Technology Meets Tradition: Investigating User Acceptance and Engagement with Robots for Supporting Older Adults in Pakistani HomesAs Pakistan’s population ages and traditional care structures evolve, there is increasing interest in technological solutions for supporting older adults at home. This study investigates the potential of social assistive robots (SARs) in Pakistani homes, focusing on cultural values, inter-generational living, and limited access to such technologies. In a 3-day mixed-methods home study, 14 older adults interacted with a SAR communicating in Urdu. Through observations, interviews, and questionnaires, we evaluated the robot's acceptability, engagement, and cultural compatibility. The results highlighted the need for culturally sensitive design, emphasising the role of robots as companions rather than replacements for human care, and the importance of robot’s ability to communicate in Urdu. We discuss how SARs could be designed to reflect the characteristics of Pakistani households, including faith, family values, everyday routines, and environmental factors. Our design considerations can benefit research on deploying SARs to support older adults in Pakistan and similar cultures.2026SASunbul M. Ahmad et al.Cardiff UniversitySocial Robot InteractionElderly Care & Dementia SupportAging-in-Place Assistance SystemsCHI
Street Scenes: Public Appliances for GenAI Video in Informal SettlementsGenerative AI is rapidly diffusing worldwide, yet access remains uneven. In informal settlements, barriers of cost, literacy and connectivity can exclude residents from AI-enabled self-expression. This paper presents Street Scenes: a public appliance for walk-up interaction with generative AI video in Dharavi, Mumbai. Inspired by the “Hole in the Wall” computers and previous Dharavi speech deployments, the system lets passers-by capture phone images, add voice-, button- and dial-based prompts, and generate short videos to view and leave locally. We report on ideation workshops, two Wizard-of-Oz prototypes and a 13-day in-situ deployment across Dharavi street locations. Findings show residents appropriating AI for play, self-presentation, small business promotion and community messaging, while also raising concerns about privacy, trust and misuse. We contribute: (1) a model for public AI appliances; (2) empirical insights into community engagement with generative AI; and, (3) design lessons for accessible, equitable and community-governed AI systems.2026GBGavin Bailey et al.Swansea UniversityGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Developing Countries & HCI for Development (HCI4D)Participatory DesignCHI
Less Redraw, More Explore: Suggestion and Completion for Sketch-to-ImageSketch-to-image systems let users transform simple line drawings into realistic images, but current workflows force users into tedious redraw-regenerate cycles that slow creative exploration. We introduce two complementary interaction techniques that reduce iteration friction: AutoSketch, which extends partial sketches through AI-driven completions (pre-generation support), and BackSketch, which transforms generated images back into editable sketches at multiple abstraction levels (post-generation support). In a study with 30 participants, the results indicate that both techniques can improve exploration and expressiveness compared to a baseline sketch-to-image system, while AutoSketch also can increase users’ sense of agency and co-creation with the AI. We contribute new evidence that shifting support before or after generation opens distinct pathways for balancing user control and system initiative. Together, our results establish pre- and post-generation assistance as a design space for co-creative sketch-to-image systems.2026ZZZeyu Zhao et al.Swansea UniversityGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Creative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsCreative Coding & Computational ArtCHI
"That Would Have Been Bad": How Radiologists Interact with VUI systems When Authoring ReportsThis paper presents an exploration of how [Redacted Country] radiologists interact with Voice User Interface (VUI) systems and peripherals when authoring diagnostic reports. We conducted a laboratory study with 10 practicing clinical radiologists to investigate the ways in which radiologists utilise speech-based technology to construct, edit and proof their work by having them report on real-world anonymised medical studies on camera. A sample of the participants also participated in interviews in which their data was collaboratively analysed and examined to offer deeper insight into the realism and generalisability of our findings and conclusions. We conclude that better training should be given to radiologists on how VUI systems work, and further investigation should be carried out on the best ways to interact with Speech To Text systems in safety critical environments.2025RCRory Stuart Clark et al.Voice TechnologyCSCW
