Older adults (aged 65 or over) are expected to be one of the largest user cohorts of autonomous vehicles (AVs) as they support aging in place through freedom of mobility. As aging is associated with sensory and cognitive declines, such as poor vision, hearing impairment, and dementia, they have unique needs and challenges while interacting with AVs as passengers. Through my work with 25 older adults, I explore inclusive design solutions inside the AVs that will be supportive of their functional abilities and cognitive needs, allowing elderly passengers to quickly access and ride autonomous vehicles without experiencing anxiety and frustration. 

Many developing countries in the Global South face unique transportation challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, high traffic congestion levels, and limited public transportation access. Additionally, women and girls face significant safety risks (e.g., sexual harassment and assaults) when using public transportation, which is a significant barrier to women's mobility. Women, particularly in Bangladesh, face a constant threat of harassment while traveling. In this ongoing research with Bangladeshi females,  I study their daily struggles and concerns in public transportation and investigate the potential design of autonomous vehicles to ensure greater mobility and enhanced safety in the Global South and other marginalized communities. 

Despite widespread attention from academia, industry, and policymakers, Islamophobic posts are increasing online. There are significant advances in content moderation within HCI; however, social computing scholarship in this area remains constrained by Western interpretations of justice. This research aims to understand the issues of Islamophobia in social media and explores effective technology and policy solutions to address this problem. We developed an online tool for reporting and moderating Islamophobic tweets using HCI theories and readily available NLP techniques. We subsequently conducted usability studies, contextual inquiries, and interviews with 32 participants to assess the tool’s effectiveness in addressing Islamophobic content. 

This research investigates the emerging new domain of interaction between pedestrians and AVs to design accessible interfaces for vulnerable road users. This includes pedestrians with reduced mobility, like wheelchair users, and individuals with hearing impairments. Initially, I conducted participatory design studies with interaction design experts to explore potential interface ideas. Later, I performed iterative co-design sessions with wheelchair and hearing aid users to understand their unique perspectives and challenges in making crossing decisions as pedestrians. Based on the findings from the qualitative analysis, I developed VR prototypes simulating human-machine interfaces (HMIs) to establish a better communication medium between AVs and road users.

This project introduces External Automotive Displays (EADs) to provide visualizations that can share context and user-specific information and offer opportunities for direct and mediated interaction between users and automobiles. I conducted a study with interaction designers to explore design opportunities on EADs. Based on the design study, I prototyped four EADs in virtual reality (VR) and presented a preliminary design critique of the prototypes.

Selected Publications:

[AutoUI 20]: Designing external automotive displays: VR prototypes and analysis