Ilka Hein, M.Sc.
Research Assistant | Doctoral Student
Economic and Organisational Psychology
Postal address:
Leopoldstraße 13
80802 Munich
Research interests
- Transparency and explainability of (intelligent) technologies
- User experience and human-centered design
- Human-technology/robot interactions (e.g. AI, smart home, spatial intelligence)
Academic Career
- since 2023
- Research assistant, Chair of Economic and Organisational Psychology, University of Munich
- 2022
- Semester abroad, Master's programs in Psychology and Business and Economics, University of Zurich
- 2020-2023
- Master of Science in Economic, Organisational and Social Psychology, University of Munich
- 2017-2020
- Bachelor of Science in Psychology, University of Mannheim
Publications
- Hein, I., & Diefenbach, S. (2025). Towards a Comprehensive View on Technology Transparency: A Cross-Technology Investigation of Psychological and Design Factors Around Users’ Transparency Need and Perception. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2025.2502983
- Hein, I., Ullrich, D., Bakirova, G., & Diefenbach, S. (2025). What Kind of Technology Transparency Do Users Appreciate? Comparison of Textual and Graphic Cues in App Design. i-com – Journal of Interactive Media, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1515/icom-2025-0018
- Hein, I., Cecil, J., & Lermer, E. (2024). Acceptance and motivational effect of AI-driven feedback in the workplace: An experimental study with direct replication. Frontiers in Organizational Psychology, 2, 1468907. https://doi.org/10.3389/forgp.2024.1468907
- Staab, V., Hein, I., Ramrath, M., Schlüter, L., Stuckstätte, A., Hohn, M., Sieberg, P., & Liebherr, M. (2025). Empowering Trust: The Role of Adaptable Design in AI Systems. In 2025 IEEE Conference on Cognitive and Computational Aspects of Situation Management (CogSIMA). IEEE, New York, NY, USA, 40-47. https://doi.org/10.1109/CogSIMA64436.2025.11079500
- Stahl, H., Hein, I., Ullrich, D., & Walczok, M. (2025). Close Enough to Care? – The Influence of Personal Affectedness on the Perception of an Algorithmic Decision Maker. ECIS 2025 Proceedings, 16, Article 1611, 1-16. https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2025/ai_org/ai_org/16
- Hein, I., Ullrich, D., & Diefenbach, S. (2024). Actual Versus Attributed Consciousness: Studying AI From a User Perspective. Mensch und Computer 2024 - Workshopband, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.18420/muc2024-mci-ws12-383
- Hein, I., Ullrich, D., & Diefenbach, S. (2024). Creating Subtle Transparency in Smart Spaces: Visual Cues to Communicate Attention and Intention of Assistive Systems. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2024 Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3677045.3685435
- Hein, I. (2023). From Black Box Systems to Transparent Technologies – Improving the User Experience Through Explanatory Cues. In L. Chuang, A.-C. Hensch, E. Wögerbauer, & J. Bornemeier (Chairs), Proceedings of the 5th German Human Factors Summer School 2023. German Human Factors Summer School. Section of Engineering Psychology of the German Psychological Society (DGPs). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10490096
- Hein, I., Diefenbach, S., & Ullrich, D. (2023). Designing for Technology Transparency – Transparency Cues and User Experience. Usability Professionals 23, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.18420/muc2023-up-448
- Hein, I. (2023). Erfolgsfaktor Kreativität – Wie Sie die Kreativität Ihrer Mitarbeitenden fördern. In F. C. Brodbeck (Hrsg.), Evidenzbasierte Wirtschaftspsychologie, (44). Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. https://www.psy.lmu.de/wirtschaftspsychologie/EvidenzbasiertesManagement/dokumente/ebm_dossiers/ebm_44_kreativitaet.pdf
Teaching
- Exercise course on User Experience, media informatics
- Seminar on Market, Consumer, and Economic Psychology
- Research seminar on Advanced Research in Various Areas of Psychology
- "Lehrforschungsprojekte" (teaching research projects) on Market, Consumer, and Economic Psychology
- Supervision of research projects, Bachelor's and Master's theses
Research projects
- Since 2024: "TransforM – Transparency for Machinery in Personal Pervasive Smart Spaces", funded by DFG (German Research Foundation)
- 2023: "PerforM – Personalities for Machinery in Personal Pervasive Smart Spaces", funded by DFG (German Research Foundation)