“I Want My Chart to Be Just for Me”: Community-Engaged Design to Support Outpatient Healthcare for Resettled CommunitiesIndividuals resettled in a new environment often face challenges in accessing adequate healthcare services, particularly within the complex processes of outpatient clinic care. Cultural differences, language barriers, and low socioeconomic status contribute to these difficulties. While previous studies have identified barriers and proposed technology-mediated solutions for resettled populations, many focus on addressing deficits rather than building on the strengths these communities already possess–limiting the sustainability and relevance of these solutions in everyday life. We conducted two community-based participatory design workshops with 30 Hmong community members in a large metropolitan area in the US. Through this process, we identified four types of assets the community has gradually developed in their new home, including intergenerational support for health management and storytelling-based communication practices that facilitate relatable and culturally grounded interactions. We show how participatory design workshops can foster asset-based approaches and discuss design implications for health technologies that leverage patients' existing strengths to support their health management during outpatient visits.2025ZCZhanming Chen et al.HealthCSCW
Aye, Robot: What Happens When Robots Speak Like Real People?In daily life, we interact with each other using the social, regional, and ethnic communication styles typical of our local communities. Successful communication further rests on our ability to seamlessly adjust to our interlocutors following the norms and expectations of our local social setting as well as conversational context and goals. However, despite significant advances in speech technology, most artificial speech systems---particularly, most social robots---still use a single, "standard", non-local communication style for all users, social settings and interaction goals. Recent research has shown that when they interact with digital agents, humans transfer and adapt their sociolinguistic behaviours, including communication bias. Despite this, the barriers set up by this inherent communication bias have never been systematically studied for HRI; and the potential benefits to user engagement from socially inclusive, diverse communication styles have not been explored. We argue that social robotics researchers should also consider sociolinguistic factors constraining human interaction. To explore the implications, we describe two hypothetical robots designed to support the local communication style of two regions of the United Kingdom, and we consider the potential sociolinguistic impact each robot might have on its conversational partners and the wider society.2025MFMary Ellen Foster et al.Intelligent Voice Assistants (Alexa, Siri, etc.)Multilingual & Cross-Cultural Voice InteractionAgent Personality & AnthropomorphismCUI
Exploring the Experiences of Individuals Who are Blind or Low-Vision Using Object-Recognition Technologies in India Assistive technologies, such as smartphone-based object-recognition (OR) apps, provide visual assistance to people who are blind or low-vision to enable increased independent participation in society. While previous research has explored the functional accessibility of object-recognition technologies, little attention has been given to their social accessibility, particularly in interdependent socio-cultural contexts of the Global South. Through a mixed-methods approach, employing a seven-day diary study followed by one-on-one interviews with seven OR app users in India, we explore their experiences in depth. Our findings highlight the nuances of what interdependence looks like in a multicultural, Indian society, as people navigate public and private spheres with a camera-based assistive technology designed for independent, western contexts. We argue for the necessity to design assistive technologies following the interdependence framework that accommodates the social and cultural context of the Global South. Additionally, we propose design guidelines for assistive technologies in community-oriented societies, emphasizing community-centered approaches, cultural alignment, and locally adaptable designs.2025GIGesu India et al.Swansea UniversityVisual Impairment Technologies (Screen Readers, Tactile Graphics, Braille)Cognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Universal & Inclusive DesignCHI
Designing Health Technologies for Immigrant Communities: Exploring Healthcare Providers’ Communication Strategies with PatientsPatient-provider communication is an important aspect of successful healthcare, as it can directly lead to positive health outcomes. Previous studies examined factors that facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients in socially marginalized communities, especially developing countries, and applied identified factors to technology development. However, there is limited understanding of how providers work with patients from immigrant populations in a developed country. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 15 providers working with patients from an immigrant community with unique cultural characteristics, we identified providers’ effective communication strategies, including acknowledgment, community involvement, gradual care, and adaptive communication practices (i.e., adjusting the communication style). Based on our findings, we highlight cultural competence and discuss design implications for technologies to support health communication in immigrant communities. Our suggestions propose approaches for HCI researchers to identify practical, contextualized cultural competence for their health technology design.2025ZCZhanming Chen et al.University of Minnesota, College of DesignMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCommunity Engagement & Civic TechnologyEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
