The rise of urbanisation has reduced connection with nature and physical interaction, both crucial for well-being and pro-environmental behavior. Sensing Nature is a multisensory virtual reality installation that aims to energize and nourish the spirit by reimagining the natural world as a playful, immersive experience. Users create a sensory journey by interacting with a haptic tree and exploring real-world fabrics and textures. Each touch triggers a transformation of the virtual tree, blending blooming virtual flowers, nature-inspired spatial sounds, and physical vibrations for a unique immersive experience. This project investigated multisensory interaction in virtual reality’ s impacts on people’s feelings and attitude to nature, addressing the lack of direct touch-based haptic interactions in VR by incorporating active and passive haptic feedback. Qualitative studies shown that multisensory interactions in virtual reality induce healing effects, relaxation and shift attitudes towards nature, demonstrating sensing nature’s potential application for relaxation and pro- environmental attitudes.

Hand raycasting is widely used in extended reality (XR) for selection and interaction, but prolonged use can lead to arm fatigue (e.g., “gorilla arm”). Traditional techniques often require a large range of motion where the arm is extended and unsupported, exacerbating this issue. In this paper, we explore hand raycast techniques aimed at reducing arm fatigue, while minimizing impact to precision selection. In particular, we present Joint-Amplified Raycasting (JAR) – a technique which scales and combines the orientations of multiple joints in the arm to enable more ergonomic raycasting. Through a comparative evaluation with the commonly used industry standard Shoulder-Palm Raycast (SP) and two other ergonomic alternatives—Offset Shoulder-Palm Raycast (OSP) and Wrist-Palm Raycast (WP)—we demonstrate that JAR results in higher selection throughput and reduced fatigue. A follow-up study highlights the effects of different JAR joint gains on target selection and shows users prefer JAR over SP in a representative UI task.

Large Language Model (LLM)-based copilots have shown great potential in Extended Reality (XR) applications. However, the user faces challenges when describing the 3D environments to the copilots due to the complexity of conveying spatial-temporal information through text or speech alone. To address this, we introduce GesPrompt, a multimodal XR interface that combines co-speech gestures with speech, allowing end-users to communicate more naturally and accurately with LLM-based copilots in XR environments. By incorporating gestures, GesPrompt  extracts spatial-temporal reference from co-speech gestures, reducing the need for precise textual prompts and minimizing cognitive load for end-users. Our contributions include (1) a workflow to integrate gesture and speech input in the XR environment, (2) a prototype VR system that implements the workflow, and (3) a user study demonstrating its effectiveness in improving user communication in VR environments.

This study presents Critter Connect Critter Connect, a wearable device fostering, multispecies relationships in natural ecosystems. Grounded in posthuman theory and More-than-Human geography, the work responds to human-centred design limitations, which often overlook non-visual and non-linguistic modes of interaction. It also highlights the need for practical tools fostering direct, place-specific, and non-hierarchical sensory-rich engagements with other beings. This pictorial shows the device’s potential to enable spontaneous and embodied interactions between users and three species in a biodiversity-rich ecosystem through geolocation-based tactile and auditory feedback. We present a design process building on multispecies ethics and speculative methods to address ecological care, as well as a pilot study demonstrating Critter Connect’s capacity to amplify the wearer’s awareness of unseen multispecies presences and sense of connection to nature. This research contributes to HCI by offering a framework for designing ethically considerate, sensory-rich interactions with other beings, thus challenging human-centric engagement and promoting ecological cohabitation.

In this pictorial, we explore alternative ways of knowing urban trees through a more-than-human lens. Using a municipal tree dataset, we focus on “unknown” trees—entries unclassified due to error, decay, or absence—highlighting the limits of quantification and fixed knowledge systems. Urban trees, while critical for ecosystems, are often shaped by technological interventions (e.g., GIS, IoT sensors, AI diagnostics) that prioritize their utility over other expressions. We engage in knitting as a material inquiry to foreground nonhuman agencies and relational entanglements. Through reflective shifts and compromises, this project questions normative design practices, seeking to amplify nonhuman participation. We make two contributions. Firstly, we offer insights into fostering alternative, relational engagements with urban ecologies. Secondly, we reflect on our process of surfacing and working with agentic capacities, articulating guidance for other design researchers. Through this, we advocate for fragmented approaches that embrace complicity and complexity in more-than-human design.

As cities worldwide adopt data-driven approaches to optimize urban forests, computational tools like agent-based models (ABMs) are increasingly popular to simulate forest growth and inform planting decisions. However, ABMs often focus on individual metrics, neglecting forests as interdependent ecosystems. Rooted in anthropocentric ideals, these models risk reducing forests to infrastructures for human benefit, undermining their long-term resilience. This pictorial challenges these limitations by exploring how interface design can transcend reductive, agent-centric representations to foster relational understandings of forest ecosystems as more-than-human bodies. Drawing on feminist theorist Karen Barad’s concepts of “diffraction” and “agential cuts,” we craft a repertoire of diffractive interfaces that engage with forest simulation data, revealing how more-than-human bodies can be encountered across diverse temporal, spatial, and agential scales. Through this design exploration, we operationalize more-than- human perspectives in data practices, deepening our understanding of the performative dimensions of interfaces and advancing nuanced, practical approaches to more-than-human design.

This series of photographic vignettes shows multiple instances of more-than-human, mapping out the diversity of approaches in this emergent field. More-than-human means embracing entangled, relational agencies and emphasizing pluralistic, situated, and non-anthropocentric ways of being in the world. Using a method of walking interviews, I invited researchers from diverse contexts to show me their more-than-human. This pictorial contributes a deliberately diverse inventory of encountering frontiers and boundaries; entities that are hidden, forbidden, spark curiosity; noticing kinship and hybrids: For becoming together in relational entanglements, to spark reflection and debate on what »more-than-human design« may be.

This research investigates the application of tangible and embodied prototyping methods integrated with virtual simulation in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). We present the development of the “kinematic puppet,” a reliable, reusable, adaptable, and accessible prototyping tool designed to facilitate stakeholder engagement in early-stage HRI research and development without requiring significant financial or time investments. The potential of this methodological approach is illustrated through a formative co-design workshop in Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS), where the kinematic puppet, simple props and a low-fidelity anatomical model enabled stakeholders to externalise tacit knowledge through role-play scenarios. The case study suggests that combining physical and virtual approaches can support stakeholders in expressing concrete ideas for improving or changing the interaction, making abstract concepts tangible, with virtual simulation enabling rich data capture for further design development. This work contributes to the rapidly expanding toolbox of design approaches in HRI.

Robots can play a role in mediating human group interactions. This study examines how robot gestures affect the perception of a human group member’s personality, role in the group, and contribution. In a vignette study (n=96), participants imagined being in a group discussion and watched a short video of another group member presenting an argument. In one condition (affirmative gesture), a robot nodded while the member spoke; in the other, it shook its head (negating gesture). A control condition featured no robot. The affirmative gesture enhanced perceptions of the speaker’s personality and role in the group, though their contribution was not affected. The negating gesture showed no adverse effects. Additionally, participants perceived the robot as a group member when it nodded but as an onlooker when it shook its head. This suggests that positive robot gestures can improve group dynamics by fostering favorable interpersonal perceptions.

ABSTRACT

This pictorial explores the challenges and opportunities of creating meaningful virtual spaces in the metaverse. Drawing inspiration from Kevin Lynch’s principles of urban imageability, the authors present a series of narrative explorations and associated graphics that reimagine how space, time, and social interaction might function in virtual environments. The work identifies key differences between physical and virtual architectures, including perceptual fungibility, non-linear spatial relationships, and collective emergence. Through detailed narratives organized around themes of arrival, boundary, navigation, connection, and memory, the pictorial proposes new organizing principles for metaverse design that embrace discontinuity, fluid boundaries, and social physics rather than attempting to replicate physical space. The work contributes theoretical frameworks and methodological insights for developing more imageable, engaging, and coherent virtual worlds.

To expand the discourse on non-utilitarian values in HCI and Design, this pictorial explores the concept of Life-Synchronized Products (LSPs), domestic technologies that align lifecycles with users. Through a co-design workshop, we developed property dimensions for products whose lifetime is associated with users. We defined LSP from properties in the dimension and exemplify LSP through ‘LO (Life-synchronized Oven),’ an oven that lives along with its user and ceases to exist upon death. LO features a visual interface, Thread of Life, reflecting lifetime and meaningful events, demonstrating physical and intelligent growth, expressing thoughts and emotions, and leaving no trace after termination. Expert interviews with our research artifacts including a semi-functional prototype, service website, and design fiction video revealed that LO can transcend traditional utilitarian roles to become “life companions” that foster existential reflection. We discuss the technical, business, and socio-ethical challenges of LSPs and implications for HCI and design research.

This study explores multispecies interactions and human-nonhuman synergies in intertidal zones through a novel autoethnographic approach. Multispecies ethnography and posthumanist thinking challenge human-centered perspectives, highlighting the need to embrace diverse temporalities and ways of knowing in ecological research. However, current methods often fail to adequately capture these complex interrelations and the lived experiences within such environments. Shifting rhythmically between land and water, we use the intertidal contact zone to unveil the delicate synergy between humans and animals that populate the salt marsh of the Tagus delta. Our findings underscore the potential of field-based, participatory methods to model multispecies interactions and experimental drawing methods with a spatiotemporal structure that allows thinking beyond the traditional representational techniques of landscape architecture – what we call tidalectic portraits. While our work does not offer immediate solutions to ecological crises, it emphasizes the importance of slowing down and engaging with landscape rhythms to cultivate embodied, situated knowledge.

