Research Projects

Abstract: In this paper, we conducted a systematic literature review on infrastructure studies in SIGCHI, one of the most influential communities in HCI. We collected a total of 174 primary studies; the corpus includes studies published between 2006 and 2023. We discover three themes of infrastructure studies. We foreground the overall trend of infrastructure studies in SIGCHI, which focuses on informal infrastructural activities in various socio-technical contexts. Especially, we discuss studies that problematize infrastructures and alert the HCI community about the underlying harmful side of infrastructure. 

Abstract: People with visual impairments (PVI) face challenges in terms of consuming, creating, and sharing information on social media.  In the current work, we propose a study that aims to investigate PVI's experiences on TikTok, the emerging social media technology that heavily relies on visual content. We want to use this study to understand PVI’s motivations, interactions, and challenges of using such technologies. 

Abstract: This study initially explores this emerging area through a qualitative analysis of 68 YouTube videos demonstrating Gen-AI usage in content creation. Our research focuses on identifying the content domains, the variety of tools used, the activities performed, and the nature of the final products generated by Gen-AI in the context of user-generated content. 

Abstract: We investigate Chinese people's adoption of digital contact tracing. We interviewed 26 Chinese participants and used thematic analysis to interpret the data. Our findings showed that, driven by Chinese culture, citizens accepted digital contact tracing and contributed to making digital contact tracing a socio-technical infrastructure of people's daily lives. 

Abstract: We investigated users’ lived experiences with a facial recognition system in a university in the United States, using semi-structured interviews. We were interested in participants’ first impressions and initial reactions to the facial recognition system, whether and why their attitudes towards the system deployment changed afterward, and how they viewed the university that made the deployment decision. 

Abstract: We investigated the attitudes of Chinese online users towards movie piracy and examined the factors that influence the attitudes. Taking a piracy case of a Chinese movie “The Wandering Earth” as an example, we collected 735 comments from two Sina Weibo posts through web crawling. Through a content analysis based on social cognitive theory (SCT), we found that the attitudes of online users ranged from supporting, opposing pessimistically to opposing movie piracy.