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Browsing by Author "Zhang, Chao"

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    From Awareness to Action: Exploring End-User Empowerment Interventions for Dark Patterns in UX
    Lu, Yuwen; Zhang, Chao; Yang, Yuewen; Yao, Yaxing; Li, Toby (ACM, 2024-04-23)
    The study of UX dark patterns, i.e., UI designs that seek to manipulate user behaviors, often for the benefit of online services, has drawn significant attention in the CHI and CSCW communities in recent years. To complement previous studies in addressing dark patterns from (1) the designer’s perspective on education and advocacy for ethical designs; and (2) the policymaker’s perspective on new regulations, we propose an end-user-empowerment intervention approach that helps users (1) raise the awareness of dark patterns and understand their underlying design intents; (2) take actions to counter the effects of dark patterns using a web augmentation approach. Through a two-phase co-design study, including 5 co-design workshops (N=12) and a 2-week technology probe study (N=15), we reported findings on the understanding of users' needs, preferences, and challenges in handling dark patterns and investigated the feedback and reactions to users' awareness of and action on dark patterns being empowered in a realistic in-situ setting.
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    Wrist-bound Guanxi, Jiazu, and Kuolie: Unpacking Chinese Adolescent Smartwatch-Mediated Socialization
    Liu, Lanjing; Zhang, Chao; Lu, Zhicong (ACM, 2024-05-11)
    Adolescent peer relationships, essential for their development, are increasingly mediated by digital technologies. As this trend continues, wearable devices, especially smartwatches tailored for adolescents, is reshaping their socialization. In China, smartwatches like XTC have gained wide popularity, introducing unique features such as “Bump-to-Connect” and exclusive social platforms. Nonetheless, how these devices infuence adolescents’ peer experience remains unknown. Addressing this, we interviewed 18 Chinese adolescents (age: 11—16), discovering a smartwatch-mediated social ecosystem. Our fndings highlight the ice-breaking role of smartwatches in friendship initiation and their use for secret messaging with local peers. Within the online smartwatch community, peer status is determined by likes and visibility, leading to diverse pursuit activities (i.e., chu guanxi, jiazu, kuolie) and negative social dynamics. We discuss the core afordances of smartwatches and Chinese cultural factors that infuence adolescent social behavior, and ofer implications for designing future wearables that responsibly and safely support adolescent socialization.