Advances in interaction design, architecture, and artificial intelligence offer new possibilities for built environments. Yet, most systems focus on improving physical parameters such as indoor air quality. While these enhance physical comfort, they often overlook an innate aspect of human experience—our connection with nature—fundamental to physical and mental health. In contrast, architecture offers a rich legacy of biophilic design that creates sensory-rich spaces evoking a connection to nature. What insights can biophilic architecture offer to guide interactive experiences in future buildings? Drawing on 13 expert interviews, we expose the gap between current biophilic practices in smart buildings and the multidimensional potential of nature-inspired design. We present eight themes reflecting expert imaginaries of biophilic futures and five design opportunities illustrating how emerging technologies can position biophilic interaction as multi-sensory, interpretive, and aligned with more-than-human, justice-oriented futures.

In this paper, we aim to understand accessibility issues for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) with single-user VR applications. To this end, we recruited eight participants with I/DD for this study. We asked each participant to use a single-user VR application (on Meta Quest 2) and then conducted semi-structured interviews about their experiences. A subsequent thematic analysis of our interviews resulted in identifying several accessibility problems in using VR for people with I/DD. Overall, we found that participants had difficulty: perceiving (including comprehending) the various elements of the virtual environment and using physical controllers to engage with (i.e., act within) the virtual environment. The participants then suggested potential improvements to make the virtual environments more accessible. Based on these findings, we call for further research in four broad areas to foster an accessible VR experience for people with I/DD.

Audio descriptions (AD) make videos accessible for blind and low vision (BLV) users by describing visual elements that cannot be understood from the main audio track. AD created by professionals or novice describers is time-consuming and offers little customization or control to BLV viewers on description length and content and when they receive it. To address this gap, we explore user-driven AI-generated descriptions, enabling BLV viewers to control both the timing and level of detail of the descriptions they receive. In a study, 20 BLV participants activated audio descriptions for seven different video genres with two levels of detail: concise and detailed. Our findings reveal differences in the preferred frequency and level of detail of ADs for different videos, participants’ sense of control with this style of AD delivery, and its limitations. We discuss the implications of these findings for the development of future AD tools for BLV users.

AI’s automated information processing capabilities have started replacing human cognitive thinking in ways that are increasingly imperceptible. We aim to prompt a discussion on the potential loss of human autonomy and the perceptual influences of AI interventions in interpersonal communication by constructing a fictional and interactive narrative. The second organ era envisions a future where a series of AI-powered wearables (respectively, second eye, second ear, and second mouth) become an extension of the human sensory system, mediating how we acquire, interpret, and transmit information. By employing critical making as a reflective design practice, we materialize inquiries into how human-AI relationships should evolve and call for critical evaluation of our growing reliance on AI.

Generative AI technologies are moving into school settings. However, there is confusion about how, when, and why these technologies should be used. Our aim is to provide insights on how AI technology can be meaningfully integrated into schools, with a specific focus on secondary school education. Informed by ten teachers, we developed Prompt Machine, a tangible learning tool that serves three central purposes; 1) scaffold curriculum learning, 2) support development of AI literacy, and 3) act as a focal point among pupils and teachers for discussing possibilities and limitations of AI. Based on a study with 33 pupils and their teachers, we present findings on tangible and collaborative AI interactions, facilitation of AI, and integration of AI into curricula. Additionally, we reflect on challenges and opportunities for AI in education from the perspective of teachers and learners and discuss future steps for tangible AI.

Generating interdisciplinary research ideas requires diverse domain expertise, but access to timely feedback is often limited by the availability of experts. In this paper, we introduce PersonaFlow, a novel system designed to provide multiple perspectives by using LLMs to simulate domain-specific experts. Our user studies showed that the new design 1) increased the perceived relevance and creativity of ideated research directions, and 2) promoted users’ critical thinking activities (e.g., interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, and self-regulation), without increasing their perceived cognitive load. Moreover, users’ ability to customize expert profiles significantly improved their sense of agency, which can potentially mitigate their over-reliance on AI. This work contributes to the design of intelligent systems that augment creativity and collaboration, and provides design implications of using customizable AI-simulated personas in domains within and beyond research ideation.

Danmaku, users’ live comments synchronized with, and overlaying on videos, has recently shown potential in promoting online video-based learning. However, user-generated danmaku can be scarce—especially in newer or less viewed videos—and its quality is unpredictable, limiting its educational impact. This paper explores how large multimodal models (LMM) can be leveraged to automatically generate effective, high-quality danmaku. We first conducted a formative study to identify the desirable characteristics of content- and emotion-related danmaku in educational videos. Based on the obtained insights, we developed ClassComet, an educational video platform with novel LMM-driven techniques for generating relevant types of danmaku to enhance video-based learning. Through user studies, we examined the quality of generated danmaku and their influence on learning experiences. The results indicate that our generated danmaku is comparable to human-created ones, and videos with both content- and emotion-related danmaku showed significant improvement in viewers’ engagement and learning outcome.

Many people struggle with learning a new language when moving to a new country, with traditional tools falling short in providing contextualized learning tailored to each learner’s needs. The recent development of large language models (LLMs) and embodied conversational agents (ECAs) in social virtual reality (VR) provides new opportunities to practice language learning in a contextualized and naturalistic way that takes into account the learner’s language level and needs. To explore this opportunity, we developed ELLMA-T, a design probe that integrates an LLM (GPT-4) with an ECA for English language learning in social VR (VRChat), informed by the situated learning framework. We conducted a feasibility study to explore the potential and challenges of LLM-based ECAs for language learning in social VR. Drawing on qualitative interviews (N=12), we reveal the potential of ELLMA-T to generate realistic, believable, and context-specific role plays for agent-learner interaction in VR, and LLM’s capability to provide initial language assessment and continuous feedback to learners. We provide four design implications for the future development of LLM-based language agents in social VR.

Teenagers are in a unique position, having known no other reality than the current exploitative model of the data economy, and are particularly at risk of harm from it. Using a classroom intervention with 31 Grade 9 students, we deployed co-created Metaphor Workbooks as a tool to foster critical and reflexive thinking about their phones and data. Our research advances the HCI community’s understanding of teenagers’ entanglements with the data economy, by highlighting how they experience it through their critical, reflective, and creative responses. This alludes to ways in which future initiatives could better support teenagers in developing a critical relationship with data. We identify key gaps in their understanding of the data economy and emphasize the need for critical data literacy interventions to address their limited understanding, complex emotional relationships with their phones, and the pervasive influence of technology addiction narratives.

We describe our process of conceptualizing, designing, prototyping, and using Wall, an eccentric smart device intended to encourage reflection on the design qualities of surveillant sensing systems. As a result of our conceptual design process, we first summarize four design qualities that define a sense-and-extract interaction paradigm. We then document our process of developing Wall. Finally, we reflect on our experiences using and living with Wall, and the experiential and theoretical insights we gained through our self-use studies.

Companies and smart product designers prioritize the needs of primary users. However, smart devices with spatial sensors, like cameras and microphones, impact the experiences of people nearby. We refer to these people as adjacent users. We present a research through design project that highlights an overlooked need to design for adjacent users. This research outlines a range of actionable pathways forward in the form of design patterns, principles, and novel problem-framings. We also reflect upon barriers and inherent limits to user-centered design approaches. Our vehicle for generating and communicating these insights is a design concept and prototype called Arca. Presented as a fictional product, we brand Arca as “more inclusive, privacy-enhancing smart camera for you and your extended household.”

Most videoconferencing technologies presently struggle to keep people engaged during team meetings. Recent research points to the potential of social virtual and extended reality (VR/XR) technologies to transform remote meetings, offering innovative approaches through the design of novel meeting tools. This pictorial presents the design of five such prototypes of VR meeting support tools: conversation visualization, embodied affinity signaling, tools for avatar and space modulation, and time management. Deployed in a custom-built Mozilla Hubs environment, this toolkit was tested with five expert user teams in a two-fold study: researcher-moderated VR workshops (N=28) and unmoderated VR meetings (N=40). In this pictorial, the focus is on the design of the prototypes, with highlights of select results from participants’ feedback and discussion of the perceived merit of the prototypes’ design in supporting meeting interactions.

The last two decades have witnessed a growing significance of soundscape design as a core topic in Interaction Design. Sound-O-Matic is an innovative tool that facilitates the design of real-time three-dimensional soundscapes. Diverging from conventional track-based audio tools, Sound-O-Matic is constructed atop Unity, a robust 3D game engine, thereby empowering designers to intricately address the temporal and spatial dynamics inherent in soundscape design. This study showcases three enduring and one transitory soundscape instances, seamlessly integrated into diverse settings: 1) a greenhouse, 2) a bunker, 3) a playground, and 4) a passenger train. These case studies illustrate how Sound-O-Matic adeptly manages a spectrum of design considerations encompassing the spatial configuration of speakers, the temporal dynamics inherent in the soundscape, interaction, and user experience. The discussion compares the four cases, highlights the diversity of the designs, and concludes with a brief discussion of potential further development of the tool.

Sound waves shape not only our ability to hear but also offer new ways to interact with and experience our environment. Acoustophoresis, a method of manipulating objects using the mechanical energy of sound, enables multimodal displays incorporating touch, taste, vision, and more. While current research has focused on technical advancements, we explore acoustophoresis and its applications through a design-driven lens. We conducted a design futuring workshop, speculating on possible applications, and identified six key themes. Based on these insights, we developed two speculative scenarios, SONARIOS, that illustrate future experiences shaped by acoustophoresis. We abstracted the insights into three strong design concepts that bridge speculative exploration with practical design. We emphasize the importance of balancing desirability, feasibility, and responsibility in acoustophoresis development, advocating for a design approach that integrates technical innovation with user-centred considerations.

Computing interfaces are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with systems that engage multiple sensory channels simultaneously. Deformable and shape-changing interfaces offer rich tactile experiences, but there is limited understanding of how they can be combined with other modes of sensory feedback. We systematically explored the audio, visual and tactile cross-modal correspondences of deformable shapes with a particular focus on auditory feedback. 50 participants were asked to associate deformable tactile stimuli, varying in stiffness and shape, with the sound qualities pitch, brightness, fade-in time and fade-out time, under visuo-tactile and tactile-only conditions. Our findings provide the first insights on how (1) shape, both its form and visibility, play a significant role in associations for pitch and brightness; (2) stiffness plays a dominant role in associations over a sound’s fade-in and fade-out times. These findings are distilled into the first design guidelines for integrating auditory feedback into physical interfaces.

The adoption of photovoltaic (PV) panels, electric vehicles (EVs), and dynamic electricity pricing is transforming households into active “prosumers” who generate, consume, and sell electricity. This shift, driven by rising costs and environmental concerns, requires new technologies to help households manage their production and consumption. Electricity’s invisibility adds complexity, necessitating interfaces that make energy use and generation comprehensible. This paper presents the Always-On In-Home Display (AOIHD), a technology probe designed for prosumer households to navigate the dynamics of this production and consumption – balancing periods of solar abundance and grid reliance, by making energy data persistently and collectively accessible within the household. Adopting a practice theory lens, we explore how the AOIHD was experienced in daily life over a four-year autobiographical study and through deployments in other Swedish households. Our findings highlight four experiential qualities—Learning, Triggering, Including, and Troubling—that illustrate how the display supports the domestication of energy feedback technologies in prosumer contexts. We argue that fostering integration into household practices is key to sustaining meaningful interaction with smart energy technologies.

With the advent of neural networks, it has become possible to generate synthetic voices that are nearly indistinguishable from real human speech (i.e., human-sounding voice). In contrast, earlier voice assistants used voices that were instantly recognizable as machine-generated, owing to their standardized, consistent, and highly intelligible qualities (i.e., artificial-sounding voice). Although people tend to prefer human-like voices, adopting human-sounding voices in voice assistants raises ethical concerns related to confusion or unintentional deception, particularly in voice-only contexts, even when their identity as systems is explicitly disclosed. To explore the voice design direction for future voice assistants, we examined how participants perceived and interacted when they were unexpectedly confronted with either an artificial-sounding or a human-sounding voice, both of which clearly identified themselves as voice assistants during an everyday phone call. Our findings reveal participants’ experiences and conversational behaviors in each voice condition. Furthermore, we discuss how the voices of voice assistants should be designed and propose design implications that emphasize transparency and responsiveness in voice design.

AI can now generate high-fidelity UI mock-up screens from a high-level textual description, promising to support UX practitioners’ work. However, it remains unclear how UX practitioners would adopt such Generative UI (GenUI) models in a way that is integral and beneficial to their work. To answer this question, we conducted a formative study with 37 UX-related professionals that consisted of four roles: UX designers, UX researchers, software engineers, and product managers. Using a state-of-the-art GenUI tool, each participant went through a week-long, individual mini-project exercise with role-specific tasks, keeping a daily journal of their usage and experiences with GenUI, followed by a semi-structured interview. We report findings on participants’ workflow using the GenUI tool, how GenUI can support all and each specific roles, and existing gaps between GenUI and users’ needs and expectations, which lead to design implications to inform future work on GenUI development.

The emergence of AI-powered UI generation tools presents both opportunities and challenges for accessible design, but their ability to produce truly accessible outcomes remains underexplored. In this work, we examine the effects of different prompt strategies through an evaluation of ninety interfaces generated by two AI tools across three application domains. Our findings reveal that, while these tools consistently achieve basic accessibility compliance, they rely on homogenized design patterns, which can limit their effectiveness in addressing specialized user needs. Through interviews with eight professional designers, we examine how this standardization impacts creativity and challenges the design of inclusive UIs. Our results contribute to the growing discourse on AI-powered design with (i) empirical insights into the capabilities of AI tools for generating accessible UIs, (ii) identification of barriers in this process, and (iii) guidelines for integrating AI into design workflows in ways that support both designers’ creativity and design flexibility.

Despite the wealth of knowledge in research papers, practitioners struggle to apply research results to their work due to significant research-practice gaps. This study addresses the rigor-relevance paradox, where academic rigor can undermine the practical relevance of research for designers. Specifically, we explore the potential of large language models (LLMs) to customize translational research artifacts (i.e., design cards) and improve relevance to specific designers’ needs. In our preliminary study (N = 15), designers defined relevance as alignment between the content of the translational artifact and their design context—including target users, modalities/domains, and design stages. Based on these findings, we implemented an LLM-powered pipeline that allows designers to customize research papers into design cards tailored to their contexts. Our evaluation (N = 20) demonstrated that designers perceived customized artifacts as more relevant, actionable, valid, generative, and inspiring than those without customization—even for less topically related papers—indicating LLM-powered customization can be used to support research translation.

Despite the potential of generative AI (GenAI) design tools to enhance design processes, professionals often struggle to integrate AI into their workflows. Fundamental cognitive challenges include the need to specify all design criteria as distinct parameters upfront (intent formulation) and designers’ reduced cognitive involvement in the design process due to cognitive offloading, which can lead to insufficient problem exploration, underspecification, and limited ability to evaluate outcomes. Motivated by these challenges, we envision novel metacognitive support agents that assist designers in working more reflectively with GenAI. To explore this vision, we conducted exploratory prototyping through a Wizard of Oz elicitation study with 20 mechanical designers probing multiple metacognitive support strategies. We found that agent-supported users created more feasible designs than non-supported users, with differing impacts between support strategies. Based on these findings, we discuss opportunities and tradeoffs of metacognitive support agents and considerations for future AI-based design tools.

In this pictorial, we discuss the design of Exchangeopoly, a boardgame developed to investigate exchanges between people in communities when they help each other out. Such exchanges are often acts of kindness for forms of volunteering that are not remunerated financially and are built on social capital. The boardgame scaffolded explorations of scenarios with participants where informal altruistic interactions in their communities are tokenised, rewarded and incentivised. We focus on the designed-in features and considerations that went into the visual and material production of the game and its gameplay mechanics. We discuss how Exchangeopoly was a valuable method that surfaced existing and speculated practices of exchange, and supported participants to explore the opportunities and problems of representing and rewarding such interactions. We contribute insights about the usefulness of exchangeopoly as a tool to explore scenarios and surface tensions about tokenisation in community value exchange.

Authoring compelling animations often requires artists to come up with creative high-level ideas and translate them into precise low-level spatial and temporal properties like position, orientation, scale, and frame timing. Traditional animation tools offer direct manipulation strategies to control these properties but lack support for implementing higher-level ideas. Alternatively, AI-based tools allow animation production using natural language prompts but lack the fine-grained control over properties required for professional workflows. To bridge this gap, we propose AniMate, a hand-drawn animation system that integrates direct manipulation and natural language interaction. Central to AniMate are narrative motion blocks, clip-like components located on a timeline that let animators specify animated behaviors with a combination of textual and manual input. Through an expert evaluation and the creation of short demonstrative animations, we show how focusing on intermediate-level actions provides a common representation for animators to work across both interaction modalities.

In recent years, digital technologies have become increasingly autonomous, offering “mind-like” experiences of intelligent objects across various things, including smart home devices, social robots, and voice assistants. Drawing inspiration from the classic “mind awakening” narratives of intelligent things in science fiction, this study employs design fiction to integrate such storylines into everyday contexts. We present EvoLumen, a conceptual lamp designed to explore the emergent self-awareness of a thing. The lamp was deployed in the homes of five participants for one week, generating daily first-person narratives that sequentially covered environmental perception, emotional emulation, dream states, self-reflection, and farewell. Analysis of participant feedback and observations revealed the influence of detection accuracy, emotional triggers, and science fiction elements on perceptions of the lamp’s self-awareness. Additionally, we emphasize the pivotal role of time in shaping the agency of things and propose a “narrative framework” to guide the development of more immersive and experiential digital companions.

We (local researchers, Indigenous communities, local stakeholders, and a researcher bridging the places) have worked together over the last two years, in the project Indigenous Climate Observatories, local knowledge for local action to define such observatories, what they become when practiced and what this could mean. They focus on understanding climate change from local perspectives. Each of the explorations started with a blanket, used as a meeting space to initiate conversation – a design seed. They all resulted in a blanket which can be seen as manifestations of each of the different Indigenous Climate Observatories, a boundary object. This pictorial will present the blankets, how they were made and the role they had in the process. The blankets were of great importance to ‘work knowledges together’ . By doing this weaving of knowledges, we accept diverse forms of knowledge systems as equitable and respectfully learn together to understand climate change through a multitude of perspectives.

