Face of René Schäfer

René Schäfer

Research Assistant

Room 2.38
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+49 241 80-21067

 

My name is René and I joined the Media Computing group in late 2020 as a Research Assistant. Currently, my main focus is on textile interfaces (see our RIME project). 
Additionally, I am fascinated by dark patterns and started researching how we can deal with such malicious designs on the user's side. 

Research Projects

Administrative Role

I am the i10 librarian. This includes maintaining the software for labeling books, maintaining publications, maintaining the CHI rankings page, and keeping the Hochschulbibliothek up to date. More information can be found on the Librarian page

Additionally, I took over the coordination of our Fab Lab from Marcel Lahaye.

Professional Activities

Student Assistants

Fab Lab

Esra
Güney

Fab Lab

Robert
Rudnev

Research

Sophie
Hahn

Former Student Assistants
Gaetano Privitera (Fab Lab)
Lea Schirp (Research)
Simon Löhr (Fab Lab)
Rene Niewianda (Fab Lab)

Teaching

SemesterCourse
WS 2024/2025 Media Computing Project
Lab tutor
SS 2024 Multimodal Media Madness
Lab tutor
WS 2023/2024 iOS Application Development
Lecture TA, with Anke Brocker
SS 2023 Proseminar: Human-Computer Interaction
Organizer
WS 2022/2023 iOS Application Development
Lecture TA, with Oliver Nowak
SS 2022 Seminar: Post-Desktop User Interfaces
Organizer
WS 2021/2022 Seminar: Post-Desktop User Interfaces
Organizer
WS 2021/2022 Media Computing Project
Lab tutor
SS 2021 Proseminar: Human-Computer Interaction
Organizer, with Simon Völker
WS 2020/2021 Media Computing Project
Lab tutor

Thesis Supervisions

Usually, I am looking for students who want to do their theses in either Dark Patterns or Textile Interfaces. Current supervisions are marked with *
NameTitleTypeYear
Maximilian Hosch* TBA (Automatically Detecting Deceptive Patterns Via LLMs) Bachelor's Thesis Winter 2024
Peter Wallmeyer* Evaluation and test-driven integration of the SWOFI lecturer interface Bachelor's Thesis, 2nd supervision Winter 2024
Ilja Girnus* TBA (Deceptive Patterns and LLMs) Master's Thesis Winter 2024
Lidia Hakim* TBA (Deceptive Patterns in Mobile Apps) Bachelor's Thesis, co-supervised with Paul Preuschoff Summer 2024
Nikita Zaloga* Classify to Remember: Improving A Learning Game On Dark Patterns in User Interfaces Bachelor's Thesis, co-supervised with Kevin Fiedler Summer 2024
Anubhav Punetha Dark Patterns in User Interfaces: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis Bachelor's Thesis Summer 2024
Lea Schirp* The Effects of Deceptive Interface Design on Users With Autism Master's Thesis Summer 2024
David Brenn Analyse der Nutzung eines Learning Analytics Dashboards Bachelor's Thesis, 2nd supervision Summer 2024
Viola Graf Designing a Modular Browser Extension for Visual Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns Bachelor's Thesis Winter 2023
Moritz Failing Exploring the Effect of Bright Patterns on Dark Pattern Perception Master's Thesis, co-supervised with Sarah Sahabi Winter 2023
Nele Zielke Exploring Dark Pattern Research within CHI: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis Bachelor's Thesis Winter 2023
Kerem Yavuz Digital Natives' Dilemma: How Gen Z Perceives Deceptive Designs Bachelor's Thesis Winter 2023
Kevin Fiedler Exploring Game Mechanics for the Design of Dark Pattern Learning Games Master's Thesis Winter 2023
Florian Plümäkers Creating Data Sets for Dark Patterns on the Web using Systematic Run-Throughs Bachelor's Thesis Summer 2023
Lukas Gruler Unconscious and Gradual Interventions: Mitigating Excessive Usage of Infinite Scrolling Apps Featuring Short-Form Videos Master's Thesis, 2nd supervision Summer 2023
Dustin Schneider Position Tracking of Magnetic Dipoles Using a Modular AMR Sensor Grid Master's Thesis Winter 2022
Sarah Sahabi Prevalent Dark Patterns​: Investigating Children's Mental Models of Malicious Designs Master's Thesis Winter 2022
Paul Preuschoff Designing Countermeasures Against Dark Pattern in User Interfaces Master's Thesis Winter 2022
Paul Nitzke An Intelligent Assistant for Annotating Data in a Learning Analytics Dashboard Bachelor's Thesis, 2nd supervision Winter 2022
Elisabeth Buttkus Measuring Perceived Haptic Similarities Between Textile Icons Bachelor's Thesis, co-supervised with Oliver Nowak Winter 2022
Julia Reim Investigating Peripheral Feedback for Sitting Posture Guidance Master's Thesis Summer 2022
Ulyana Lavnikevich Investigating Modalities for Supplemental Notifications in Online Presentations via a Wrist-Worn Device Bachelor's Thesis Summer 2022
Laura Drescher-Manaa Designing a Magnetic Field Sensor Grid for 2D Mid-air Gesture Recognition Bachelor's Thesis Summer 2022
Friedrich Kriegsheim Evaluation and Enhancement of Lecturers' User Experience in an eLearning Application Bachelor's Thesis, 2nd supervision Summer 2022
Lovis Suchmann Textile Icons: Investigating Shape Properties to Improve Haptic Recognition Master's Thesis, co-supervised with Oliver Nowak Winter 2021
Nikita Huber Avoiding Accidental Input: Evaluating Activation and Confirmation Techniques on Textile Sliders Bachelor's Thesis, co-supervised with Oliver Nowak Winter 2021
Huy Dao Development of a Hand Detection on a Large-Area Textile Capacitive Pressure Sensor Matrix Bachelor's Thesis Summer 2021
Mahsa Mansouri The Taxonomy of Indoor Home Interfaces Bachelor's Thesis, co-supervised with Oliver Nowak Summer 2021
Michael Assad What would change if I used a different material? Exploring Visualisations of Dynamic Parameter-Based Adaptions in Collaborative Process Documentation for Makers Bachelor's Thesis, co-supervised with Marcel Lahaye Summer 2021

