Human-computer Interaction Professionals Research Articles

HOW INFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION IN SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTS NEUROLOGISTS’ MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS

Neurologists must critically evaluate social media information, due to the possibility of misinformation influencing their prescriptions. Misinformation on these platforms may mislead patients into seeking unproven treatments. Neurologists should educate their patients about the prevalence of inaccurate information online and promote the use of credible health websites. They must also stay updated with recent research, establish guidelines for discussing internet research with patients, and collaborate with human-computer interaction professionals for better results. A cautious approach towards social media can ensure accurate prescriptions and mitigate potential harm to patient care.

Exploring Digital Technology Adoption among Brazilian Evangelicals: A Survey and Research Agenda

The influence of faith on users’ adoption and use of digital technologies is a relevant aspect explored in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). In the Brazilian context, a religious segment that has experienced significant growth in recent years is the evangelical community. Understanding how evangelical members have adopted and utilized digital technologies, including their experiences during religious practices such as evangelical services, is of fundamental importance. In this work, we present an exploratory study conducted in Brazil, aiming to characterize the use of digital technologies among evangelicals. We conducted a survey through a questionnaire from 107 participants from all regions of Brazil. The results revealed that digital technologies are crucial in engaging religious services and facilitating Bible reading. However, they also highlighted challenges related to spiritual experiences arising from using these technologies. Furthermore, the research identified a series of questions and promising areas for future investigations in the field of HCI and its intersection with religion. This study contributes to the understanding of the complex interaction between technology and faith and enriches discussions about the use of digital technologies in the evangelical religious context. Additionally, by presenting a detailed research agenda, we identify topics deserving deeper investigation, such as technology-mediated spiritual experiences and the cultural implications of technological adoption in religious settings. The combination of these results and the proposed research agenda provides valuable insights for researchers, HCI professionals, and members of religious communities interested in comprehending and enhancing the intersection between technology and faith.

User‐centered approaches in software development processes: Qualitative research into the practice of Hungarian companies

AbstractIntegrating user‐centered approaches into development processes is one of the main challenges nowadays that derives from different objectives of software engineering (SE) and human‐computer interaction (HCI) fields. For SE experts, the main goal is quality code creation, whereas for HCI professionals, it is the continuous product interaction with the users. The major question is what tools and timings can be used together to achieve these goals effectively. Therefore, this article provides comparative, exploratory, and qualitative research about possible solutions on how practitioners transfer HCI values and practices to SE processes. The current practice of software companies was studied by conducting interviews on a sample of 13 Hungarian Information Technology companies to explore the SE processes in respect of several dimensions (applied development models, the integrity of user‐centered methods, and the user experience [UX] maturity). According to preliminary expectations, the development processes of the various companies proceed in different steps; nevertheless, they can be well grouped together based on the UX methods applied. The results representing the various user‐centered processes can be considered useful for future decision makers of software companies worldwide.

Ontologies in human–computer interaction: A systematic literature review

Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary area that involves a diverse body of knowledge and a complex landscape of concepts, which can lead to semantic problems, hampering communication and knowledge transfer. Ontologies have been successfully used to solve semantics and knowledge-related problems in several domains. This paper presents a systematic literature review that investigated the use of ontologies in the HCI domain. The main goal was to find out how HCI ontologies have been used and developed. 35 ontologies were identified. As a result, we noticed that they cover different HCI aspects, such as user interface, interaction phenomenon, pervasive computing, user modeling / profile, HCI design, interaction experience and adaptive interactive system. Although there are overlaps, we did not identify reuse among the 35 analyzed ontologies. The ontologies have been used mainly to support knowledge representation and reasoning. Although ontologies have been used in HCI for more than 25 years, their use became more frequent in the last decade, when ontologies address a higher number of HCI aspects and are represented as both conceptual and computational models. Concerning how ontologies have been developed, we noticed that some good practices of ontology engineering have not been followed. Considering that the quality of an ontology directly influences the quality of the solution built based on it, we believe that there is an opportunity for HCI and ontology engineering professionals to get closer to build better and more effective ontologies, as well as ontology-based solutions.

Guidelines for braindraw conduction: looking at braindraw under the lens of abduction and semiotics

ABSTRACT Braindraw is a participatory technique in which participants collaboratively design the interface for a proposed solution. Conducting braindraw in different design situations is still a factor of difficulty for its use by human-computer interaction professionals in the software industry, as there is no set of basic guidelines to be followed. In this sense, this article presents a narrative literature review, a set of exploratory case studies to identify initial elements for braindraw conduction, and a case study to evaluate and improve the initial set of elements for braindraw conduction. We analyse the collected data using the thematic analysis method. This resulted in a set of guidelines for braindraw conduction.

"Smartphone Apps Are Cool, But Do They Help Me?": A Qualitative Interview Study of Adolescents' Perspectives on Using Smartphone Interventions to Manage Nonsuicidal Self-Injury.

