The human-centered systems lab (h-lab) headed by Prof. Dr. Alexander Maedche (research group “Information Systems I", formerly ISSD) focuses in research, education, and innovation on designing human-centered systems for better work & life.
Our mission is to create impactful knowledge for designing human-centered systems for human productivity and well-being through relevant and rigor scientific research. We leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and biosignal sensor technologies in combination with a human-in-the-loop paradigm to continuously involve humans in the design process. We follow a socio-technical research approach for increasing human productivity and well-being through human-centered systems.
We contribute to the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) (Mensch-Computer Interaktion) and information systems (IS) (Wirtschaftsinformatik). We believe that delivering cutting-edge knowledge and inspiring education, as well as an ongoing dialog with the public need to go hand in hand to maximize the impact of our work in organizations and society.
Our current research topics are:
WDR (West German Broadcasting) reports on the Youtube channel Quarks on research in the fields of flow recognition and flow-adaptive notification systems performed at the human-centered systems lab.
The focus of the channel “Dimension Ralph” is to make research results in a specific domain of interest publicly available.
The video is available online here: https://youtu.be/iSjekiKCXH8
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Miguel Angel Meza Martínez successfully defended on May 17th 2023 his PhD thesis titled “Visual Representation of Local Model-agnostic Explanations: Design and Empirical Studies“.
He convinced the examination committee Prof. Dr. Ann-Kristin Kupfer, Prof. Dr. Fabian Krüger, Prof. Dr. Alexander Mädche, and Prof. Dr. Ali Sunyaev with his research. We congratulate Miguel for his successful defense!
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Bachelor's and master's students studying information systems (IS) at KIT can apply for an IS scholarship. The scholarship will start on October 1st, 2023 and will run for 12 months. Scholarship holders are supported with 300 Euros per month. The scholarship is awarded by the non-profit association "Die Wirtschaftsinformatik e.V." and serves to promote young people in the field of IS. The scholarship is funded by companies that provide the financial support and are involved in the awarding of the scholarship. For the 2023/24 period, three IS scholarships will be awarded by Schwarz IT KG at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Please send your application documents (letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, certificates or transcripts of grades) to wi-stipendium@wirtschaftsinformatik.de by July 30th, 2023 (5 p.m.) at the latest. Prof. Dr. Alexander Mädche (alexander.maedche@kit.edu) at your disposal.
Michael Gau successfully defended on May 4th 2023 his PhD thesis titled “Open Design Science Research Systems: Design Principles and System Instantiations“.
He convinced the examination committee Prof. Dr. Ali Sunyaev, Prof. Dr. Jan vom Brocke (University of Liechtenstein), Prof. Dr. Alexander Mädche, and Prof. Dr. Orestis Terzidis with his research. We congratulate Michi Gau for his successful defense!
On April 27th 2023 12 schoolgirls were invited to get hands-on insights on information systems and human-computer interaction research at h-lab as part of the nationwide career and study orientation day for girls. Together with members from the h-lab and KD2Lab representatives, the girls developed various prototypes leveraging the human-centered design process. They were asked to develop a prototypical app for problems from their everyday lives. Topics were, for example, "Which advanced course at school should I choose?", "Which film fits our interests?", "Creative input for drawing" as well as the everyday question "Which outfits can I create from my wardrobe?".
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Prof. Maedche in cooperation with UIG e.V. has launched a new website describing and promoting the seal “Nutzerzentriert entwickelt”. The seal is offered for software-developing organizations that are successfully audited with regards to their user-centered development processes. The audits are performed by a group of usability and UX service providers tightly connected to UIG e.V. The goal of the seal is to support organizations in their transformation processes and showcase user-centricity as a differentiating characteristic. Further information is available here: https://nutzerzentriert-entwickelt.de/
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The paper "AutoChemplete - Making Chemical Structural Formulas Accessible" has won the “Accessibility Challenges Judges’ Award” of the 20th International Web for All Conference. The Judges Award was selected by five judges coming from different backgrounds such as academia, industry, and government, all relating to accessibility.
