Abstract

Digital fitness technologies promise greater awareness, structured routines, and enhanced discipline, influencing how individuals construct notions of well-being and engage in fitness within social environments. In urban India, these dynamics are shaped by infrastructural constraints, uneven access to fitness resources, and context-specific conditions that complicate standardized tracking models built by global platforms. Drawing on prior literature studies and qualitative fieldwork, we examine how young fitness practitioners adopt and negotiate the use of self-tracking technologies. Using bricolage as an analytical lens, we suggest how users creatively repurpose tools, navigating data-driven guidance and embodied intuition. Our findings show three key themes: creation of hybrid self-tracking ecologies, technology domestication via selective appropriation, and adaptation of fitness tracking to local sociomaterial contexts. Fitness emerges as a situated and relational practice shaped by resource constraints and interpretive self-tracking.

Abstract

Description
Anti-discrimination is a crucial focus for researchers, policymakers and designers of technical systems. Leveraging insights from AI fairness and inclusion studies, we examine algorithmic bias and its tendency to perpetuate discrimination (Selbst et al., 2019, Fairness and abstraction in sociotechnical systems, pp. 59-68) through two case studies: one in a gaming environment and another on a dating platform. Our research on gaming explores the manifestation of toxicity, particularly its impact on gender identities. We examine the normalisation of toxic behaviours within gaming spaces, negatively influencing gendered perceptions and experiences. In the second study, we conduct an experiment on the Bumble dating platform to uncover and address discrimination within the matching algorithms, which influence the profiles shown to users as potential dates. These interactions in user discovery pose significant risks …

Abstract

This volume offers a series of practical methods to study digital behaviours considering the socio-cultural realities of the global south. It includes methodologically rigorous applied research chapters from leading international researchers offering information on gold mines and blind spots in researching the digital in the global south. It develops a tri-sectional format based on distinct areas of research, geographical variability and diversity of methods and approaches. The first section focuses on Dissecting Research Fractures-which disrupts the established research ideologies and practices, user behaviors, theoretical perspectives, and field methods in the study of digital social research. The second section on Innovating Methods proposes and extends mixed methodologies that go beyond research boundaries to produce novel possibilities for study. The final section on Re-Imagining the Field breaks new ground in exploring the social-digital where a transient research field is contextualized and stabilized through the social, infrastructural, and digital interweaving. The book offers the reader an inside view of studying marginal yet emerging users and consumers of digital technologies. The three sections together purport to draw textual, graphical, temporal, and ethnographic insights via innovative and hybrid observational tools to record, annotate and formulate everyday experiences of digital life. The volume addresses scholars interested in hybridizing methods, early career researchers, and graduates working on connecting humans and digital technologies. It also holds considerable appeal for digital marketers and strategists, offering practically …

Abstract

his volume presents fourteen critical explorations in digital studies, grounding qualitative approaches to digital social research within the often-overlooked geographies of the Global South. Digital social research operates within complex sociotechnical landscapes, encompassing a wide array of technologies, products, users, and contexts of use. This diversity is exemplified by the rise of Web 2.0 technologies leveraging digital and stored data from varied social platforms and digital ecosystems. Digital technologies have transformed the research field into a dynamic, co-constructed space shared by users, researchers, and digital artifacts, marking a significant move toward more adaptive and qualitative approaches in digital social research. By re-evaluating the role of technology in society, this volume provides diverse perspectives and methodologies, offering both innovative theoretical frameworks and practical …

Abstract

his two-volume proceedings, set CCIS 2337-2338, constitutes of the proceedings of 15th Indian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction Design and Research, IndiaHCI 2024, held in Mumbai, India, during November 7-9, 2024. The 30 full papers and 12 short papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 235 submissions. These papers belong to various tracks which have been divided between the two volumes as follows:-Part I: Paper Track. Part II: Game Design Track, Student Research Consortium Track; Posters and demos Track; Artworks and installations Track.

Abstract

India's gig-based food delivery platforms, such as Swiggy and Zomato, provide crucial income to marginalised communities but also entrench workers in cycles of invisible labour. Through 14 semi-structured interviews, we analyse waiting time and repetitive UI itneractions as key burdens that contribute to 'digital discomfort' for gig based food delivery agents. We find that workers employ creative strategies to navigate algorithmic management, yet remain constrained by platform-side 'gamification' and system opacity. We propose worker-centered GUI automation as a potential intervention to reduce friction while preserving agency. In conclusion, this position paper argues for rethinking HCI approaches in the Global South to prioritise worker autonomy over efficiency-driven design optimisations.

