Regulatory changes have enabled American student-athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). However, only a fraction of the student-athlete population is actually profiting from their NIL, which raises questions concerning fairness and inclusiveness. Motivated by that scenario, we look at technological solutions capable of sharing a limited amount of financial resources fairly and inclusively. Following a design science methodology, we define design requirements for such technological solutions after interviewing student-athletes, which leads us to establish the inclusive-meritocratic fairness criterion. Subsequently, we determine design principles that artifacts aiming at helping student-athletes should satisfy. We find that a solution that satisfies the proposed design principles is to associate student-athletes with digital collectibles represented as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The core idea behind our artifact is that student-athletes receive royalties in primary markets after NFTs are randomly minted, plus deterministic royalties in secondary markets whenever a transaction involving their collectibles happens. Interviews with student-athletes validate our design. We conclude the paper by discussing how our ideas give rise to a new NIL design theory.

Despite growing economic importance, freelance software developers face unfavorable conditions on freelance platforms. Among others, they need to deal with the consequences of elevated expectations emerging during technology hypes. Despite this, the impact of hype on freelancers remains underexplored, limiting our ability to guide them through these intense periods and inform the design of freelance platforms. Through interviews with 52 freelance developers pursuing projects involving generative AI (GenAI), we identify technology hypes as a significant force shaping freelancers’ careers. Based on the interviews, we offer a multifaceted perspective on hype as a phenomenon. We reveal that technological hypes negatively impact the career prospects and well-being of some freelancers while empowering others to advance their careers or transition into new areas. We identify four clusters of freelance developers based on their experiences with and reactions to the GenAI hype. This study positions technology hype as a critical factor shaping the freelance economy.

Chronic diseases are the main drivers of rising healthcare costs in Europe. Over the last 30 years, the number of people with obesity has doubled. Reducing overweight and obesity is critical in tackling chronic diseases, as they are the primary risk factors for many chronic diseases. However, adherence to lifestyle interventions is low. Patient empowerment is strongly associated with improving adherence. Despite the potential of digital health to support the empowerment process, there is a lack of design knowledge for such systems that span multiple iterations of patient self-management and consultations. Such knowledge is essential as chronic diseases are iterative in nature and require continuous care. This study reports on a research-through-design project that aimed to improve adherence to treatment with the Digital Companion. The Digital Companion is an integrated system that facilitates the empowerment process by activating patients to participate in patient-centered consultations. We evaluate the Digital Companion in a naturalistic and formative evaluation. Analyzing the behavior of 27 patients when using the Digital Companion allowed us to formulate four socio-technical design principles that propose the design of patient empowerment systems to improve adherence in weight management.

The use of drones in public safety operations offers police departments potential benefits such as safety and efficiency. However, rarely considered are the perspectives of the public who are affected by the usage of drone in police operations. Ensuring and enhancing the sense of public safety is a primary goal of the police department. Therefore, public safety agencies and drone designers should consider the perception of bystanders at police operations and the broader society to ensure the fulfilment their primary purpose and maximizing drones' potential. This paper examines the factors that affect the public perception of safety during a field trial involving 80 test participants. Analysis of the group interviews reveal that unknowns are the main trigger of the sense of insecurity, including unknowns of drones' identity, purpose and usefulness. We found the public feels safer when the drones play an active role in delivering knowledge rather than passive role of data collection. Our findings highlight key design considerations for future drone-human interactions, providing insights into specific interaction features aimed at enhancing public perceptions of safety. We discuss the social and design implications to inform the public in solving the sense of insecurity mainly induced by a lack of knowledge.

Large language models (LLMs) are prone to hallucinations, i.e., nonsensical, unfaithful, and undesirable text. Users tend to overrely on LLMs and corresponding hallucinations which can lead to misinterpretations and errors. To tackle the problem of overreliance, we propose HILL, the "Hallucination Identifier for Large Language Models". First, we identified design features for HILL with a Wizard of Oz approach with nine participants. Subsequently, we implemented HILL based on the identified design features and evaluated HILL’s interface design by surveying 17 participants. Further, we investigated HILL’s functionality to identify hallucinations based on an existing question-answering dataset and five user interviews. We find that HILL can correctly identify and highlight hallucinations in LLM responses which enables users to handle LLM responses with more caution. With that, we propose an easy-to-implement adaptation to existing LLMs and demonstrate the relevance of user-centered designs of AI artifacts.

Applications of drones in emergency response, like firefighting, have been promoted in the past decade. As the autonomy of drones continues to improve, the ways in which they are integrated into firefighting teams and their impact on crews are changing. This demands more understanding of how firefighters perceive and interact with autonomous drones. This paper presents a drone-based system for emergency operations with which firefighters can interact through sound, lights, and a graphical user interface. We use interviews with stakeholders collected in two field trials to explore their perceptions of the interaction and collaboration with drones. Our result shows that firefighters perceived visual interaction as adequate. However, for audio instructions and interfaces, information overload emerges as an essential problem. The potential impact of drones on current work configurations may involve shifting the position of humans closer to supervisory decision-makers and changing the training structure and content.

In today's digital age, characterized by rapid news consumption and increasing vulnerability to propaganda, fostering citizens' critical thinking is crucial for stable democracies. This paper introduces the design of ClarifAI, a novel automated propaganda detection tool designed to nudge readers towards more critical news consumption by activating the analytical mode of thinking, following Kahneman's dual-system theory of cognition. Using Large Language Models, ClarifAI detects propaganda in news articles and provides context-rich explanations, enhancing users' understanding and critical thinking. Our contribution is threefold: first, we propose the design of ClarifAI; second, in an online experiment, we demonstrate that this design effectively encourages news readers to engage in more critical reading; and third, we emphasize the value of explanations for fostering critical thinking. The study thus offers both a practical tool and useful design knowledge for mitigating propaganda in digital news.

The rise of generative AI has led many companies to hire freelancers to harness its potential. However, this technology presents unique challenges to developers who have not previously engaged with it. Freelancers may find these challenges daunting due to the absence of organizational support and their reliance on positive client feedback. In a study involving 52 freelance developers, we identified multiple challenges associated with developing solutions based on generative AI. Freelancers often struggle with aspects they perceive as unique to generative AI such as unpredictability of its output, the occurrence of hallucinations, and the inconsistent effort required due to trial-and-error prompting cycles. Further, the limitations of specific frameworks, such as token limits and long response times, add to the complexity. Hype-related issues, such as inflated client expectations and a rapidly evolving technological ecosystem, further exacerbate the difficulties. To address these issues, we propose Software Engineering for Generative AI (SE4GenAI) and Hype-Induced Software Engineering (HypeSE) as areas where the software engineering community can provide effective guidance. This support is essential for freelancers working with generative AI and other emerging technologies.

Algorithms take decisions that affect humans, and have been shown to perpetuate biases and discrimination. Decisions by algorithms are subject to different interpretations. Algorithms’ behaviors are basis for the construal of moral assessment and standards. Yet we lack an understanding of how algorithms impact on social construction processes, and vice versa. Without such understanding, social construction processes may be disrupted and, eventually, may impede moral progress in society. We analyze the public discourse that emerged after a significant (five-fold) price-surge following the Brooklyn Subway Shooting on April 12 2022, in New York City. There was much controversy around the two ride-hailing firms’ algorithms’ decisions. The discussions evolved around various notions of fairness and the algorithms’ decisions’ justifiability. Our results indicate that algorithms, even if not explicitly addressed in the discourse, strongly impact on constructing fairness assessments and notions. They initiate the exchange, form people’s expectations, evoke people’s solidarity with specific groups, and are a vehicle for moral crusading. However, they are also subject to adjustments based on social forces. We claim that the process of constructing notions of fairness is no longer just social; it has become a socio-algorithmic process. We propose a theory of socio-algorithmic construction as a mechanism for establishing notions of fairness and other ethical constructs.

Interacting with a conversational agent (CA) is becoming a major paradigm for human-technology interaction. Yet, ways for interacting with CAs are still forming, especially in situations involving more than one human. Starting an interaction with a CA might involve a wakeword and command. Alternatively, it could become active based on implicit requests and context information. Hence, CA designers face a serious dilemma: explicit commands disturb a natural conversation flow, while implicit requests might cause inadequate CA behavior. This study explores this dilemma and discusses observations from a project featuring a CA for financial advisory services. Advisors initially envisioned a CA that ''blends with the background'' and acts on context information. However, when engaging with a CA, they used conversational interactions in one part of the encounter and command-based interactions in another. We discuss this observation and contrast it against previous literature. This insight has implications for design and research.

CSCW and HCI research has a standing discourse on boundary negotiating artifacts and psychological ownership. Both concepts are attributed the potential to address the spreading chronic disease pandemic and rising healthcare costs. While CSCW has attended only to boundary negotiating artifacts to study patient-provider collaboration, the psychological ownership discourse primarily focuses on the perception of ownership over digital objects. Despite studies in both discourses reporting promising results, the concepts have been studied separately. Accordingly, the ways boundary negotiating artifacts relate to psychological ownership in healthcare interactions remain unclear. In this research-through-design study, we evaluate the Digital Companion as a technology-based boundary negotiating artifact. Our field study with 27 patients shows how the Digital Companion fosters psychological ownership in weight management by bridging domains and closing the loop between patient self-management and medical support in consultations. By understanding how boundary negotiating artifacts foster psychological ownership, we gain deeper insights into how patients assume and share ownership of their therapy plans. Our analysis uncovers the emergence of perceived shared ownership as BNAs create concordance between patients and physicians.

