Data tables play a central role in scientific papers. However, their meaning is often co-constructed with surrounding text through narrative interplay, making comprehension cognitively demanding for readers. In this work, we explore how interfaces can better support this reading process. We conducted a formative study that revealed key characteristics of text-table narrative interplay, including linking mechanisms, multi-granularity alignments, and mention typologies, as well as a layered framework of readers’ intents. Informed by these insights, we present TableTale, an augmented reading interface that enriches text with data tables at multiple granularities, including paragraphs, sentences, and mentions. TableTale automatically constructs a document-level linking schema within the paper and progressively renders cascade visual cues on text and tables that unfold as readers move through the text. A within-subject study with 24 participants showed that TableTale reduced cognitive workload and improved reading efficiency, demonstrating its potential to enhance paper reading and inform future reading interface design.

Indexical storytelling is gaining popularity in video games, where the narrative unfolds through fragmented clues. This approach fosters player-generated content and discussion, as story interpreters piece together the overarching narrative from these scattered elements. However, the fragmented and non-linear nature of the clues makes systematic categorization and interpretation challenging, potentially hindering efficient story reconstruction and creative engagement. To address these challenges, we first proposed a hierarchical taxonomy to categorize narrative clues, informed by a formative study. Using this taxonomy, we designed ClueCart, a creativity support tool aimed at enhancing creators' ability to organize story clues and facilitate intricate story interpretation. We evaluated ClueCart through a between-subjects study (N=40), using Miro as a baseline. The results showed that ClueCart significantly improved creators' efficiency in organizing and retrieving clues, thereby better supporting their creative processes. Additionally, we offer design insights for future studies focused on player-centric narrative analysis.

Today's world is witnessing an unparalleled rate of technological transformation. The emergence of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has transformed how we handle digital assets and value. These tokens have captured the interest of scholars and businesspeople alike. However, NFTs have recently seen a sharp decline in popularity. While cryptocurrency volatility and monetary policies greatly influenced NFT market trends, the community aspects of NFT projects--particularly trust-based interactions--also play a crucial role in NFT adoption and sustainability. From a social computing perspective, understanding these trust dynamics offers valuable insights for the development of both the NFT ecosystem and the broader digital economy. China presents a compelling context for examining these dynamics, offering a unique intersection of technological innovation and traditional cultural values. Through an in-depth qualitative study of Chinese NFT communities, we examine how socio-cultural factors influence trust formation and development. We analyzed discussions from eight prominent WeChat groups dedicated to NFTs and conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with three types of NFT community members. We found that trust in Chinese NFT communities is significantly molded by local cultural values. To be precise, Confucian virtues, such as benevolence, propriety , and integrity , play a crucial role in shaping these trust relationships. Our research identifies three critical trust dimensions in China's NFT market: (1) technological , (2) institutional , and (3) social . We examined the challenges in cultivating each dimension. Based on these insights, we developed tailored trust-building guidelines for Chinese NFT stakeholders. These guidelines address trust issues that factor into NFT's declining popularity and could offer valuable strategies for CSCW researchers, developers, and designers aiming to enhance trust in global NFT communities. Our research urges CSCW scholars to take into account the unique socio-cultural contexts when developing trust-enhancing strategies for digital innovations and online interactions.

Impact dynamics are crucial for estimating the growth patterns of NFT projects by tracking the diffusion and decay of their relative appeal among stakeholders. Machine learning methods for impact dynamics analysis are incomprehensible and rigid in terms of their interpretability and transparency, whilst stakeholders require interactive tools for informed decision-making. Nevertheless, developing such a tool is challenging due to the substantial, heterogeneous NFT transaction data and the requirements for flexible, customized interactions. To this end, we integrate intuitive visualizations to unveil the impact dynamics of NFT projects. We first conduct a formative study and summarize analysis criteria, including substitution mechanisms, impact attributes, and design requirements from stakeholders. Next, we propose the Minimal Substitution Model to simulate substitutive systems of NFT projects that can be feasibly represented as node-link graphs. Particularly, we utilize attribute-aware techniques to embed the project status and stakeholder behaviors in the layout design. Accordingly, we develop a multi-view visual analytics system, namely NFTracer, allowing interactive analysis of impact dynamics in NFT transactions. We demonstrate the informativeness, effectiveness, and usability of NFTracer by performing two case studies with domain experts and one user study with stakeholders. The studies suggest that NFT projects featuring a higher degree of similarity are more likely to substitute each other. The impact of NFT projects within substitutive systems is contingent upon the degree of stakeholders' influx and projects' freshness.