 

Publications

    2024

  • Kevin Fiedler, René Schäfer, René Röpke and Jan Borchers. "Deception Detected!" — A Serious Game About Detecting Dark Patterns.  In Proceedings of International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance, GALA' 24 (in print), pages 10, Springer, November 2024.
    BibTeX Entry
  • René Schäfer, Sarah Sahabi, Annabell Brocker and Jan Borchers. Growing Up With Dark Patterns: How Children Perceive Malicious User Interface Designs.  In Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, NordiCHI' 24, pages 17, Association for Computing Machinery, October 2024.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Alexander Löbel, René Schäfer, Hanna Püschel, Esra Güney and Ulrike Meyer. Access Your Data... If You Can: An Analysis of Dark Patterns Against the Right of Access on Popular Websites.  In Privacy Technologies and Policy, APF 2024, pages 23–47, Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, August 2024.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Colin M Gray, Johanna Gunawan, René Schäfer, Nataliia Bielova, Lorena Sánchez Chamorro, Katie Seaborn, Thomas Mildner and Hauke Sandhaus. Mobilizing Research and Regulatory Action on Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design Practices.  In Extended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '24, pages 6, Association for Computing Machinery, May 2024.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • René Schäfer, Paul Preuschoff, René Röpke, Sarah Sahabi and Jan Borchers. Fighting Malicious Designs: Towards Visual Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns.  In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI' 24, pages 13, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, May 2024.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • 2023

  • René Schäfer, Paul Miles Preuschoff and Jan Borchers. Investigating Visual Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns in User Interfaces.  In Mensch Und Computer 2023, MuC '23, pages 161–172, Association for Computing Machinery, September 2023.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Sebastian Hueber, Johannes Wilhelm, René Schäfer, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. User-Aware Rendering: Merging the Strengths of Device- and User-Perspective Rendering in Handheld AR. In Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact., pages 18, number MHCI, September 2023.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Jan Borchers, Anke Brocker, Sebastian Hueber, Oliver Nowak, René Schäfer, Adrian Wagner, Paul Miles Preuschoff and Lea Emilia Schirp. The Aachen Lab Demo: From Fundamental Perception to Design Tools.  In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '23, pages 4, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2023.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • René Schäfer, Tobias Wagner, Ulyana Lavnikevich and Jan Borchers. Enhancing Notification Awareness for Online Presenters via a Wrist-Worn Device.  In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '23, pages 6, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2023.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • René Schäfer, Oliver Nowak, Lovis Bero Suchmann, Sören Schröder and Jan Borchers. What’s That Shape? Investigating Eyes-Free Recognition of Textile Icons.  In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '23, pages 12, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2023.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Anke Brocker, René Schäfer, Christian Remy, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Flowboard: How Seamless, Live, Flow-Based Programming Impacts Learning to Code for Embedded Electronics. In ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, pages 36, number 1, March 2023.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • 2022

  • Oliver Nowak, René Schäfer, Anke Brocker, Philipp Wacker and Jan Borchers. Shaping Textile Sliders: An Evaluation of Form Factors and Tick Marks for Textile Sliders.  In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '22, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2022.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • 2020

  • René Schäfer. Redesigning ARPen: Evaluating Different Marker Placements for Mid-Air Pen Interaction. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, June 2020.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry

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