Despite the large number of resources that blockchain has, and continues to mobilize, what makes the technology unique and why people engage with it is not yet fully understood. Hence, “Why blockchain?” is a question that many scientists and managers still ask themselves or must to answer when facing the technology's critics. While the question is undoubtedly justified, it cannot always be answered from a purely technical perspective. Thus, in this study, we apply a socio-technical information systems artifact perspective and analyze the reasons managers involved in the blockchain consortia have for using blockchain technology. Based on a multiple-case study of 19 blockchain consortia, including interviews with 53 stakeholders, we explicate 19 different motives that justify engagement with the technology in practice. Further, we identify the systemic character of tokenization and the importance of the socio-technical interplay of aspects like power decentralization that justify the necessity of blockchain.

Inspired by an industry initiative to address the celebrated market for lemons (poor-quality used cars), we investigate how incentives for a permissioned blockchain-based system in the automobile ecosystem can be designed to ensure high-quality data storage and use by different stakeholders. The peer-to-peer distributed ledger platform connects organizations and car owners with disparate interests and hidden intentions. While previous literature has chiefly examined incentives for permissionless platforms, we leverage studies about crowdsensing applications to stimulate research on incentives in permissioned blockchains. This article uses the action design research approach to create an incentive system featuring a rating mechanism influenced by data correction measures. Furthermore, we propose relying on certain institutions capable of assessing data generated within the system. This combined approach of a decentralized data correction and an institutionalized data assessment is distinct from similar incentive systems suggested by literature. By using an agent-based model with strategy evolution, we evaluate the proposed incentive system. Our findings indicate that a rating-based revenue distribution leads to markedly higher data quality in the system. Additionally, the incentive system reveals hidden information of the agents and alleviates agency problems, contributing to an understanding of incentive design in inter-organizational blockchain-based data platforms. Furthermore, we explore incentive design in permissioned blockchains and discuss its latest implications.

Conversational agents (CA) have drawn increasing interest from HCI research. They have become popular in different aspects of our lives, for example, in the form of chatbots as the primary point of contact when interacting with an insurance company online. Additionally, CA find their way into collaborative settings in education, at work, or financial advisory. Researchers and practitioners are searching for ways to enhance the customer's experience in service encounters by deploying CA. Since competence is an important treat of a financial advisor, they only accept CA in their interaction with clients if it does not harm their impression on the client. However, we do not know how the social presence of the CA affects this perceived competence. We explore this by evaluating three prototypes with different social presences. For this, we conducted a video-based online survey. In contrast to prior studies focusing on single human-computer interaction, our study explores CA in a dyadic setting of two humans and one CA. First, our results support the Computers-Are-Social-Actors paradigm as the CA with a strong social presence was perceived as more competent than the other two designs. Second, our data show a positive correlation between CA's and advisor's competence. This implies a positive impact of the CA on the service encounter as the CA and advisor can be seen as a competent team.

What if artificial intelligence (AI) machines became teammates rather than tools? This paper reports on an international initiative by 65 collaboration scientists to develop a research agenda for exploring the potential risks and benefits of machines as teammates (MaT). They generated 819 research questions. A subteam of 12 converged them to a research agenda comprising three design areas – Machine artifact, Collaboration, and Institution – and 17 dualities – significant effects with the potential for benefit or harm. The MaT research agenda offers a structure and archetypal research questions to organize early thought and research in this new area of study.

Modern information technology promises to improve service encounters through automated documentation or better decision traceability. At the same time, research suggests a negative impact of technology on human-to-human advisory services: including the possibility that computers might degrade the quality of interpersonal communication and reinforce unpleasant behaviors. Consequently, despite obvious improvements, information technology might have a negative impact on how the participants perceive the service. This might imply serious consequences for the service provider: dissatisfied clients, ineffective information exchange, and/or lack of transparency. This scenario slows down the diffusion of computers into advisory services in banks and insurance companies, and so designing systems for use in interpersonal services remains a challenge. This article provides evidence that LivePaper, a system designed alongside the material practices of a financial advisory encounter, helps to improve important service quality dimensions, making the services not only more pleasant for the participants, but also improving key marketing and business metrics of the service. In experimental advisory services, the sessions supported with LivePaper outperformed conventional services with regard to overall bank service quality and satisfaction, salesperson listening and interaction rating scores, as well as information transparency. This shows that a carefully designed system not only preserves the perceived quality of a service, but might improve it objectively, and has implications for the marketing and business value of the service.

