• Welcome!

    I'm an Assistant Professor in the School of Information at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Before joining RIT, I worked as an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Seattle University. Prior to this role, I was in the Social Spaces group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. Karrie Karahalios.

    My research interests are in data visualization and assistive technology. I design, build, and evaluate interactive systems to study people’s perceptions and usage of data visualization in various domains including healthcare and the media. My latest research projects looked at credibility and trust in visualization online, and how visualization can help clinicians and parents of young children communicate more efficiently.
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What have I written?

Selected Publications

Puranik, A. J., Chen, E., Peiris, R., & Kong, H. K. Not a Collaborator or a Supervisor, but an Assistant: Striking the Balance Between Efficiency and Ownership in AI-incorporated Qualitative Data Analysis. PACM HCI - CSCW 2026. pdf

Ye, R., Huang, O., Yung Kang Lee, P., Liut, M., Nobre, C., & Kong, H. K. Reflexis: Supporting Reflexivity and Rigor in Collaborative Qualitative Analysis through Design for Deliberation. CHI 2026. pdf

Kong, H. K., Lowy, R., Choi, Y., & Kim, J. G. Working Together Toward Interdependence: Chatbot-Based Support for Balanced Social Interactions Between Neurodivergent and Neurotypical Individuals. CHI 2025. pdf

Kong, H. K.*, Yadav, S.*, Lowy, R., Ruzinov, D. R., & Kim, J. G. Understanding Online Job and Housing Search Practices of Neurodiverse Young Adults to Support Their Independence. CHI 2024. pdf
*Both authors contributed equally to this work

Kong, H. K., Zainab, F., Turner, A. M., Bekemeier, B., & Backonja, U. Designing an infographic webtool for public health. Health Communication 2024. link

Do, H., Kong, H. K., Tetali, P., Karahalios, K., & Bailey, B. Inform, Explain, or Control: Techniques to Adjust End-User Performance Expectations for a Conversational Agent Facilitating Group Chat Discussions. CSCW 2023. pdf

Cullen, R., Heitkemper, E., Backonja, U., Bekemeier, B., & Kong, H. K.. Designing an infographic webtool for public health. JAMIA 2023. link

Do, H., Kong, H. K., Tetali, P., Lee, J. & Bailey, B. To Err is AI: Imperfect Interventions and Repair in a Conversational Agent Facilitating Group Chat Discussions. CSCW 2022. pdf

Do, H., Kong, H. K., Lee, J. & Bailey, B. How Should the Agent Communicate to the Group? Communication Strategies of a Conversational Agent in Group Chat Discussions. CSCW 2022. pdf

Jung G., Oh J., Jung Y., Sun J., Kong, H. K., & Lee U. “Good Enough!”: Flexible Goal Achievement with Margin-based Outcome Evaluation. CHI 2021. link

Kim, J. G., Kong, H. K.., Hong, H, & Karahalios, K. Enriched Social Translucence in Medical Crowdfunding. DIS 2020. pdf

Kong, H. K. & Karahalios, K. Addressing Cognitive and Emotional Barriers in Parent-Clinician Communication through Behavioral Visualization Webtools, CHI 2020. pdf

Kong, H. K., Zhu, W., Liu, Z., & Karahalios, K. Understanding Visual Cues in Visualizations Accompanied by Audio Narrations, CHI 2019. pdf

Kong, H. K., Liu, Z., & Karahalios, K. Trust and Recall of Information across Varying Degrees of Title-Visualization Misalignment, CHI 2019. pdf

Kong, H. K., Liu, Z., & Karahalios, K. Frames and Slants in Titles of Visualizations on Controversial Topics, CHI 2018. pdf

Kong, H. K.*, Lee, J.*, and Karrahalios, K. A Comparative Study of Visualizations with Different Granularities of Behavior for Communicating about Autism, CSCW 2018. pdf

Kong, H. K., Liu, Z., & Karahalios, K. Internal and External Visual Cue Preferences for Visualizations in Presentations, EuroVis 2017. pdf

Kong, H. K. & Karahalios, K. Parental Perceptions, Experiences, and Desires of Music Therapy, AMIA 2016. pdf

Lee, J., Kong, H. K., Lin, S., & Karahalios, . Plexlines: Tracking Socio-communicative Behaviors Using Timeline Visualizations, AMIA 2016. pdf

What/where have I learned?

Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • PhD in Computer Science (Aug 2019)
  • Advisor: Karrie Karahalios

Calvin College - Grand Rapids, MI

  • BS with Honors in Computer Science (May 2013)
  • Advisor: Serita Neleson

Calvin College - Grand Rapids, MI

  • BA with Honors in Music (May 2013)
  • Advisor: Hyesook Kim
What have I worked on?

Research Projects

ChromaScribe

AI can help researchers analyze large volumes of qualitative data, but automating the analysis process can lead to shallow interpretations and reduce researcher control. We developed AI-supported systems and interactive visualizations that help researchers integrate text and audio while maintaining transparency and traceable links between interpretations and source data.

Infographics for health communication

Health infographics combine text and visuals to make complex health information easier to understand. We reviewed 135 research articles and found that infographics can improve health knowledge and positively influence attitudes and behaviors. We also collaborated with public health researchers to develop and evaluate a web-based infographic design tool.

Family Behavior Support App

The goal of this project is to support families of young children with challenging behavior through this project. The Family Behavior Support App provides strategies to prevent and address children’s challenging behaviors at home.

Plexlines & EnGaze

We present a system to visualize the annotations of videos of children engaged in a 3-5 minute interactive protocol that assesses communicative behavior, the Rapid ABC. Rapid ABC session videos are annotated to capture important developmental indicators for a young child. From these annotations, we create a graphical fingerprint for each session.

Visual Cues

Visual cues highlight specific parts of a visualization to guide the audience’s attention. We study the types and uses of visual cues that facilitate visualization storytelling and presentation. We found that in general, visual cues did not have a significant effect on learning outcomes, but for specific cue techniques (e.g. glow) or specific chart types (e.g heatmap), cues significantly improved comprehension.

Parental Perceptions, Experiences, and Desires of Music Therapy

We explored the landscape of music therapy and existing challenges that lead to the underuse of music therapy. Contrary to the public perception that music therapy only addresses emotional needs, most participants reported seeing improvements in other areas including behavioral, cognitive, linguistic, and social changes.