Novia Nurain

Hello World!

I am Novia Nurain. I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Michigan's School of Information where I work with Prof. Robin Brewer . I obtained a Ph.D. degree in Informatics from the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington . My advisor was Prof. Kay Connelly.

Research Interest
My research focuses on how emerging digital technologies can benefit marginalized communities by providing equitable information access, support for self-care and everyday routine adaptation, and opportunities for reciprocal social support. Ultimately, I strive to co-create artificial intelligence (AI) experiences with marginalized communities enabling them to work collaboratively with emerging AI systems. I rely on user-centered research approaches to ground my investigations, translate research findings into theoretical frameworks, create design toolkits, and build functional prototypes.

Research Projects

Older Adults, Information Uncertainty, and AI Systems (March, 2024 - present)

Advisor: Prof. Robin Brewer

The purpose of the project is to investigate how older adults assess information quality while searching information using voice and text-based conversational AI systems. Through diary study, interviews, and prototype deployement, we unpack the cues/signs older adults use to evaluate information online and designing nudges to help them navigate the challenges of information uncertainty.

Societal Resilience, Design, and Mission-driven Research (June, 2022 - Dec, 2023)

Advisor: Prof. Kay Connelly

The purpose of the project is to design and evaluate card-based translational design tools to inform designs of socio-technical support systems to attain societal resilience in times of crisis. Through design feedback session and colaborative workshops with professional designers we unpack the use of translational design cards and lessons learned.

Pandemic, Change, and Technology (May, 2020 - Jun, 2022)

Advisor: Prof. Kay Connelly

The purpose of the project is to understand the experience of socialization and usage of different services (i.e., telecare, food delivery, etc.) amid the pandemic who are living alone. Conducted interviews with young and older adults (urban and rural areas) who are living alone. Currently conducting thematic analysis for the collected data.

Older Adults and Personal Informatics in Everyday Life (September, 2020 - December, 2021)

Advisor: Prof. Christina Chung

The purpose of the project is to explore older adults' interests, intentions, and engagement in recording or keeping track of different types of personal information about their everyday life. Currently conducting remote Photo Elicitation Interview (PEI) with older adults who keep track or record of different information in their everyday life.

Older Adults, Socialization, and Peer Support (January, 2020 - December, 2021)

Advisor: Prof. Kay Connelly , Prof. Katie Siek

The purpose of this project is to investigate the utility of a Check-in system in helping older adults connect socially with their family and friends. Build a functional check-in System and currently conducting a design concept validation study with older adults to gain feedback of several design alternatives.

Gestational Diabetes, Hoosier Moms, and Wearable (January, 2019 - December, 2019)

Advisor: Prof. Kay Connelly , Prof. Katie Siek

The purpose of this project is to investigate the usage of wearable device throughout the journey of pregnancy. Maintained infrastructure functions for the collection of data from wearable device.

Selected Publications

Papers

“I left my legacy, told my story”: Understanding Older Adults’ Tracking Practices to Promote Active Aging. (2023). Novia Nurain, Christina Chung. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, July 2023 (pp. 459–475). ( pdf )

Hugging with a Shower Curtain: Older Adults’ Social Support Realities During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (2021). Novia Nurain, Christina Chung, Clara Caldeira, Kay Connelly. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW2) (pp. 1-30). ( pdf )

Older Adults’ Experiences of Autonomy During COVID-19 Pandemic. (2021). Novia Nurain, Clara Caldeira, Kay Connelly. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2021 May 8, (pp. 1-6). ( pdf )

Local standards for anonymization practices in health, wellness, accessibility, and aging research at CHI. (2019). Jacob Abbott, Haley MacLeod, Novia Nurain, Gustave Ekobe, and Sameer Patil. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2019 (pp. 1-14). ( pdf )

HEliOS: huffman coding based lightweight encryption scheme for data transmission. (2019). Mazharul Islam, Novia Nurain, Mohammad Kaykobad, Sriram Chellappan, and ABM Alim Al Islam. In Proceedings of the 16th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services, 2019 (pp. 70-79). ( pdf )

Service

  • Program Committee: CHI (2025), CSCW (2024, 2025), CHI LBW (2024), ASSETS (2024)
  • Reviewer: CSCW (2021, 2023, 2024), DIS (2020, 2022, 2023, 2024), CHI (2022, 2023, 2024), CHI PLAY (2024), CUI (2024), AMIA (2022), TEI (2024, 2025), ICWSM (2024, 2025), TACCESS (2024), ToCHI (2024)
  • Student volunteer: ASSETS (2021), CSCW (2021, 2022)

Contact Me

Email: nnurain at umich dot edu

Twitter: @NoviaNurain