How Should We Design Technology With Diverse Stakeholders Who Wish Not to Attend Design Activities Together?The relationship between the Nigerian police and citizens is strained, hindering the co-design of conventional technologies to enhance community policing (CP) initiatives, hence the imperative to involve both in the design of a usable CP technology that can carter for their needs. Our preliminary findings indicate that Nigerian citizens are reluctant to participate in co-design activities with the police due to discomfort, which could potentially bias the design outcomes. Designing a CP technology with such stakeholders is crucial, but a new challenge for the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community, as no existing framework has addressed it. We introduce Conflict Sensitive Design (CSD), a co-design approach that leverages mediation techniques (tension reduction, leveling, common ground reminder, separated meetings, formalizing agreements) to iteratively collect, analyze, and reconcile design inputs, ensuring that the final design is usable for CP enhancement. Our case application worked in CP technology requirements gathering with Nigerian CP stakeholders, and it could be extended to related HCI contexts. We present a structured approach to conflict resolution in co-design processes, and discuss the lessons learned as a spotlight to guide other designers in related contexts.2025OOOBINNA OGBONNIA OTUU et al.FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC OKO, NIGERIA, COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT; SWANSEA UNIVERSITY, COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENTActivism & Political ParticipationEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsParticipatory DesignCHI
Cultivating Spoken Language Technologies for Unwritten LanguagesWe report on community-centered, collaborative research that weaves together HCI, natural language processing, linguistic, and design insights to develop spoken language technologies for unwritten languages. Across three visits to a Banjara farming community in India, we use participatory, technical, and creative methods to engage community members, collect spoken language photo annotations, and develop an information retrieval (IR) system. Drawing on orality theory, we interrogate assumptions and biases of current speech interfaces and create a simple application that leverages our IR system to match fluidly spoken queries with recorded annotations and surface corresponding photos. In-situ evaluations show how our novel approach returns reliable results and inspired the co-creation of media retrieval use-cases that are more appropriate in oral contexts. The very low (< 4h) spoken data requirements makes our approach adaptable to other contexts where languages are unwritten or have no digital language resources available.2024TRThomas Reitmaier et al.Swansea UniversityVoice User Interface (VUI) DesignIntelligent Voice Assistants (Alexa, Siri, etc.)Developing Countries & HCI for Development (HCI4D)CHI
Benefits of Community Voice: A Framework for Understanding Inclusion of Community Voice in HCI4DCommunity voice is widely used in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) work with under-served communities, however, the term is unresolved denoting disparate activities, methods, and phenomena that are at their most useful when combined. We argue for a rethink by setting out a more nuanced understanding of `community' and `voice'. Building on our own experiences of HCI for Development (HCI4D) work and existing literature, we put forward a framework for the benefits it can bring to those who actively engage communities as part of their work. This framework can be understood in terms of its four constituent benefits for CSCW and HCI4D practitioners: (i) understanding context, (ii) creating empathy, (iii) leveraging local skills and knowledge, and (iv) building trust and buy-in. We reflect on how an improved understanding of these benefits applies to three prior projects with women living in Bangladesh and discuss the issues and need for more work on community voice. Finally, we discuss how this more detailed perspective on community voice helps us understand power dynamics and poly-vocal communities in development contexts.2023MSManika Saha et al.InclusionCSCW
Designing for the Embedding of Employee VoicePrevious research on employee voice has sought to design technological solutions that address the challenges of speaking up in the workplace. However, effectively embedding employee voice systems in organisations requires designers to engage with the social processes, power relations and contextual factors of individual workplaces. We explore this process within a university workplace through a research project responding to a crisis in educational service delivery arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a successful three-month staff-led engagement, we examined the intricacies of embedding employee voice, exploring how the interactions between existing actors impacted the effectiveness of the process. We sought to identify specific actions to promote employee voice and overcome barriers to its successful establishment in organisational decision-making. We highlight design considerations for an effective employee voice system that facilitates embedding employee voice, including assurance, bounded accountability and bias reflexivity.2023DADinislam Abdulgalimov et al.Workplace ICSCW
