Optimal Explanations: A Quantitative Model of Human Error in Causal Graph InterpretationWhen Artificial Intelligence (AI) reasoning is explained via causal graphs for human oversight, the human-computer interface is the performance bottleneck for decision-supported actions. As explanations grow more complex, humans' interpretation ability degrades, resulting in ineffective oversight. This paper contributes a quantitative model of human causal reasoning bounds and demonstrates their utility for interpretable AI explanations. Our empirical contribution is a large-scale user study (n=170), allowing the quantification of the bounded human rationality for understanding causal explanations by measuring the impact of the causal complexity on human understanding. Our significant results reveal that users are bounded causal reasoners: while their decision time increases linearly with each added factor (0.65 seconds per node), our data suggests their decision errors increase exponentially. This indicates a cognitive bound on the complexity a user can effectively manage and grounds our framework for establishing a cognitively optimized complexity. Utilizing this evidence, we contribute a theoretical framework, formalizing the influence of explanation complexity on human interpretation error. Based on our empirical results, we introduce a novel method to systematically prune causal explanations to the point of optimal complexity, trading off the explanation's fidelity loss with interpretation error, resulting in an explanation with optimized complexity for human cognitive bounds for directed acyclic graphs with up to 4 relevant nodes and novice users. Our work thereby quantifies the fidelity-interpretability trade-off as a direct relationship between model complexity and interpretation error, providing the foundation for designing structure-aware, explainable AI interfaces, minimizing error for optimal human-AI collaboration.2026PZPaul-David Zuercher et al.University of CambridgeExplainable AI (XAI)AI-Assisted Decision-Making & AutomationAlgorithmic Transparency & AuditabilityIUI
Virtual Perspectives: Effects of Spatial Presence and Agency on Affective and Cognitive Virtual Reality Perspective-TakingPerspective-taking supports empathy, bias reduction, and social cognition, and virtual reality (VR) promises to facilitate it by immersing users into simulated perspectives. Yet, how VR qualities, such as spatial presence and agency, influence -- and potentially enhance -- perspective-taking remains unclear. We conducted two controlled experiments (N=23 and N=25) using a VR paradigm that manipulated spatial presence (2D vs. 3D) and avatar agency (synchronous vs. delayed motion, and with vs. without a task). We measured cognitive perspective-taking using an anchoring task and self-avatar overlap as an indicator of affective perspective-taking. Results show that increased spatial presence and agency both significantly enhanced affective perspective-taking. However, neither significantly affected cognitive perspective-taking. These findings suggest that while VR qualities can enhance how close a person feels to an avatar, they may not strongly affect cognitive perspective-taking. By studying the influence of two VR qualities, we offer guidance on building more effective perspective-taking experiences in immersive environments.2026LDLiyue Da et al.The University of CopenhagenImmersion & Presence ResearchIdentity & Avatars in XREmpathy & Emotional DesignCHI
A Faster VR Body to Speed Up ChoicesA VR body can move faster than its user, making actions like reaching more efficient. We propose a VR body that not only moves faster during reaching, but also starts moving before the user has decided which target to reach for. However, it is unclear whether such a VR body would speed up choices, since moving towards a wrong target might cause confusion, or influence users' choices. To explore these questions, we built a faster VR body prototype, focusing on an accelerated hand and arm, in a choice task. Thirty-four participants viewed random-dot displays to judge the overall motion direction and indicated their choice by pressing the corresponding button. Task difficulty was varied to influence choice uncertainty. Results showed that choice time decreased when the virtual body was 0.1 seconds ahead of the physical body, but increased when it was 0.3 seconds ahead. Users' choice distributions showed no significant differences.2026DYDifeng Yu et al.University of CopenhagenImmersion & Presence ResearchFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputEye Tracking & Gaze InteractionCHI
A Design Space of Virtual Bodies: Their Types, Effects, and Theoretical FoundationsIn virtual reality, users are typically represented by and interact through a virtual body. Research frequently manipulates different features of these bodies. We analyze 208 studies to identify what aspects of virtual bodies are manipulated, how these manipulations affect interaction and other outcomes, and why they are assumed to do so. Based on the analysis, we propose a design space comprising seven types of visual manipulations: appearance, size, morphology, viewpoint, transfer, remapping, and control. We also synthesize findings on their effects—ranging from task performance to physiological responses and social outcomes—and examine the theories used to explain them, such as embodiment, Proteus effect, and presence. The design space helps researchers identify key variables and their interconnections in design and empirical research of virtual bodies. The synthesis further reveals unexplored causal connections and highlights theories that may account for observed effects.2026JBJoanna Bergström et al.University of CopenhagenIdentity & Avatars in XRImmersion & Presence ResearchSocial & Collaborative VRCHI
Digitizing the Dead: Understanding ‘Data Hauntings’ to Support Equitable Data Work with Human RemainsThousands of human remains are stored in museums and collections worldwide. But while their collection, handling and display are increasingly subjected to ethical guidelines and regulations, institutional guidelines and research on their digitization are scarce. This study explores the challenges and opportunities of digitizing human remains, outlining new directions. Based on interviews (n=23) with museum professionals across 14 organizations worldwide, we map: 1) A taxonomy of data work with human remains; 2) Main areas of uncertainties in data work and adaptive strategies currently employed to address them; 3) Examples of ill-fitting digital systems. We introduce the concept of ‘data hauntings’ to highlight the historical, technical and regulatory ghosts lingering in digital systems of contested assets, and the specters of future data circulation. Lastly, we propose a ‘hauntological’ framework for rethinking, (re)designing and maintaining digital systems to enable equitable data work - balancing historical trace-ability, ethical accountability and searchability.2026VBValeria Borsotti et al.University of CopenhagenMuseum & Cultural Heritage DigitizationDigital Legacy & Online MemorialsCHI
Polite But Boring? Trade-offs Between Engagement and Psychological Reactance to Chatbot Feedback StylesAs conversational agents become increasingly common in behaviour change interventions, understanding optimal feedback delivery mechanisms becomes increasingly important. However, choosing a style that both lessens psychological reactance (perceived threats to freedom) while simultaneously eliciting feelings of surprise and engagement represents a complex design problem. We explored how three different feedback styles: 'Direct', 'Politeness', and 'Verbal Leakage' (slips or disfluencies to reveal a desired behaviour) affect user perceptions and behavioural intentions. Matching expectations from literature, the 'Direct' chatbot led to lower behavioural intentions and higher reactance, while the 'Politeness' chatbot evoked higher behavioural intentions and lower reactance. However, 'Politeness' was also seen as unsurprising and unengaging by participants. In contrast, 'Verbal Leakage' evoked reactance, yet also elicited higher feelings of surprise, engagement, and humour. These findings highlight that effective feedback requires navigating trade-offs between user reactance and engagement, with novel approaches such as 'Verbal Leakage' offering promising alternative design opportunities.2026SCSamuel Rhys Cox et al.Aalborg UniversityConversational ChatbotsAffective Human-Computer DialogueBehavior Change & Reflection TechnologyCHI
From Movement Adaptation to De Novo Learning: A Design Space of VR Interaction TechniquesVR interaction techniques define mappings between physical movements and virtual outcomes. While some mappings are learned through the adaptation of existing movement strategies, others require acquiring entirely new control policies. Drawing on motor learning theory, we introduce a design space that organizes these mappings into three families and provides a basis for reasoning about how the mappings are learned. To examine learning within individual families and their compositions, we start with two simple hand-based mappings, mirror reversal and cross-hand control, and their combination, allowing us to probe the design space in a controlled experiment with 96 participants. The mappings differ in initial difficulty, but participants achieve comparable overall learning. In the combined condition, prior exposure produces mapping specific start-up advantages. We discuss how this design space can support the analysis and design of VR mapping techniques.2026CXCleo Xiao et al.University of CopenhagenImmersion & Presence ResearchFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputSocial & Collaborative VRCHI
On the Computational Reproducibility of Human-Computer InteractionAn increasing number of HCI researchers have embraced open science ideas, such as sharing data and analysis code. However, such practices are only meaningful when the shared data and code enable other researchers to reproduce and reuse the reported findings. To investigate the reproducibility of HCI research, we identified all CHI papers that have shared study data and analysis code, and attempted to reproduce the results. We were able to fully reproduce 49\% of the papers. We surveyed and interviewed authors, asking them to assess the reproducibility of their own work and to reflect on their motivations and obstacles in doing open science. We discuss what improves and hinders reproducibility and provide recommendations on how to increase reproducibility rates in HCI. While the value of replicability remains contested in HCI, we argue that the more modest goal of reproducibility is desirable.2026OIKasper Hornbæk et al.University of CopenhagenResearch Ethics & Open ScienceUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)Computational Methods in HCICHI
Experiencing Change: A Scoping Review of Behavior Change with Extended RealityDespite decades of research, behavior change technologies remain limited in effectiveness because they mainly focus on offering information. Immersive technologies, such as extended, virtual, and augmented reality, promise to address this limitation by shifting from information-centric to experience-centric interventions. However, we do not know which technical and psychological components of immersive technologies make interventions effective. This scoping review of 53 articles analyzes how immersive technology components are linked to theory-informed behavior change techniques, summarizes their effectiveness, and synthesizes their unique advantages for experience-based immersive behavior change interventions. We offer both a formalization of the impact of immersive technology components on behavior change, and summarize practical suggestions for designing and systematically evaluating immersive behavior change interventions in a framework toward theory-driven Extended Reality behavior change interventions.2026THTeresa Hirzle et al.University of CopenhagenImmersion & Presence ResearchBehavior Change & Reflection TechnologySocial & Collaborative VRCHI
What We Talk About When We Talk About Frameworks in HCIIn HCI, frameworks function as a type of theoretical contribution, often supporting ideation, design, and evaluation. Yet, little is known about how they are actually used, what functions they serve, and which scholarly practices that shape them. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of 615 papers from a decade of CHI proceedings (2015-2024) that prominently featured the term framework. We classified these papers into six engagement types. We then examined the role, form, and essential components of newly proposed frameworks through a functional typology, analyzing how they are constructed, validated, and articulated for reuse. Our results show that enthusiasm for proposing new frameworks exceeds the willingness to iterate on existing ones. They also highlight the ambiguity in the function of frameworks and the scarcity of systematic validation. Based on these insights, we call for more rigorous, reflective, and cumulative practices in the development and use of frameworks in HCI.2026SFShitao Fang et al.The University of TokyoParticipatory DesignUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)Research Ethics & Open ScienceCHI
Design for Dis/Ability: A Crip Inquiry into Personal Energy TrackingThis study explores the phenomenon of energy and self-tracking technologies, moving beyond the context of managing chronic conditions. Our approach to designing from the experiences of people with disability is informed by crip theory, which challenges societal norms of health and ability. We analysed 50 survey responses and 15 interviews with wearable tracker users and found that self-tracking shapes interpretation of energy and self-care strategies. Our findings indicate that tracking significantly affect perceptions and judgments of bodily activity, energy and rest. We found a notable disconnect between the metrics provided by the trackers and the subjective understanding of personal energy meanings, especially during events of bodily and contextual changes such as travelling, illness, or menstrual cycle. This research contributes to discourses on energy in self-tracking technologies and advocates for designing more inclusive, crip futures for everyone that celebrate irregularity, fluctuation, and change, accommodating diverse bodily rhythms in energy tracking practices.2026IKIrene Kaklopoulou et al.Umeå UniversityHealth Self-TrackingBehavior Change & Reflection TechnologyCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)CHI
Sensemaking in Multi-Agent LLM Interfaces: How Users Interpret Transparency and Trustworthiness CuesAs multi-agent Large Language Models (LLMs) gain traction, designers must consider how to surface their internal reasoning in ways that foster appropriate trust. We present a design-led, qualitative, comparative structured observation study, exploring how users interpret and evaluate transparency in multi-agent LLMs. Participants interacted with five interface variants, each instantiating different combinations of transparency-related design dimensions, across two task types: information-seeking and logical reasoning. We surface participants’ mental models, the cues they interpret as signals of transparency and trustworthiness, and how they weigh the costs and benefits of increasing process visibility. Transparency needs were dynamic and context-sensitive, with the ideal "Goldilocks" (i.e., "just right" transparency) level shaped jointly by task demands, interface affordances, and user characteristics such as task expertise and dispositional AI trust. We highlight tensions between process visibility, information sufficiency, and cognitive effort, and synthesise these insights into design considerations for aligning transparency with user needs in future multi-agent LLM interfaces.2026SPSaumya Pareek et al.University of MelbourneHuman-LLM CollaborationExplainable AI (XAI)Privacy by Design & User ControlCHI
