CHI WS 2026 · Source-reviewed citation guide
What Happened and Why? Trace-Guided Micro-Episodes with Elicited User Explanations for Product Iteration
Herding CATs: Making Sense of Creative Activity Traces (CHI 2026 Workshop) · Workshop Position Paper
A position paper proposing trace-guided micro-episodes that pair short interaction-trace windows and interface state with optional, in-flow user clarification so teams can interpret ambiguous behavior in creative AI tools.
When to cite this work
Cite this position paper when motivating rationale-enriched telemetry: short, trace-guided windows paired with optional in-flow clarification to diagnose ambiguous moments in creative or AI-supported work.
- Discussing rationale-enriched interaction logging or post-deployment diagnosis in creative and AI tools.
- Designing feedback interventions at likely friction points without moving users into a separate survey flow.
Contribution
What this paper adds
- Defines a micro-episode as a bounded trace window joined with interface state and a lightweight user explanation.
- Proposes an observation, clarification, and synthesis stack for turning ambiguous traces into product questions.
- Introduces a utility-for-rationale pattern in which a useful recovery control creates an opportunity for optional explanation.
Evidence
What the paper reports
- This is a four-page CHI 2026 workshop position paper; it proposes a framework and research agenda rather than reporting an empirical evaluation.
- Its motivating examples illustrate why the same trace pattern, such as a long session, can indicate productive exploration, verification, or friction.
Boundary
What it does not establish
- The proposed interventions have not yet been validated for insight quality, analysis time, interruption cost, or downstream agent training.
- Traces and clarifications do not by themselves establish causality; trigger selection may distract users or bias later behavior.
- Friction signals and clarification schemas must be adapted to the domain and the interaction touchpoints available in a particular tool.
Paper abstract
The authors' summary
Teams shipping AI workflows in design tools can measure usage yet often struggle to explain why features fail. In creative work, standard metrics are ambiguous: a long session could imply productive exploration or frustrating struggle with stochastic outputs. We argue for trace-guided micro-episodes, a unit of analysis binding interaction logs—what users did—to their intent. Rather than relying on disruptive surveys, we propose a “utility-for-rationale” paradigm: systems offer optional, context-aware controls at likely friction points, capturing user explanations as a byproduct of real-time error recovery. This approach converts ambiguous telemetry into causal evidence without breaking flow. We posit this methodology serves a dual purpose: equipping teams with diagnostic clarity to iterate on vague failure modes (e.g., controllability vs. quality) while generating the grounded alignment data required to train future agents.
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