Frictional Design in Hybrid
Human-AI Systems
July 7, 2026, Brussels, Belgium
Full-day Workshop
Open to all HHAI participants - including single day registrants (details here)
Previously Workshop on Stimulating Cognitive Engagament in Hybrid Decision-Making
Topics of the Workshop
In its third edition, this workshop builds on and expands its exploration of friction-in-design in AI systems, hosting a full-day event that challenges the pursuit of seamless, rapid interactions. In contrast to the conventional narrative that human over-reliance on AI stems solely from cognitive biases, we emphasize the critical role of designers and developers in fostering user empowerment, skill retention, and ethical responsibility.
This approach advocates for a balanced perspective on Human-AI interaction: one that harmonizes operational efficiency with the demands of meaningful, mindful, and effective human knowledge work.
Central to our discussion is the concept of friction-in-design or frictional protocols in AI systems, which are deliberate design choices that introduce moments of reflection and cognitive engagement, even at the expense of speed. The main aim of these protocols is reducing risks of overreliance on AI.
In this third edition, we are also focusing on frictional protocols to foster prosocial goals. Through accepted papers and our keynote address, we will explore nudging in design and other frictional design techniques that are implemented for the purpose of favoring socially beneficial outcomes in AI usage, from recommenders to decision support systems.
The programme includes a keynote, paper presentations, structured collaborative discussions, and a participatory design session. Following the workshops, authors are invited to extend their abstracts into a short paper, and join the fledgling Frictional AI research community.
Together, we will explore the potential of Frictional AI to collaboratively shape future research and practices that ensure AI use remains meaningful and responsible.
Detailed timetable
The workshop takes place on Tuesday, July 7th from 9am to 6pm.
The workshop takes place on Tuesday, July 7th from 9:00am to 6:00pm.
The workshop will be structured around four thematic paper sessions, a keynote lecture, and a collaborative participatory activity. The morning programme explores friction through the lenses of agency, cognition, explainability, uncertainty, and design, while the afternoon focuses on applications in education, knowledge work, the humanities, and data stewardship. The keynote and participatory activity will provide an opportunity for attendees to collectively reflect on future directions for Frictional AI research, culminating in a discussion of next steps and opportunities for collaboration within the HHAI community.
INTRODUCTION
09:00-09:15 Welcoming Address and Agenda of the Day
09:15-9:30 Lightning Round of Introductions
Participants briefly introduce themselves with a single slide, reflecting on who they are, how they define friction, and where friction appears in their research and practice.
SESSION 1 - AGENCY & COGNITION
9:30-10:10 Author Presentations
Leslye DIAS DURAN, Isobel VOYSEY- "Friction as Support for Children’s Agency"
Lena SLACHMUIJLDER - "Designing for Deliberation: How AI Systems Can Strengthen Rather Than Erode Human Judgment in Conflict Contexts"
Utsav GUPTA, Isa RASK, Lynnette NG, Andreas HAUPT, Brett FRISCHMANN - "Where Should AI Be Less Seamless? A Cognitive Vulnerability and Mitigation Catalog for Frictional Design"
Mattias BRÄNNSTRÖM - "Reach, Frames and Friction: When Design Interventions Afford Agency"
10:10-10:30 Q&A During Roundtable Discussion (moderated by Chiara Natali)
☕️ 10:30-11:00 coffee break ☕️
SESSION 2 - XAI & UNCERTAINTY
11:00-11:35 Author Presentations
Courtney FORD - "A Frictional Approach to Post-Hoc XAI Across Domain and AI Expertise"
Laura CAPELLA, Giacomo ZAMPROGNO, Ilaria TIDDI - "Beyond the Black Box: Designing Frictional Interfaces for Trust Calibration and Appropriate Reliance in Scientific LLMs"
Caroline HESSE, Liv ZIEGFELD, Nick VAN APELDOORN, Maryam ALIMARDANI -"Expressing Uncertainty to Support Critical Thinking in Human–GenAI Interaction: A Comparison of Chatbots and Embodied Conversational Agents"
11:35-11:50 Q&A During Roundtable Discussion (moderated by Simon WS Fischer)
SESSION 3 - APPLICATIONS: DATA & HUMANITIES
11:55-12:25 Author Presentations
Finola FINN - "Working against “Instant History”: Frictional Design for Archival AI Assistants"
Isaac HAIZEL - "Designing for Pause: Friction as a Mechanism for Ethical Data Stewardship"
Joseph CATLETT, Gürhan KARAKAS, Finnegan BUCK - "Rorschach Photography: Designing an Ambiguous Non-Informative Visual Overlay (ANIVO) for Creative Co-Creation"
12:25-12:40 Q&A During Roundtable Discussion (moderated by Brett Frischmann)
12:40-13:00 Participant Introductions
Attendees not presenting papers are invited to briefly introduce themselves and their interests in Frictional AI.