Cyclists’ Use of Technology While on their BikeCycling continues to grow in popularity, both as a means to commute and for exercise. While there is a plethora of research studying technology use in vehicular travel, cycling remains a relatively understudied area—especially within HCI. We conducted an ethnography, adopting an ethnomethodological lens, to study cyclists as they use their bicycles for routine purposes. Through the use of a handlebar-mounted 360-degree action video camera, we conducted our study longitudinally with participants over a number of weeks. Our analysis explicates our participants accountable use of different electronic technologies while on the go and in this paper we present four fragments of their use of different technologies as exemplars from our corpus. Our paper offers insights into the use of technology on bicycles, including how cyclists select moments of opportunity to use technology for different purposes. We conclude by offering design implications for the design of interactive technologies for cyclists.2023MPMartin Porcheron et al.Swansea University, University of NottinghamMicromobility (E-bike, E-scooter) InteractionCHI
Situating Automatic Speech Recognition Development within Communities of Under-heard Language SpeakersIn this paper we develop approaches to automatic speech recognition (ASR) development that suit the needs and functions of under-heard language speakers. Our novel contribution to HCI is to show how community-engagement can surface key technical and social issues and opportunities for more effective speech-based systems. We introduce a bespoke toolkit of technologies and showcase how we utilised the toolkit to engage communities of under-heard language speakers; and, through that engagement process, situate key aspects of ASR development in community contexts. The toolkit consists of (1) an information appliance to facilitate spoken-data collection on topics of community interest, (2) a mobile app to create crowdsourced transcripts of collected data, and (3) demonstrator systems to showcase ASR capabilities and to feed back research results to community members. Drawing on the sensibilities we cultivated through this research, we present a series of challenges to the orthodoxy of state-of-the-art approaches to ASR development.2023TRThomas Reitmaier et al.Swansea UniversityMultilingual & Cross-Cultural Voice InteractionDeveloping Countries & HCI for Development (HCI4D)User Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)CHI
Changes in Research Ethics, Openness, and Transparency in Empirical Studies between CHI 2017 and CHI 2022In recent years, various initiatives from within and outside the HCI field have encouraged researchers to improve research ethics, openness, and transparency in their empirical research. We quantify how the CHI literature might have changed in these three aspects by analyzing samples of 118 CHI 2017 and 127 CHI 2022 papers---randomly drawn and stratified across conference sessions. We operationalized research ethics, openness, and transparency into 45 criteria and manually annotated the sampled papers. The results show that the CHI 2022 sample was better in 18 criteria, but in the rest of the criteria, it has no improvement. The most noticeable improvements were related to research transparency (10 out of 17 criteria). We also explored the possibility of assisting the verification process by developing a proof-of-concept screening system. We tested this tool with eight criteria. Six of them achieved high accuracy and F1 score. We discuss the implications for future research practices and education. This paper and all supplementary materials are freely available at https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/n25d6.2023KNKavous Salehzadeh Niksirat et al.University of LausanneResearch Ethics & Open ScienceCHI
From Asymptomatics to Zombies: Visualization-Based Education of Disease ModelingThroughout the COVID-19 pandemic, visualizations became commonplace in public communications to help people make sense of the world and the reasons behind government-imposed restrictions. Though the adult population were the main target of these messages, children were affected by restrictions through not being able to see friends and virtual schooling. However, through these daily models and visualizations, the pandemic response provided a way for children to understand what data scientists really do and provided new routes for engagement with STEM subjects. In this paper, we describe the development of an interactive and accessible visualization tool to be used in workshops for children to explain computational modeling of diseases, in particular COVID-19. We detail our design decisions based on approaches evidenced to be effective and engaging such as unplugged activities and interactivity. We share reflections and learnings from delivering these workshops to 140 children and assess their effectiveness.2023GMGraham McNeill et al.University of Warwick, King's College LondonMedical & Scientific Data VisualizationSTEM Education & Science CommunicationCHI
