Recommendations with Benefits: Exploring Explanations in Information Sharing Recommender Systems for Temporary Teams

Abstract

Increased use of collaborative technologies and agile teamwork models has led to a greater need for temporary teams. Unfortunately, they lack the normal team formation processes that traditional teams use. Information sharing recommender systems can be used to share information about team members amongst the team; however, these systems rely on the team members themselves to disclose valuable information. While prior research has shown that an effective way to encourage user disclosure is through explanations to the user about what benefits they will gain from disclosure, the timing of such explanations has yet to be consideblack. In a between-subjects study with 150 participants, we assessed the content and timing of explanations on levels of disclosure in temporary teams. Our results indicate that providing benefit-related explanations during the time of disclosure can increase user disclosure, and providing benefit-related explanations during the recommendation process can increase user trust in the system. These results provide important design implications for teams and the HCI community.