The judges appreciated the problem-centeredness of the presented research project approach. Specifically, it was highlighted how systematically requirements elicitation and evaluation besides developing the tool has been performed. The paper is available in the W4A 2023 proceedings. We congratulate the winners!
The B.Sc. lecture ”Designing interactive Systems“ is targeted at master students who are interested in expanding their knowledge on designing successful human-computer interaction in business and society. The aim of this course is to introduce advanced concepts and theories, interaction technologies as well as current practice of contemporary interactive systems. The course is complemented with a design capstone project. This year’s capstone project is jointly offered with EnBW AG and will focus on design challenges surrounding the broad question of “Where and how can generative AI language models, such as ChatGPT, be used at EnBW?” The students analyze a real-world challenge and provide design innovative prototypes based on the lecture content. Students do not only gain hands-on experience with various prototyping tools, but also show their project management and collaboration skills. The lecture starts on Wednesday at 2 pm (26.04.) at Kollegiengebäude am Kronenplatz (05.20), room 1c-04, click here to go to the ILIAS Folder.
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The B.Sc. lecture “Foundations of Interactive Systems” is targeted at bachelor students who are interested in the design of successful human-computer interaction in business and private life. It introduces key concepts and principles of interactive systems from a human and computer perspective. It also describes core human-centered design processes for interactive systems and provides insights into the use & contexts of interactive systems in business and society. The course is complemented by a design capstone project, where students work in teams and apply design methods & techniques to create an interactive prototype for a given challenge. For SS2023, the capstone project focuses on leveraging the capabilities of large language models such as ChatGPT and designing a new writing assistant feature that supports writing an email, a thesis, a journal entry, or any other writing task that the course participants come up with. The next lecture will be offered on May 2nd, Tuesday at 9:45 am at “Sitzungssaal” R223 (Build. 10.11), click here to go to the ILIAS Folder.
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We are thrilled to announce the publication of a new paper titled "AutoChemplete - Making Chemical Structural Formulas Accessible". The paper, which is now available in the W4A 2023 proceedings, describes the development of an interactive labeling tool for chemical structural formulas that is accessible to blind and low vision students.
The tool, called AutoChemplete, uses machine learning to predict the molecule from an input image of the structural formula. It then generates accessible representations of the molecule that can be easily understood by visually impaired students. AutoChemplete was developed based on interviews with blind and low vision chemists and accessibility professionals to ensure that it meets their requirements. The tool has been made open source and is available for download on GitHub. The development of AutoChemplete is a significant step forward in making STEM subjects more accessible to visually impaired students, and has been developed in cooperation with our friends at ACCESS@KIT.
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The research group of Prof. Mädche is present at the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) with 4 full and two research-in-progress papers:
Knaeble et al. (2023). Tools of Trade of the Next Blue-Collar Job? Antecedents, Design Features, and Outcomes of Interactive Labeling Systems;
Schloss et al. (2023). Designing a Conversation Mining System for Customer Service Chatbots;
Gunklach & Nadj (2023). Guidance in Business Intelligence & Analytics Systems: A Review and Research Agenda;
Gunklach et al. (2023). Beyond Dashboards? Designing Data Stories for Effective Use in Business Intelligence & Analytics;
Toreini et al. (2023). Exploring the Usage of Mixed Reality-based Information Dashboards;
Scheu et al. (2023). Designing Amsl - A Digital Assistant for Self-Regulated Learning
Feel free to contact the authors for further information.
How can companies effectively build up competencies to successfully implement AI projects? As part of the investBW-funded project WeLearnAI in cooperation with respeak GmbH, innovative solutions for the interactive support of competence development are being developed and piloted.
We will kick-off the project in cooperation with Cyberforum on May 2nd at 5 PM at the KD2Lab. Further information is available here: https://www.cyberforum.de/veranstaltungen/thinkcenter-welearnai-02-05-2023