Airbnb is well known for providing guests with local experiences by regular people worldwide. Many pioneer hosts experiment with emerging smart products to improve guests’ experiences. However, these initial efforts often merely provide functionality, neglecting to offer guests authentic experiences motivated by hosts’ authenticity. We addressed this gap by using bespoke design methods to understand hosts’ stories and co-develop interaction concepts that can express their authenticity and fit their Airbnb. We implemented a set of Digital Concierges (DCs) and deployed them in a real Airbnb to investigate guests’ experiences. Our results show that our design enhanced guests’ sense of welcome, fostered their discovery with serendipitous cues, and built richer connections with the host and locals. We concluded with the design implications of co-designing artifacts to embody hosts’ authenticity and use multiple modalities to enhance perceived authentic experiences. Most importantly, we shared our insights about working with hosts as co-creators.

A rising number of HCI scholars have begun to use materiality as a starting point for exploring the design's potential and restrictions. Despite the theoretical flourishing, the practical design process and instruction for beginner practitioners are still in scarcity. We leveraged the pictorial format to illustrate our crafting process of Puffy, a bio-inspired artifact that features a cilia-mimetic surface expressing anthropomorphic qualities through shape changes. Our approach consists of three key activities (i.e., analysis, synthesis, and detailing) interlaced recursively throughout the journey. Using this approach, we analyzed different input sources, synthesized peers’ critiques and self-reflection, and detailed the designed experience with iterative prototypes. Building on a reflective analysis of our approach, we concluded with a set of practical implications and design recommendations to inform other practitioners to initiate their investigations in interactive materiality.

Hearing loss is an emerging health challenge, but very few people check their hearing periodically. Unidentified hearing loss can lead to depression and social isolation. To improve public awareness of hearing health, we design an interactive testing system for being used in public spaces. It aims to create unexpected encounters with users and engage them in examining their hearing health regularly. We conducted two evaluations and reported the results in this paper. Firstly, we compared the hearing test results of our design and the conventional audiometry testing. The correlation is 0.78 on average. Secondly, we evaluated the user experience with 12 visitors in an art museum. The nature sounds and interactive design provided users a feeling of calm and made the testing an engaging experience. Meanwhile, the visualization triggered users’ discussions and reflections on the testing results. Overall, our design shows the potentials in raising people’s awareness of hearing health.

Connected products and systems are becoming popular, but they seldom provide direct and intuitive communication to the users. In this study, we applied Disney's animation principles to design the expressivity with LED lights and speakers commonly embedded in electronic devices. We explored the subtle transitions of brightness and controlled the timing to compose individual and system-level behaviors with multiple devices. The designs were evaluated and improved through three iterations. In the main study, we recruited 16 designer participants to investigate whether lights and sounds could be intuitively interpreted as what the system wanted to convey. The result shows that group light behaviors could evoke meanings that are highly similar to the intents of the system. When the acoustic accompaniments were provided, participants could better perceive the presence of devices. We concluded with six sets of light behaviors that are capable of expressing smart devices and systems' intents intuitively and unobtrusively.

Our current project involves the development of a wristband-mounted sensor that is meant to function as an alcohol use monitoring system. This paper focuses on the degree to which physical activity influences ethanol concentrations in the vapor secreted from the skin through collecting data from seven recruited participants when they conducting one designated activity, which could presumably affect the accuracy of detection results. We proposes a preliminary design of building a personal alcohol tracking system that can improve the reliability and affordability of current transdermal ethanol tracking devices to accommodate potential interferences presented in daily life and be intuitive to be used to raise the awareness of alcohol use.

Digital devices and intelligent systems are becoming popular and ubiquitous all around us. However, they seldom provide sufficient feed-forwards and feedbacks to reassure users as to their current status and indicate what actions they are about to perform. In this study, we selected and analyzed nine concept videos on future IoT products/systems. Through systematic analysis of the interactions and communications of users with the machines and systems demonstrated in the films, we extracted 38 design vocabulary items and clustered them into 12 groups: Active, Request, Trigger functions, Approve, Reject, Notify, Recommend, Guide, Show problems, Express emotions, Exchange info, and Socialize. This framework can not only inspire designers to create self-explanatory intelligence, but also support developers to provide a language structure at different levels of the periphery of human attention. Through the enhancement of situated awareness, human IoT system interaction can become more seamless and graceful.