(Computer) Vision in Action: Comparing Remote Sighted Assistance and a Multimodal Voice Agent in Inspection Sequences Does human–AI assistance unfold in the same way as human–human assistance? This research explores what can be learned from the expertise of blind individuals and sighted volunteers to inform the design of multimodal voice agents and address the enduring challenge of proactivity. Drawing on granular analysis of two representative fragments from a larger corpus, we contrast the practices co-produced by an experienced human remote sighted assistant and a blind participant—as they collaborate to find a stain on a blanket over the phone—with those achieved when the same participant worked with a multimodal voice agent on the same task, a few moments earlier. This comparison enables us to specify precisely which fundamental proactive practices the agent did not enact in situ. We conclude that, so long as multimodal voice agents cannot produce environmentally occasioned vision-based actions, they will lack a key resource relied upon by human remote sighted assistants.2026DRDamien Rudaz et al.University of CopenhagenIntelligent Voice Assistants (Alexa, Siri, etc.)Voice AccessibilityCHI
Can AI be a Social Buffer? Investigating the Effect of AI-assisted Cognitive Reappraisal and Narrative Perspectives on Managing Difficult Workplace Conversations over EmailIn difficult workplace email conversations, such as layoffs or resource negotiations, the absence of nonverbal cues can exacerbate negative emotions experienced by recipients. While existing tools support senders in refining tone, there is little support for processing emotionally intensive content from the receivers' side. This study investigated the use of large language models that added positive or neutral reframings, written in either first or third person, to original emails, with the aim of helping recipients view difficult conversations in a different light. In a controlled study with 132 participants, positive reframing reduced receivers' negative emotions and was rated as more helpful than neutral reframing, regardless of narrative perspective. Although reframing type did not significantly change conflict management behaviors, positive reframing led to fewer power-related words in interpretations of the email. These findings highlight opportunities and challenges for designing AI as a social buffer to facilitate difficult conversations online.2026CYChi-Lan Yang et al.The University of TokyoHuman-LLM CollaborationAffective Feedback & Emotion Regulation InterfacesAffective Human-Computer DialogueCHI
Simple changes to content curation algorithms affect the beliefs people form in a collaborative filtering experimentContent-curating algorithms provide a crucial service for social media users by surfacing relevant content, but they can also bring about harms when their objectives are misaligned with user values and welfare. Yet, few controlled experiments on the potential behavioral and cognitive consequences of this alignment problem exist. In a preregistered, two-wave, collaborative filtering experiment (total N=1,500), we demonstrate that simple changes to how posts are sampled and ranked can affect the beliefs people form. Our results show observable differences in two types of outcomes within statistically constructed groups: belief accuracy and consensus. We find partial support for hypotheses that the recently proposed approaches of "bridging-based ranking" and "intelligence-based ranking" promote consensus and belief accuracy, respectively. We also find that while personalized, engagement-based ranking promotes posts that participants perceive favorably, it simultaneously leads those participants to form more polarized and less accurate beliefs than any of the other algorithms considered.2026JBJason W. Burton et al.University of CopenhagenSocial Platform Design & User BehaviorContent Moderation & Platform GovernanceMisinformation & Fact-CheckingCHI
How Do Future Visions Shape the Field of Human-Computer Interaction?Visions for the future of computing, such as those on Ubiquitous Computing or Tangible Interfaces, are highly cited and frequently used in teaching. Yet, we know little about the practical value of these visions for research on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) or how HCI researchers engage with them individually and collectively. To address this gap, we conducted a survey with 172 HCI researchers. We identified key benefits and pitfalls as well as specific uses of visions by researchers. Researchers appreciate how visions guide us, drive us, and initiate new fields. Simultaneously, researchers acknowledge how visions create hype, restrict our creativity, and make us disregard real-world problems. Based on these insights, we derive tensions related to the pursuit of visions and discuss critical reading practices. Our paper offers a metascientific account of visions in the HCI field along with tools for critical reflection when engaging with them.2026JGJens Emil Sloth Grønbæk et al.Aarhus UniversityParticipatory DesignResearch Ethics & Open ScienceCHI
