Designers face opportunities and challenges in leveraging AI to make sense of increasingly available data. There is limited research on how designers engage with AI in data sensemaking to inform design decisions, especially in safety-critical contexts. To address this knowledge gap, we co-designed and evaluated an AI-supported prototype that supports data exploration using truck interaction design as a case study. Our analysis highlighted a bidirectional relationship between AI and data, where designers used AI to gain an overview of user scenarios, and used data to contextualize and validate AI outputs. We identified three sensemaking styles, illustrating how designers flexibly orchestrated expertise, data, and interaction to interpret AI outputs. Our findings contribute to an in-depth characterization of AI-supported data sensemaking and offer implications for designing tools that empower diverse, situated, and critical engagement with data through AI in high-stakes settings.

As artificial intelligence continues to permeate working life, the integration of AI in truck UX design is gaining prominence. While the majority of AI research, especially in the field of Explainable AI (XAI), is rooted in a technical perspective, this work explores and unpacks the user perspective by addressing the research question: “How do UX designers of truck HCI systems perceive AI explanations in an AI-powered data analytics platform?”. To address this question, a prototype of such a platform was co-designed and evaluated by 17 experts in truck UX design. Findings highlight that for AI explanations to be perceived as useful, they need to be understandable, contextually relevant, and verifiable, with the ability to dynamically adapt to users’ evolving knowledge and objectives. These findings extend prior research by emphasizing the importance of contextual and human-centered values in designing and developing AI-enabled systems with explainability, and by calling for future transdisciplinary collaboration to address evolving contextual user needs in truck UX design and beyond.

Data-driven design is believed to be empowered by machine learning (ML) with advanced pattern classification and prediction. However, research on how ML can be used to support automotive human-machine interface (HMI) design is lacking. We presented a case study of truck HMI design to understand the current data use and expectations of ML in the design process. Findings show decentralized data practices, the role of expertise in decision-making, and the envisioned reactive use of ML, where we underscore the implications for advancing human-ML collaboration in designing future truck HMI systems.

With the proliferation of IoT the home is becoming a “smart” space that provides new opportunities for supporting creative experiences for the user. Adaptable IoT devices offer the possibility for users to appropriate interaction in the home. The objective of this paper is to explore the use of a configurable, placeable, IoT enabled button as a way for users to appropriate interaction with the smart home. The study employs the methods of technology probes, photography, and contextual interviews. Our findings show that our users configured the IoT enabled button to manage automation in the home, to install place-significant shortcuts for relevant smart home features, and to create interaction points for tasks that support the user’s daily routines. We propose that IoT should not only be seen as a way to increase efficiency in the home but also as a vehicle for user-created interaction opportunities that can creatively support rising needs in each user’s daily life.

Knowledge is lacking on the choice and use of representations in a design process when seeking to investigate user experiences. Two types of representations (a storyboard and an interactive prototype) of the same system were used in a user experience evaluation involving 24 participants to investigate how different representation formats influence participants' responses to interactive systems. Data from a questionnaire and individual interviews were compared. Very few differences in questionnaire responses were found. However, the interactive prototype gave rise to more design proposals as well as more personal reflections on experiences although with a focus on interface design details. The storyboard elicited more responses on the core ideas of the concept, but less grounded in reflections on personal use. The differences are attributed to how each representation managed to convey interactivity and context, resulting in differences in experienced agency. It is therefore suggested that there is a need for further research, but with less focus on the type of system representation and more focus on how the content and affordances of system representations can be designed to elicit rich and personal reflections on user experience in early design phases.

IoT systems provide new possibilities for augmenting daily activities of the people, which can be embedded in different settings and across contexts. Proprietary technologies have been extensively deployed throughout multiple IoT platforms, where such systems are closed in many cases. This closed nature complicates the development and customization processes for developers and end-users. To our knowledge, existing solutions do not address the sustainability requirements for the IoT architecture in terms of orchestrating smart services and devices in a more open and common way. Having a lot of standards brings us to the situation that we cannot utilize any standard into the design and development of IoT systems. Thus, we believe that we should start thinking less about standardization, and more about open approaches within IoT domain. In this paper, we use the concept of an open architecture that supports flexibility, customizability, and extensibility as a basis to address some of the above mentioned challenges.

People today are a capable of living longer, healthier lives than ever before, which results in a growing elderly population. The elderly face issues of reduced physical ability, having to manage multiple health issues over long periods of time, and being digital immigrants. These issues pose unique challenges that often lead to elderly feeling loss of agency due to not being actively involved in managing their own well-being. In this paper, we propose participatory design of IOT technologies to enact universal design in order to better include elderly in managing their health, and thus improving their quality of life. (c) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Knowledge is lacking on the choice and use of representations in a design process when seeking to investigate user experiences. Two types of representations (a storyboard and an interactive prototype) of the same system were employed in a user experience evaluation to investigate how different representation formats influence participants' responses to interactive systems. The interactive prototype gave rise to more design proposals as well as more personal reflections on experiences although with a focus on interface design details. The storyboard elicited more responses on the core ideas of the concept, but less grounded in reflections on personal use. The differences are attributed to how each representation managed to convey interactivity and context, resulting in differences in experienced agency. There is a need for further research, but with less focus on the type of system representation and more focus on how the content and affordances of system representations can be designed to elicit rich and personal reflections on user experience in early design phases.

This paper examines the development and the end-user experience of a digital driver information module, with the aim to research the adoption of user experience practice in a large industry organization and the influence of the practice on the end-user experience. Eight developers from the automotive company were interviewed, as well as eight end-users. The module was the first all-digital driver information module for the company. A number of organizational and procedural changes were required to deliver a novel user experience, such as hiring new competences and employing new simulation and development tools. For the end-users, the experience of the digital user interface played a significant role in creating pleasure of use and emotional bonds to the car. The results highlight the benefits for large organizations to adopt to flexible user experience development practices, such as cross-organizational cooperation, iterative prototyping and rapid user testing.

Ubiquitous computing environments enable workers to easily transition between work and non-work activities regardless of location. While this blurring of boundaries can be viewed as having a negative impact on work-life balance through the intrusion of work activities on home, family and leisure time (Clark, 2000; Davis, 2000), a positive aspect has also been found wherein technology, particularly the smartphone, enables workers to have more control of their schedules and to remain connected to family and friends during work time (Wajcman, et al., 2008). While technology has made this duality possible, we have not yet fully taken advantage of the potential of technology to facilitate the integration of these activities. “Currently the design of the ubiquitous computing environments for home and work are each dedicated to specific realms and often fail to take into consideration the requirements to integrate activities across these two life spaces” (Cousins & Varshney, 2009, p. 123). To better support workers in managing their transitions between work and non-work activities we suggest that context aware computing environments utilizing the Internet of Things may offer a viable solution.