Aletta Smits

She studied modern linguistics (with psychology and ICT) and obtained her doctoral degree in theoretical linguistics (information processing in written texts) at VU Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam in 2002. Since subsequently worked as a researcher and educational developer at Leiden University and for her own training company (De Loef Training), where she gave lectures and training courses on engagement and behavioural influence.

Aletta performs research on the interface design of recommender systems. On the one hand, this concerns design challenges that designers generally encounter when designing for smart systems. A large study among 200 UXers shows that designers encounter problems when designing for recommenders that they are not familiar with in other systems, and for which they feel that they are not always adequately equipped. Examples are “how do you design the rating processes in a time when users are tired of leaving feedback everywhere and everywhere?”, or “how do you ensure that a page does not become 'too full', but that at the same time easily accessible explanation is given about why an item is recommended to a user?”

On the other hand, it involves fundamental research into the relationship between user experience (how nice it is to use a system), algorithmic affordances (in what ways does the algorithm allow the user to influence the outcomes of the calculation , and how is that affordance implemented in the interface), and interaction qualities (how are interaction qualities such as transparency, and control affected by specific implementations of algorithmic affordances, and what effect does this have on the user experience?).