Information Studies Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2780
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Item Exploring The Role Of Generative Artificial Intelligence In Cultural Relevant Storytelling For Native Language Learning Among Children(2024) Nanduri, Dinesh Kumar; Marsh, Diana E; Information Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In an era marked by the rapid disappearance of languages, UNESCO warns that nearly half of the world's linguistic heritage might soon become dormant. Despite its current health, Telugu has seen a decline in usage, reduced focus in India's educational systems, and overshadowing by dominant global languages. This thesis explores Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to counter this trend, focusing on its application in native language learning for children, key carriers of their ancestral tongues. Through scoping reviews and participatory design sessions with young Telugu-speaking learners and their guardians, the study investigates GenAI's role in enhancing language learning tailored to individual and cultural contexts. It highlights storytelling as a potent mechanism for language acquisition, facilitated by GenAI's ability to personalize learning experiences and bridge generational gaps. The research also addresses ethical considerations vital for designing GenAI tools, promoting inclusivity, bias mitigation, and cultural integrity protection. It showcases a future where technology helps prevent linguistic dormancy and empowers children to celebrate human language and cultural diversity.Item TRANSITIONING VISUALLY IMPAIRED USERS TO UTILIZE ACCESSIBILITY TECHNOLOGY(2024) Jo, Hyejin; Reitz, Galina; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In a world increasingly driven by visual information, this research develops the Transition Experience Interface (TEI), dedicated to supporting individuals adapting to visual impairments with advanced accessibility technologies. TEI features a user-centric design with a mobile user interface that includes tutorials, updates on new features, a voice command guide, and a progress dashboard. These components aim to reduce dependency on visual cues, enhancing digital inclusivity and promoting independence by encouraging the use of built-in accessibility features on smartphones. TEI educates users on their devices’ capabilities and fosters habitual use of these features, preparing them to rely less on vision and more on voice commands and other settings. This proactive approach helps users operate their smartphones confidently and independently as their visual function changes, bridging the gap between traditional tools and user needs, and highlighting the potential of inclusive design.Item Personal Objects as Design Materials(2024) Elsayed-Ali, Salma; Chan, Joel; Bonsignore, Elizabeth; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While Participatory Design focuses on inclusion of users, in practice, Participatory Design may often fall short of its inclusive ideals. This is problematic as it could lead to disempowerment, inactive participation, and alienation of users. An important avenue for inclusion is to enable users, particularly those who are marginalized, to enact aspects of their identities and lived experiences in design. Materials, both tangible and intangible, are an important way that this enactment may be accomplished; yet materials are often overlooked and imposed on users in design. This can be problematic as the materials selected may not be relevant or useful to users’ situated contexts or goals, or, at worst, could lead to exclusion. My dissertation seeks to understand how we might support users to enact core aspects of their identities and lived experiences in Participatory Design. To do this, I propose an approach that shifts control of design materials to users by inviting them to bring in personal objects from their lives. Using Research through Design, I developed a sociotechnical system called Talisman consisting of techniques to scaffold users’ selection and interaction with their personal objects in the design process. Over the course of a year, I collaborated with three distinct communities to embed Talisman in co-design workshops alongside young adults who are underrepresented in STEM education. These communities included: 1) A STEM education nonprofit based in Chicago focused on creating youth-led “Safe Spaces;” 2) A high school summer internship program based in Baltimore focused on Environmental Justice; and 3) a faculty-led research project at the College of Information Studies focused on redesigning undergraduate programming education to support diverse learners in light of Generative AI. I share direct observations and accounts from young adults into their experiences bringing in and engaging with their personal objects in the design of solutions for their communities. Afterwards, I present a cross-case analysis of the three case studies in which Talisman was deployed and discuss its implications for Participatory and Assets-based design practice within the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).Item STICKERS CONVEYING YOUTH INTERESTS: HOW YOUTH USE STICKERS FOR MEANING MAKING(2023) Pauw, Daniel; Clegg, Tamara; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While mobile technology has supported and enabled both formal and informal learning, there remain difficulties connecting learners’ interests to places-based learning contexts. Place-based and affinity space learning frameworks are useful for understanding and scaffolding learning. Place-based learning looks at ways aspects of the local context/geographical context (e.g., plants, animals, stores, houses, etc.) can shape learning. Affinity spaces, as a learning theory, focuses on the interests and passion that motivate learners and communities. Bridging the interests from affinity spaces with the knowledge from lived environments can help scaffold learners to help them connect their learning to new contexts. Being able to connect learning in new contexts is an important step that currently is not thoroughly described between online interest spaces and place-based learning environments. Technological affordances of mobile technologies (e.g., cameras, apps, GPS, etc.) can provide tools to bridge gaps between learners’ interests and lived environments. For example, the always