Chaplains' Reflections on the Design and Usage of AI for Conversational CareDespite growing recognition that responsible AI requires domain knowledge, current work on conversational AI primarily draws on clinical expertise that prioritises diagnosis and intervention. However, much of everyday emotional support needs occur in non-clinical contexts, and therefore requires different conversational approaches. We examine how chaplains, who guide individuals through personal crises, grief, and reflection, perceive and engage with conversational AI. We recruited eighteen chaplains to build AI chatbots. While some chaplains viewed chatbots with cautious optimism, the majority expressed limitations of chatbots’ ability to support everyday well-being. Our analysis reveals how chaplains perceive their pastoral care duties and areas where AI chatbots fall short, along the themes of Listening, Connecting, Carrying, and Wanting. These themes resonate with the idea of attunement, recently highlighted as a relational lens for understanding the delicate experiences care technologies provide. This perspective informs chatbot design aimed at supporting well-being in non-clinical contexts.2026JWJoel Wester et al.University of CopenhagenConversational ChatbotsAgent Personality & AnthropomorphismMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCHI
Location Multiplicity: Lost Space in the Hybrid OfficeNavigating the complexities of shared hybrid workspaces presents significant challenges, with a risk of producing problematic spatial dynamics. Drawing on an ethnographic study, we scrutinize how office workers produce and negotiate hybrid spatial arrangements and identify location multiplicity as a core challenge for reintroducing physical elements into hybrid office workspaces after the COVID-19 pandemic. From a temporal perspective, hybrid work represents multiple locations, separated across several ‘homes’ and office spaces. Location multiplicity emphasizes the mobility of individuals, introducing instability and unpredictability into cooperative work. To navigate the temporal nature of constellation change, our findings reveal workers rely on the stability of the digital space, while consequently disconnecting from the malleable physical space. Thus, the physical space risks becoming a lost opportunity for the collocated subgroup - a ‘lost space’ in hybrid work. We suggest that a CSCW design challenge for hybrid work is designing hybrid infrastructures that facilitate an experience of stability and predictability across temporal and spatial dimensions, with embedded affordances for integrating both physical and digital elements across multiple locations.2025MDMelanie Duckert et al.Hybrid WorkCSCW
Relational Deskilling in the Digitalization of Care Work: Older Adult Volunteering in a Danish NGODigitalization initiatives often assume universal benefits while overlooking their impact on established collaborative work practices. Through a case study of digitalization at a Danish NGO --- drawing on interviews with 6 volunteers, observations of two implementation workshops, and discussions with project coordinators --- we examine its effects on older volunteers, a demographic that constitutes 39\% of Denmark's volunteer workforce. Our analysis suggests that digitalization: (1) creates tensions with underlying motivations for volunteering, (2) produces new forms of inefficiencies, (3) generates additional articulation work adapting to, or working around, the new processes, and (4) can be emotionally taxing to volunteers, generating feelings of inadequacy and reinforcing ageist perceptions. Our research contributes with: a) challenging ageist perceptions of digital competences with a socio-technical, rather than individual, understanding of digitalization as determining digital exclusion, b) a relational conceptualization of deskilling drawing on an ethics of care and, c) the suggestion that national strategies should resist idealized visions of technology and rather focus on preserving existing collaborative webs of care.2025ATAstrid Livija Tonnesen et al.Care WorkCSCW
FEDT: Supporting Experiment Design and Execution in HCI Fabrication ResearchFabrication research in HCI relies on diverse experiments to inform and assess research contributions. However, performance and reporting of these experiments is inconsistent, not only reducing transparency that reassures reviewers and readers of a project's rigour but also challenging methods' replicability by future researchers. We analyze recent fabrication publications to extract a unified experimental workflow, which we develop into a domain-specific language, and into the openly-available Fabrication Experiment Design Tool (FEDT). FEDT facilitates designing and executing HCI fabrication experiments. We demonstrate its comprehensiveness by using FEDT to model 42 fabrication experiments from 10 papers, which leverage varied fabrication technologies and techniques, including requiring human intervention in their steps. We discuss FEDT and our modeled experiments with the papers' original authors to evaluate its precision and utility in real workflows, and we demonstrate functionality with end-to-end replications of two published experiments.2025VSValkyrie Savage et al.Prototyping & User TestingComputational Methods in HCIResearch Ethics & Open ScienceUIST