The increasing proliferation of AI and GenAI requires new interfaces tailored to how their specific affordances and human requirements meet. As GenAI is capable of taking over tasks from users on an unprecedented scale, designing the experience of agency – if and how users experience control over the process and attribution of the outcome – is crucial. As an initial step towards design guidelines for shaping agency, we present a study that explores how properties of AI-generated images influence users’ experience of agency. We use two measures; temporal binding to implicitly estimate pre-reflective agency and magnitude estimation to assess user judgments of agency. We observe that abstract images lead to more temporal binding than images with semantic meaning. In contrast, the closer an image aligns with what a user might expect, the higher the agency judgment. When comparing the experiment results with objective metrics of image differences, we find that temporal binding results correlate with semantic differences, while agency judgments are better explained by local differences between images. This work contributes towards a future where agency is considered an important design dimension for GenAI interfaces.

The Internet offers help-seekers an abundance of resources that can potentially support their mental health. However, people often have trouble in finding personally relevant resources. Very few specialized mental health help-seeking technologies currently address this need. Instead, help-seeking typically begins with a known website or web-search. To understand how help-seeking technologies could be better designed, we conducted a study comparing existing technologies with two novel help-seeking prototypes. These prototypes were informed by empirically grounded design recommendations, which emphasize the need for connectedness, accessible and creditable information, personalization, and immediacy. Findings show that the resources recommended by current technologies are often experienced as ‘overwhelming’ or ‘overly-medicalized’. The prototypes successfully improved connectedness, immediacy, and personalization, but were less successful in their ability to support symptom-based help-seeking. Based on our findings we contribute recommendations for integrated help-seeking technologies, which can guide people to mental health resources appropriate to both their personal preferences and current level of need.

Patient-generated data from commercially available self-tracking devices has the potential to enhance support for people transitioning from hospitalization to self-care. However, studies have revealed significant barriers to the routine use of such data in clinical settings. This paper explores the use of patient-generated data in the context of cardiac rehabilitation. We describe a two-stage investigation: (1) a co-design study with clinicians to design a data system that combines objective and subjective patient data; and (2) an 18-week field-study where this system was deployed as part of a hospital-based rehabilitation program. Our findings suggest the system is feasible, supported clinicians’ workflow, and helped patients to bridge the gap between supervised and self-managed care. Subjective data contextualized objective data and a structured approach data collection helped generate actionable information. The paper also provides insight on patients' attitudes towards peer data sharing and demonstrates the importance of timing when introducing self-tracking technology.

Ethical deliberation has proved a consistent feature of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) since its earliest years, spanning the respectful involvement of research participants to design choices impacting fairness, freedom and welfare. Despite growing discussions, applied knowledge and practical approaches for navigating complex moral dilemmas remain challenging to grasp. Motivated by the need for a structured overview, this paper contributes a scoping review of ethics as discussed across 129 full-length SIGCHI papers containing the search term ‘ethic*’ in their title, abstract or authors’ keywords over the last ten years. Findings show increasing prioritisation of the topic, particularly within Artificial Intelligence. Value-Sensitive and Critical Design appear as the most frequently applied orientations, and participatory approaches are more prevalent than those without end-user input. Engaging with a spectrum from personal to societal concerns, the SIGCHI literature thus echos calls for critical perspectives on user-centred processes and the need to establish more sustainable responsibility structures.

Seeking help is often an important step in addressing mental health difficulties. Evidence suggests that positive help-seeking experiences contribute to an increased likelihood of future help-seeking and achieving improved outcomes. However, help-seeking is a complex process. Alongside traditional sources, digital technologies offer many pathways to help. Using a mixed methods approach across two studies, this paper explores key design factors for online mental health resources that can support young people's help-seeking. First, a large online survey (n=1308) highlighted challenges and identified common help-seeking scenarios, including information-seeking, person-centred approaches and crisis situations. Using survey data, personas were developed to represent different help-seekers - each characterised by a particular help-seeking scenario. The personas were then used in co-design workshops to facilitate further exploration of help-seeking needs. Four key design considerations were identified: connectedness, accessible information, personalisation, and immediacy. Based on our findings, we provide design recommendations that are grounded in existing theories of help-seeking.

Traditional approaches to psychotherapy emphasise face-to-face contact between patients and therapists. In contrast, current computerised approaches tend to minimise this contact. This can limit the range of mental health difficulties for which computerised approaches are effective. Here, we explore an alternative approach that integrates face-to-face contact, electronic contact, online collaboration, and support for between-session activities. Our discussion is grounded in the design of a platform to deliver psychotherapy for depression. We report findings of an 11-month pragmatic study in which 17 patients received treatment for depression via the platform. Results show how design decisions had a significant impact on the dynamics of therapeutic sessions and the establishment of patient-therapist relationships. For example, the use of instant messaging for synchronous, in-session contact slowed communication, but also provided a valuable space for reflection and helped to maintain session focus. We discuss the impact of flexibility and the potential of integrated approaches to both enhance and reduce patient engagement.

Input on the skin is emerging as an interaction style. At CHI 2012, Coyle and colleagues identified an increase in the sense of agency (SoA) as one benefit of skin input. However, their study only compared skin input to button presses and has not, to our knowledge, been replicated. Therefore, we had 24 participants compare skin input to both button presses and touchpad input, measuring SoA using the Libet Clock paradigm. We replicate previous findings regarding increased SoA in skin versus button input and also find that SoA for skin is significantly increased compared to touchpad input. Interview data addressing subjective experience further support these findings. We discuss agency and the experiences associated with skin input, as well as differences to input with non-skin devices.

Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs) are widely available on devices such as smartphones. However, most people do not use them regularly. Previous research has studied the experiences of frequent IPA users. Using qualitative methods we explore the experience of infrequent users: people who have tried IPAs, but choose not to use them regularly. Unsurprisingly infrequent users share some of the experiences of frequent users, e.g. frustration at limitations on fully hands-free interaction. Significant points of contrast and previously unidentified concerns also emerge. Cultural norms and social embarrassment take on added significance for infrequent users. Humanness of IPAs sparked comparisons with human assistants, juxtaposing their limitations. Most importantly, significant concerns emerged around privacy, monetization, data permanency and transparency. Drawing on these findings we discuss key challenges, including: designing for interruptability; reconsideration of the human metaphor; issues of trust and data ownership. Addressing these challenges may lead to more widespread IPA use.

Words and language are central to most human communication. This paper explores the importance of language for the participatory design of smart home technologies for healthcare. We argue that to effectively involve a broad range of users in the design of new technologies, it is important to actively develop a shared language that is accessible to and owned by all stakeholders, and that facilitates productive dialogues among them. Our discussion is grounded firstly in work with end users, in which problematic language emerged as a key barrier to participation and effective design. Three specific categories of language barriers are identified: jargon, ambiguity, and emotive words. Building on this we undertook a workshop and focus group, respectively involving researchers developing smart health technologies and users, where the focus was on generating a shared language. We discuss this process, including examples that emerged of alternative terminology and specific strategies for creating a shared language.

While the technology underlying speech interfaces has improved in recent years, our understanding of the human side of speech interactions remains limited. This paper provides new insight on one important human aspect of speech interactions: the sense of agency - defined as the experience of controlling one's own actions and their outcomes. Two experiments are described. In each case a voice command is compared with keyboard input. Agency is measured using an implicit metric: intentional binding. In both experiments we find that participants' sense of agency is significantly reduced for voice commands as compared to keyboard input. This finding presents a fundamental challenge for the design of effective speech interfaces. We reflect on this finding and, based on current theory in HCI and cognitive neuroscience, offer possible explanations for the reduced sense of agency observed in speech interfaces.

Current demographic and health trends mean it is becoming imperative to rethink healthcare provision worldwide. This paper introduces SPHERE, a large-scale Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration that aims to make a contribution to addressing this challenge. Specifically, SPHERE is developing a smart home system based on a common platform of non-medical/environmental sensors to address a variety of healthcare needs. In order to achieve its goal of widespread deployment, SPHERE technology must meet the requirements of its envisaged users. In this paper we present the rationale and methodology of an ethnographic study of people's experiences of health and technology. The aim of this study was to gather rich contextual data to inform the design of meaningful and inclusive healthcare technology.

Designing effective home healthcare technologies is a complex task. In order to succeed, it is important to look beyond purely technology-driven solutions and to develop technologies and services that are flexible and reflect a sensitive understanding of the diverse users of such systems. The key contribution of this paper is to introduce 15 empirically derived attributes that can help designers to build a more detailed understanding of the potential users of home healthcare systems. The attributes are spread across four broad themes: technology in the home, experiences of technology, experiences of health and care, and thoughts about smart home technology for health and care. These themes and attributes emerged from an ethnographic study in which we interviewed people across 15 households. All interviews took place in people’s homes and were supplemented by home technology tours and cultural probes. It is intended that the 15 attributes be used in conjunction with demographic and household data to build a richer picture of personal experiences of home, health, and technology in real-life contexts. The aim was to provide an inclusive framework, based on empirically derived attributes, that helps to inform an overall user-centred design approach. To demonstrate one application of the attributes in design, the paper provides in-depth example of their use in the development of a rich set of data-driven personas.