Bacterial cellulose (BC), also known as a Kombucha mat or SCOBY, is a grown material widely adopted in design and HCI communities due to its biodegradability, accessibility and mechanical versatility. Alongside these aspects, BC’s qualities to become a habitat for other living organisms, i.e., its habitabilities, have been researched in biotechnological sciences but not fully explored in design. In response to the call for biobased material alternatives and the expanding design space for multispecies interactions in HCI, in this paper, we unpack this habitability potential of BC in the design of living artefacts. Through visual storytelling we unveil our hands-on biolab journey with Komagataeibacter, the bacteria that produce BC, and show how fungi, microalgae and cyanobacteria can inhabit this material. We outline diverse options for tuning the habitabilities of BC to incite HCI designers in the creation of living artefacts that are fully grown and compatible with regenerative ecologies.

Designers can immerse themselves into the world of users by using 360° video leading to richer insights and better solutions. However, 360° video is challenging to share and incompatible with existing tools, preventing designers from effectively integrating it into their iterative and collaborative workflows. To address these challenges, we developed D360, a tool that enables designers to view, annotate, and collaboratively analyze 360° video. D360 features a web-based 360° video viewing and annotation tool, a database, and Miro integration to analyze 360° video using a familiar collaborative process. We evaluated D360 using walk-throughs with six professional designers that verified its utility and identified improvements to creating and presenting annotations. By providing both design directions for future 360° video tools for designers and our open source tool, we enable practitioners and researchers to leverage the rich interaction and visual context of 360° video for more impactful insights.

Natural hazards, such as floods and wildfires, increasingly impact our lives severely, requiring everyone living in risk areas to become climate resilient. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research has explored climate change and sustainable user behavior, but has yet to understand its role in developing and maintaining climate resilience. We approach the gap with a Grounded Theory approach, conducting 16 semi-structured expert interviews to understand individuals’ and communities’ ongoing challenges and needs and the role of technology in developing climate resilience. Results show that technology is deeply entangled in the process and supports and hinders factors for communicating, engaging, and empowering communities and individuals. Our work contributes to defining and structuring HCI’s role in individuals’ and communities’ climate resilience with the framework HCI for Climate Resilience of Individuals and Communities. Additionally, we highlight open research and interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities to approach, maintain, and increase climate resilience from the bottom up.

Social media platforms enable diverse users to engage in everyday political talk with (un)known audiences. Platform features and affordances may shape political discussions and how audiences make sense of them, potentially shifting political attitudes. Using affirmative action (AA) – a controversial, identity-centric higher education policy – as a context for analysis, we investigate social media features’ and affordances’ role in AA discussions. Our qualitative content analysis of over 38,000 social media posts and comments across Reddit, Twitter/X, and TikTok demonstrates how features (e.g., Green Screen) and affordances (e.g., visibility) shape the presentation of external evidence and cues on social media that help users determine information veracity. We introduce socio-technical rhetorical strategies to describe rhetorical devices enabled by platform features and affordances and consider how these strategies are used to express and refute racism online. Finally, we suggest ways that social media designers may leverage visibility, navigability, and association affordances to enhance users’ ability to make sense of and safely experience AA discussions.

Virtual try-on (VTO) applications aim to replicate the in-store shopping experience and enhance online shopping by enabling users to interact with garments. However, many existing tools adopt a one-size-fits-all approach when visualizing clothing items. This approach limits user interaction with garments, particularly regarding size and fit adjustments, and fails to provide direct insights for size recommendations. As a result, these limitations contribute to high return rates in online shopping. To address this, we introduce SiCo, a new online VTO system that allows users to upload images of themselves and interact with garments by visualizing how different sizes would fit their bodies. Our user study demonstrates that our approach significantly improves users’ ability to assess how outfits will appear on their bodies and increases their confidence in selecting clothing sizes that align with their preferences. Based on our evaluation, we believe that SiCo has the potential to reduce return rates and transform the online clothing shopping experience.

Digital audiovisual media (e.g., TV, streamed video) is an essential aspect of our modern lives, yet it lacks accessibility – people living with disabilities can experience significant barriers. While accessibility interventions can improve the access to audiovisual media, people living with complex communication needs have been under-represented in research and are potentially left behind. Future visions of accessible digital audiovisual media posit highly personalised content that meets complex accessibility needs. We explore the impact of such a future by conducting bespoke co-design sessions with people with aphasia – a language impairment common post-stroke – creating four highly personal accessibility interventions that leverage audiovisual media personalisation. We then trialled these prototypes with 11 users with aphasia; examining the effects on shared social experiences, creative intent, interaction complexity, and feasibility for content producers. We conclude by critically reflecting on future implementations, raising open questions and suggesting future research directions.

Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate significant potential in the field of mental health. However, existing chatbots often lack personalized designs, which may limit their ability to fully address the complex needs of users with depression. This study builds upon the previously developed CloudEcho system, a mental health management application that integrates emotion monitoring and psychological support functions, to explore the impact of role customization features on user trust and customization experience. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study compares the differences between the system with role customization features and its original version. Quantitative results indicate that role customization can enhance user trust, showcasing high usability and satisfaction. Qualitative interviews further reveal the strengths and limitations of this feature and suggest directions for optimization. Together, these findings highlight the potential value of chatbot role customization in mental health support and offer theoretical and practical guidance for future LLM-driven personalized design and optimization in mental health contexts.

We present an account of an ongoing practice-based Design Research programme that explores real-time AI image generation. Based on three installations, we reflect on the design of PromptJ, a user interface built around the concept of a prompt ‘mixer’. We present a series of strong concepts based on the design and deployment of PromptJ. Later, we cohere and abstract our strong concepts into the notion of Holistic Prompt Craft, which describes the importance of considering all relevant parameters concurrently. Finally, we present PromptTank, a prototype design which exemplifies these principles. Our contributions are articulated as strong concepts or intermediate knowledge, intended to be used generatively by informing and inspiring practitioners and researchers working in this space.

This pictorial describes the process of developing an interaction technique for directly engaging with the hidden layers of a generative AI model for image synthesis. First, we give some background to generative AI in HCI, arguing that current interaction techniques prevent us from directly interacting with the material of AI, foreclosing its use in design. Drawing on inspiration from the Computer Science field of feature visualization, we investigate the materiality of our prototype, a GAN model trained to generate fashion imagery, and show how Hidden Layer Interaction offers an alternative to standard prompting. In doing so, we illustrate how this change in approach leads to new forms of interaction with the internal semantics of generative AI, and demonstrate how one might use Hidden Layer Interaction to engage with AI as a material in design.

Recovering a lost ability is rarely easy, but unlike strengthening a muscle, progress in smell training, repeated exposure to specific scents to support recovery or maintain function, is often invisible. For those undergoing Digital Smell Training (DST), data visualisations may be the only markers of change. But how can graphs and numbers sustain motivation over months of slow, unpredictable recovery? This pictorial adopts a Research through Design approach to explore how data visualisations might better support motivation, adherence, and long-term engagement in DST. We draw on a six-month in-home study with 18 participants with varying olfactory abilities using a technology probe. Following initial feedback, we ran a co-design workshop to understand participants’ visualisation needs. These insights informed eight design directions and three visualisation concepts, later evaluated in a focus group. We explore how visualisations help ‘flip perspectives’, from tracking outcomes to nurturing perseverance across the uncertain journey of smell rehabilitation.

This pictorial explores the challenge of distinguishing between shape-changing and actuated interfaces by applying a foundational geometry framework from mathematics to categorise different types of transformations. The framework introduces six geometric transformation types: Euclidean transformations, similarity transformations, affine transformations, projective transformations, topological transformations, and non-topological transformations. Through visual analysis, the pictorial contributes a new vocabulary for de-scribing the transformations of shape-changing interfaces. It offers reflections on which transformations can be considered shape changing, as well as how features of the physical design might impact the perceived shape change.

Communicating complex scientific concepts to non-experts is a persistent challenge. The communication of ecological state-and-transition models (STMs) through box-and-arrow diagrams is one example. This paper explores how virtual reality (VR) can make STMs more accessible. Using ecosystem STMs as a case study, we present a proof-of-concept system enabling users to viscerally experience the content of the model. We followed a three-phased participatory design process: first, 2 ecology experts guided the development of a VR prototype. Next, 17 government environmental management professionals evaluated its utility and features. Finally, after refining the system, 12 VR researchers informed design considerations and improvements. Our findings provide practical insights for visualising STMs in VR, and also contribute to the emerging field of “data visceralisation”. We found this approach engages users and supports understanding of qualitative aspects of real-world phenomena. However, complex models like ecosystem STMs require the creation of accurate and extensive simulations. We conclude with a discussion for future directions.

If we want to understand the affective power of data in shaping our experiences of place, we need new forms of inquiry that reveal what data can do: not just for us, but to us. In this paper, we explore how engaging with data changes the way we feel about environmental concerns that we live with through an approach we call local data memoir. This approach brings together autobiographical making and writing with theorization through a phenomenological lens, specifically using the concept of orientation. We find that attending to our own orientation can be a useful means of tracking how our lived experiences are shaped by practices with data. Our contributions are two-fold: first, we demonstrate how the phenomenological concept of orientation can be used to interpret encounters with data; second, we introduce local data memoirs as a form of affective inquiry with data.

