XAlgo: a Design Probe of Explaining Algorithms' Internal States via Question-Answering

TL;DR

XAlgo introduces an interactive question-answering approach to explain algorithms' internal states to non-experts, enhancing understanding through a formal model and user study.

Contribution

The paper presents XAlgo, a novel formal model for explaining algorithms via question answering, tailored for non-expert users, with empirical evaluation.

Findings

Participants asked diverse questions about algorithms' internal states.

XAlgo effectively responded to user questions, improving understanding.

Challenges remain in fully bridging users' understanding gap.

Abstract

Algorithms often appear as 'black boxes' to non-expert users. While prior work focuses on explainable representations and expert-oriented exploration, we propose and study an interactive approach using question answering to explain deterministic algorithms to non-expert users who need to understand the algorithms' internal states (e.g., students learning algorithms, operators monitoring robots, admins troubleshooting network routing). We construct XAlgo -- a formal model that first classifies the type of question based on a taxonomy and generates an answer based on a set of rules that extract information from representations of an algorithm's internal states, e.g., the pseudocode. A design probe in an algorithm learning scenario with 18 participants (9 for a Wizard-of-Oz XAlgo and 9 as a control group) reports findings and design implications based on what kinds of questions people ask, how well XAlgo responds, and what remain as challenges to bridge users' gulf of understanding algorithms.