iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 25/11/2025

I’m truly honoured to share that my dissertation, "Mitigating Dark Patterns Through Responsible Design – Ethical Design Considerations for User-Centred Technologies", has been awarded the “Thematischer Preis” of the Bremer Studienpreis 2025. 🥳 #Bremen #UniBremen

Two men in suits standing next to each other. One holding a price certificate, the other a bouquet of flowers.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 15/10/2025

Such an amazing article and very well-written. Really happy I got to chat with @caitlingilbert.bsky.social about the problems of social media, specifically TikTok. The harm of TikTok constantly engaging its users can be linked to studies showing that overuse of social media decreases well-being.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 16/07/2025

🎉I am extremely happy to be part of a wonderful group to organise CUI 2026 and bring it to the city I grew up in - 𝘽𝙍𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙉! If you work in the field and want to engage and be part, we made an open call to look for organising committee members: forms.gle/9HjLsSz4uZFK...

forms.gle

CUI 2026 - Open Call for Organizing Committee Positions

Thank you for your interest in being part of the CUI 2026 Organizing Committee (OC)! CUI is the premier venue for research in human-computer interaction issues in speech and language technology, with...

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 28/04/2025

Really great tips to enjoy CHI and not get fully overwhelmed! Thanks @altoombs.bsky.social 🙌

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 28/04/2025

While it’s already great enough to be at #chi25 and meet old and new friends, I am also excited to be part of a SIG and two papers. Here, I’ll collect the details if you’re interested in this work and want to connect:

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 28/04/2025

#CHI2025 is kicking of in #Yokohama 🌸 and what a fantastic location to host and get to visit! Very happy to be here 🎊 Each year, I am impressed by the size of this community and the great energy it holds! Looking forward to a fascinating and inspiring week!

Stage for the opening keynote of the CHI 2025 conference.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 25/04/2025

Just made it to #Yokohama for #CHI2025 and I am extremely excited for our SIG on #DarkPatterns and the fantastic people I will get to talk to!

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 05/12/2024

This year was my first time at #MUM2024, and what an incredible community and conference it was! Thanks to all who made it happen in #Stockholm. ❄️🇸🇪 Not only did I co-host a workshop, but present two papers. And it still doesn't stop here: We received an honourable mention for one of them! 🏆

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 30/11/2024

🚅Again in a train to the airport for my final conference of the year and what better destination than #Stockholm! At #MUM2024, I get to co-host a workshop and present two papers.. did not expect this academic year to wrap with such a wonderful opportunity! Thanks to all!

Foto out of a train in late autumn. The Rhein river and some wine fields are seen.

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Reposted by Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner)

Bristol Interaction Group @bristolhci.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Thursday's online #HCI BIG TALK: Heloisa Candello from IBM Research Brazil talks about #CUI #AI and #responsibleAI in her talk "A human-centered approach to responsible conversational user interfaces." Online, free, all welcome! 2pm GMT, sign up here: bighci.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2024/10/03/b...

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Reposted by Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner)

colin gray @graydesign.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Great writeup of Veronica Krauss and team’s work on #darkpatterns and #generativeai by @stokel.bsky.social! Such a timely paper and good to see it reaching a broader audience. www.fastcompany.com/91233844/cha...

fastcompany.com

ChatGPT was tasked with designing a website. The result was as manipulative as you'd expect

In a new study, researchers found that ChatGPT creates websites full of deceptive patterns.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 22/11/2024

The German science magazine „Spektrum der Wissenschaft“ interviewed me, alongside Deborah Löschner, for an article on #DarkPatterns. The article is in German but very informative! www.spektrum.de/news/dark-pa...

spektrum.de

Dark Patterns: Manipulation im Netz

Wie sich Menschen im Internet von »Dark Patterns« manipulieren lassen und wie sie sich davor schützen können

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 06/11/2024

Today might be remembered for many reasons, but I hope to carry these happy memories with me the longest! Thank you all very much!

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 06/11/2024

During our workshop on Responsible and Ethical AI in CUI Technologies, with Nima Zargham, Rainer Malaka, and our Digital Media Lab, we had the great pleasure of welcoming a fantastic group of researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology, University College Dublin, and Stockholm University. 🎉

Robert Porzel presenting at the REACT workshop in Bremen.

Benjamin Cowan presenting at the REACT workshop in Bremen.

Minha Lee presenting at the REACT workshop in Bremen.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 04/11/2024

A couple more days 🎙️🎙️ Join us for a full-day in-person workshop to advance the discourse on Enhancing Human-Agent Interaction Through Thoughtful Persona Design at #MUM2024 in Stockholm. thomasmildner.github.io/DAIP/

thomasmildner.github.io

MUM 2024 Workshop on Designing AI Personalities

MUM 2024 Designing AI Personalities

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 28/09/2024

Yesterday, I was fortunate to present my work on #darkpatterns and #responsibledesign at #TU/e. Thank you so much, Minha Lee, for having me. As always, it’s been a joy catching up and thinking about how to give people more agency when engaging with design. Hope to meet you soon again!

Person standing in front of a large display presenting.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 19/09/2024

Didnt even realise: Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #986,810!

A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #986,810, Thomas Mildner ‪@thomasmildner.bsky.social‬, joined on Sep 13, 2023"

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 24/06/2024

🎓Although a few days have already passed, I still cannot quite grasp it. Last Friday, I defended my dissertation at the University of Bremen. I'm deeply touched that I got to share this incredible moment with many friends, colleagues, and my family. Thank you all very much for being part of this! 💛

PhD candidate after a defense sitting with a custom crafted PhD hat.

A PhD committee of six people and the PhD candidate standing in front of a white wall. One committee member joined online and is cast on the wall via a projector.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 16/05/2024

After what was an amazing 3 years, I submitted my dissertation at the University of Bremen, Digital Media Lab Bremen, titled: "Mitigating Dark Patterns Through Responsible Design - Ethical Design Considerations for Responsible Design" 🎉

Me holding a copy of my dissertation at the campus of the University of Bremen.

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Markus Reuter @markus.reuter.netzpolitik.org · 12/02/2024

Die Bayerische Datenschutzaufsicht hat die Cookie-Banner von etwa 1000 Webseiten überprüft und dabei zahlreiche Verstöße gefunden. Die Betreiber haben nun Post bekommen – und müssen ihre Seiten ändern. netzpolitik.org/2024/bayern-...

netzpolitik.org

Bayern überprüft: Cookie-Banner vieler Seiten weiterhin rechtswidrig – netzpolitik.org

Die Bayerische Datenschutzaufsicht hat die Cookie-Banner von etwa 1000 Webseiten überprüft und dabei zahlreiche Verstöße gefunden. Die Betreiber haben nun Post bekommen - und müssen ihre Seiten ändern...

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 09/02/2024

Für das #Bundesgesundheitsblatt haben wir über die möglichen Gefahren und Probleme durch #darkpatterns in digitalen #Gesundheitsanwendungen geschrieben. Großer Dank gilt meinen Co-Autoren Gian-Luca Savino, Johannes Schöning und Rainer Malaka! 🙌 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Beispiel eines Nagging Dark Patterns, was Nutzer:innen dazu manipulieren soll, teure Abonnements mit einer Gesundheitsapplikation abzuschließen.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 09/02/2024

When will I stop getting paranoid before submitting my final manuscripts to conferences? I have been double-checking any possible issues dozens of times and reuploaded the same files just to make sure that I have, indeed, submitted the latest and correct versions. #DIS2024

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Reposted by Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner)

Jaap-Henk Hoepman 🟥 ⬜️ 🟩 ⬛️ @xotoxot.eurosky.social · 07/02/2024

Do fair design patterns exist? blog.xot.nl/2024/02/07/d...

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 29/01/2024

🙌 The pre-print for our #chi2024 paper ("Listening to the Voices: Describing Ethical Caveats of Conversational User Interfaces According to Experts and Frequent Users") is now available on #arXiv! arxiv.org/abs/2401.14746

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Hendrik Heuer @hheuer.bsky.social · 29/01/2024

📢 FINAL CALL! 📢 Seeking opportunities in #HCI, #CSCW, #XAI, #SocialMedia, #LLMs or #CoDesign for your #PhD or #Postdoc? Join my research team at CAIS in Bochum 🇩🇪🇪🇺 to advance #AITrust Apply now: stellenangebote.cais-research.de/de?id=374be6 🚨Deadline: January 31st, 2024 🚨 #CHI24 #chi2024

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 20/01/2024

We had Fortuna‘s blessing with this year‘s #chi2024. Two papers got conditionally accepted. Both address #ethics in #hci, highlighting the importance of countering problematic design in technologies. It was a joy working with so many amazing people on these studies!

