Algorithms are present in many of our everyday activities. However, there is generally low awareness of their presence among users, and there are various conceptualizations to define them. Additionally, algorithms are often both complex and opaque. These characteristics raise challenges when applying co-design activities to the interaction design of algorithms. We argue that researchers can overcome these challenges by developing sensitizing activities: activities that foreground the presence of algorithms, thus raising algorithmic awareness and a shared understanding, without influencing their initial experiences and expectations. We share how we applied sensitizing activities in two case studies: sensitizing interviews, and diary studies together with two-phase workshops. We share our experiences applying these techniques to overcome the challenges of low algorithmic awareness and multiple algorithmic understandings of participants. Finally, we offer recommendations for researchers and practitioners when applying sensitizing activities in this design context and invite further methodological discussion on this challenging topic.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Interaction design; HCI design and evaluation methods; Participatory design.

Algorithmic systems that recommend content often lack transparency about how they come to their suggestions. One area in which recommender systems are increasingly prevalent is online news distribution. In this paper, we explore how a lack of transparency of (news) recommenders can be tackled by involving users in the design of interface elements. In the context of automated decision-making, legislative frameworks such as the GDPR in Europe introduce a specific conception of transparency, granting 'data subjects' specific rights and imposing obligations on service providers. An important related question is how people using personalized recommender systems relate to the issue of transparency, not as legal data subjects but as users. This paper builds upon a two-phase study on how users conceive of transparency and related issues in the context of algorithmic news recommenders. We organized co-design workshops to elicit participants' 'algorithmic imaginaries' and invited them to ideate interface elements for increased transparency. This revealed the importance of combining legible transparency features with features that increase user control. We then conducted a qualitative evaluation of mock-up prototypes to investigate users' preferences and concerns when dealing with design features to increase transparency and control. Our investigation illustrates how users' expectations and impressions of news recommenders are closely related to their news reading practices. On a broader level, we show how transparency and control are conceptually intertwined. Transparency without control leaves users frustrated. Conversely, without a basic level of transparency into how a system works, users remain unsure of the impact of controls.

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Debt and time are inherently linked. In its essence, a debt is a quantified promise to pay at some point in the future. This article explores the temporal dimension of debt that manifests itself during the process of debt collection, the phase at which indebtedness becomes most tangible. Based on in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in the world of debt collection in Flanders, Belgium, we analyse how different temporal techniques used by ‘street-level’ debt collectors incite debtors to pay. Both in collection out of court by collection agencies as well as in judicial enforcement of the obligation to pay, debt collection imposes a strict schedule of repayment on the defaulting debtor. In this ‘time regime’ imposed upon debtors, payments are closely tracked, so that any deviation can be met by swift reminders and pecuniary punishment. The time regimes of debt collection can conflict with the temporal structures present in the everyday economic lives of the debtors. Incongruences appear due to frictions between the rhythm of repayment on the one hand, and temporal irregularities of the economic lives of debtors on the other. To further explore this time dimension, we also look at how debtors respond and adapt to the new temporal impositions, and how debt mediators deploy temporal strategies when assisting the over-indebted. By negotiating payment plans with creditors, debt mediators mitigate the harsher aspects of the time regime enacted through collection agencies and judicial officers.

We present a case study where we developed RHETORiC: an audience conversation tool that promotes civil participation in online news comments. By following a human-centered design process, we created and evaluated a novel tool with an interface that supports people in carefully formulating their opinions and arguments, so they can constructively contribute to online discussions about news. Results of a large-scale field study show that our tool succeeds in increasing the level of civility, argumentation and proficiency of comments in comparison with those on social media. On top, both users and journalists report high satisfaction with the RHETORiC tool. In our paper we reflect upon lessons learned about the design process as well as about the tool itself, which contributes to the fields of both Human-Computer Interaction and Digital Journalism. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Collaborative and social computing; Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing.