How categories come to matter
Abstract
In a study of users' interactions with Siri, the iPhone personal assistant application, we noticed the emergence of overlaps and blurrings between explanatory categories such as "human" and "machine". We found that users work to purify these categories, thus resolving the tensions related to the overlaps. This "purification work" demonstrates how such categories are always in flux and are redrawn even as they are kept separate. Drawing on STS analytic techniques, we demonstrate the mechanisms of such "purification work." We also describe how such category work remained invisible to us during initial data analysis, due to our own forms of latent purification, and outline the particular analytic techniques that helped lead to this discovery. We thus provide an illustrative case of how categories come to matter in HCI research and design.
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These factors often lead to an overestimation of VAs' abilities to understand and conduct human-like conversations, resulting in communication breakdowns.
“These factors often lead to an overestimation of VAs' abilities to understand and conduct human-like conversations, resulting in communication breakdowns [31, 35, 39].”
From Situated Understanding of Errors in Older Adults' Interactions with Voice Assistants: A Month-Long, In-Home Study (2026) · cites this paper as [31]
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The State of Speech in HCI: Trends, Themes and Challenges
Clark, L., Doyle, P., Garaialde, D., Gilmartin, E., Schlögl, S., Edlund, J., Aylett, M., Cabral, J., Munteanu, C., Edwards, J., et al. (2019) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1093/iwc/iwz016 · Cited by 193 · see citing works
“Leahu et al. (2013) discuss the flexible, rather than static, nature of “human” and “machine” identity categories in this context, and possible experimental design implications.”
BackgroundMapping Perceptions of Humanness in Intelligent Personal Assistant Interaction
Doyle, P. R., Edwards, J., Dumbleton, O., Clark, L., & Cowan, B. R. (2019) · Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services · doi:10.1145/3338286.3340116 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Design guidelines for hands-free speech interaction
Murad, C., Munteanu, C., Clark, L., & Cowan, B. R. (2018) · Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services Adjunct · doi:10.1145/3236112.3236149 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Mahmood, A., Wang, J., & Huang, C.-M. (2026) · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing · doi:10.1145/3796236 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“Participants often found themselves forgetting and questioning the intent behind an alert, asking, “What am I supposed to do?” when a reminder rang without an accompanying message, indicating a mismatch between the VA’s functionalities and their needs.”
- Authors
- Leahu, L., Cohn, M., & March, W.
- Affiliations
- Mobile Life @ SICS, Stockholm, Sweden
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Intel (United States) (US)
- ORCID
- Cohn, Marisa
- Venue
- Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2013-04-27
- Pages
- 3331-3334
- OpenAlex
- W1978838258
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 0.26
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- IT University Of Copenhagen (IT University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Cybernetics and Technology in Society
- Keywords
- Siri, personal assistants, human-machine boundary, social construction of technology
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