Digital artefacts are increasingly used for supporting innovation practices, implying a growing need to better understand their role in different contexts. In this paper, we study how digital artefacts enable and constrain innovation practices by means of an in-depth, multi-year qualitative field study at a software firm. Analysing the usage of PowerPoint, as a dominant digital innovation artefact, we identify three paradoxes – conflicting yet interdependent tensions of digital artefacts in innovation practices: (1) Freedom and Captivity, (2) Clarity and Ambiguity, and (3) Scarcity and Abundance. Via a dialectic synthesis of the three paradoxes and an extension to modelling tools, we develop a substantive theory of the paradoxical effects of digital artefacts on innovation practices. We discuss theoretical implications for research on affordances and outline a path for research on IT paradoxes. We also offer practical implications by illustrating the paradoxical effects of using digital innovation artefacts and suggesting appropriate coping strategies.

Advisory services are ritualized encounters between an expert and an advisee. Empathetic, high-touch relationship between those two parties was identified as the key aspect of a successful advisory encounter. To facilitate the high-touch interaction, advisors established rituals which stress the unique, individual character of each client and each single encounter. Simultaneously, organizations like banks or insurances rolled out tools and technologies for use in advisory services to offer a uniform experience and consistent quality across branches and advisors. As a consequence, advisors were caught between the high-touch and high-tech aspects of an advisory service. This manuscript presents a system that accommodates for high-touch rituals and practices and combines them with high-tech collaboration. The proposed solution augments pen-and-paper practices with digital content and affords new material performances coherent with the existing rituals. The evaluation in realistic mortgage advisory services unveils the potential of mixed reality approaches for application in professional, institutional settings. The blow-by-blow analysis of the conversations reveals how an advisory service can become equally high-tech and high-touch thanks to a careful ritual-oriented system design. As a consequence, this paper presents a solution to the tension between the high-touch and high-tech tendencies in advisory services.

Despite the advent of a flurry of digital technologies, paper prevails on manufacturing shopfloors. To understand the roles and value of paper on the shopfloor, we have studied the manufacturing practices at two state-of-the-art automotive supplier facilities, applying ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, as well as photo and document analysis. We find that paper has unique affordances that today's digital technologies cannot easily supplant on current shopfloors. More specifically, we find four paper practices: (1) creating and adapting individual information spaces, (2) reinterpreting information, (3) combining information handover with social interaction, and (4) visual cuing. We discuss these practices and the unique affordances of paper that currently support shopfloor workers and also consider the limitations of paper, which are becoming increasingly apparent, since more tasks increasingly depend on real-time information.

This paper explores unique challenges of mobile consultancy and offers a picture-centric solution. We study the example of a policeman counseling a homeowner on how to prevent burglary. As in a stationary set-up, consultants and clients collaborate to co-create solutions to match the clients' problems. Concurrently, in a mobile set-up, problem and solution information are bound to the physical environment of the house. Moving through the house, both clients and consultants forget crucial location-bound information, severely impairing their collaboration. We propose supporting such collaboration with a tablet-based application that is centered on pictures of the physical environment, called SmartProtector. In an evaluation, we show that both clients and consultants remember substantially more information when using the SmartProtector. With this study, we contribute to the ongoing research discussion on collaborative memory, memory aid systems and mobile collaboration, highlighting the roles of pictures and their large potential to enhance collaborative work practices.

In this article, we report on design insights found during the evaluation of an innovative IT-artifact to support financial service encounters. Relating to previous work in this field, we carefully designed the artifact to omit any visualization and enforcement of rigid process structures, as those had turned out to be harmful. Our main design element was a mind-map-like content hierarchy to capture the client's situation. Surprisingly, we noticed that both clients and advisors talked about every information item visible on the screen just for the sake of completeness. They also followed a sequential process apparently inferred from the content hierarchy. We call this phenomenon "coercing into completeness". This phenomenon negatively influences the conversation between client and advisor inducing shorter discussion units and sudden, incomprehensible topic shifts. This article contributes an exploration of this phenomenon and its effects on the collaborative setting.

Recent research has shown that financial advisory encounters can successfully be supported with IT-artifacts. Tabletop scenarios, for example, can increase the transparency of the advisory process for customers. However, we have also had the experience that the relationship quality as experienced by customers can suffer severely when IT-artifacts are introduced. Based on these experiences, we developed guidelines for both, the artifact- design itself as well as for the environment in order to avoid this effect, and implemented them in one of our prototypes. The evaluation reveals that these measures proved to be effective. With the reported study, we seek to enhance our design knowledge of IT-supported advisory scenarios with a special focus on relationship building. In a larger context, we argue that the use of IT during sensitive face-to-face encounters will be of growing significance in the future but, as yet, is hardly understood. We make a contribution in this area with our generic requirements, design principles and evaluation.