on connection mobile phones have to the internet allows people to bring their interest communities to new places (e.g., telepresence robots). New technologies thus have great potential for connecting these interest and place-based aspects of children’s lives to learning. My dissertation study explores how to help learners connect their interest-driven learning to everyday place-based learning using technology. An important aspect of this connection centers on how to effectively encourage new lines of communication between learning communities. The specific technology I used to encourage the development of learning communication is digital stickers. Digital stickers, much like their analog counterparts, are used by learners to communicate interests and, importantly, emotion with images. Unlike emoji or badges, stickers have the added affordance of allowing learners to collectively edit or contribute to a single image rather than being a more standard time-based conversation log. Placement, theme, recipient, and other factors provide the technology with the ability to impact and communicate emotional ties and potentially influence more enduring connections between place, interest, and learners. My dissertation specifically looks at (1) how members of the Science Everywhere informal learning community currently connect place and interest and (2) how the affordances and constraints of digital stickers impact usage of these stickers with respect to connecting and communicating learning interests. Analysis of this data examined factors that impact design of digital stickers or potential similar technologies when connecting interests from affinity spaces to place-based learning environments.Item Show and Tell: Exploring how audio narratives can complement visualizations of stroke survivors’ personal health data(2023) Shettigar, Aishwarya; Choe, Eun Kyoung; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Wearable technology in healthcare could give individuals awareness and independence in rehabilitation. In this qualitative work, I investigate how using speech-based, audio narrative summaries alongside graphical visualizations affect users’ understanding of their personal data. I conducted this work in the context of stroke recovery, where stroke survivors experiencing hemiparesis can monitor their physical progress using a wearable ring sensor. Using a co-design approach, I engaged with stroke survivors and their caregivers to elicit recommendations for multimodal (speech/visual) feedback of the wearable ring data. Reflexive thematic analysis of the sessions showed that multimodal feedback can potentially lend therapeutic support for stroke survivors. Audio narratives helped to reinforce the visual feedback, and positively framed narrative content that was reflective, motivational, and suggestive was able to support stroke survivors as they navigate their independent recovery journeys.Item The People's Choice: PAIRing User-Centered Design With Crowdsourcing To Combat Misinformation on TikTok(2023) Grover, Saransh; Hassan, Naeemul; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok have created a rampant increase in user-generated content online. Moderation and validation of misinformation on these platforms are still significant challenges. One approach to address misinformation on social media has been to crowdsource the validity of content through the platform users. However, research conducted on crowdsourced fact-checking has focused largely on traditional and text-based sources. In addition, it has yet to focus on user-centered design to understand how users of platforms would create tools to mitigate misinformation. This thesis addresses these knowledge gaps by understanding approaches to using crowdsourcing to combat misinformation on TikTok, the fastest-growing social networking site with over one billion monthly active users. By using TikTok as a case study, I conduct a thematic analysis of content on the platform to understand how users currently counter claims and misinformation and then conduct participatory design sessions with TikTok users to identify limitations, improvements, and potential solutions. Based on these findings, I present a set of design guidelines referred to as the PAIR approach that outline key considerations for a crowdsourcing platform combatting misinformation on a social networking site such as TikTok.Item Ludic Borders(2022) Smith, Andrew W; Kraus, Kari; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Game design techniques are used to motivate participation in professional, educational, political, and social environments. This research study introduces the theory of ludic borders to examine how the boundary of gamespace is a design product that influences players beyond increasing motivation. Framing the crossing of the ludic border as a negotiation between the design choices of the game designer and the identity of the player, this research considers how game design elements such as visual aesthetics and collaborative mechanics influence the construction of the border. In addition, this research considers how particular characteristics of a player’s identity, such as the frequency with which they play games, influences their crossing of the ludic border. Based on gameplay observation, this research finds that visual aesthetics, gaming frequency, and other factors can influence the extent to which a player expresses their beliefs through their in-game decisions.Item HOW DO NONPROFITS INVOLVE BENEFICIARIES IN THE DESIGN OF MISSION PROGRAMS AND SERVICES(2022) DiPasquale, Sarah; Chan, Joel; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Human service nonprofits play an important role in communities across the United States. While existing research has studied how nonprofits engage beneficiaries in the evaluation of services, little research has been done to understand how human service nonprofits involve beneficiaries in the design of services. This research argues participatory design can be used to engage beneficiaries in program design. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with nine human service nonprofit professionals, this research sought to better understand how human service nonprofits involve beneficiaries in the design and development of service programs; and what barriers exist for human service nonprofits to do participatory design. These research findings provide a foundational understanding of how human service nonprofits use participatory design and uncover barriers to help inform the solutions necessary to increase participatory design use at human service nonprofits.Item EXPLORING AMBIENT TO DISRUPTIVE HEALTH NOTIFICATIONS VIA SHAPE-CHANGING INTERFACES(2022) Lee, Jarrett G.W.; Choe, Eun Kyoung; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Ambient Information Systems have shown some success when used as a notification towards users’ health-related activities. But in the actual busy lives of users, ambient notifications might be forgotten or even missed altogether, nullifying the original notification. When do people accept escalated levels of disruption for health notifications? In parallel,how could varying levels of health notifications be portrayed in shape-changing interfaces? To investigate these questions, I took a Research through Design approach and created artifacts in the form of plant-mimicking Shape-Changing Interfaces (S-CIs), conducting interviews with ten participants who currently used a system to remind themselves to perform a health-related activity, to learn how they would react to the varying of motion types to achieve disruption. I report findings on scenarios where disrupting users for health-related activity purposes could be acceptable, how participants interpreted various aspects of the S-CIs and reasonings behind them, and how people envisioned using S-CIs within their physical environments. I also discuss avenues for future work in ambient-to-disruptive technology, and design suggestions for those working in health-related notification systems and shape-changing interfaces.Item User Onboarding Design In Citizen Science: A Path To Grow Engagement And Participation.(2022) Cascaes Cardoso, Marina; Preece, Jennifer J; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the context of crowdsourcing communities (e.g., Citizen Science), crowd engagement is a significant determinant of projects' sustainability. The challenging missions of finding motivated people to participate in such initiatives and triggering their engagement to the cause have been widely acknowledged by scholars in the field of Citizen Science (Eveleigh et al., 2014; Nov et al., 2011b; Raddick et al., 2010; Rotman, 2013; Rotman et al., 2014); both on crowdsourcing initiatives (Balestra et al., 2017; Lampe et al., 2010; K. Y. Lin & Lu, 2011; Preece & Shneiderman, 2009; Steinmacher et al., 2015) and on online communities, in general (Brabham, 2010; Crowston & Fagnot, 2008; de Vreede et al., 2013; Zheng et al., 2011). The initial interaction with the technology employed by crowdsourcing platforms, including Citizen Science, affects users' experiences and should be designed considering their effects on the initial engagement. This work focuses on understanding how onboarding impacts early engagement and, consequently, the likelihood of boosting the quality of initial interaction and sustaining the adoption. Early engagement means the intricate process of embracing users' characteristics and motivations during the first interaction. The goal of Citizen Science platforms when implementing an onboarding design is, in general, to turn first-time visitors into a long-term users by scaffolding the first use toward participation. The central premise of this investigation is that onboarding characteristics and users' initial experiences largely determine whether they ultimately continue using the app; therefore, the thoughtful design of the first experience is fundamental. Organized in eight chapters, this doctoral dissertation starts by offering insights into the variables involved in the process of onboarding new users. Although commonly employed by the SaaS industry in various applications, onboarding design still lacks systematic investigation and precise definitions. Therefore, this research presents a terminology for the onboarding process and defines its four structural elements: Statement of Purpose, User Identification, Informational Support, and Conversion Event. Delving into the Citizen Science context, it is conducted three studies on how existing projects employ onboarding practices in their mobile applications. The studies, in chapters four to six, reveal barriers and reactions to onboarding experiences from volunteers. For example, making the statement of purpose clear, explicitly showing why individuals should be volunteering, and being part of a contributing crowd, apps have promising chances of keeping users engaged and returning in the future. Through various analyses and discussions, this work provides novel comprehension of how first-time interactions have the potential to alter newcomers' engagement in mobile apps. Finally, this investigation offers guidelines to support the designing decision process of creating a successful onboarding flow, primarily in the Citizen Science domain. It is presented seven drivers of newcomers' engagement that consist of design recommendations for onboarding that can be adopted for virtually any crowdsourcing app. Key drivers include essential concerns that influence engagement and can be resolved, for instance, by providing information on the users' roles and their contributions to the project, plus informing the app's goals and impact on the world with transparency. The seven drivers address cautious use of (1) technical language and jargon; to encourage (2) informing users regarding app's mechanics, and offering guidance to tasks accomplishments; stressing (3) the users' roles and their contributions' purpose within the project; to be transparent about the (4) app's goals, results, and impacts on the world; elucidate any (5) benefits or rewards right from the beginning, even they are not tangible or immediate; consider (6) UI's visual quality as a decisive interest factor and design it according to the intended audience; and lastly, (7) to advise the use of visual cues to enhance usability and reduce uncertainty. This dissertation has a pivotal contribution: the definition of terms and operationalization of onboarding elements, their attributes, and roles upon users' needs and individual aspects. Moreover, an onboarding flow creates an opportunity to successfully captivate and retain newcomers only when design and engagement attributes address users' characteristics, needs, and motivations.