support well-being with shared data tracking. Prior work typically focused on shared data review, but often in specific moments, like bedtime, or centered on caregiving of children or elderly members. To investigate how tracking can support mutual health collaboration between family members pervasively across daily contexts, we designed and deployed FamilyBloom, a glanceable smartwatch and home display system for mood and goal tracking. Twelve families with both neurotypical and ADHD members used FamilyBloom for three months on average. Our findings reveal how family-centered tracking created collaboration opportunities and tensions across multiple ecological systems: individual self-regulation, collaborations within family dynamics, involvement of care networks with varying trust levels, institutional school constraints and cultural stigma, and temporality of regular routines and crisis periods. We discuss an ecosystem-aware approach to family informatics, wherein design can attend to how families navigate multiple contexts while sustaining family-level collaboration.

While technology is widely recognised as a tool to enhance wellbeing, there is no clear consensus on the best practices for design. Persuasive strategies, such as nudging, are often seen as effective but raise ethical concerns. Reflection-based approaches offer a potential alternative. However, a clear understanding of the balance between these strategies is crucial for designing effective and ethically sound wellbeing technologies. We conducted two studies with a total of n = 163 participants comparing nudging and reflection techniques using contrasting prototypes of fitness wearables. We verified that the prototypes represented key nudging and reflection strategies through expert feedback. Our mixed-methods inquiry shows that certain nudging strategies are perceived as more malicious and more likely to provoke rumination, i.e., negative thought cycles, compared to other wellbeing strategies. We contribute insights to inform design decisions for wellbeing technologies, balancing effectiveness with ethical considerations.

Figure 1: Screenshots from PuppetVR: (a) Bird's-eye view of the virtual environment.(b) Close-up of a recorded layered interaction of three of the puppets.(c) In-world user interface panels with controls and a task list with onboarding instructions.

Recent HCI research emphasizes the importance of considering children's care ecosystems in the design of systems that support their well-being, including not only family, but also extended support networks, such as teachers and therapists.While this approach offers opportunities for care and collaboration, it also introduces challenges such as recruitment, appropriate methods, power dynamics, navigating diverse perspectives, and ethical considerations.This workshop 1 seeks to bring together IDC researchers and practitioners to discuss opportunities, challenges, methods, and tools towards a research agenda for designing technologies for and with children and their care ecosystems.It also aims to foster collaboration and strengthen the community by facilitating networking among researchers towards conducting multi-stakeholder research.

Dark patterns are deceptive strategies that recent work in humancomputer interaction (HCI) has captured throughout digital domains, including social networking sites (SNSs).While research has identified difficulties among people to recognise dark patterns effectively, few studies consider vulnerable populations and their experience in this regard, including people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who may be especially susceptible to attention-grabbing tricks.Based on an interactive web study with 135 participants, we investigate SNS users' ability to recognise and avoid dark patterns by comparing results from participants with and without ADHD.In line with prior work, we noticed overall low recognition of dark patterns with no significant differences between the two groups.Yet, ADHD individuals were able to avoid specific dark patterns more often.Our results advance previous work by understanding dark patterns in a realistic environment and offer insights into their effect on vulnerable populations.

While Personal Informatics (PI) tools utilise data visualisations to communicate behaviour, users often struggle to make sense of their data and translate it to actionable insights. Conversational Agents (CAs) offer potential for improved access to PI data, yet their role in PI tools remains under-explored. We conducted a two-week user study with journals, interviews and logging with n = 36 participants using a novel commercial fitness tracker with an embedded CA. We identified the give and take principle as essential for meaningful sensemaking with a CA—a dynamic resulting in more effective interactions given users’ inputs ( give ) are met with prompts that are sufficiently specific and built upon prior data engagement ( take ). A critical point was how users perceived the CA during their initial interactions, with first impressions often determining further engagement. We contribute insights into how CAs can support or hinder the PI experience, offering implications for future PI system designs.

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their caregivers face daily challenges which can adversely affect their well-being, especially regarding communication within their care ecosystems, comprising family, friends, educators, and therapists. To foster communication among children and their care ecosystem and support their well-being, we created REMEMO, a mobile app that was iteratively designed and evaluated by actively involving ADHD children and their caregivers. REMEMO supports both individual and collaborative use, offering tailored features for different user groups: children, parents, or therapists and educators. Its primary function is to enable users to record their experiences and emotions and choose whether to share these with other members of the care ecosystem. We deployed REMEMO in a multi-week field study with five groups encompassing ADHD children (total participants n=18). Our analysis showed that REMEMO can support emotional expression, regulation, reflection, transparent and affectionate communication, as well as therapeutic practices, addressing needs of both ADHD children and their caregivers. Our findings also highlight the critical role of mutual understanding regarding technology use and contextual challenges in shaping usage patterns. We discuss opportunities and challenges in designing technologies that cater to the varying needs of different stakeholders of ADHD children's care ecosystems and engage in critical reflection regarding evaluating technologies with vulnerable populations, such as families of ADHD children.

Building tangible interfaces or data physicalizations is a resource-intensive endeavour. There is a need for rapid means to prototype tangibles in order to facilitate research and design. To this end, we designed ProtoBricks: a research toolkit that uses capacitive bricks to facilitate rapid prototyping for tangible interfaces. Utilizing toy bricks that do not contain electronics, ProtoBricks can record brick position and color. Specialized knowledge is not required to build our system as it uses widely available components and 3D printing. We contribute the full software and hardware specification of the toolkit. We evaluate the utility of the toolkit by reporting on past use cases and prototyping workshops. We show that the toolkit facilitates creativity and effectively supports prototyping. ProtoBricks lowers the entry threshold for experimenting with tangible interfaces and enables researchers and designers to focus on the interaction with their prototype, delegating implementation to the toolkit.

Many technologies for ADHD children and their caregivers focus on symptom management rather than overall well-being, often without involving them as technology co-designers and co-users. To explore how to design systems that integrate into their home and routines, we contribute the iterative design of MoodGems, a situated, modular, and portable set of physical displays, that allows children to record and share their data with their families. We conducted an online formative evaluation (n = 22) with ADHD children, parents, therapists, and HCI experts. Our work demonstrates the potential of technologies affording both individual and joint tracking to allow children to navigate and reflect on their experiences and emotions, and support family communication and children’s autonomy. The evaluation also uncovered necessary refinements in the system’s design. We contribute design insights towards technologies that empower ADHD children and integrate into their homes, and discuss therapists’ role in technologies that address ADHD families’ lived experiences.

Autoethnography is a valuable methodological approach bridging the gap between personal experiences and academic inquiry, enabling researchers to gain deep insights into various dimensions of technology use and design. While its adoption in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) continues to grow, a comprehensive investigation of its function and role within HCI research is still lacking. This paper examines the evolving landscape of autoethnographies within HCI over the past two decades through a systematic literature review. We identify prevalent themes, methodologies, and contributions emerging from autoethnographies by analysing a corpus of 31 HCI publications. Furthermore, we detail data collection techniques and analysis methods and describe reporting standards. Our literature review aims to inform future (HCI) researchers, practitioners, and designers. It encourages them to embrace autoethnography’s rich opportunities by providing examples across domains (e.g., embodiment or health and wellbeing) to advance our understanding of the complex relationships between humans and technology.

Adolescence is a period of growth and exploration, marked by influential relationships with peers and parents. These relationships are essential for teenagers’ well-being, highlighting the need to support their interpersonal interactions. Emotional expression is key in resolving conflicts that can frequently arise. This paper investigates the potential of TeenWorlds, a Virtual Reality (VR) application, to facilitate emotional expression and shared understanding among teenagers and their peers and parents. In our study, teenagers, accompanied by either a peer or a parent (total n=42), used TeenWorlds to visually represent their emotions during a shared conflict, discuss them, and collaborate on a joint VR drawing. Our findings indicate that TeenWorlds can foster communication, reflection, and strengthen interpersonal relationships. However, notable differences were observed in interactions with peers versus parents. We contribute insights into designing VR systems that support reflective experiences and meaningful family interactions, ultimately enhancing the well-being of adolescents, parents, and families.

Whether it is sleep, diet, or procrastination, changing behaviours can be challenging. Individuals could design and build their own personalised digital interventions to help them reach their goals, but little is known about this process. Building upon previous research we propose the Behaviour Change with Trigger-Action Programming (BC-TAP) model which describes how individuals could bridge the gap between their current and desired behaviour through the creation of 'Do-It-Yourself' (DIY) digital interventions. We conducted a two-day participatory workshop based on the BC-TAP model with 28 participants. Participants articulated plans to change a behaviour of their choice and represented these plans in mobile device automations. After using their interventions for up to three weeks, participants reflected on their experience. Our findings report opportunities and challenges at each stage of the process. While formulating a digital proxy for certain behaviours was challenging, both failures and successes facilitated participants' awareness of their behaviour, and their ability to change it.

Playing together is crucial to the unique and invaluable bond between grandparents and grandchildren. However, co-located interactions and play can be limited due to time, distance, or pandemic-related restrictions. To facilitate distributed play, we developed MagiBricks, a system comprised of 3D-printed smart toy bricks and baseplates that provide feedback regarding their placement. The familiarity and appeal of toy bricks to both older adults and children make them ideal for intergenerational play. We conducted a within-subjects study with six grandparent-grandchildren pairs. We compared the interactions and perceived connectedness of the pairs while playing over a distance with either i) MagiBricks or ii) identical regular toy bricks. We found that MagiBricks affected communication dynamics, role taking, nature of play, and perception of connectedness during playtime compared to regular bricks, and were unanimously preferred. We contribute design implications for future systems leveraging (smart) tangibles and fostering intergenerational connectedness.

