Understanding, measuring, and, invoking mindfulness and mindlessness during human-computer interactions

This thesis questions how Mindfulness and Mindlessness might be understood, measured and invoked in relation to Human-Computer Interactions. Current designs of user interfaces often follow a design trend, drawing upon familiar layout and icons across a broad range of applications. Designers often try to make the interface easier to understand, familiar, and more intuitive. While the use of technologies that are familiar holds qualities such as low cognitive demand and ease of use; they hold within them an intrinsic problem. The familiarity and repetition in design qualities produces habitual response and reduces the facilities of reflection and contemplation upon the interaction. Subsequently this inhibits the discovery of novel solutions to challenges and / or formation of novel goals for the user of a technology. The primary goal of this thesis is to provide (and justify) a definition of Mindfulness and Mindlessness that is suitable to be applied in the field of human- computer interaction; and clearly describe these experiential and behavioural phenomena of the user of interactive technology. These definitions draw upon related fields to better inform understanding through the application of their methods of evaluation and advancements in understanding. Resultantly an additional goal of this thesis is to pave way for future work in this area in providing insight to, and example of, methods for the measuring of Mindfulness and Mindlessness that are suited to the field of human-computer interaction and supported in the informing related work. Lastly, this thesis holds the goal of situating the work in related literature of how the states of Mindfulness and Mindlessness might be invoked and their effect upon human-computer interaction. More broadly, this thesis seeks to provide the framing of human-computer interaction and interface design through a lens of Mindfulness and Mindlessness as a means of better understanding and designing for the distinct qualities each holds. These goals are achieved through three stages; first this body of work provides a pragmatic definition of Mindfulness and Mindlessness that can be applied to interactions with technologies. In doing so it overcomes the problematic qualities of directly applying previous definitions and facilitates further study of the phenomenon through empirical modalities founded in cognitive science. Second, this research provides the reporting of an exploratory study conducted, and findings for future works to build upon, in the analysis of Mindful and Mindless experiences during interactions with digital technologies. This is achieved through a neuro- phenomenological methodology, combining first person reporting alongside physiological measurement highlighting Mindful and Mindless interactions. Finally, this thesis provides insight to how the design of technologies can invoke Mindful and Mindless interactions and the consequences of these, followed by design considerations in the final conclusion. Through this the thesis addresses the Understanding, Measuring, and, Invoking of Mindfulness and Mindlessness During Human-Computer Interactions

Feeling alone among 317 million others:Disclosures of loneliness on Twitter

Increasing numbers of individuals describe themselves as feeling lonely, regardless of age, gender or geographic location. This article investigates how social media users self-disclose feelings of loneliness, and how they seek and provide support to each other. Motivated by related studies in this area, a dataset of 22,477 Twitter posts sent over a one-week period was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Through a thematic analysis, we demonstrate that self-disclosure of perceived loneliness takes a variety of forms, from simple statements of “I’m lonely”, through to detailed self-reflections of the underlying causes of loneliness. The analysis also reveals forms of online support provided to those who are feeling lonely. Further, we conducted a quantitative linguistic content analysis of the dataset which revealed patterns in the data, including that ‘lonely’ tweets were significantly more negative than those in a control sample, with levels of negativity fluctuating throughout the week and posts sent at night being more negative than those sent in the daytime

“I’ve been manipulated!”: Designing Second Screen Experiences for Critical Viewing of Reality TV

The recent proliferation of a reality TV genre that focusses on welfare recipients has led to concerns that prime-time media experiences are exacerbating misconceptions, and stifling critical debate, around major societal issues such as welfare reform and poverty. Motivated by arguments that ‘second screening’ practices offer opportunities to engage viewers with issues of political concern, we describe the design and evaluation of two smartphone apps that facilitate and promote more critical live-viewing of reality TV. Our apps, Spotting Guide and Moral Compass, encourage users to identify, categorise, tag and filter patterns and tropes within reality TV, as well as reinterpret social media posts associated with their broadcast. We show that such interactions encourage critical thinking around typical editing and production techniques and foster co-discussion and reflection amongst viewers. We discuss, more broadly, how these interactions encourage users to identify the wider consequences and framings of reality TV, and offer implications and considerations for design that provokes criticality and reflection in second screening contexts

Designing Second-Screening Experiences for Social Co-Selection and Critical Co-Viewing of Reality TV