Misinformation through data visualisation is particularly dangerous because charts are often perceived as objective data representations. While past efforts to counter misinformation have focused on text and, to some extent, images and video, developing user-centred strategies to combat misleading charts remains an unresolved challenge. This study presents a conceptual approach through ChartChecker, a browser-plugin that aims to automatically extract line and bar chart data and detect potentially misleading features such as non-linear axis scales. A participatory design approach was used to develop a user-centred interface to provide transparent, comprehensible information about potentially misleading features in charts. Finally, a think-aloud study (N = 15) with ChartChecker revealed overall satisfaction with the tools’ user interface, comprehensibility, functionality, and usefulness. The results are discussed in terms of improving user engagement, increasing transparency and optimising tools designed to counter misleading information in charts, leading to overarching design implications for user-centred strategies for the visual domain.

On-demand ride-pooling (ODRP) services are a new alternative modes of transportation that have recently emerged due to technological advancements. While algorithmic management plays a crucial role in ODRP services and can create complex workplace dynamics, the experiences of ODRP workers remain underexplored in the HCI field. To address this gap, we interviewed 16 drivers of Shucle, an ODRP service in South Korea. We examined the drivers’ detailed work practices, focusing on the perceived challenges of working under algorithmic management and the perceived benefits and necessity of algorithmic management. This paper provides empirical evidence of the impact of algorithmic management on ODRP drivers’ work environments and discusses the implications of our findings for supporting algorithmic workplaces in ODRP services. By positioning ODRP drivers as company employees embedded within a vast, dynamic traffic environment, our study extends algorithmic management scholarship beyond gig work and other algorithmic work contexts, offering fresh insights into how autonomy and accountability are configured across algorithmic workplaces.

Standards form an important basis for the manufacture of high-quality and safe products. As the standards landscape becomes more complex over time, the mandatory interpretation is becoming increasingly challenging and knowledge gained from experience in dealing with the standards plays a key role. This paper uses welding—as a manufacturing process that is highly regulated by standards—to demonstrate the possibilities that large language models (LLMs) offer to assist people and shows how knowledge management can be supported in applying these standards. Therefore, a chatbot prototype specialising in the specific requirements of welding standards was developed and evaluated on the methodological framework of a design case study. The results show that LLMs have the potential to improve access to complex standards beyond simple databases and document searches and facilitate compliance with these requirements. However, there are certain limitations regarding normative language and the need for referencing.

Lucid dreaming, a state in which people become aware that they are dreaming, is known for its many mental and physical health benefits. However, most lucid dream induction techniques, such as reality testing, require significant time and effort to master, creating a barrier for people seeking these experiences. We designed LuciEntry, a portable interactive prototype aimed at helping people induce lucid dreaming through well-timed visual and auditory cues. We conducted a lab and a field study to understand LuciEntry’s user experience. The interview data allowed us to identify three themes. Building on these findings and our design practice, we derived seven considerations to guide the design of future lucid dream systems. Ultimately, this work aims to inspire further research into interactive technologies for altered states of consciousness.

Mood is influenced by complex factors and involves subjective interpretation, leading to diverse methods of recording it. While existing tools provide customizable features, they often fall short in promoting deep reflection and meaningful engagement. We developed Lino, an interactive system that includes single stroke drawing records created in a mobile app and a desktop frame designed for archiving these drawings and supporting the attachment of optional voice recordings. Through a three-week field study with six participants, we found that participants make meaning in the process of reframing their daily moods into single stroke drawings and continuously refined these recordings through interactions in their everyday spaces. Our findings imply considerations for empowering users through personal interpretation for meaning-making process in data collection and visualization for effective personal informatics system and supporting evolving personal reflective practices.

As designers, we often use annotations to add information and reflection to our work. We would like to suggest that these annotations let personal design languages emerge. We experiment with the materiality of the pictorial format itself to show how such languages emerge from a particular body of work, as it travels from sketches, text, and various material artefacts. This emergent language uses annotations and layers as design materials, providing access to the nuances in the thinking behind our research and making processes. Through this language, the voice of the maker emerges revealing subjective and situated knowledges that would not be available otherwise. We reflect on these insights and share a set of strategies using annotations and layerings for others to use. As a result, we contribute an approach of annotations and layering to engage complexity when making, reflecting, and disseminating design research.

Designing socio-technical systems for rural areas requires empowering local actors to actively engage in a creative process that thoroughly considers the unique characteristics of these territories. Methods intended for urban contexts often fail to account for rural communities’ specific values, cultures, and needs. Furthermore, the focus is usually on the design of the digital part of the innovation, its requirements, and technological constraints, leaving out other essential enablers. To address this, we present a toolkit designed to boost reflection on the key ‘’ingredients’’ — social, economic, technological, political, and infrastructural — essential for addressing rural challenges through socio-technical interventions. The toolkit offers tangible, user-friendly resources that encourage dialogue, self-reflection, and the creative envisioning of rural transformations. It includes inspirational cardsas well asreflectionquestionsto support communities in evaluating their needs, resources, and aspirations, fosteringself-awareness, learning, andaction.

People use technology to stay in touch with their family and friends. To design novel technologies that bring us closer, the theoretical concept of image schemas is a perfect fit. Image schemas are abstract representations of embodied experiences which can be used to design intuitive, inclusive and innovative technologies. However, their application in design processes requires additional effort and time, while existing design tools often lack a theoretical foundation for social closeness. To address this gap, we sourced domain specific image schemas and conducted iterative user-centred research through design, to create an easy-to-use image schema design tool which facilitates the creation of closeness technologies. In this pictorial, we document our process and provide a design tool that connects theory with actionable design strategies, providing designers with clear guidance and a practical tool for metaphorical integration. The tool can be found at https://osf.io/twndg/.

Centering humans in explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) research has primarily focused on AI model development and high-stake scenarios. However, as AI becomes increasingly integrated into everyday applications in often opaque ways, the need for explainability tailored to end-users has grown more urgent. To address this gap, we explore end-users’ perspectives on embedding XAI into daily AI application scenarios. Our findings reveal that XAI is not naturally accepted by end-users in their daily lives. When users seek explanations, they envision XAI design that promotes contextualized understanding, empowers adoption and adaption to AI systems, and considers multistakeholders’ values. We further discuss supporting users’ agency in XAI non-use and alternatives to XAI for managing ambiguity in AI interactions. Additionally, we provide design implications for XAI design at personal and societal levels. These include understanding users through a computational rationality lens, adaptive design that coevolves with users, and advancing the “society-in-the-loop” vision with everyday XAI.

The development of persona systems provides a possibility for end users to interact with different persona modalities. In a 54-participant randomized controlled experiment, we compare two persona interaction modalities, document and dialogue personas, both generated using AI approaches from survey data. Overall, dialogue personas appear to be perceived more favorably than document personas. However, document personas exhibit a wider range of perceptions, suggesting that experiences with document personas are more polarizing among users. The document personas had higher transparency and were perceived as more complete, but the task completion was perceived as more difficult, although the task success rate was higher. The dialogue personas were perceived as more usable, with a higher System Usability Scale score, and more enjoyable. Our findings provide critical insights into the increasingly important area of persona interaction modalities and the broad paradigm of human-persona interaction.

In Human-Computer Interaction, speculative design is widely used to explore the opportunities and challenges of future technologies. However, the criteria that define a “good” speculation are scattered throughout the literature. This challenges the application and evaluation of speculative design especially in an academic context. Through a review of 63 publications on speculative design, design fiction, and critical design, we identified nine key qualities of speculations that can be grouped in three categories: speculative, discursive, and process. Speculative qualities (i.e., fictional, critical, socio-political) reflect the fundamental characteristics of speculative design. Discursive qualities (i.e., experienceable, thought-provoking) facilitate envisioning and debate. Process qualities (i.e., grounded, participative, reflected, playful) encourage an inclusive, responsible, scientifically based and creative approach to speculative design. We propose this as a descriptive taxonomy of qualities, which can serve as a starting point for the creation and evaluation of high-quality speculative designs in diverse contexts, including academic peer review.

Recent research in e-textiles within the HCI community has shown a growing interest in sustainable prototyping to reduce the environmental impact of waste generated during e-textile fabrication. Meanwhile, the textile crafts community is exploring alternative sustainable materials. Despite shared goals, communication, knowledge exchange, and collaboration between these two disciplines remain limited. This work leverages HCI knowledge in open-source wet spinning and biofiber recipes to empower individuals in the textile crafts community to create functional biodegradable yarns for e-textile prototyping at home or in individual textile studios. To better understand their material exploration needs, we hosted a community-engaged workshop. Our findings emphasized the need for user-friendly machine designs, the value of hands-on learning, and the benefits of iterative exploration for examining the design affordances of material temporality. Through these efforts, we aim to promote sustainable making via community engagement and provide more widely available technical tools and curriculum resources for material-driven craft explorations.

This pictorial presents a design research exploration of domestic sewing machines as hybrid craft tools for creating e-textile circuits. Through iterative making and experimentation, we examine how conductive materials and electronic components can be integrated into fabric using sewing machines. We contribute 11 techniques for securely terminating connections (T1-T4), insulating wires (I1-I4), and design possibilities for sewing LEDs and electronic components (A1-A3). We also introduce four types of machine-sewn sensors (S1-S4) for interactivity and present four high-fidelity prototypes of machine-sewn circuits. To further explore the creative potential of these techniques, we engaged in a case study with a craft practitioner that uncovers design insights and limitations. Reflecting on these explorations, we highlight the role of sewing machines in democratizing e-textile design and advancing their use as accessible tools for hybrid fabrication.