🍝 13:00-14:30 lunch 🍝
SESSION 4 - APPLICATIONS: KNOWLEDGE WORK AND LEARNING
14:30-15:00 Author Presentations
Mălina CHICHIRĂU, Anco C.P. PEETERS, Serge THILL - "Frictional AI for Education: A Dutch Educator’s Perspective"
João TZIMINADIS - "Writing as Thinking and the Question of Human–AI Writing: A Critical-Phenomenological Contribution"
Yunhan WU, Susan LEAVY, Courtney FORD - "Frictional AI for Knowledge Work: Designing for Accuracy, Transparency, and Trust"
15:00-15:15 Q&A During Roundtable Discussion (moderated by Manni Cheung)
KEYNOTE AND PARTICIPATORY ACTIVITY (PART 1)
15:15-15:45 Keynote Lecture and Participatory Activity Introduction
15:45-15:00 Participatory Activity - Brainstorming Phase (in groups)
☕️ 16:00-16:30 coffee break ☕️
16:30-17:00 Participatory Activity - Writing Phase (in groups)
17:00-17:30 Participatory Activity - Presentation (in groups) and Discussion
WRAP-UP AND NEXT STEPS
17:30-18:00 Wrap-up Activity: Next Steps for Future Collaboration
To conclude the workshop, we will discuss the main insights of the day, remaining open question, as well as collaboratively tracing future strategies and avenues for research collaboration.
Call for Extended Abstracts (500-1,000 words)
Submission Deadline: (May 1 2026) extended to May 7, 2026 AoE
Author Notification: May 29, 2026 AoE
Workshop (Brussels, Belgium): July 7, 2026
Camera-ready of short paper version (5 pages): September 7, 2026 AoE
We invite extended abstracts from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on topics including (but not limited to):
Design Principles for Cognitive Engagement: interaction strategies that balance efficiency with reflection and critical engagement.
Methods to Measure Overreliance and Underreliance: frameworks, metrics, or empirical studies assessing how AI affects human judgement, expertise, and decision behaviour.
Trust Calibration and Transparency: investigations of how explanations, uncertainty communication, or interface design influence trust and reliance.
Governance and Policy Approaches: legal, regulatory, or organisational perspectives on incorporating frictional principles into AI deployment and oversight.
Applications and Case Studies: empirical studies, prototypes, or deployments demonstrating seamful or frictional interaction patterns in practice.
A collected volume of HHAI 2026 Workshop and Tutorial proceedings will be compiled under the CEUR-WS umbrella after the conference.
Author Guide
Abstract Length: 500–1,000 words not including references.
IMPORTANT: To be included in the workshop proceedings, authors will be required after the workshop to expand their abstract into a 5-page short paper.
Format: submissions must follow the CEUR-WS single-column format. This format will be required also for the 5-page camera-ready version to be submitted after the workshop.
Ready-to-use templates are available: Overleaf (LaTeX) template; Word template; ODT template.
Review Process: single-blind — authors should include their name(s) and affiliation(s).
Submission Portal: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/FrictionalAI2026/
Keynote
Mapping Frictional AI: An Atlas for Human Agency, Cognitive Engagement, and Participatory Governance Speaker: Bogdana Rakova.
Rakova is Sr. Data Scientist, DLA Piper; Affiliate at the Data & Society Research Institute; ex-Mozilla fellow and founder of the Speculative Friction in AI use and governance initiative. Rakova’s keynote will be followed by a guided, participatory activity on empowering friction in the design and interaction with AI systems.
Programme Committee
Niels van Berkel (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Victor de Boer (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Ingar Brinck (Lund University, Sweden)
Federico Cabitza (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy)
Pedro Cardoso (i2ADS, Faculty of Fine Arts University of Porto, Portugal)
Antonio Curci (University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy)
Alessandro Facchini (SUPSI, IDSIA, Switzerland)
Caterina Fregosi (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy)
Michel Klein (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Ken Holstein (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Tim Miller (University of Queensland, Australia)
Rune Møberg Jacobsen (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Mohammad Naiseh (Bournemouth University, UK)
Sarah Rajtmajer (Penn State University, USA)
Bogdana Rakova (DLA Piper, USA)
Emiliano Ricciardi (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy)
Madelyn Sanfilippo (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Evan Selinger (Rochester Institute of Technology, USA)
Sarah Shoilee (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Yan Shvartzshnaider (York University, Canada)
Isabella Silva (Fraunhofer AICOS, Portugal)
Ilaria Tiddi (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Freyja Van Den Boom (St Lucas Antwerp - KdG, Belgium)
Organising Committee
Chiara Natali (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Hybrid Intelligence)
Fabio Michele Russo (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy, Explainable AI)
Simon WS Fischer (Radboud University, The Netherlands, AI & Cognitive Neuroscience)
Manni Cheung (University of Cambridge, UK, Computing Education)
Brett M. Frischmann (Villanova University, USA, Law, Business and Economics)