Abstract

The global rise of football analytics has rapidly transformed how clubs make strategic decisions (morgulev2018sports,). However, in India, the adoption of analytics remains constrained by institutional resistance, infrastructural limitations, and cultural barriers--challenges that grassroots innovation and low-cost data solutions have the potential to overcome. Despite the increasing popularity of the Indian Super League (scroll2020isl,; chatterjee2021isl,), resource scarcity and fragmented governance continue to hinder the widespread adoption and impact of analytics. This mixed-methods study explores how informal, decentralized analytics communities--comprising amateur analysts and Twitter-based "data sleuths"--navigate these constraints through peer mentorship and grassroots innovation. Drawing on extensive digital ethnography, participant observation, and interviews, the study illustrates how these informal networks mitigate data scarcity, limited digital infrastructure, and institutional indifference while fostering skill development and professional growth. Building on these insights, the paper proposes HCI interventions such as decentralized knowledge platforms to facilitate structured, cross-border peer mentorship and low-cost data solutions--including AI-assisted player tracking and mobile analytics dashboards--rooted in principles of frugal innovation (shauloff2023ai,). These interventions aim to bridge the data divide, support inclusive technical engagement in sport, and enhance analytics-driven decision-making in resource-constrained environments. This paper contributes to HCIxB's focus on cross-border collaboration by highlighting how community-driven technological adaptation in the Global South can foster meaningful participation, skill-building, and long-term sustainability through informal learning networks and scalable, context-sensitive tools (vashistha2017cve,; nawaz2021farming,).

Abstract

In recent years, widespread internet adoption and the growth in user
base of various social media platforms have led to an increase in the prolifera
tion of extreme speech online. While traditional language models have demon
strated proficiency in distinguishing between neutral text and non-neutral text
(i.e. extreme speech), categorizing the diverse types of extreme speech presents
significant challenges [1][2]. The task of extreme speech classification is par
ticularly nuanced, as it requires a deep understanding of socio-cultural contexts
to accurately interpret the intent of the language used by the speaker. Even hu
man annotators often disagree on the appropriate classification of such content,
emphasizing the complex and subjective nature of this task [3]. The use of hu
man moderators also presents a scaling issue, necessitating the need for auto
mated systems for extreme speech classification. The recent launch of ChatGPT
has drawn global attention to the potential applications of Large Language
Models (LLMs) across a diverse variety of tasks. Trained on vast and diverse
corpora, and demonstrating the ability to effectively capture and encode contex
tual information, LLMs emerge as highly promising tools for tackling this spe
cific task of extreme speech classification. In this paper, we leverage the Indian
subset of the extreme speech dataset from [3] to develop an effective classifica
tion framework using LLMs. We evaluate open-source Llama models against
closed-source OpenAI models, finding that while pre-trained LLMs show mod
erate efficacy, fine-tuning with domain-specific data significantly enhances per
formance, highlighting their adaptability to linguistic and contextual nuances.
Although GPT-based models outperform Llama models in zero-shot settings,
the performance gap disappears after fine-tuning.

Abstract

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Abstract

This paper contributes to the expanding research on toxicity in online games, exploring the relationship between game design and player behaviours in India. Using an ethnographic approach and in-depth interviews with gamers, we capture firsthand accounts of toxic gaming experiences, delving into game design, game mechanics, and player interactions intersecting to shape player behaviours. While previous research on toxicity in gaming environments has largely focused on the role of game design, aspects of gender and, to a lesser extent, race, primarily within the context of the Global North, our study shifts the focus to India and, by extension, the Global South. We seek to uncover broader dimensions of gaming toxicity that go beyond design and gender. Our analysis examines the underlying factors contributing to the prevalence and persistence of toxic behaviours in Indian gaming environments by highlighting the influence of cultural and contextual elements in producing toxic behaviours. Expanding the scope of research to include these overlooked aspects, our study aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities of toxicity in online gaming spaces within the Indian context.