Previous work explored techniques for creating woven e-textiles, emphasizing interactive input and output elements. However, the integration of electrical connections and circuitry remains underexplored. Using Research through Design (RtD), we present WovenCircuits, a design-led inquiry into combining traditional weaving methods with computational design on digital Jacquard looms to create woven circuit schematics. Through iterative design experiments, we developed a 3-step process and characterized three fabrication techniques to: 1) weave insulated electrodes, 2) integrate rigid components into fabric, and 3) create woven electrical connections. We further examined their electrical behaviour through key design factors and evaluated the effect of washability on resistance and dimensions. To demonstrate its potential, we designed and built six high-fidelity research products showcasing diverse applications in interactive everyday objects. Finally, we reflect on the design opportunities and limitations of WovenCircuits, contributing to the growing body of knowledge on woven e-textiles.

The ability to create a wide and varied set of interactive textiles depends on the materials that one has available. Currently, the range of yarns that can be used to bring interactivity to textiles is greatly limited, especially considering the diversity available in non-conductive yarns. This pictorial traces a design journey into hand spinning that seeks to address this limitation and contributes samples of techniques and materials that could be used to create conductive yarns along with reflection on design methods that enabled us to explore a wider range of aesthetic expressions. We advocate for an approach that reconnects with the textiles in e-textiles, embraces divergence, and prioritizes the material rather than function as the driver of a design concept. We offer pathways for readers and researchers to continue this exploration within varied domains and practices.

Sustainable HCI (SHCI) Researchers are increasingly attuned to environmental issues in material creation, guided by a posthumanist framework that decentres the human-maker, accounting for nonhuman agencies. Applying ‘noticing’ as a method, we sourced sea-derived matter—often dismissed as waste—to make a tangible material we call SeaFoam; to achieve this, we gathered seaweeds and oyster shells and developed methods and tools in a kitchen-laboratory makerspace. This pictorial documents a design journey that includes a Do-it-Yourself (DIY) process of agar extraction (SeaFoam’s key ingredient) and explorations with oyster powder to enrich SeaFoam’s texture. Through the first author’s autobiographical Research through Design journalling, we reflect on the evolving relationship between human-makers and the ecologies of once-living matter and discuss their potential application in interactive artefacts. This work offers the DIS community an account of first-person methods combined with Material-Driven Methodologies to enrich the possibilities of biomaterial creations for interactive applications.

When designing with and for complex sustainability processes like waste management, it is crucial to understand digital technologies as entangled with broader systemic factors, including physical infrastructures and regulatory instruments. Within the case of organic household waste management, this pictorial aims at making such relations visible through design methods. We have used yarn to represent the different threads of these entanglements and defined specific configurations: tangles, knots, loose ends, and frayed threads. We discuss how the design practice of giving form to these entanglements can make complex relations between digital technology, infrastructures, and regulatory instruments more visible and actionable for HCI, and explore how digital technologies are – and can be – made to work within them.

In this submission, I present my research on the design of technological interventions to enhance self-perceptions of aging (SPA) and the well-being of older adults in India. My work focuses on aging experiences and technology opportunities for older adults in diverse living environments in urban India. These living environments include private homes (aging in place), assisted living townships (retirement homes), and old age institutions. Through interviews, the design of an Aging Reflection Probe Kit and field engagements, I highlight key aspects of SPA among older adults. These include social presence, self-efficacy, activities, age-related transitions, life satisfaction, agency, self-value, age associations, and emotional well-being. I propose a Research through Design (RtD) approach to explore how technological interventions can operationalize SPA theories in HCI and contribute to enhancing older adults’ well-being. In addition, I will examine how older adults in diverse living environments adopt and adapt these technologies and how these interventions shape their aging experiences, environments, and social networks.

“More than 90% of global new settlement needs are unmet” according to UNHCR. Among those displaced are refugees and asylum seekers—seeking new life and opportunities in Australia. Despite challenges in reassimilating into foreign society, some strive to become successful entrepreneurs. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 such refugee and asylum seeker-entrepreneurs in Australia; documenting and mapping their journeys. This pictorial presents a novel annotation tool to present (1) the supporting role of organizations, community, and family in facilitating entrepreneurial success; and (2) the role of digital platforms in self-learning, professional skill development and, achieving business goals. The main contributions of this pictorial highlight emergent strategies that demonstrate the resilience of refugee and asylum seeker entrepreneurs overcoming and navigating extraordinary circumstances. We present a novel analytic mapping tool for researchers and designers to reformat, visualize, and analyse complex participant journeys.

Parents of children with disabilities face significant challenges navigating special education, particularly during Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings with school administration, where they must advocate for their child to receive accommodations. Existing advocacy support methods often exclude families with limited resources. This work aims to design collaborative systems that mitigate or remove advocacy barriers and empower parents. Building on research demonstrating AI’s potential in advocacy and special education, we investigate parents’ interactions with schools, advocacy workflows, perceptions of technology, and visions for AI-based support. Interviews and design probes with 14 parents reveal systemic barriers, including information overload, resource constraints, and inequitable power dynamics with schools. Parents’ feedback suggested infrastructures that foster equitable advocacy through simplifying information, preparing parents via dialogue, and meeting reflection. This study engages with a traditionally underrepresented population and explores how AI can reshape special education advocacy, presenting actionable principles for creating systems focused on parent empowerment.

We examined the accessibility of online information services (OISs) for underserved communities through a user study involving 56 blue collar participants interacting with a website and an app for five tasks. The blue collar participants were generally unsuccessful on both platforms, with 12.7% (n=7) unable to successfully complete any tasks; a hundred percent required at least minor assistance. Participants were also inefficient, taking 28.62 more steps than optimal (143.1%) on the website and 10.41 more steps (47.3%) on the app. Time inefficiency was also noteworthy, with 535.76 more seconds than optimal (248.0%) on the website and 266.55 more seconds (142.4%) on the app. Though still poor, the app yielded better outcomes with higher success rates and usability ratings. Digital proficiency correlated with success on both platforms, which is good news as this is addressable by OIS providers. Qualitative analysis revealed that many in this underserved population were unaware that these valuable OISs were available to them. Findings underscore the need for OIS providers to prioritize targeted outreach to inform underserved communities that OISs are open and welcoming. Designing OISs with accessibility and simplicity targeted for mobile devices is crucial for bridging the digital literacy gap and empowering underserved communities to engage effectively with OISs.

Text-to-image (T2I) generative AI tools like Midjourney are growing in capability and popularity, promising a wide range of applications. However, concerns are rising over the biases in how they represent social concepts like care and the lack of guidance for designers and users to address these in practice. This paper first presents an analysis of 140 “photos of care” generated by Midjourney, and then explores how prompting might influence the results. The findings reveal that AI-generated images reproduce stereotypical and reductive representations of care by default, neglecting the broad spectrums of care practices in everyday life. Furthermore, we find that while prompt engineering might mitigate certain biases, it requires specialised skills, knowledge, and an ongoing reflexive approach to generate meaningful outputs. We conclude by proposing a reflexive prompting framework, and discussing the implications for future T2I evaluation and its responsible use and design.

Digital contraceptives are intimate technologies that support their users, and their partners, in preventing pregnancy. These technologies rely on basal body temperature data to predict ovulation and calculate a fertile window, where there is a risk of pregnancy if partners have unprotected sex. Although their use is shared and relational, these technologies are mainly designed for a primary user — the person who can become pregnant. We turn our attention to secondary users of digital contraception (i.e., sexual partners), specifically, Natural Cycles. We investigate how secondary users are designed for and how primary users imagine them to be. We contribute empirical insights on how secondary users are and are not involved in digital contraception and conclude with three design proposals describing how digital contraception tools could be designed to involve secondary users. We discuss how designing for secondary users of intimate technologies requires balancing their potential as co-users and adversaries.

In an era where technology pervades every aspect of our daily lives, including dining, we grapple with the challenge of harmonizing its immersive nature with the ethos of mindful eating. Despite some strides in designing technologies to support mindful eating, existing efforts remain fragmented and lack a comprehensive grasp of the intricate factors essential for cultivating such dining experiences. This pictorial introduces MindEat! an inventive design framework tailored for designers embarking on the development of technologies that support mindful eating experiences. Similar to the layered composition of a culinary sandwich, each component of this framework encompasses a distinct aspect of mindful eating, deserving careful consideration throughout the design process. By emphasizing metaphorical engagement with mindful eating principles, and practical application in the design process, this framework aims to contribute to the creation of enjoyable health-promoting solutions that resonate with the realities of screen-centric dining cultures.

Feminist research highlights the urgent need to challenge the oppressive design of commercial intimate technologies, particularly how the FemTech industry restricts access to intimate bodily knowledge through paywalls and proprietary systems. Yet, for decades, women and marginalized communities have turned to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) or ‘hacking’ practices to reclaim control over their own gynecology and intimate health, addressing gaps often ignored by medical research and healthcare. Inspired by visual themes from these movements, this pictorial critically explores how designers and HCI researchers might advance DIY approaches to intimate technologies. We exemplify this with reflections from a series of workshops on handmade intimate sensors, and draw out the joyful potential of collaborative making—building alliances, destigmatizing intimate health, and using craft to subvert gender stereotypes. We discuss matters of safety when making together and contribute to ongoing work on building feminist makerspaces.