This paper analyses Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) literature reviews to provide a clear conceptual basis for authors, reviewers, and readers. HCI is multidisciplinary and various types of literature reviews exist, from systematic to critical reviews in the style of essays. Yet, there is insufficient consensus of what to expect of literature reviews in HCI. Thus, a shared understanding of literature reviews and clear terminology is needed to plan, evaluate, and use literature reviews, and to further improve review methodology. We analysed 189 literature reviews published at all SIGCHI conferences and ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) up until August 2022. We report on the main dimensions of variation: (i) contribution types and topics; and (ii) structure and methodologies applied. We identify gaps and trends to inform future meta work in HCI and provide a starting point on how to move towards a more comprehensive terminology system of literature reviews in HCI.

Designing for children with ADHD has been of increasing interest to the HCI community. However, current approaches do not adequately involve all relevant stakeholders, and primarily focus on addressing symptoms, following a medical model of disability that is extrinsic to neurodivergent interests. To address this, we employed a multi-step, multi-stakeholder approach (N=31). First, we conducted 1) interviews with children with ADHD and their care ecosystem followed by 2) a co-design pilot with one child with ADHD and his therapists and an interview with a UX designer and an occupational therapist. We then employed 3) co-design sessions with neurotypical children and children with ADHD, and 4) a focus group with their therapists. We identified communication and reflection as key concepts for empowering and promoting the well-being of children with ADHD and their care ecosystem. We contribute design implications for future systems aiming to promote the overall well-being of this population.

Reflecting on personal challenges can be difficult. Without encouragement, the reflection process often remains superficial, thus inhibiting deeper understanding and learning from past experiences. To allow people to immerse themselves in and deeply reflect on past challenges, we developed SelVReflect, a VR experience which offers active voice-based guidance and a space to freely express oneself. SelVReflect was developed in an iterative design process (N=5) and evaluated in a user study with N=20 participants. We found that SelVReflect enabled participants to approach their challenge and its (emotional) components from different perspectives and to discover new relationships between these components. By making use of the spatial possibilities in VR, participants developed a better understanding of the situation and of themselves. We contribute empirical evidence of how a guided VR experience can support reflection. We discuss opportunities and design requirements for guided VR experiences that aim to foster deeper reflection.

This extended research abstract for the Doctoral Consortium at IDC 2022 describes my PhD project, started in August 2020. My research focus lies on exploring ways to improve the digital well-being of both neurotypical and neurodivergent children, considering their care ecosystem. Neurodiversity refers to a divergence from the norms that usually define individuals as neurotypical, expressing a variety in the human brain activity. The care ecosystems includes all stakeholders who play a part in the lives and everyday experiences of children, from parents, siblings and extended family, to peers, teachers, and potential therapists. In the context of my PhD, I explore the following key aspects with the goal to promote the digital well-being of children and their care ecosystem: i) building understanding, ii) facilitating empowerment, and iii) fostering connectedness.

This paper presents a systematic review of HCI literature focusing on children with ADHD, the prevailing mental health diagnosis in children. Its aim is to (i) chart the state-of-the-art in this domain (e.g. methods used), (ii) identify the ways the HCI community has addressed the needs of children with ADHD (e.g. technologies deployed), and (iii) describe the involvement of the various stakeholders playing a role in their everyday experiences (i.e. their care ecosystem). Our findings show limited engagement of the care ecosystem in the design, development and user studies of current technologies, and shortcomings in designing for multiple ecosystem stakeholders, despite their crucial role. We also find that most HCI contributions are systems aiming to address ADHD-related symptoms. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for further research and design considerations for future systems that empower and promote the well-being of children with ADHD, while considering their care ecosystem.

While the body of research focusing on Intelligent Environments (IEs) programming by adults is steadily growing, informed insights about children as programmers of such environments are limited. Previous work already established that young children can learn programming basics. Yet, there is still a need to investigate whether this capability can be transferred in the context of IEs, since encouraging children to participate in the management of their intelligent surroundings can enhance responsibility, independence, and the spirit of cooperation. We performed a user study (N=15) with children aged 7-12, using a block-based, gamified AR spatial coding prototype allowing to manipulate smart artifacts in an Intelligent Living room. Our results validated that children understand and can indeed program IEs. Based on our findings, we contribute preliminary implications regarding the use of specific technologies and paradigms (e.g. AR, trigger-action programming) to inspire future systems that enable children to create enriching experiences in IEs.

With the rise of COVID-19 cases globally, many countries released digital tools to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. In Germany the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) published the Corona-Data-Donation-App, a virtual citizen science (VCS) project, to establish an early warning system for the prediction of potential COVID-19 hotspots using data from wearable devices. While work on motivation for VCS projects in HCI often presents egoistic motives as prevailing, there is little research on such motives in crises situations. In this paper, we explore the socio-psychological processes and motivations to share personal data during a pandemic. Our findings indicate that collective motives dominated among app reviews (n=464) and in in-depth interviews (n=10). We contribute implications for future VCS tools in times of crises that highlight the importance of communication, transparency and responsibility.