Public commentary related to reality TV can be overwhelmed by thoughtless reactions and negative sentiments, which often problematically reinforce the cultural stereotyping typically employed in such media. We describe the design and month-long evaluation of a mobile "second-screening" application, Screenr, which uses co-voting and live textual tagging to encourage more critical co-viewing in these contexts. Our findings highlight how Screenr supported interrogation of the production qualities and claims of shows, promoted critical discourse around the motivations of programmes, and engaged participants in reflecting on their own assumptions and views. We situate our results within the context of existing second-screening co-viewing work, discuss implications for such technologies to support critical engagement with socio-political media, and provide design implications for future digital technologies in this domain

Everything we do, everything we press: Data-driven remote performance management in a mobile workplace

© 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). This paper examines how data-driven performance monitoring technologies affect the work of telecommunications field engineers. As a mobile workforce, this occupational group rely on an array of smartphone applications to plan, manage and report on their jobs, and to liaise remotely with managers and colleagues. These technologies intend to help field engineers be more productive and have greater control over their work; however they also gather data related to the quantity and effectiveness of their labor. We conducted a qualitative study examining engineers' experiences of these systems. Our findings suggest they simultaneously enhance worker autonomy, support co-ordination with and monitoring of colleagues, but promote anxieties around productivity and the interpretation of data by management. We discuss the implications of datadriven performance management technologies on worker agency, and examine the consequences of such systems in an era of quantified workplaces

Connecting Those That Care: Designing for Transitioning, Talking, Belonging and Escaping

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ACM via the DOI in this record.Care provision in many nations increasingly relies on the work of informal, or non-professional, carers. Often these carers experience substantial disruptions and reductions to their own sociality, weakened social support networks and, ultimately, a heightened risk of social isolation. We describe a qualitative study, comprised of interviews, design workshops and probes, that investigated the social and community support practices of carers. Our findings highlight issues related to becoming and recognising being a carer, and feelings of being ignored by, and isolated from, others. We also note the benefits that sharing between carers can bring, and routes to coping and relaxing from the burdens of care. We conclude with design considerations for facilitating new forms of digitally mediated support that connect those that care, emphasising design qualities related to transitioning, talking, belonging and escaping

Doing stigma:online commenting around weight-related news media

Weight stigma results from the mediatisation of ‘obesity’; conceptually, a medicalised problem resulting from personal bodily irresponsibility. We undertake a frame analysis of 1452 comments on a thematically-related online news article published via The Guardian, about the status of ‘obesity’ as a disability in EU employment law. We identify three themes: weight as a lifestyle choice or disability; weight as an irresponsible choice, and weight as a simple or complex issue. We contend that the design of the commenting platform prevents counter-narratives from challenging the dominant (‘obesity’) framing for three reasons: content is driven by comments appearing earlier in the corpus; the commenting system primarily supports argument between polarised rhetorical positions, and the platform design discourages users from developing alternative terminologies for producing counter-narratives. In this way, we explore how weight stigma is propagated through online media, and how users’ comments intersect with the affordances of the platform itself

Body Composition and Genetic Lipodystrophy Risk Score Associate With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Liver Fibrosis

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150618/1/hep41391.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150618/2/hep41391_am.pd

“Could You Define That in Bot Terms?” : Requesting, Creating and Using Bots on Reddit

Bots are estimated to account for well over half of all web traffic, yet they remain an understudied topic in HCI. In this paper we present the findings of an analysis of 2284 submissions across three discussion groups dedicated to the request, creation and discussion of bots on Reddit. We set out to examine the qualities and functionalities of bots and the practical and social challenges surrounding their creation and use. Our findings highlight the prevalence of misunderstandings around the capabilities of bots, misalignments in discourse between novices who request and more expert members who create them, and the prevalence of requests that are deemed to be inappropriate for the Reddit community. In discussing our findings, we suggest future directions for the design and development of tools that support more carefully guided and reflective approaches to bot development for novices, and tools to support exploring the consequences of contextuallyinappropriate bot ideas

Rethinking Engagement with Online News through Social and Visual Co-Annotation

The emergence of fake news, as well as filter bubbles and echo chambers, has precipitated renewed attention upon the ways in which news is consumed, shared and reflected and commented upon. While online news comments sections offer space for pluralist and critical discussion, studies suggest that this rarely occurs. Motivated by common practices of annotating, defacing and scribbling on physical newspapers, we built a mobile app – Newsr – that supports co-annotation, in the form of graffiti, on online news articles, which we evaluated in-the-wild for one month. We report on how the app encouraged participants to reflect upon the act of choosing news stories, whilst promoting exploration, the critique of content, and the exposure of bias within the writing. Our findings highlight how the re-design of interactive online news experiences can facilitate more directed, “in-the-moment” critique of online news stories as well as encourage readers to expand the range of news content they read