Error Related Negativity is triggered when a user either makes a mistake or the application behaves differently from their expectation. It can also appear while observing another user making a mistake. This paper investigates ERN in collaborative settings where observing another user (the executer) perform a task is typical and then explores its applicability to HCI. We first show that ERN can be detected on signals captured by commodity EEG headsets like an Emotiv headset when observing another person perform a typical multiple-choice reaction time task. We then investigate the anticipation effects by detecting ERN in the time interval when an executer is reaching towards an answer. We show that we can detect this signal with both a clinical EEG device and with an Emotiv headset. Our results show that online single trial detection is possible using both headsets during tasks that are typical of collaborative interactive applications. However there is a trade-off between the detection speed and the quality/prices of the headsets. Based on the results, we discuss and present several HCI scenarios for use of ERN in observing tasks and collaborative settings.

Engagement, motivation and active contribution by digital volunteers are key requirements for crowdsourcing and citizen science projects. Many systems use competitive elements, for example point scoring and leaderboards, to achieve these ends. However, while competition may motivate some people, it can have a neutral or demotivating effect on others. In this paper we explore theories of personal and social norms and investigate normification as an alternative approach to engagement, to be used alongside or instead of competitive strategies. We provide a systematic review of existing crowdsourcing and citizen science literature and categorise the ways that theories of norms have been incorporated to date. We then present qualitative interview data from a pro-environmental crowdsourcing study, Close the Door, which reveals normalising attitudes in certain participants. We assess how this links with competitive behaviour and participant performance. Based on our findings and analysis of norm theories, we consider the implications for designers wishing to use normification as an engagement strategy in crowdsourcing and citizen science systems.

Community activist groups typically rely on core groups of highly motivated members. In this paper we consider how crowdsourcing strategies can be used to supplement the activities of pro-environmental community activists, thus increasing the scalability of their campaigns. We focus on mobile data collection applications and strategies that can be used to engage casual participants in pro-environmental data collection. We report the results of a study that used both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the impact of different motivational factors and strategies, including both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. The study compared and provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of two extrinsic motivation strategies, pointification - a subset of gamification - and financial incentives. Prior environmental interest is also assessed as an intrinsic motivation factor. In contrast to previous HCI research on pro-environmental technology, much of which has focused on individual behavior change, this paper offers new insights and recommendations on the design of systems that target groups and communities.

This two-day workshop will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers, designers and practitioners who are interested in the topic of wellbeing in the field of interaction design. Wellbeing is defined as positive mental health, and not only the absence of mental illness, but also the presence of positive psychological functioning. The workshop will provide a platform to share resources, create new ideas for design and build valuable future collaborations. During the first day participants will present their work and exchange their knowledge and experiences in the field. The workshop will utilize a series of interactive activities to support participants in collaboratively constructing a shared understanding of the concept of wellbeing and its challenges in terms of design. On the second day participants will be invited to create low-fidelity prototypes that support an aspect of wellbeing using Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer and other prototyping materials. These practical activities will stimulate discussion so as to contribute to a better understanding of how wellbeing can be facilitated through design, how to address evaluation challenges as well as illustrate related ethical questions.

Cognitive neuroscience defines the sense of agency as the experience of controlling one's own actions and, through this control, affecting the external world. We believe that the sense of personal agency is a key factor in how people experience interactions with technology. This paper draws on theoretical perspectives in cognitive neuroscience and describes two implicit methods through which personal agency can be empirically investigated. We report two experiments applying these methods to HCI problems. One shows that a new input modality - skin-based interaction - can substantially increase users' sense of agency. The second demonstrates that variations in the parameters of assistance techniques such as predictive mouse acceleration can have a significant impact on users' sense of agency. The methods presented provide designers with new ways of evaluating and refining empowering interaction techniques and interfaces, in which users experience an instinctive sense of control and ownership over their actions.