Drawing on queer and disability theories alongside tangible body mapping techniques, we explore alternative ways of mapping embodied experiences and expressing affective sensations. Our collaborative autoethnographic approach incorporates sensors to trace our somatic experiences over time, pairing visualizations of contextual biodata with personal reflections in written or spoken form. We unpack how these alternative approaches to body mapping support reflecting on, communicating, and deepening understanding of embodied experiences by foregrounding temporal and situated aspects. We offer expanded body mapping methods by sharing a plurality of experiences that embrace queer and crip ways of knowing, foregrounding alternate temporal and spatial representations.

The body technologies we design profoundly influence our somatic experiences, yet they are often evaluated through short-term or one-off studies. To design for sustained, longer-term engagements, we need to understand how somatic experiences evolve when people repeatedly interact with the same technology over time. With this goal, we report on two in-the-wild studies of body sonification, one with physically inactive individuals and another with professional dancers. For one month, participants used SoniBand, a movement sonification wearable, in their daily lives and shared their experiences with us through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Drawing from the concept of trajectories, we identified four temporal patterns that characterized the participants’ evolving experience with SoniBand: singular, sustained, deepening, and meandering. We unpack these temporal trajectories and reflect on the characteristics that may contribute to their emergence. Our findings offer insights for studying and designing future technologies that embrace the dynamic, evolving nature of people’s somatic experiences.

In the context of rising sedentary lifestyles, this paper investigates the efficacy of “Situated Artifacts” in promoting physical activity. We designed two artifacts that display users’ physical activity data within their homes – one physical and one digital. We conducted a 9-week, counterbalanced, within-subject field study with N = 24 participants to assess the impact of these artifacts on physical activity, reflection, and motivation. We collected quantitative data on physical activity and administered daily and weekly questionnaires, employing individual Likert items and standardized instruments, as well as conducted interviews post-prototype usage. Our findings indicate that while both artifacts act as reminders for physical activity, the physical artifact was superior in terms of user engagement. The study revealed that this can be attributed to the higher perceived presence and, thereby, enhanced social interaction, which acts as a motivational source for activity. In this sense, situated artifacts gently nudge toward sustainable health behavior change.

When computing researchers design technologies for vulnerable populations and engage with them over extended periods, researchers may incorporate “care”—deliberate actions to build and maintain relationships with participants—to improve engagement and deepen their understanding of situated perspectives. However, when researchers choose to take actions involving care, these efforts are rarely made explicit. Reflecting on our three-year project of designing and testing a social robot with 31 participants living with dementia, we realized the benefit of intentional reflection on the ethics and practice of care during the research process. We offer “research as care” guidelines into computing design research: 1) viewing participants as individuals, 2) being intentional in the ongoing and dynamic engagement, 3) acknowledging the reciprocity inherent in care, 4) reporting care practices transparently, 5) tailoring care to the specific context, and 6) making an informed choice to incorporate care. By incorporating research as care, computing design researchers can provide a more productive experience for participants and enhance their designs’ overall quality and validity.

HCI and design researchers have designed, adopted, and customized a range of ethics-focused methods to inscribe values and support ethical decision-making in a design process. In this paper, we add to this body of resources, constructing a method that surfaces the designer’s intentions in an action-focused way, encouraging consideration of both manipulative and value-centered designer roles. Anti-Hero is a card deck that allows a designer to playfully take on pairs of manipulative (Anti-Heroes) and value-centered (Heroes) roles during design ideation/conceptualization, evaluation, and ethical dialogue. We illustrate the complexity of our ethics-focused method creation through a Research through Design (RtD) approach, reflecting on our iterative design decisions and outcomes from a playtesting evaluation with student designers. We reflect upon method affordances and performance ambiguities based on playtesting outcomes, indicating important areas of focus in future ethics-focused method creation and evaluation.

Access to justice includes mechanisms enabling people to have their voice heard, exercise their rights, and hold decision-makers accountable. This paper reports on an exploratory study aiming to understand Domestic Abuse (DA) survivors’ experiences of legal journeys through Family Court (FC) and Family Justice Systems (FJS) in England and Wales, and the potential for digital technologies to support their access to justice. We used qualitative methods including interviews and designed prompts to engage eight DA survivors and three Family Court professionals. Designed prompts enabled discussions and articulation of perceptions of socio-technical systems’ potential to support access to justice in FJS. Our findings describe challenges faced by survivors when accessing FJS, participating in proceedings, and living with outcomes stemming from Family Courts processes. We discuss opportunities for digital interventions in these contexts and provide design orientations for relational approaches to design research seeking to advance access to justice for DA survivors across legal jurisdictions.

Energy limiting conditions (ELC), such as long COVID and ME/CFS, require the careful monitoring and pacing of activity and rest to avoid over-exertion. Commercially available fitness tracking technologies are currently being “misused” to manage these conditions. Based on co-design research with people with ELC, we conducted a research-through-design process to ideate upon what ELC pacing technologies could be. Our ongoing design process is informed by crip theories that highlight the social and political, rather than medical, aspects of disability and chronic conditions. In an attempt to offer non-medicalising pacing technologies, we explored integrating bronze casting as a jewelry making technique within the prototyping process. We also explore how we can present quantitative pacing data gathered from wearable sensors through felt vibrations on the body in a way that can be therapeutic and allow for the user to calibrate the quantitative data with their own felt sense of fatigue.

General practitioner (GP) consultations are the typical starting point for a patient’s healthcare journey. Here, GPs aim to support and inform patients to enable a shared decision-making process. In this work we explore how an interactive chatbot, designed to prepare patients for their GP consultation, is perceived by GPs to impact patient consultations, patient-GP interaction, and their work. We conducted an in-depth evaluation and interview with 15 GPs from 12 different practices. Our findings provide insights into common challenges in shared decision-making, GP perspectives on the role of chatbots in preparing patients, and how chatbot technology could impact and transform general practice. Finally, we reflect on patient and GP agency in shared decision-making and the impact of technology on this complex relationship.

We explored the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) to facilitate laypersons’ selection of treatment goals within a complex medical decision-making context. Using ChatGPT-4o, we developed an LLM-enhanced tool to guide users through goal elicitation, clarification, and revision. Our findings demonstrate that LLM features can effectively support these key aspects of decision-making. However, the absence of human interaction, the lack of patient- and context-specific treatment information, and the risk of information overload due to unconstrained access to LLM-generated content present significant risks. To balance the benefits and risks, we propose that LLM-enhanced facilitation tools for asynchronous, independent use should be clinician-initiated, constrain broad information search, and focus on creating a safe space for the exploration of laypersons’ preferences and goals regarding the difficult challenges in balancing treatment and tradeoffs for quality of life.

Mountain huts are buildings in remote mountain areas that depend on local water sources, such as snow, rain, and springs, as they are not connected to centralized water systems. In this pictorial, we report the design process undertaken to explore how data physicalization can communicate the problem of water scarcity in mountain huts with the ultimate goal of encouraging visitors to reduce water usage. The process led to two concepts: one that materializes the impact of each visitor on the water reserve of the hut through a participatory installation, and the other that invites visitors to explore the concept of limit, encouraging reflection on what they are willing to renounce and helping them to make informed choices within tight water constraints. With our work, we aim to contribute to the ongoing efforts in Sustainable HCI to shift the purpose of behavior change from personal gain to the common good.

Design reflects the human tendency to adapt to and inhabit surroundings, with architectural decisions significantly shaping behavioral and cognitive experiences. This pictorial focuses on the floor as a primary, embodied interface in space. To explore its influence, five floor design typologies (completing, switching, zoning, stimulating, and bending) were identified through twenty hours of expert discussions involving architects, designers, an artist, an engineer, and researchers. A collaborative workshop further defined sub-categories via participatory observations. Fieldwork then informed site selection for an observational study, which confirmed the behavioral and cognitive impacts of the identified typologies. Based on these findings, floor codes were developed by shifting the design focus from visual cues to somatic sensations and applied in design scenarios. This research contributes to understanding human experience in architectural environments. It offers insights for virtual architecture, proposing evidence-based strategies for designing personalized and interactive spaces in virtual and mixed-reality contexts.

Performance artforms like Peking opera face transmission challenges due to the extensive passive listening required to understand their nuance. To create engaging forms of experiencing auditory Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), we designed a spatial interaction-based segmented-audio (SISA) Virtual Reality system that transforms passive ICH experiences into active ones. We undertook: (1) a co-design workshop with seven stakeholders to establish design requirements, (2) prototyping with five participants to validate design elements, and (3) user testing with 16 participants exploring Peking Opera. We designed transformations of temporal music into spatial interactions by cutting sounds into short audio segments, applying t-SNE algorithm to cluster audio segments spatially. Users navigate through these sounds by their similarity in audio property. Analysis revealed two distinct interaction patterns (Progressive and Adaptive), and demonstrated SISA’s efficacy in facilitating active auditory ICH engagement. Our work illuminates the design process for enriching traditional performance artform using spatially-tuned forms of listening.

Social virtual reality (VR) encompasses a growing network of three-dimensional virtual worlds where users interact in a shared, embodied way. While research has focused on the social interactions between the users themselves, less is known about how the design of virtual spaces influences these interactions. Our study combines interviews with 15 social VR users logging over 1,000 hours and a 20-hour spatial protocol of a purposeful sampling of VR worlds. We analysed how spatial characteristics (including proportion, sightlines, materiality, atmosphere, and navigation) influence meaningful user interaction to turn space into place. We synthesised four place types for a new social VR typology: Cuddle worlds that encourage cosy conversations; Mingle worlds that facilitate new encounters; Venture worlds that promote exploration; and Guided worlds that elicit a sense of belonging with the online community. By relating architectural affordances to social patterns, we contribute insights towards the purposeful design of social VR places.

