Navigating User-System Gaps: Understanding User-Interactions in User-Centric Context-Aware Systems for Digital Well-being Intervention

In this paper, we investigate the challenges users face with a usercentric context-aware intervention system. Users often face gaps when the system's responses do not align with their goals and intentions. We explore these gaps through a prototype system that enables users to specify context-action intervention rules as they desire. We conducted a lab study to understand how users perceive and cope with gaps while translating their intentions as rules, revealing that users experience context-mapping and context-recognition uncertainties (instant evaluation cycle). We also performed a field study to explore how users perceive gaps and make adaptations of rules when the operation of specified rules in real-world settings (delayed evaluation cycle). This research highlights the dynamic nature of user interaction with context-aware systems and suggests the potential of such systems in supporting digital well-being. It provides insights into user adaptation processes and offers guidance for designing user-centric context-aware applications.

• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI .