Most robotics frameworks classify robot appearance into three morphological categories: 1) anthropomorphic, 2) zoomorphic, and 3) technical, while often overlooking a fourth category: artefactinspired robots. In this scoping review, we foreground this underrepresented category, bringing together research that exemplifies it as an alternative design strategy, challenging the assumed inevitability of the three established robot design morphologies. The review offers an overview of artefact-inspired robots, contributing insights on the types of artefacts the robots were inspired by, the output modalities they primarily use to communicate, and an analysis of the visibility of the robotic capabilities based on affordances. Through this work, we invite scholars and practitioners to expand the design space of robot appearance by drawing inspiration from the forms and materialities of domestic objects, moving towards robots that blend more seamlessly into everyday environments.

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.

This pictorial review illustrates an array of visual strategies employed in 271 pictorials published in DIS, C&C, and TEI conferences between 2014 and 2023. Based on a thematic analysis the pictorial review presents the visual strategies under seven analytical themes: 1) composition, 2) typography, 3) colour, 4) drawing attention, 5) visual style, 6) active engagement, and 7) visual related work. The review focuses on strategies for communicating research visually, rather than the content and contribution of the reviewed pictorials. The review outlines both basic graphical principles, as well as novel use of visual elements. The pictorial is the first attempt at a visual analysis of the pictorial format, offering authors of future pictorials, both an overview of the development of the format, as well as inspiration for new ways to complement text with visual content. Lastly, the challenges and future potentials which emerged from the review are discussed.

Affordances is an important term in the field of Shape-Changing Interfaces (SCI). But the field is challenged by a multitude of vaguely defined concepts around affordances such as dynamic, spatial, or tactile affordances. In line with this, Alexander et al [1] recently pointed to lack of theory as one of the grand challenges for SCI. This paper proposes a re-analysis of Gibson for resolving the conceptual cacophony in the field of SCI. Essential to the ecological approach to affordances, is that perception is dynamic and people pick up information through exploring objects and environments over time. From this perspective, affordances of Shape-Changing Interfaces become a matter of providing Information - through the design - regarding a) the interfaces' ability to transform its shape and b) how movement suggests level of animacy. Through analyzing scholarly SCI prototypes, from this perspective, we provide an initial set of design strategies for affordances of shape-changing interfaces.

A core challenge in tabletop research is to support transitions between individual activities and team work. Shape-changing tabletops open up new opportunities for addressing this challenge. However, interaction design for shape-changing furniture is in its early stages - so far, research has mainly focused on triggering shape-changes, and less on the actual interface transitions. We present KirigamiTable - a novel actuated shape-changing tabletop for supporting transitions in collaborative work. Our work builds on the concept of Proxemic Transitions, considering the dynamic interplay between social interactions, interactive technologies and furniture. With KirigamiTable, we demonstrate the potential of interactions for proxemic transitions that combine transformation of shape and digital contents. We highlight challenges for shape-changing tabletops: initiating shape and content transformations, cooperative control, and anticipating shape-change. To address these challenges, we propose a set of novel interaction techniques, including shape-first and content-first interaction, cooperative gestures, and physical and digital preview of shape-changes.

Kirigami Actuators are two-dimensional patterns that allow the translation of a simple actuation in one dimension into a complex transformation in another. Kirigami Actuators represent one metamaterial strategy that designers of Shape-changing Interfaces could utilize to minimize the size and complexity costs of actuation. Metamaterials yield great promise for HCI and Shape-changing Interfaces in particular. In an effort to reveal the promise of Kirigami Actuators for the design of Shape-changing Interfaces, this pictorial presents several design tactics for a specific Kirigami Actuator: The Lift pattern. These tactices outline how different components of the pattern can be changed to strategically alter the transformational qualities of the pattern. Initial concept sketches are presented as inspiration for future work.

Despite the advantages of tangible interaction, physical controls like knobs seem to be disappearing from a wide range of products in our everyday life. The work presented in this paper explores how physical controls can become dynamic, in terms of both shape, and haptic force feedback. The paper contains two strands of work: First, we present a study that explores the relationship between haptic force feedback and different knob shapes, evaluating twelve distinct haptic stimuli in relation to six widely used knob shapes. Second, based on the insights collected in the study, we present the design of DynaKnob, a shape changing knob that can change between four different knob shapes. DynaKnob illustrates how dynamic content control, can be combined with dynamic shape and force feedback. Both the study and the design of DynaKnob contribute to understanding how adaptive physical interface controls could be designed in the future.

Shape-changing interfaces allow designers to create user interfaces that physically change shape. However, presently, we lack studies of how such interfaces are designed, as well as what high-level strategies, such as metaphors and affordances, designers use. This paper presents an analysis of sketches made by 21 participants designing either a shape-changing radio or a shape-changing mobile phone. The results exhibit a range of interesting design elements, and the analysis points to a need to further develop or revise existing vocabularies for sketching and analyzing movement. The sketches show a prevalent use of metaphors, say, for communicating volume though big-is-on and small-is-off, as well as a lack of conventions. Furthermore, the affordances used were curiously asymmetrical compared to those offered by non-shape-changing interfaces. We conclude by offering implications on how our results can influence future research on shape-changing interfaces.

Despite an increasing number of examples of shape-changing interfaces, the relation between users' actions and product movements has not gained a great deal of attention, nor been very well articulated. This paper presents a framework articulating the level of control offered to the user over the shape change. The framework considers whether the shape change is: 1) directly controlled by the user's explicit interactions; 2) negotiated with the user; 3) indirectly controlled by the users actions; 4) fully controlled by the system. The four types are described through design examples using ReFlex, a shape-changing interface in the form of a smartphone. The paper concludes that shape-changing interfaces tend to assign the control to either the user or the underlying system, while few (e.g. [16,28]) consider sharing the control between the user and the system.

In the materials sciences there are great expectations for how future nano-scale materials such as Graphene point towards a merging between digital and physical materials unseen before. This in turn provides new opportunities for framing open-ended and constructive play. To explore these opportunities we have conducted a large-scale workshop where several hundred children built music instruments using "conductive Lego" in the form of Lego bricks, copper tape, Makey Makey boards and a PC providing musical instrument sounds. Based on experiences from the workshop we conclude that emerging materials can provide multiple entry points into constructive play. However, we highlight that it is key to find appropriate sweet spots between structured and free play in order to engage children in meaningful activities. We provide a set of concepts serving as analytic lenses for reasoning about such sweet spots.

Using game elements and mechanics in sports training holds great potential for increasing player enjoyment, but also introduces a risk of reducing training relevance. This paper describes a novel training installation for individual handball training, called "The Bouncer", and the design process behind three training games. In order to investigate how game elements can affect the training experience, we conducted a study with 10 experienced amateur handball players, eliciting responses regarding the training relevance of the games. Based on the study and our design insights, we propose three challenges that designers of interactive sports-training games need to consider: 1) Maintaining relevance when translating physical elements into digital representations. 2) Choosing an appropriate level of sensing as game input. 3) Introducing points in training exercises without reducing sport relevance. For the three challenges, we propose strategies to help future designers of training games.

This paper presents the design and development process of an interactive football-training game that aims to improve players' ball-handling skills, and their ability to simultaneously survey the playing field. A small-scale experiment was conducted to test the game, and the results are presented and reflected upon. Based on the experiences gained from the design and development process, as well as examples from the existing field and skill acquisition theory, we present three areas of interest to consider for interactive sport-training game designers: Context Characteristics, Movement Patterns and Perceptual Reaction. From a discussion of these areas, we derive eight design sensitivities that emphasize issues, challenges and opportunities, important for the design, development and analysis of interactive sport-training games in general.

In this paper we describe results from testing coMotion, a shape-changing bench, in three different contexts: a concert hall foyer, an airport departure hall and a shopping mall. We have gathered insights from more than 120 people, with regard to how users experience and make sense of the bench's shape changing capability. The paper applies McCarthy and Wright's six different sense making processes (anticipating, connecting, interpreting, reflecting, appropriating and recounting) as an instrument to analyse people's experience with shape-changing furniture in the wild. The paper also introduces exploring as a seventh sense making process. Based on this analysis, the paper points to three relevant aspects when designing shape-changing artefacts for the wild, namely: 1) Affordance of shape-changing interfaces, 2) Transitions between background and foreground and 3) Interpreting physically dynamic objects.

In this paper we introduce coMotion, a shape-changing bench. We explore how physical changes of the bench can shape social situations and how contextual atmospheres may affect users' experience of the shape-changing bench and its surroundings. The bench was tested in three different contexts; a concert hall, an airport and a shopping mall. We gathered insights from more than 120 people, as they unexpectedly encountered the shape changing capabilities of the bench. By taking the user tests out of the lab and into the wild, we explored the influence of context on the users experience of a shape-changing interface, as well as on the experienced atmospheres.

The field of interaction design is littered with examples of artefacts, which seemingly do not adhere to well-known physical causalities and our innate expectations of how artefacts should behave in the world, thereby creating the impression of a magic reality; where things can float in mid-air, the usually inanimate TV can become animate, two separate objects can become physically connected, and we can move objects with our mind. The paper presents Subbotsky's [21] four types of magical causalities: mind-over-matter magic, animation magic, nonpermanence magic and sympathetic magic, as a way to reflect upon the magical realities constructed by technological artefacts.

Following the research field of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), we explore and expand upon the notion of media richness. We consider the term outside its ordinary domain of conventional communication mediums, such as email, phone or video calls. We focus on minimal communication, and the qualities of suggestive interactions that mediate communication. We introduce Knock-Knock as a novel, shape-changing communication medium, and use it as a rhetorical tool to reflect upon the notion of media richness. In doing so, we highlight the value of meaning and language creation that suggestive communication mediums make possible. Finally, we propose three directions for the future evaluation of the richness experienced in communication, mediated by suggestive communication artefacts.

Shape change is increasingly used in physical user interfaces, both as input and output. Yet, the progress made and the key research questions for shape-changing interfaces are rarely analyzed systematically. We review a sample of existing work on shape-changing interfaces to address these shortcomings. We identify eight types of shape that are transformed in various ways to serve both functional and hedonic design purposes. Interaction with shape-changing interfaces is simple and rarely merges input and output. Three questions are discussed based on the review: (a) which design purposes may shape-changing interfaces be used for, (b) which parts of the design space are not well understood, and (c) why studying user experience with shape-changing interfaces is important.