This pictorial presents an autobiographical design study of the Blowfish Band, a spiky, inflatable sensory wearable I created and wore as an autistic designer- researcher. Through photography and reflection, I explore how manual inflation and tactile interaction supported unmasking, emotional regulation, and reduced harmful stimming behaviors such as skin- picking. Worn across a range of real-world settings, the band offered a way to reclaim agency over sensory needs, often suppressed to conform to social norms. By documenting changes to my skin and reflecting on the ethical tensions of designing for behavior change, I examine how interaction for self-use can center personal autonomy. This work contributes a first-person perspective on neurodivergent stim experiences with interactive products and proposes that designing for one’s own sensory needs can reveal new possibilities for ethical behavior change in HCI. The pictorial also offers design considerations for wearability, multi-sensory interaction, and manual control to support self-directed, sensory-focused engagement.

Colorimetric biosensors open up possibilities for analyte detection in pet saliva, relevant for various conditions such as bacterial infections and periodontal disease. This paper introduces pawH, colorimetric biosensors embedded in toy form factors for non-invasive pet health monitoring by displaying pH through color changes. We aim to provide easily available and non-invasive access to information typically obtained through veterinary labs. We present the fabrication process of two pet-safe toys: braided toy and ball. The toys’ color changes are analyzed by a portable spectrometer, while our app converts the color readouts to estimated pH values. We performed technical evaluations for color-change response, biosensor concentration, and biosensor reusability. A user study with 11 pairs of human and canine participants was conducted to evaluate usability and pet suitability. By using pets’ natural play behaviors, the toys come into contact with pet saliva, allowing for convenient and non-invasive monitoring of biochemical health in familiar settings and offering a platform for HCI implementations.

Designing superpowers in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), often inspired by science fiction, has garnered increased attention. However, it is important to ask whether such superpower designs might have inherent negative side effects, especially considering that technological advances allow going beyond short demos to integrate these superpowers into everyday life. To understand the positive and negative side effects of superpower design, we created “EmoPals” and studied it in everyday life. EmoPals is a novel system inspired by telepathy, where one user’s emotions are detected through a brain-computer interface and replicated on the other user’s face through electrical muscle stimulation, therefore one user’s happiness makes the other smile and vice versa. A 5-day field study with 12 participants suggests that EmoPals can strengthen emotional connections and facilitate empathy, however, it also highlights the negative side effects of amplifying negative emotions and social discomfort. We propose five design recommendations for designing superpowers that account for negative side effects. Ultimately, we aim to deepen our understanding of superpower design for everyday life.

Effective climate change games must recognize the unique relations various communities have with nature. Further, these serious games must factor how climate change diversely impacts different communities. This paper explores the use of religious narratives and rituals in serious games to communicate the impact of climate change within faith-based communities. The study examines whether integrating religion into serious games can help individuals within these faith-based communities reflect on their connection to the environment and increase their interest in climate change. We present Shloka, a serious game that incorporates Hindu rituals and narratives, to demonstrate how integrating religious elements can amplify situational interest, deepen engagement, and provoke thoughtful reflection on climate change within these communities.

Interactive Play Spaces can support positive behaviour. Play endings, user experience (UX), and replay intention, can play an important role to achieve this. However, the relation between these aspects is underexplored. We explore how different types of endings–open, closed positive (winning), and closed negative (losing)–affect user experience and attitude towards replay in a semi-situated study with 93 adults in a science center. While assigned ending conditions did not significantly influence reported experience, many participants, significantly in the open-ended condition, perceived their assigned ending condition differently. Analysis on these self-reported endings revealed that players who experienced a closed negative ending reported higher Stimulation (UEQ). Additionally, user experience dimensions (Attractiveness, Dependability, Stimulation) and Positive Affect (I-PANAS-SF) positively related to attitude towards replay. These findings provide insights into the relation between play endings, UX and attitude towards replay, and highlight the importance of inquiring about experienced experimental conditions in user research.

Learning to solve a Rubik’s Cube requires the learners to repeatedly practice a skill component, e.g., identifying a misplaced square and putting it back. However, for 3D physical tasks such as this, generating sufficient repeated practice opportunities for learners can be challenging, in part because it is difficult for novices to reconfigure the physical object to specific states. We propose Rubikon, an intelligent tutoring system for learning to solve the Rubik’s Cube. Rubikon reduces the necessity for repeated manual configurations of the Rubik’s Cube without compromising the tactile experience of handling a physical cube. The foundational design of Rubikon is an AR setup, where learners manipulate a physical cube while seeing an AR-rendered cube on a display. Rubikon automatically generates configurations of the Rubik’s Cube to target learners’ weaknesses and help them exercise diverse knowledge components. In a between-subjects experiment, we showed that Rubikon learners scored 25% higher on a post-test compared to baselines.

Long-distance relationships (LDRs) have become more common in the last few decades, primarily among young adults pursuing educational or employment opportunities. A common way for couples in LDRs to spend time together is by playing multiplayer video games, which are often a shared hobby and therefore a preferred joint activity. However, games are relatively understudied in the context of relational maintenance for LDRs. In this work, we used a mixed-methods approach to collect data on the experiences of 13 couples in LDRs who frequently play games together. We investigated different values around various game mechanics and modalities and found significant differences in couple play styles, and also detail how couples appropriate game mechanics to express affection to each other virtually. We also created prototypes and design implications based on couples’ needs surrounding the lack of physical sensation and memorabilia storage in most popular games.

Surfing is not just a sport; it is a playful water activity rich in culture. Prior interaction design work to support surfers has mostly focused on improving performance; yet emphasizing performance misses the experiential value of play and enjoyment, which is under-investigated. To explore this opportunity, we engaged in a soma design process resulting in two prototypes, an actuating wearable top and an octopus-inspired soft robot, aiming to facilitate a playful experience to enrich surfing. We conducted an exploratory study with eight surfers in a swimming pool (acknowledging safety but also limitations). Through thematic analysis of interviews, we found three themes that supported the idea that the design features of the prototypes have the potential to enrich surfing. Moreover, adopting a postphenomenological lens, we investigate the Human-Technology-Water relations to understand the role of interactive technology during surfing and propose five design strategies that researchers can consider to develop future designs for the experiential aspects of surfing.

Over the past century, office desks have evolved with technological advancements, yet they have largely overlooked individual user preferences and diverse body types. Traditionally, desks remain static objects, forcing users to adapt their workspaces around them. This research explores how mobile desks can offer a more flexible and adaptive solution. We developed RolliDesk, a mobile desk capable of automatically moving within the workspace. Our open-source desk kit enables researchers to make desks mobile using off-the-shelf electronics and 3D printing. In a mixed-methods study (n = 21), we compared three desk configurations: manually controlled via a crank, control panel-operated, and automatically adaptive. Participants found the manual desk creepy, while the automatic desk was considered the most useful, particularly for promoting healthier office habits. This paper contributes RolliDesk’s design and practical insights for advancing reconfigurable and adaptive workstations.

Knowledge workers face increasing challenges in managing numerous digital tasks, often leading to long task lists that distract from completing the most important ones. We present AIRbar, a task management tool designed to enhance Awareness, Intention, and Retrospection (AIR) in daily task management. AIRbar prompts workers to prioritize a maximum of three daily tasks, displays them in an always-on glanceable widget, and facilitates end-of-day reflection to improve task completion and self-awareness. In a 4-week field study with 35 participants, we found that AIRbar increased task completion rates, improved focus and motivation, and positively influenced perceptions of work processes. These findings suggest that limiting the number of tasks and ensuring continuous visibility of priorities can address key challenges in modern task management, providing actionable insights for designing future task management systems.

In open-plan offices, face-to-face (F2F) interruptions frequently occur to facilitate collaboration and cooperation with colleagues. We designed Pati & Bellio to support the coordination of F2F interruptions in open-plan offices. Pati is a partition-style personal device that visualizes availability for F2F interruptions and Bellio is a shared interface that allows users to send notifications to their colleagues from a distance. Our three-week in field study with four groups of participants reveals that examining the process of F2F interruptions helps determine the importance of the interruption, and the physical distance provided by Pati and Bellio naturally allowed time to prepare for conversations. We also identified how the visualized availability is considered after an interruption begins. Our findings imply considerations in designing systems to support coordinating social interaction in work environments.

The rise of Generative AI (GenAI) presents a paradigm shift in knowledge work. To examine its impact on productivity, we conducted seven focus groups (n=37) with employees across diverse job functions in an enterprise setting, where workers engaged with a large language model (LLM) embedded in a suite of productivity applications. Our study identified four categories of GenAI-facilitated work activities: information management, content generation, problem solving, and communication and collaboration. These findings offer a grounded framework of GenAI-enabled practices for both researchers and practitioners, while also surfacing key challenges in realizing GenAI’s promised productivity gains. Beyond conventional metrics like time savings or output volume, participants attributed productivity improvements to time redistribution, enhanced decision-making, and reduced reliance on traditional intermediaries. We contribute actionable insights for designing GenAI systems that support context-aware productivity in the evolving landscape of knowledge work.