User-centred quality of UI interventions aiming to influence online news commenting behaviour

Abstract

While HCI literature offers general frameworks for understanding user-centred quality, specific application areas may call for more detailed contextualisation of it. This paper focuses on socio-technical context of online news commenting by investigating speculative UI interventions intended to influence users’ emotions and social behaviour. To understand the aspects of quality that matter to users in such UI interventions, we conducted an international online survey (N = 439) and qualitatively analysed respondents’ first impressions of eight different design proposals. The findings describe contextually relevant socio-technical viewpoints and offer actionable considerations for design. For example, the findings imply that designers should be mindful of possible unintentional misuse that may result from the UI reinforcing specific emotional states or affording stigmatisation of individual users. The study advances understanding of which aspects of quality should be considered when designing and deploying UI interventions for digital media services and evaluating them with potential end-users.