Online mental health interventions can benefit people experiencing a range of psychological difficulties, but attrition is a major problem in real-world deployments. We discuss strategies to reduce attrition, and present SilverCloud, a platform designed to provide more engaging online experiences. The paper presents the results of a practice-based clinical study in which 45 clients and 6 therapists used an online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programme for depression. Pre and post-treatment assessments, using the Beck Depression Inventory, indicate a statistically significant improvement in depressive symptoms, with a large effect size, for the moderate-to-severe clinical sub-sample receiving standalone online treatment (n=18). This group was the primary target for the intervention. A high level of engagement was also observed compared to a prior online intervention used within the same service. We discuss strategies for design in this area and consider how the quantitative and qualitative results contribute towards our understanding of engagement.

The need to provide effective mental health treatments for adolescents has been described as a global public health challenge [27]. In this paper we discuss the exploratory evaluations of the first adolescent intervention to fully integrate a computer game implementing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Three distinct studies are presented: a detailed evaluation in which therapists independent of the design team used the game with 6 adolescents experiencing clinical anxiety disorders; a study in which a member of the design team used the game with 15 adolescents; and finally a study assessing the acceptability of the game and intervention with 216 practicing therapists. Findings are presented within the context of a framework for the design and evaluation of complex health interventions. The paper provides an in-depth insight into the use of therapeutic games to support adolescent interventions and provides stronger evidence than previously available for both their effectiveness and acceptability to stakeholders.

It is increasingly recognised that technology has the potential to significantly improve access, engagement, effectiveness and affordability of treatment for mental health problems. The development of such technology has recently become the subject of Human–Computer Interaction research. As an emerging area with a unique set of constraints and design concerns, there is a need to establish guidelines which encapsulate the knowledge gained from existing development projects. We present an initial set of design guidelines extracted from the literature and from a series of development projects for software to support mental health interventions. The first group of guidelines pertain to the design process itself, addressing the limitations in access to clients in mental healthcare settings, and strategies for collaborative design with therapists. The second group considers major design factors in the development of these technologies, including therapeutic models, client factors, and privacy. The third group concerns conduct of the evaluation process, and the constraints on evaluating mental healthcare technologies. We motivate and explain these guidelines with reference to concrete design projects and problems.

Ethical requirements, severe constraints on access to end users and the necessity of real-world clinical evaluations represent significant challenges to designers of new technologies in mental healthcare (MHC) settings. This paper describes the collaborative approaches, incorporating HCI methods with input for MHC professionals and MHC theory, which were applied in the development of Personal Investigator (PI), a 3D computer game developed to support adolescent mental health interventions. Different stages in the evaluation of PI are discussed and the lessons learned through a multi-site clinical evaluation are presented. This evaluation has provided strong initial evidence that games such as PI offer the potential to improve adolescent engagement in talk-based interventions. It has also provided an insight into factors which should be considered in future designs in the MHC domain, e.g. the need to incorporate high levels of adaptability in future systems. Based on the difficulties encountered and lessons learned critical aims for future research are outlined.

The cost to society of mental illness is substantial. A large scale international study has identified mental illnesses as the second leading cause of disability and premature mortality in the developed world [Murray, C.L., Lopez, A.D. (Eds.), 1996. The Global Burden of Disease: A comprehensive assessment of mortality and disability from disease, injuries, and risk factors in 1990 and projected to 2020. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA]. Unfortunately, research also suggests that the majority of people suffering from treatable mental health disorders do not have access to the required treatment. Furthermore, even when treatment is accessible many sufferers are unable to successfully engage with professional services [Surgeon General, 1999. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General – Executive Summary, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, Retrieved August 2006, from http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/home.html; WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium, 2004. Prevalence, severity, and unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Journal of the American Medical Association, 291(21)]. Computer assisted mental health interventions have the potential to help in addressing this imbalance. However, a review of literature shows that to date this potential has been largely unexplored. One of the primary reasons for this is that few researchers from a HCI or technical background have engaged in this area. The primary purpose of this paper is to provide a foundation and set an agenda for future research on the design of technology for talk-based mental health interventions. Theoretical approaches to the treatment of mental illness are reviewed, as is previous research on the use of technology in this area. Several significant factors effecting design and evaluation are identified and based on these factors a broad set of design guidelines are proposed to aid the development of new technologies. Of the issues identified, ethical requirements along with the sensitivity and stigma associated with mental illness pose particular challenges to HCI professionals. These factors place strict limitations on access to mental health care (MHC) settings by non-MHC professionals and create difficulties for the direct application of traditional HCI methods, such as participatory, user-centred and iterative design. To overcome these difficulties this paper proposes a model for collaborative design and evaluation, involving both HCI and MHC professionals. The development of adaptable technologies is an important element of the proposed approach. The final contribution of the paper is to suggest future research directions and identify ways in which HCI researchers can contribute to this work.