Tian Xu

tixu6250@colorado.edu

Uni. of Colorado Boulder

Tian is a second-year Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Stephen Voida, a member of TMI (Too Much Information) lab, and a research affiliate of IRL (Internet Rules Lab) and RDG (Responsible Design Group). Tian’s research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, health informatics, and design, centering on understanding technology-mediated health management strategies in people’s day-to-day life, designing and measuring novel health support technology or system, and examining privacy concerns about health data sharing. Before joining INFO at CU Boulder, she earned a M.S. in information management at Syracuse University.

news

Mar 17, 2023	Our paper, Technology-Mediated Strategies for Coping with Mental Health Challenges: Insights from People with Bipolar Disorder, has been accepted to CSCW2023!
Jan 13, 2023	Our paper, Examining Gender-oriented Design Features in Computational Toys and Kits for Young Children, has been accepted to CHI2023!
Nov 7, 2022	Awarded a special recognition for an outstanding CHI’23 paper review :).
Apr 30, 2022	Joined the Complex Health Needs and Technology Ecosystems workshop at CHI’22.
Apr 28, 2022	Our workshop position paper, Technological Mediation of Strategies in Coping with Mental Health Challenges, was accepted by CHI’22 workshop.

selected publications

CSCW

Technology-Mediated Strategies for Coping with Mental Health Challenges Insights from People with Bipolar Disorder

Xu, Tian*, Yu, Junnan*, Doyle, Dylan and 1 more author

In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing 2023
CHI

Examining Gender-Oriented Design Features in Computational Toys and Kits for Young Children

Cen, Jingyao*, Xu, Tian*, and Yu, Junnan

In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2023

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CHI 🏆

Reflection in Theory and Reflection in Practice An Exploration of the Gaps in Reflection Support among Personal Informatics Apps

Cho, Janghee, Xu, Tian, Zimmermann-Niefield, Abigail and 1 more author

In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2022

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Personal informatics (PI) systems have been developed to support reflection. While reflection is considered an indispensable activity in PI use, how and when reflection occurs is still under-studied. In this paper, we present an analysis of the interactive features of 123 commercial PI apps, revealing that reflective practices are unevenly supported. The lack of features that encourage user-driven reflection, scaffolding for setting goals and configuring data collection and presentation, and consideration of wider implications stand to limit meaning-making and frustrate nuanced insight generation based on lived experiences. Based on our findings, we discuss how reflection is currently misrepresented in personal informatics tools, identify and characterize the gaps between theoretical research on reflection and interface features in current apps, and offer suggestions about how reflection could be better supported.