Charting Subtle Interaction in the HCI Literature

TY - GEN

T1 - Charting Subtle Interaction in the HCI Literature

AU - Pohl, Henning

AU - Muresan, Andreea

AU - Hornbæk, Kasper

PY - 2019/5/2

Y1 - 2019/5/2

N2 - Human-computer interaction is replete with ways of talking about qualities of interaction or interfaces, including if they are expressive, rich, fluid, or playful. An example of such a quality is subtle. While this word is frequently used in the literature, we lack a coherent account of what it means to be subtle, how to achieve subtleness in an interface, and what theoretical backing subtleness has. To create such an account, we analyze a sample of 55~publications that use the word subtle. We describe the variants of subtle interaction in the literature, including claimed benefits, empirical approaches, and ethical considerations. Not only does this create a basis for thinking about subtleness as a quality of interaction, it also works to show how to solidify varieties of quality in HCI. We conclude by outlining some open empirical and conceptual questions about subtleness.

AB - Human-computer interaction is replete with ways of talking about qualities of interaction or interfaces, including if they are expressive, rich, fluid, or playful. An example of such a quality is subtle. While this word is frequently used in the literature, we lack a coherent account of what it means to be subtle, how to achieve subtleness in an interface, and what theoretical backing subtleness has. To create such an account, we analyze a sample of 55~publications that use the word subtle. We describe the variants of subtle interaction in the literature, including claimed benefits, empirical approaches, and ethical considerations. Not only does this create a basis for thinking about subtleness as a quality of interaction, it also works to show how to solidify varieties of quality in HCI. We conclude by outlining some open empirical and conceptual questions about subtleness.

U2 - 10.1145/3290605.3300648

DO - 10.1145/3290605.3300648

M3 - Article in proceedings

SP - 1

EP - 15

BT - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '19

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

ER -