{"id":1163532,"date":"2026-03-09T07:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T14:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&#038;p=1163532"},"modified":"2026-03-09T07:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T14:49:01","slug":"diversity-in-study-participants-and-a-critique-of-the-representative-sample-in-human-computer-interaction-research","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/publication\/diversity-in-study-participants-and-a-critique-of-the-representative-sample-in-human-computer-interaction-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity in Study Participants and a Critique of the &#8220;Representative Sample&#8221; in Human-Computer Interaction Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>We reflect on our experiences in improving the diversity of participants in our research, focusing on geographic diversity and countering WEIRDness. Our reflections are grounded in four studies conducted over two years, with more than 100 total participant engagements across more than 100 hours of user studies. Our samples included participants from the UK and the USA, but also from the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Armenia, Israel, and Japan. We reflect on some of the challenges we encountered and what we have learnt about the benefits of geographic diversity. Finally, we discuss the scientific ideal of \u201crepresentativeness\u201d and consider whether it is possible, or appropriate, in small sample studies (n\u223c20). We propose that representativeness is antagonised by the ideal of diversity. We seek alternative ways of understanding and articulating the epistemic value of diversity in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We reflect on our experiences in improving the diversity of participants in our research, focusing on geographic diversity and countering WEIRDness. Our reflections are grounded in four studies conducted over two years, with more than 100 total participant engagements across more than 100 hours of user studies. Our samples included participants from the UK and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Advait Sarkar","user_id":"37146"}],"msr_publishername":"IEEE","msr_publisher_other":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_edition":"","msr_editors":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_issue":"","msr_journal":"","msr_number":"","msr_organization":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_page_range_start":"","msr_page_range_end":"","msr_series":"","msr_volume":"","msr_copyright":"","msr_conference_name":"2024 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL\/HCC) Workshop on Addressing Challenges in Recruiting Participants for Human-Centric Computing Research Studies","msr_doi":"","msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_mag_id":"","msr_pubmed_id":"","msr_other_authors":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_award":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_institution":"","msr_host":"","msr_version":"","msr_duration":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_s2_match_type":"","msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_published_date":"2024-9-1","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_notes":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_conference_url":"https:\/\/conf.researchr.org\/home\/vlhcc-2024","msr_journal_url":"","msr_s2_pdf_url":"","msr_year":0,"msr_citation_count":0,"msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_s2_match_confidence":0,"msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":true,"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_pub_ids":[],"msr_hide_image_in_river":null,"footnotes":""},"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13554],"msr-publication-type":[193716],"msr-publisher":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[269148,269142],"msr-field-of-study":[248485,249202],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-1163532","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-human-computer-interaction","msr-locale-en_us","msr-post-option-approved-for-river","msr-post-option-include-in-river","msr-field-of-study-human-computer-interaction","msr-field-of-study-programming-language"],"msr_publishername":"IEEE","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2024-9-1","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":1,"msr_main_download":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"url","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"https:\/\/advait.org\/files\/sarkar_2024_diversity.pdf","label_id":"243109","label":0},{"type":"doi","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"10.1109\/VL\/HCC60511.2024.00062","label_id":"243109","label":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_citation_count":0,"msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_pdf_url":null,"msr_attachments":[],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Advait Sarkar","user_id":37146,"rest_url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Advait Sarkar"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[199561],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[1142579],"msr_project":[1053711,511097],"publication":[],"video":[],"msr-tool":[],"msr_publication_type":"inproceedings","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":1053711,"post_title":"Tools for Thought","post_name":"tools-for-thought","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2024-07-03 05:21:39","post_modified":"2026-04-26 18:27:28","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/tools-for-thought\/","post_excerpt":"Better thinking through AIA People-Centric AI Project \"What would you rather have: a tool that thinks for you, or a tool that makes you think?\" Senior Researcher Advait Sarkar presented at TEDAI (opens in new tab) in Vienna on September 26th 2025. \u00a9 TEDAI Vienna \/ Robert Leslie Many AI tools focus on solving specific tasks like content generation or process automation. Though useful and powerful, these systems may affect how we think, learn, build&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1053711"}]}},{"ID":511097,"post_title":"Calc Intelligence","post_name":"calc-intelligence","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2020-02-17 06:40:29","post_modified":"2023-11-27 06:33:39","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/calc-intelligence\/","post_excerpt":"By Calc Intelligence, we mean the research goal of bringing intelligence to end-user programming, and in particular to spreadsheets.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/511097"}]}}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1163532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-research-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1163532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1163534,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1163532\/revisions\/1163534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-highlight","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-highlight?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publication-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publication-type?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publisher?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-focus-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-focus-area?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-field-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-field-of-study?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-conference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-conference?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-journal","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-journal?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1163532"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=1163532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}