+200 peer-reviewed publications, 2018–2026

@article{Hein2025b,

title = {What kind of technology transparency do users appreciate? Comparison of textual and graphic cues in app design},

author = {Ilka Hein and Daniel Ullrich and Galiiabanu Bakirova and Sarah Diefenbach},

doi = {10.1515/icom-2025-0018},

issn = {2196-6826},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-09-25},

volume = {24},

number = {2},

pages = {457--471},

publisher = {Walter de Gruyter GmbH},

abstract = {Abstract

               App recommendations and data visualizations such as weather forecasts, navigation aids, or sleep tracking graphs play an increasingly important role in daily decisions. However, the apps’ underlying functioning often remains opaque, possibly resulting in a suboptimal user experience or inadequate reliance on recommendations. To approach design solutions for this, the paper investigates the effects of textual and graphic transparency cues on users’ mental model accuracy, user experience, and explanation satisfaction, using the example of a weather and a sleep tracking app. An online experiment with 293 participants showed that textual transparency cues (i.e., verbal explanations) led to higher felt and objectively measured mental model accuracy than graphic transparency cues (i.e., data visualizations). Textual cues were also more satisfying than graphic cues but did not result in significantly different ratings of user experience. Moreover, differences between textual and graphic cues in subjective mental model accuracy and explanation satisfaction were stronger for the weather than the sleep tracking app, implying context-specific differences in the impact of transparency cues. The results and limitations are discussed and linked to the challenge of finding a sweet spot for technology transparency design.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Hein2025,

title = {Towards a Comprehensive View on Technology Transparency: A Cross-Technology Investigation of Psychological and Design Factors Around Users’ Transparency Need and Perception},

author = {Ilka Hein and Sarah Diefenbach},

doi = {10.1080/10447318.2025.2502983},

issn = {1532-7590},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-06-03},

journal = {International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction},

pages = {1--18},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{tretter2025presence,

title = {How the presence of others shapes the user experience of service robots},

author = {Stefan Tretter and Pia Terzi and Sarah Diefenbach},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Frontiers in Robotics and AI},

volume = {12},

pages = {1538711},

publisher = {Frontiers Media SA},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{diefenbach2025psychological,

title = {Psychological needs related to civil inattention: A qualitative and quantitative view on public encounters},

author = {Sarah Diefenbach and Anna Riehle and Hannah Jannott and Joëlle-Sophie Vornhagen and Johannes Stoll and Lea Markhoff and Pia Terzi},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {British Journal of Social Psychology},

volume = {64},

number = {1},

pages = {e12828},

publisher = {Wiley Online Library},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{gol2025xmtc,

title = {XMTC: Explainable Early Classification of Multivariate Time Series in Reach-to-Grasp Hand Kinematics},

author = {Reyhaneh Sabbagh Gol and Dimitar Valkov and Lars Linsen},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.04398},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{10.1093/iwc/iwaf010,

title = {The Witness Experience Inventory},

author = {Alarith Uhde and Lianara Dreyer and Marc Hassenzahl},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwaf010},

doi = {10.1093/iwc/iwaf010},

issn = {1873-7951},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Interacting with Computers},

pages = {iwaf010},

abstract = {Interactions with technology are part of social life, for example in cafés, trains, or parks. This social situatedness not only changes how users experience these interactions. It also influences the situated experiences for other co-located people (“witnesses”). However, despite a large body of research on user experiences, the relation between an interaction and witness experiences, and ways to design for them, remain underexplored. To address this gap, this paper introduces the “Witness Experience Inventory”, a research tool grounded in social-interpretivist theories, that offers a pragmatic approach to study how interactions with technology affect witness experiences. Based on an analysis of eight interactive technologies, we illustrate how the Witness Experience Inventory can inform the design of socially situated interactions with technology to avoid negative and create more positive witness experiences. We provide guidelines for applications of the Witness Experience Inventory in future research and its adaptable coding template. Both build on experiences from our own research, but give future researchers and practitioners the flexibility to adapt the tool to the social settings they study.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{KaufholdMentlerNestlerReuter+2025,

title = {The tension of usable safety, security and privacy},

author = {Marc-André Kaufhold and Tilo Mentler and Simon Nestler and Christian Reuter},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1515/icom-2025-0009},

doi = {doi:10.1515/icom-2025-0009},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

urldate = {2025-01-01},

journal = {i-com},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{PöhlerFlegelMentlerVanLaerhoven+2025,

title = {Keeping the human in the loop: are autonomous decisions inevitable?},

author = {Jonas Pöhler and Nadine Flegel and Tilo Mentler and Kristof Van Laerhoven},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1515/icom-2024-0068},

doi = {doi:10.1515/icom-2024-0068},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

urldate = {2025-01-01},

journal = {i-com},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{chamunorwa2025enhancing,

title = {Enhancing Smart Home User Experience: A Study of Everyday Objects for Smart Home Control},

author = {Michael Chamunorwa and Heiko Müller and Susanne Boll},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction},

volume = {9},

number = {5},

pages = {1–29},

publisher = {ACM New York, NY},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{obiri2025environment,

title = {Environment-Aware Indoor LoRaWAN Path Loss: Parametric Regression Comparisons, Shadow Fading, and Calibrated Fade Margins},

author = {Nahshon Mokua Obiri and Kristof Van Laerhoven},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.04346},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{gerhardt2025airtag,

title = {AirTag-Facilitated Stalking Protection: Evaluating Unwanted Tracking Notifications and Tracker Locating Features},

author = {Dañiel Gerhardt and Matthias Fassl and Carolyn Guthoff and Adrian Dabrowski and Katharina Krombholz},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

publisher = {CISPA},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}