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Hendrik Heuer @hheuer.bsky.social · 06/01/2024

Join our #CHI2024 workshop "#GenerativeAI in User-Generated Content" to discuss how #LLM & #AI will impact #socialMedia. Deadline: March 11 Workshop: May 12 To participate, submit an abstract/position paper Website: genai-in-ugc.github.io Paper: genai-in-ugc.github.io/chi24j-sub93...

Screenshot of the link with an abstract that reads:

Generative AI (Gen-AI) is rapidly changing the landscape of User-Generated Content (UGC) on social media. AI tools for generating text, images, and videos, such as Large-Language Models (LLM), image generation AI, AI-powered video material tools, and deep fake technologies, are accelerating creators in obtaining content ideas, drafting outlines, and streamlining creative workflows. The capabilities of Gen-AI could introduce new opportunities to lower the bar and accelerate the pace of content creation for grassroots creators, thereby expanding the volume of AI-generated UGC on social media. However, we lack the necessary understanding of how the wide deployment of such technologies will impact the social media ecosystem. The introduction of Gen-AI can lead to both opportunities and potential challenges among different creator communities, requiring collaboration from both academia and industry. This workshop seeks to bring together

Screenshot of the key questions that we want to discuss:

Content
* What types of user-generated content can make use of generative AI and how?
* How can methods be used to study AI-generated content? How can HCI methods such as user studies, content analysis, auditing, etc., be applied in studying Gen-AI content?
* How can generative AI be misused, especially regarding critical issues such as misinformation, plagiarism, online radicalization, and others?
Creator
* How will AI-generated content impact content creators?
* How does AI-generated content influence creative process?
* How does content creators collaborate with Gen-AI?
* How will AI-generated content affect the ability of traditional creators to monetize effectively?
Consumer
* How does the increasing amount of AI-generated content impact consumers?
* What values can AI-generated content bring to social media users?
* How does AI influence people’s trust in the content credibility?
Community
* How can generative AI impact d

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Reposted by Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner)

Hendrik Heuer @hheuer.bsky.social · 02/01/2024

As a professor at CAIS and the University of Wuppertal, I’m hiring 3 #phdjobs and 1 #postdoc in #HCI #XAI #CSCW Join me in Bochum 🇩🇪🇪🇺 to increase #Trust in #AI Through #CoCreation, #AlgorithmicAudits, & #FolkTheory stellenangebote.cais-research.de/de?id=374be6 #phdchat #CHI24 #chi2024

Screenshot of the link in the tweet that explains that I am hiring three doctoral researchers and one postdoc.

Screenshot of the link in the tweet that explains the three research specializations that researchers can focus on.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 15/12/2023

🙌🎉Very happy to be co-organising this hybrid #ACMCHI #CHI2024 workshop on dark patterns, among fantastic people, to connect transdisciplinary researchers working toward user safety. If you’re interested in participating, online or on-site, we accept position papers until Feb 2nd, 2024📝

chi2024.darkpatternsresearchandimpact.com

Home - Mobilizing Research and Regulatory Action on Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design Practices

Mobilizing Research and Regulatory Action on Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design Practices, a CHI’24 workshop Deceptive, manipulative, and coercive practices are deeply embedded in our digital experi...

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 23/10/2023

After 6 years, my 2nd gen iPad Pro's battery life had dwindled. Apple wouldn't swap it, only offering device replacement, which I found not very environmentally friendly and decided to fix it myself. Now I am even more grateful for right-to-repair regulations! Here's to another 6 years for my iPad!

iPad with display removed showing the inner hardware.

iPad with display reattached and working.

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Thomas Eßmeyer (né Mildner) @thomasmildner.me · 18/10/2023

In my research, I studied social media platforms for the presence of dark patterns, and I’m happy to not see the same here. Everything seems accessible and clean, and I hope it stays this way! Used to them by other apps, I'm missing some additional privacy settings and personal preferences, though.

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