Hwajung Hong

Independence is key to a successful transition to adulthood for individuals with autism. Social support is a crucial factor for achieving adaptive self-help life skills. In this paper we describe the results of a formative design exercise with young adults with autism and their caregivers to uncover opportunities for social networks to promote independence and facilitate coordination. We propose the concept of SocialMirror, a device connected to an online social network that allows the young adu

People are ready to change themselves to adopt more eco-friendly habits such as conserving electricity when they are aware of the possible problems of their lifestyle. In this sense, ambient display, which users experience occasionally without its interfering with their primary tasks, is well suited to provide the feedback of their personal activities in a more subtle manner than direct information presentation. We present the results of user studies with two ambient displays in different visual

Large Language Models (LLMs) offer promising opportunities in mental health domains, although their inherent complexity and low controllability elicit concern regarding their applicability in clinical settings. We present MindfulDiary, an LLM-driven journaling app that helps psychiatric patients document daily experiences through conversation. Designed in collaboration with mental health professionals, MindfulDiary takes a state-based approach to safely comply with the experts’ guidelines while

Traditional medical fundraising charities have been relying on third-party watchdogs and carefully crafting their reputation over time to signal their credibility to potential donors. As medical fundraising campaigns migrate to online platforms in the form of crowdfunding, potential donors can no longer rely on the organization's traditional methods for achieving credibility. Individual fundraisers must establish credibility on their own. Potential donors, therefore, seek new factors to assess t

Self-tracking technologies have been developed to understand the self. Emotions are critical to understanding one's daily life; however, tracking the emotion is challenging due to the implicit form of data. In this paper, we introduce MindTracker, an approach for tracking emotion through a tangible interaction with plasticine clay. We explored the benefits and challenges of MindTracker via a two-week data collection study with 16 college students as well as via interviews with three clinical men

The integration of generative AI in the field of education is actively being explored. In particular, ChatGPT has garnered significant interest, offering an opportunity to examine its effectiveness in English as a foreign language (EFL) education. To address this need, we present a novel learning platform called RECIPE (Revising an Essay with ChatGPT on an Interactive Platform for EFL learners). Our platform features two types of prompts that facilitate conversations between ChatGPT and students

Voice-based Conversational Agents (VCA) have served as personal assistants that support individuals with special needs. Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may also benefit from VCAs to deal with their everyday needs and challenges, ranging from self-care to social communications. In this study, we explored how VCAs could encourage adolescents with ASD in navigating various aspects of their daily lives through the two-week use of VCAs and a series of participatory design workshops. O

Autistic individuals often draw on insights from their supportive networks to develop self-help life strategies ranging from everyday chores to social activities. However, human resources may not always be immediately available. Recently emerging conversational agents (CAs) that leverage large language models (LLMs) have the potential to serve as powerful information-seeking tools, facilitating autistic individuals to tackle daily concerns independently. This study explored the opportunities and

Adolescence is a challenging period, particularly for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), due to having little knowledge about themselves. Self-management is a strategy to enhance self-understanding through continuous self-monitoring, which can support adaptive transitions to adulthood. Meanwhile, the advent of digital self-tracking tools enables users to collect and reflect on data about themselves. In this work, we investigated how adolescents with ASD kept track of their everyday

Mental wellness is a desirable health outcome for students. However, current personal informatics systems do not adequately support students in creating concrete mental health-related goals and turning them into actionable plans. In this paper, we introduce MindNavigator - a workshop in which groups of college students were invited to generate behavioral change goals to manage daily life stress and practice personalized interventions for two weeks. We describe the manner in which participants id

Building social support networks is crucial both for less-independent individuals with autism and for their primary caregivers. In this paper, we describe a four-week exploratory study of a social network service (SNS) that allows young adults with autism to garner support from their family and friends. We explore the unique benefits and challenges of using SNSs to mediate requests for help or advice. In particular, we examine the extent to which specialized features of an SNS can engage users i

Reflecting on stress-related data is critical in addressing one’s mental health. Personal Informatics (PI) systems augmented by algorithms and sensors have become popular ways to help users collect and reflect on data about stress. While prediction algorithms in the PI systems are mainly for diagnostic purposes, few studies examine how the explainability of algorithmic prediction can support user-driven self-insight. To this end, we developed MindScope, an algorithm-assisted stress management sy

Difficulty in navigating daily life can lead to frustration and decrease independence for people with autism. While they turn to online autism communities for information and advice for coping with everyday challenges, these communities may present only a limited perspective because of their in-group nature. Obtaining support from out-group sources beyond the in-group community may prove valuable in dealing with challenging situations such as public anxiety and workplace conflicts. In this paper