Asynchronous design ideation is increasingly vital in virtual reality (VR) environments. Annotations, referring to notes, marks, or comments overlaid on virtual designs, are essential for providing context, feedback, and clarity, facilitating communication among designers using Creativity Support Tools (CSTs) in the design sector. However, the effectiveness of various annotation methods in enhancing creativity during VR design ideation remains underexplored. This study aims to identify effective annotation methods that promote creativity in VR-based design ideation, addressing the shift from traditional paper-and-pen practices to immersive environments. We adopted a three-phase approach: (1) semi-structured interviews with design experts, (2) an empirical mixed-design study with design professionals, leading to the development of AsyncCreativity, our VR CST system, and (3) a deployment study evaluating annotations via AsyncCreativity in VR design ideation. Our findings reveal that multimodal annotations, especially audio annotations, significantly enhance user engagement and creativity compared to unimodal annotations. Participants reported improved ideation experiences when utilizing diverse annotation types during ideation when searching, sketching, and presenting. Our study provides valuable insights for developing effective CSTs in VR and design field, advancing the understanding of how optimized annotation strategies can foster creativity in immersive design environments.

Human-AI romantic relationships have gained wide popularity among social media users in China. The technological impact on romantic relationships and its potential applications have long drawn research attention to topics such as relationship preservation and negativity mitigation. Media and communication studies also explore the practices in romantic para-social relationships. Nonetheless, this emerging human-AI romantic relationship, whether the relations fall into the category of para-social relationship together with its navigation pattern, remains unexplored, particularly in the context of relational stages and emotional attachment. This research thus seeks to fill this gap by presenting a mixed-method approach on 1,766 posts and 60,925 comments from Xiaohongshu, as well as the semi-structured interviews with 23 participants, of whom one of them developed her relationship with self-created AI for three years. The findings revealed that the users' willingness to self-disclose to AI companions led to increased positivity without social stigma. The results also unveiled the reciprocal nature of these interactions, the dominance of 'self,' and raised concerns about language misuse, bias, and data security in AI communication.

Live streaming platforms and existing viewer participation tools enable users to interact and engage with an online community, but the anonymity and scale of chat usually result in the spread of negative comments. However, only a few existing moderation tools investigate the influence of proactive moderation on viewers’ engagement and prosocial behavior. To address this, we developed StoryChat, a narrative-based viewer participation tool that utilizes a dynamic graphical plot to reflect chatroom negativity. We crafted the narrative through a viewer-centered (N=65) iterative design process and evaluated the tool with 48 experienced viewers in a deployment study. We discovered that StoryChat encouraged viewers to contribute prosocial comments, increased viewer engagement, and fostered viewers’ sense of community. Viewers reported a closer connection between streamers and other viewers because of the narrative design, suggesting that narrative-based viewer engagement tools have the potential to encourage community engagement and prosocial behaviors.