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This work reviews 30 years of HCI research to map current understandings, open issues, ethical concerns, and future research directions, and to propose ways to increase clarity and coordination across HCI communities.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/how-does-hci-understand-human-agency-and-autonomy/145543/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/how-does-hci-understand-human-agency-and-autonomy/145543.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Berry Peter","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-08-26",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",18,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why are human agency and autonomy important in HCI?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"They have guided HCI design values, shaped meaningful user experiences, and relate to users’ sense of ownership over outcomes. Their relevance grows further with persuasive technologies and intelligent systems.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What problem does the document identify in existing HCI understandings?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Autonomy and agency are used ambiguously to describe many related phenomena, and it is unclear whether different understandings are compatible across HCI communities or how they support research programs and interventions.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the document address these ambiguities?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It reviews 30 years of HCI research on autonomy and agency, identifies current understandings and open issues, highlights ethical concerns, and outlines themes and directions to improve clarity and specificity while coordinating across HCI communities.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},145543,1787724593,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":130},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":132},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":133,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":55,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":144},1374402524268,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","How does HCI Understand Human Agency and Autonomy?  \nDaniel Bennett  \n[pavementsands@gmail.com](pavementsands@gmail.com)[ ](pavementsands@gmail.com)Aalto University Espoo, Helsinki  \nOussama Metatla  \nUniversity of Bristol Bristol, United Kingdom  \nAnne Roudaut  \nUniversity of Bristol Bristol, United Kingdom  \nElisa D. Mekler  \nIT University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark  \narXiv :2301 . 12490v2 [ cs .HC] 2 Feb 2023  \nABSTRACT  \nHuman agency and autonomy have always been fundamental concepts in HCI. New developments, including ubiquitous AI and the growing integration of technologies into our lives, make these issues ever pressing, as technologies increase their ability to influence our behaviours and values. However, in HCI understandings of autonomy and agency remain ambiguous. Both concepts are used to describe a wide range of phenomena pertaining to sense-of-control, material independence, and identity. It is unclear to what degree these understandings are compatible, and how they support the development of research programs and practical interventions. We address this by reviewing 30 years of HCI research on autonomy and agency to identify current understandings, open issues, and future directions. From this analysis, we identify ethical issues, and outline key themes to guide future work. We also articulate avenues for advancing clarity and specificity around these concepts, and for coordinating integrative work across different HCI communities.  \nCCS CONCEPTS  \n• Human-centered computing → HCI theory, concepts and models.  \nKEYWORDS  \nAutonomy, agency, user experience, theory, delegation, Self Determination Theory, boundary objects, mixed initiative  \nACM Reference Format:  \nDaniel Bennett, Oussama Metatla, Anne Roudaut, and Elisa D. Mekler. 2023. How does HCI Understand Human Agency and Autonomy?. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’23), April 23–28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 18 pages. [https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580651](https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580651)  \n1 INTRODUCTION  \nAutonomy and agency have been fundamental concepts in HumanComputer Interaction (HCI) since its inception. They have been seen as guiding values to inform design [55, 56], as sources of pleasurable and meaningful user experiences [69, 132], and as basic factors in  \nPermission to make digital or hard copies of part or all ofthis work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s) .  \nCHI’23, April 23–28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany © 2023 Copyright held by the owner/author(s) .  \nACM ISBN 978-1-4503-9421-5/23/04 .  \n[https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580651](https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580651)  \nusers’ sense of ownership over outcomes [37] . Developments in recent years have only made these concepts more pertinent. Issues including the growth of persuasive technologies [65], interaction with intelligent systems [27], and the tight integration of technologies into our lives and bodies [34, 122] all raise implications for human autonomy and agency.  \nAs such, agency and autonomy stand out as potential boundary objects for HCI. Boundary objects are constructs which hold important roles across multiple communities, and which function to coordinate the perspectives of these communities [103] . Constructs which function in this way have been seen as key in developing shared problem definitions, and generating robust knowledge across multiple domains [126] . They are characterised by a degree of flexibility in meaning, which allows them to serve the communicative and informational needs of each community involved [126], without relying on strict consensus [103]. At the same time, they must balance ","cbCaih4NmHoaoEGs","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaih4NmHoaoEGs","pdf",803425,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Autonomy and agency as HCI fundamentals\n## Boundary objects and coordination across communities\n## Motivation from recent research gaps\n# Systematic literature review approach\n## Scope and dataset overview\n## Contribution structure\n# Key themes and ethical issues\n# Future directions","[{\"question\":\"Why are human agency and autonomy important in HCI?\",\"answer\":\"They have guided HCI design values, shaped meaningful user experiences, and relate to users’ sense of ownership over outcomes. Their relevance grows further with persuasive technologies and intelligent systems.\"},{\"question\":\"What problem does the document identify in existing HCI understandings?\",\"answer\":\"Autonomy and agency are used ambiguously to describe many related phenomena, and it is unclear whether different understandings are compatible across HCI communities or how they support research programs and interventions.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the document address these ambiguities?\",\"answer\":\"It reviews 30 years of HCI research on autonomy and agency, identifies current understandings and open issues, highlights ethical concerns, and outlines themes and directions to improve clarity and specificity while coordinating across HCI communities.\"}]","How does HCI Understand Human Agency and Autonomy? | PDF",45]