The growing prevalence of psychological disorders underscores the critical importance of mental health research in today's society. In psychotherapy, particularly Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), cognitive exercises employing mental imagery are used to manage negative thoughts. However, the challenge of maintaining vivid imagery diminishes their therapeutic effectiveness. Virtual reality (VR) offers untapped potential for increasing engagement and therapeutic efficacy. However, there is still a gap in exploration regarding how to effectively leverage the potential of VR to enhance traditional cognitive exercises with mental imagery. This study investigates the effective HCI design and the comparative efficacy of a VR-mediated exercise for promoting cognitive defusion to address negative thoughts grounded in ACT. Using a co-design approach with clinicians and potential users of postgraduate students, we developed a VR system that materializes negative thoughts into tangible objects. This allows users to visually modify and transpose these objects onto a surface, facilitating mental detachment from negative thoughts. In an evaluation study with 20 non-clinical participants, divided into VR and mental imagery groups, we assessed the impact of the cognitive defusion exercise on their perception of negative thoughts and psychological measures using standardized questionnaires. Results show improvement in both groups, with significant enhancements in negative thought perception and mental detachment from negative thoughts exclusively in the VR group, whereas the mental imagery group did not demonstrate significant changes. Interviews emphasize the VR's capability to present vivid visualizations of negative thoughts effortlessly, highlighting its effectiveness and engagement in psychotherapy to facilitate cognitive exercises.

As a famed Chinese classical garden, the Jichang Garden was a constant inspiration to many poets in its hundreds of years’ history, who composed a rich body of poems—a valuable intangible cultural heritage. While tourists tend to pay attention to tangible natural scenery and historical architectures, they often neglect intangible cultural heritage—poems. We interviewed 23 tourists and found that augmented reality (AR) was viable for tourists to enjoy the physical scenery and the poetry simultaneously. We developed an initial prototype of PoeticAR, which presents poems based on physical scenery to enhance tourists’ cultural and aesthetic experience. We further revised the prototype based on the ideas generated from a workshop with 18 tourists. We conducted a between-subject user study with 30 tourists to compare PoeticAR with Video. Results showed that PoeticAR significantly motivated tourists’ interest in poems, enhanced the cultural and aesthetic tour experience in Jichang Garden, and increased awareness of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Cultural Heritage sites.

Although visualization tools are widely available and accessible, not everyone knows the best practices and guidelines for creating accurate and honest visual representations of data. Numerous books and articles have been written to expose the misleading potential of poorly constructed charts and teach people how to avoid being deceived by them or making their own mistakes. These readings use various rhetorical devices to explain the concepts to their readers. In our analysis of a collection of books, online materials, and a design workshop, we identified six common explanation methods. To assess the effectiveness of these methods, we conducted two crowdsourced studies (each with N=125) to evaluate their ability to teach and persuade people to make design changes. In addition to these existing methods, we brought in the idea of Explorable Explanations, which allows readers to experiment with different chart settings and observe how the changes are reflected in the visualization. While we did not find significant differences across explanation methods, the results of our experiments indicate that, following the exposure to the explanations, the participants showed improved proficiency in identifying deceptive charts and were more receptive to proposed alterations of the visualization design. We discovered that participants were willing to accept more than 60% of the proposed adjustments in the persuasiveness assessment. Nevertheless, we found no significant differences among different explanation methods in convincing participants to accept the modifications.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have recently gained widespread popularity as an alternative investment. However, the lack of assessment criteria has caused intense volatility in NFT marketplaces. Identifying attributes impacting the market performance of NFT collectibles is crucial but challenging due to the massive amount of heterogeneous and multi-modal data in NFT transactions, e.g., social media texts, numerical trading data, and images. To address this challenge, we introduce an interactive dual-centric visual analytics system, NFTeller, to facilitate users’ analysis. First, we collaborate with five domain experts to distill static and dynamic impact attributes and collect relevant data. Next, we derive six analysis tasks and develop NFTeller to present the evolution of NFT transactions and correlate NFTs’ market performance with impact attributes. Notably, we create an augmented chord diagram with a radial stacked bar chart to explore intersections between NFT collection projects and whale accounts. Finally, we conduct three case studies and interview domain experts to evaluate the effectiveness and usability of this system. As such, we gain in-depth insights into assessing NFT collectibles and detecting opportune moments for investment.