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a major mental health problem associated with negative psychosocial outcomes and it most often starts in early adolescence. Despite this, adolescents are rarely involved in informing the development of interventions designed to address their mental health problems. This study aimed to (1) assess adolescents’ needs and preferences about future interventions that are delivered through smartphones and (2) develop a framework with implications for designing engaging digital mental health interventions. Fifteen adolescent girls, aged 12–18 years, who met diagnostic criteria for a current NSSI disorder and were in contact with mental health services, participated in semi-structured interviews. Following a reflexive thematic analysis approach, this study identified two main themes: (1) Experiences of NSSI (depicts the needs of young people related to their everyday experiences of managing NSSI) and (2) App in Context (portrays preferences of young people about smartphone interventions and reflects adolescents’ views on how technology itself can improve or hinder engaging with these interventions). Adolescent patients expressed interest in using smartphone mental health interventions if they recognize them as helpful, relevant for their life situation and easy to use. The developed framework suggests that digital mental health interventions are embedded in three contexts (i.e., person using the intervention, mental health condition, and technology-related factors) which together need to inform the development of engaging digital resources. To achieve this, the cooperation among people with lived experience, mental health experts, and human computer interaction professionals is vital.

Tools for Wellbeing-Supportive Design: Features, Characteristics, and Prototypes

While research on wellbeing within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is an active space, a gap between research and practice persists. To tackle this, we sought to identify the practical needs of designers in taking wellbeing research into practice. We report on 15 semi-structured interviews with designers from four continents, yielding insights into design tool use generally and requirements for wellbeing design tools specifically. We then present five resulting design tool concepts, two of which were further developed into prototypes and tested in a workshop with 34 interaction design and HCI professionals. Findings include seven desirable features and three desirable characteristics for wellbeing-supportive design tools, including that these tools should satisfy the need for proof, buy-in, and tangibility. We also provide clarity around the notion of design for wellbeing and why it must be distinguished from design for positive emotions.

Creating personas for political and social consciousness in HCI design

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limits and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals.Traditionally indeed, personas and the associated scenarios are created by focusing on needs and goals of the target users. This focus, while helping designers, also obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will of personas to take action. We argue that it would be possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios too) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs. We suggest that drawing on phenomenography will allow to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation.

Human-Computer Interaction in Ibero-America: Academic, Research, and Professional Issues

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a growing area. With the advent of new technologies and a continually expanding user population, there is a need for HCI professionals in both academia and software companies. The authors examine the state of the HCI discipline in Ibero-American countries for both academia and industry.

Visual Language for Use Case Description

Use cases have been widely adopted by software engineers to model user-system interaction. However, its fragmented and textual description of functionalities has been inadequate for user-centered design concerns. This has led human-computer interaction professionals to create their own methods and techniques, which has often had the opposite philosophy from that used by software engineers when modeling user-system interactions. Therefore, the present paper proposes the Visual Language for Use Case Description aiming to improve the support of use cases for user-centered design by projecting a common artifact for the communication between both the human-computer interaction and the software engineering communities. To obtain the perceptions of potential users about Visual Language for Use Cases Description, an experimental study involving software development students and professionals was conducted. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Design Enterprise: Rethinking the HCI Education Paradigm

Introduction Every discipline has its own evolutionary path upon which its practitioners should reflect to better assess the future. Having come of age, the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) is no exception. As such, it is appropriate to ask some fundamental questions regarding the development of HCI education and its impact on design and deployment of technologies that increasingly transform our lives at home and at work. In the conclusion of their paper, “Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research,” Hollan, Hutchins, and Kirsh1 state that for HCI to advance in the new millennium, “We need to better understand the emerging dynamic of interaction in which the focus task is no longer confined to the desktop, but reaches into a complex, networked world of information and computer-mediated interactions.” They argue that, for people to pursue their goals in collaboration in a social and material world, they will require a “new theoretical basis and an integrated framework for research.” 2 The claim made by Hollan, Hutchins, and Kirsh3 questions whether or not educators are attending to the kind of curriculum development that will allow for the emergence of a new generation of interaction designers4 who understand the dynamics of sociobehavioral contexts in which interactive systems might best be built. Echoing this call, Carroll5 expressed his concern about the next generation of HCI professionals who, he suggested, may have little or no understanding of HCI theory as a multidisciplinary science. The multidisciplinary development of HCI over the last twenty years suggests a further need for advanced learning models from scholars who are willing to resolve the current tension between traditional course content and the role of design in the strategic planning and synthesis of product creation.6 Pedagogical models employed by many HCI and design programs will risk becoming increasingly short-sighted if they do not provide students with knowledge domains that can account for understanding design, social context, and business strategies in addition to computing. A curriculum that delivers all these can only be achieved through a rethinking of HCI pedagogy by which students learn the theory and best practice of design as a unified approach to 1 J. Hollan, E. Hutchins, and D. Kirsh, “Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research,” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 7:2 (2000): 174–196. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Interaction design (ID): The phrase “interaction design” has evolved out of a growing need to recognize the role that “design” plays in the development of emerging technologies. ID includes a special consideration for the complexity of the features, functions, and capabilities that newer technologies bring to the user. Although interaction design draws upon the traditional theories and practices of HCI and interface design, it clearly emphasizes human-centered design as the primary model upon which to secure the goals and preferences most desired by users. Hence, designers often consider interaction design as a discipline that places more emphasis on user experience (referred to as “user experience design”) and the processes of designing for both human and system behavior to better solve interaction problems that users confront on a daily basis. As opposed to traditional HCI professionals, who hold degrees in computer science and cognitive psychology, interaction designers are often from traditional backgrounds in visual communication and industrial design. In this paper, the author is using the term HCI in the broadest sense to speak to both HCI and interaction design educators and professionals. 5 HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks: Toward a New Multidisciplinary Science, J. M. Carroll, ed. (San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 2003).