"Piece it together": Insights from one year of engagement with electronics and programming for people with intellectual disabilitiesWe present the results of one year spent engaging people living with intellectual disabilities with an electronics and programming package. The program was run in collaboration with a disability support organization and delivered by support workers. We evaluate key qualities of the package at three sites via ongoing communication and reflective interviews with five support workers, along with observation of sessions and contextual inquiry with eleven people with a range of disabilities. Our findings demonstrate the importance of physicality in enabling experiences by creating real-world analogues and supporting diverse group interactions; how groups support members' attention, motivating each other, and allow space for coping mechanisms; and participants' growing confidence and creativity in problem solving, and the emergence of self-directed activities. We discuss the importance of diverse repetition for skill development, how skills develop over the year, and pragmatic lessons for conducting a long-term research program with a disability support organization.2023KEKirsten Ellis et al.Monash UniversitySpecial Education TechnologyCHI
Opportunities and Challenges of Automatic Speech Recognition Systems for Low-Resource Language SpeakersAutomatic Speech Recognition (ASR) researchers are turning their attention towards supporting low-resource languages, such as isiXhosa or Marathi, with only limited training resources. We report and reflect on collaborative research across ASR & HCI to situate ASR-enabled technologies to suit the needs and functions of two communities of low-resource language speakers, on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa and in Mumbai, India. We build on longstanding community partnerships and draw on linguistics, media studies and HCI scholarship to guide our research. We demonstrate diverse design methods to: remotely engage participants; collect speech data to test ASR models; and ultimately field-test models with users. Reflecting on the research, we identify opportunities, challenges, and use-cases of ASR, in particular to support pervasive use of WhatsApp voice messaging. Finally, we uncover implications for collaborations across ASR & HCI that advance important discussions at CHI surrounding data, ethics, and AI.2022TRThomas Reitmaier et al.Swansea UniversityMultilingual & Cross-Cultural Voice InteractionExplainable AI (XAI)Cognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)CHI
Keep it Short: A Comparison of Voice Assistants' Response BehaviorVoice assistants (VAs) are present in homes, smartphones, and cars. They allow users to perform tasks without graphical or tactile user interfaces, as they are designed for natural language interaction. However, we found that currently, VAs are emulating human behavior by responding in complete sentences, limiting the design options, and preventing VAs from meeting their full potential as a utilitarian tool. We implemented a VA that handles requests in three response styles: two differing short keyword-based response styles and a full-sentence baseline. In a user study, 72 participants interacted with our VA by issuing eight requests. Results show that the short responses were perceived similarly useful and likable while being perceived as more efficient, especially for commands, and sometimes better to comprehend than the baseline. To achieve widespread adoption, we argue that VAs should be customizable and adapt to users instead of always responding in full sentences.2022GHGabriel Haas et al.Ulm UniversityVoice User Interface (VUI) DesignIntelligent Voice Assistants (Alexa, Siri, etc.)CHI
Light in Light Out (LiLo) Displays: Harvesting and Manipulating Light to Provide Novel Forms of CommunicationMany of us daily encounter shadow and reflected light patterns alongside macro-level changes in ambient light levels. These are caused by elements - opaque objects, glass, mirrors, even clouds - in our environment interfacing with sunlight or artificial indoor lighting. Inspired by these phenomena, we explored ways of creating digitally-supported displays that use light, shade and reflection for output and harness the energy they need to operate from the sun or indoor ambient light. Through a set of design workshops we developed exemplar devices: SolarPix, ShadMo and GlowBoard. We detail their function and implementation, as well as evidencing their technical viability. The designs were informed by material understandings from the Global North and Global South and demonstrated in a cross-cultural workshop run in parallel in India and South Africa where community co-designers reflected on their uses and value given lived experience of their communication practices and unreliable energy networks.2022KSKrishna Seunarine et al.Swansea UniversitySustainable HCIEcological Design & Green ComputingDigital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceCHI