The dissemination of scholarly research is critical, yet researchers often lack the time and skills to create engaging content for popular media such as short-form videos. To address this gap, we explore the use of generative AI to help researchers transform their academic papers into accessible video content. Informed by a formative study with science communicators and content creators (N = 8), we designed PaperTok, an end-to-end system that automates the initial creative labor by generating script options and corresponding audiovisual content from a source paper. Researchers can then refine based on their preferences with further prompting. A mixed-methods user study (N = 18) and crowdsourced evaluation (N = 100) demonstrate that PaperTok’s workflow can help researchers create engaging and informative short-form videos. We also identified the need for more fine-grained controls in the creation process. To this end, we offer implications for future generative tools that support science outreach.

The rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) has ushered in a wave of conversational search engines that allow people to engage in dialogues with LLM-infused chatbots to seek information. As people tend to infer personalities from digital social interactions, and given that personality cues have been shown to affect credibility, these perceptions of chatbot design may shape how users assess the credibility of information in conversational search. In this study, we conducted a controlled online study with 190 participants who assessed conversational search results with chatbots designed to exhibit different levels of personality traits. We found that in conversational search, personality can affect perceptions of credibility. Specifically, perceived conscientiousness and agreeableness of a chatbot can increase credibility, while perceived extraversion and neuroticism can decrease the credibility of the information. This research contributes to our understanding of how conversational interfaces and their personality and persona designs can impact credibility. We also provide design implications for conversational search interfaces based on our findings.

Song signing is a method practiced by people who are d/Deaf and non-d/Deaf individuals to visually represent music and make music accessible through sign language and body movements. Although there is growing interest in song signing, there is a lack of understanding on what d/Deaf people value about song signing and how to make song signing productions that they would consider acceptable. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 d/Deaf participants to gain a deeper understanding of what they value in music and song signing. We then interviewed 14 song signers to understand their experiences and processes in creating song signing performances. From this study, we identify three complex, interrelated layers of the song signing creation process and discuss how they can be supported and completed to potentially bridge the cultural divide between the d/Deaf and non-d/Deaf audiences and guide more culturally responsive creation of music.

Although there is a potential demand for customizing voices, most customization is limited to the visual appearance of a figure (e.g., avatars). To better understand the users’ need, we first conducted an online survey with 104 participants. Then we conducted a semi-structured interview with a prototype with 14 participants to identify design considerations for supporting voice customization. The results show that there is a desire for voice customization especially for non-face-to-face conversations with someone unfamiliar. In addition, the findings revealed that different voices are favored for different contexts from a better version of one’s own voice for improving delivery to a completely different voice for securing identity. As future work, we plan to extend this study by investigating voice synthesis techniques for end-users who wish to design their own voices for various contexts.

Voice plays an important role in online communications by increasing intimacy among people. Despite the advantages of using voice in computer-mediated communications (CMC), it is difficult for people with speech or hearing impairments to participate in such communication methods. In this study, we investigate different attributes of voices and how it affects users’ preference. We also deployed a website called ‘Voice Creator’ for people who want to create an online voice by specifying the levels of different voice attributes: gender, age group, breathiness, smoothness, hoarseness, and variation. We plan to conduct a user study on the target users and study the behavior of voice customization in future work.