Programming social robots is challenging for novice robot programmers due to required expertise in planning, interaction design, and programming. While large language models (LLMs) hold significant promise through code generation from natural-language descriptions, they can obscure critical elements of programming and supplant designer intent, eventually resulting in over-reliance instead of developing programming skills. In this paper, we explore how LLM-based social-robot-programming tools can support novice robot programmers through a Research through Design (RtD) process. We designed and prototyped Robo-Blocks, a block-based programming environment that leverages LLMs to offer novice robot programmers generative scaffolding through structured narratives that connect high-level ideas to executable robot behaviors. Through deployment with novices, we discovered emerging user personas and usage patterns for generative scaffolding and showed how this scaffolding shapes end-user design and programming strategies. We present design insights for the effective use of generative scaffolding and its integration into the practice of social-robot programming.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a prevalent disorder among women, often exacerbated by a lack of peer support due to associated stigmatization.Drawing inspiration from the established benefits of group therapy, particularly the sense of belonging it fosters, we developed a multi-chatbot group motivational interviewing system.The system consists of a facilitator bot and two peer bots, and simulates a group counseling environment for PMS management using Large Language Models (LLMs).We conducted a study with 63 participants and divided them into three conditions (no intervention, 1-on-1 chatbot, group chatbots) over two menstruation cycles for evaluation.Our findings revealed that participants in the group chat condition exhibited higher levels of engagement and language convergence with the chatbots.These participants were also able to engage in social learning and demonstrated motivation in coping through interactions with the chatbots.Finally, we discuss design implications for multi-chatbot interactions in supporting mental health.

Intergenerational co-creation using technology between grandparents and grandchildren can be challenging due to differences in technological familiarity.AI has emerged as a promising tool to support co-creative activities, offering flexibility and creative assistance, but its role in facilitating intergenerational connection remains underexplored.In this study, we conducted a user study with 29 grandparent-grandchild groups engaged in AI-supported story creation to examine how AI-assisted co-creation can foster meaningful intergenerational bonds.Our findings show that grandchildren managed the technical aspects, while grandparents contributed creative ideas and guided the storytelling.AI played a key role in structuring the activity, facilitating brainstorming, enhancing storytelling, and balancing the contributions of both generations.The process fostered mutual appreciation, with each generation recognizing the strengths of the other, leading to an engaging and cohesive co-creation process.We offer design implications for integrating AI into intergenerational co-creative activities, emphasizing how AI can enhance connection across skill levels and technological familiarity.

Figure 1: In this paper, we present NarraGuide, an LLM-based narrative mobile robot that guides users to explore a remote physical place in real-time and uses dialogue to deliver rich location-based information to enhance the experience.

Expressive writing is an established approach for stress management. Recently, information technologies, such as smartphones, have also been explored for expressive writing. Although mobile interfaces have the potential to support various daily writing activities, interface designs for mobile expressive writing and their effects on stress relief still lack empirical understanding. We examined the interface design of mobile expressive writing by investigating the influence of input modalities and visual feedback designs on usability and perceived cathartic effects through field studies. While our studies confirmed the stress-relieving effects of mobile expressive writing, our results offer important insights into interface design. We found keyboard-based text entry more suited and preferred over voice messages for its privacy and reflective nature. Participants expressed different reasons for preferring different post-writing visual feedback depending on the cause and type of stress. This work advances interface design for mobile expressive writing and deepens understanding of its effects.

Timbre exploration and creation are key tasks in electronic music composition. Modern synthesizers can produce thousands of unique timbres, but this complexity hinders musicians’ ability to explore these timbres effectively. We contribute SoundTraveller, an interactive timbre exploration system aimed at fostering electronic musicians’ creative processes. SoundTraveller allows the user to explore the timbral space using two modes: evolutionary and morphing, with which they can generate hundreds of unique timbres without the need to edit individual parameters. Our user study confirmed that SoundTraveller supported participants’ exploration, decreased their cognitive load, and increased their perceived creativity. Through analysis of our interview study, we contribute design considerations for timbre exploration systems, and for exploring large aesthetic parameter spaces more generally. Finally, we discuss how systems like SoundTraveller can fit into the existing workflows of electronic music composers, and how shared agency with creative technologies can impact the creative process.

Instructors facilitating online classes have a limited ability to see and hear interactions of student groups working in parallel, which prevents them from interacting with students effectively. In this work, we explore interface design for providing an overview of parallel group discussions in online classrooms. We derive design considerations through a participatory design process and instantiate them in our visualization interface, Groupnamics. Groupnamics visualizes recent vocal activities and discussion statuses of each group in a one-page view, facilitating identification of groups where intervention may be needed. Our user study with 16 instructors confirmed that Groupnamics can successfully provide cues for when instructors should join group discussions and improvements on the perceived usefulness and ease of use over the baseline interface representing existing videoconferencing tools. Our qualitative results suggest future research directions in interface design for online parallel group discussions.

Co-customizations are collaborative customizations in messaging apps that all conversation members can view and change, e.g. the color of chat bubbles on Facebook Messenger. Co-customizations grant new opportunities for expressing intimacy; however, most apps offer private customizations only. To investigate how people in close relationships integrate co-customizations into their established communication app ecosystems, we built DearBoard: an Android keyboard that allows two people to co-customize its color theme and a toolbar of expression shortcuts (emojis and GIFs). In a 5-week field study with 18 pairs of couples, friends, and relatives, participants expressed their shared interests, history, and knowledge of each other through co-customizations that served as meaningful decorations, interface optimizations, conversation themes, and non-verbal channels for playful, affectionate interactions. The co-ownership of the co-customizations invited participants to negotiate who customizes what and for whom they customize. We discuss how co-customizations mediate intimacy through place-making efforts and suggest design opportunities.