top of page

My research lies in human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, and social computing. Fundamentally, I'm interested in understanding how one interacts with, learns about, and acts with the external environment. Below are my research interests:

​

  • Gaming and eSports: When it comes to gaming, I'm a gamer first and a researcher second. I'm interested in knowing more about all aspects of gaming. In the past with collaborators I've worked on topics such as teamwork, self-tracking, toxic behavior, governance, progression, streaks, and streaming.

    • Recent publications:​

      • Renkai Ma, Xinning Gui, and Yubo Kou. 2022. Esports Governance: An Analysis of Rule Enforcement in League of Legends. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. (CSCW’2022)

      • Yubo Kou and Xinning Gui.  2020.  Emotion Regulation in eSports Gaming: a Qualitative Study of League of Legends.  In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4, CSCW2, Article 158, (October, 2020).  (CSCW’2020)​

      • Xun  Zhang,  Xinning  Gui, Yubo Kou, and  Yukun  Li. 2020. Mobile  Collocated Gaming:  Collaborative Play and Meaning-Making on a University Campus.  In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4, CSCW2, Article 142, (October, 2020).  (CSCW’2020)

      • Yubo Kou and Xinning Gui. 2018. Entangled with Numbers: Quantified Self and Others in a Team-Based Online Game, PACMHCI, 2, CSCW, Article 93, (November 2018). (CSCW'2018 second cycle) 

​

  • Governance and moderation: We study how design efforts such as moderation could make online communities a better place. A focus is on understanding and supporting punished users.​​

    • Grants:

      • National Science Foundation.  2020-2023.  CHS: Small:  Investigating and De-signing for Behavioral Improvement in Online Community Moderation.  #2006854. PI: Yubo Kou.  $249,420.  + REU Supplement ($16,000; 2022-2023)

    • Recent publications:​

      • Renkai Ma and Yubo Kou. 2022. “I am not a YouTuber who can make whatever video I want. I have to keep appeasing algorithms”: Bureaucracy of Creator Moderation on YouTube. CSCW'2022 Poster, online.

      • Renkai Ma and Yubo Kou. 2022. "I'm not sure what difference is between their content and mine, other than the person itself": A Study of Fairness Perception of Content Moderation on YouTube. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. (CSCW’2022)

      • Renkai Ma, Xinning Gui, and Yubo Kou. 2022. Esports Governance: An Analysis of Rule Enforcement in League of Legends. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. (CSCW’2022)

      • ​Renkai Ma and Yubo Kou. 2021. “How advertiser-friendly is my video?”: YouTuber’s Socioeconomic Interactions with Algorithmic Content Moderation. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. (CSCW'2021)

      • Yubo Kou. 2021. Punishment and Its Discontents: An Analysis of Permanent Ban in an Online Game Community. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. (CSCW'2021)

      • Yubo Kou and Xinning Gui. 2021. Flag and Flaggability in Automated Moderation: the Case of Reporting Toxic Behavior in an Online Game Community. CHI'2021

      • Yubo Kou and  Xinning  Gui.   2020.   Mediating  Community-AI  Interaction through Situated Explanation: The Case of AI-Led Moderation. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4, CSCW2, Article 102, (October, 2020). (CSCW’2020)

      • Yubo Kou.  2020.  Toxic Behaviors in Team-Based Competitive Gaming:  The Case of League of Legends.  ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY), Ottawa, Canada.

​

  • Culture and technology use: I seek to explore the links between technology use and its cultural conditioning. I'm interested in how "local" perspectives or frameworks could more suitably interpret seemingly confusing human-computer interaction phenomena. Particularly, my previous work has explored how Confucian values are manifested in people's practices around censorship and use of visual languages such as emoji.

    • Recent publications: ​

      • Xianghua Ding, Yubo Kou, Yiwen Xu, Peng Zhang. 2022. “As Uploaders, We Have the Responsibility”: Individualized Professionalization of Bilibili Uploaders. CHI'2022

      • Yuan  Wang,  Yukun  Li,  Xinning  Gui, Yubo Kou, and  Fenglian  Liu. 2019. Culturally-Embedded Visual Literacy: A Study of Impression Management via Emoticon, Emoji, Sticker, and Meme on Social Media in China.  In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3, CSCW, Article 68, (November 2019). (CSCW'2019)​

      • Yubo Kou, Bryan Semaan, and Bonnie Nardi. 2017. A Confucian Look at Internet Censorship in China, International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) – INTERACT, Mumbai, India.

​

  • Community and technology: I'm interested in understanding and designing technology to support community development. Emerging or distributed forms of communities engender new questions related to socialization, professionalization, and governance.

    • Recent publications:​

      • Yubo Kou and  Xinning  Gui.   2020.   Mediating  Community-AI  Interaction through Situated Explanation: The Case of AI-Led Moderation. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4, CSCW2, Article 102, (October, 2020). (CSCW’2020)​

      • Yubo Kou and Colin M. Gray. 2018. Towards Professionalization in an Online Community of Emerging Occupation: Discourses among UX Practitioners. ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP), FL, USA. 

      • Yubo Kou, Colin M. Gray, Austin L. Toombs, and Robin S. Adams. 2018. Understanding Social Roles in an Online Community of Volatile Practice: A Study of User Experience Practitioners on Reddit, ACM Transactions on Social Computing. 

​

  • AI in context: Though it could be broadly connected to prior topics, this interest concerns specifically the contexts in which people interact with technologies clustered under the umbrella term of "artificial Intelligence."​

    • Recent publications:

      • Yue You, Yubo Kou, Xianghua Ding, Xinning Gui. 2021. The Medical Authority of AI: A Study of AI-enabled Consumer-Facing Health Technology. CHI'2021

      • Chun-Hua Tsai, Yue You, Xinning Gui, Yubo Kou, John M. Carroll. 2021. Exploring and Promoting Diagnostic Transparency and Explainability in Online Symptom Checkers. CHI'2021

      • Yubo Kou and  Xinning  Gui.   2020.   Mediating  Community-AI  Interaction through Situated Explanation: The Case of AI-Led Moderation. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4, CSCW2, Article 102, (October, 2020). (CSCW’2020)

​

  • Social Media Discourses: This line of work seeks to situate online discourses, including those about conspiracy theorizing, propaganda, and fake news, in their conversational, social, or cultural contexts.​

    • Recent publications:

      • Yubo Kou, Xinning Gui, Yunan Chen, and Kathleen Pine. 2017. Conspiracy Talk on Social Media: Collective Sensemaking during a Public Health Crisis, PACMHCI, 1, CSCW, Article 61, (November 2017). (CSCW'2018 online first).

      • Yubo Kou, Yong Ming Kow, Xinning Gui, and Waikuen Cheng. 2017. One Social Movement, Two Social Media Sites: A Comparative Study of Public Discourses, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 26, 4-6, 807-836. 

bottom of page