This research explores the materialization of hormonally influenced sensations related to intimate health through interactive design. Drawing on critical menstruation studies, it reacts to how menstruation has been historically silenced, stigmatized, and framed as dysfunction, leading to disembodiment and emotional disconnection. We propose an introspection and translation of hormonal sensations into tangible, visible, and audible material expressions, namely that are, interactive felt-sensation pillows enhanced with embedded technologies such as heating elements, vibration modules, and sound. These multisensory artefacts externalize intimate experiences, encouraging selfreflection, and bodily awareness. By making the invisible perceptible, the project challenges dominant narratives of shame and introduces new ways of learning and relating to the hormonal body. This work contributes to the feminist design discourse by proposing a re-embodied, empowered approach to menstruation and hormonal life through material and sensory expression.

Abstract In this paper, we investigate how everyday playfulness can create opportunities for agonism. Playfulness and agonism have only rarely intersected in HCI research, such as using game design elements in Agonistic Participatory Design, or proposing agonism as a theoretical foundation for Political Play. Building on these foundations, our work aims to broaden the design space where playfulness and agonism meet. Drawing on methods from Situated and Emergent Play, we created a design intervention that prompted reflection and empathy among participants, while establishing a shared understanding of the latent conflict the intervention aimed to address. Based on our findings, we propose considerations for designers seeking to use playfulness to create opportunities for agonism. Grounded in Situated and Emergent Play, we furthermore contribute the method of tracing frictions, which offers a new avenue for designing at the intersection of playfulness and agonism.

In face-to-face communication, people can often achieve empathy by understanding the explicit and implicit emotions shared through body-language, word usage, and tone. But in digital communication it becomes difficult to share or identify these (non)verbal cues, especially after ambiguous conversation starters such as “hey, can we talk?” are sent. In this paper, we explore how a tangible artefact could enhance empathy in text-based communication by physically sharing implicit emotional feedback. We conducted two workshops to understand the emotions involved in ambiguous conversation starters and how they can be expressed through an artefact. These workshops resulted in a prototype of a phone case that sends the sender of a text message the initial implicit emotional reaction of the receiver using haptic patterns to inform the receiver how best to proceed. This paper concludes by discussing the nuances of designing for emotions in text-based communication as well as suggestions for future work.

Living dislocated from family, friends or partners can result in negative emotions and a lack of physical, bodily closeness. We focus on materialising the negative consequences associated with living far apart in a textile form, and manifest those in two pairs of wearable artefacts: first, WARMTH, which simulates the bodily distance between remote people through a decrease in felt temperature, and second, BREATH, which embodies the bodily absence of a remote other through a decline in mechanical movement of textiles. The wearables are ‘discussion artefacts’ that enable conversation about, reflection on and exchange of personal, negative, vulnerable and challenging emotions connected to living far apart. The stance taken in this pictorial emphasises the necessity to focus not only on overcoming and bridging the distance between remote people through interactive artefacts; but also, to consider and manifest melancholic and possibly negative personal experiences.

Games are a great objective for research on tangible and embodied interaction as they not only have a long tradition in both the analogue and the digital game domain; they also perfectly represent the tangible and the embodiment through the nature of game play. In this Studio, we will go beyond the analogue characteristics of board games, not just by adding a visual digital layer, but by examining new game play mechanics for board games through digital technology. We will do this by introducing a new role in board games as an immersed 'character' in the game. For this, we use a very specific technology (virtual reality live streaming from a miniature perspective) as a new lens on (existing) board games. Through experimentation with and exploration of existing board games through this new lens, we will conceptualize and prototype game play mechanics for this new notion of game participation.

This paper examines the effects of social gaze regarding social presence in an on-line collaborative game setting. We propose a novel approach of integrating gaze-based interactions in social settings by augmenting social gaze-based behaviors (e.g., joint attention, mutual gaze, etc.) through interaction mechanics and visualizations. In detail, we want to find out if players experience a higher degree of social presence (co-presence, psycho-behavioral interactions) in our social gaze-supported approach in comparison to settings that either only include basic (i.e., gaze is integrated without taking any social behavior into account) or no gaze features. To get answers, we conducted an experiment consisting of a collaborative 3D game prototype for two players with three different conditions (gaze, social gaze, no gaze). Furthermore, players were confronted with three construction challenges that had to be solved cooperatively. Our study findings highlight the positive influence of social gaze on the perceived social presence. The inclusion of social gaze features received better ratings on both social presence sub-scales. With the gathered results we want to provide insights for game designers and researchers regarding the inclusion of social gaze-based interaction in remote and cooperative gaming settings.

Gaze is an important aspect in social communication. In this paper we present a first exploration of visualizing gaze in the co-located physical world. LaserViz augments gaze in the physical world by means of an eye-tracking enabled wearable device that laser beams the gaze position to real world objects. Based on an initial prototype, we explored the effects of shared gaze through a collaborative as well as a competitive scenario in a co-located setting. This paper discusses the insights and implications following these explorations for the concept of shared gaze in the co-located physical world.

This paper investigates the effects of a shared gaze visualization regarding social presence in an online competitive game setting. We investigate if the incorporation of gaze interaction among different competitive game genres would influence the perceived social presence for the players. To find answers to our research question we created an experimental setting that is based on two game genres that require strategic skills (i.e., a turn-based strategy game) and motoric skills (i.e., a real-time first person shooter). Our study findings highlight the positive influence of a shared gaze visualization on competitive play. Further, the studied game genres have a significant influence on the perceived social presence. With our findings we want to provide insights for game designers and researchers regarding the inclusion of gaze-based interaction in remote gaming settings.

Interaction environments are characterized by their spatial properties, which guide, direct, and provide an opportunity to become a place for social encounters. For example, the car cabin comprises properties such as a special seating arrangement and hence physical barriers between the back and front row. In emphasizing notions of "space" and "place", we present an initial study on how such spatial properties of the car cabin shape passenger collaboration. With this, we contribute to a better understanding of the automotive design space beyond driver and co-driver positions. In an exploratory lab study with 56 participants we observed collaborative practices in a hardware mock-up of an actual car. We found that social practices in cars need to be understood as connected to their inherent spatial manifestations, which are constraining and concurrently constituting them. We reflect upon the driver position as "the crux of the matter", the meanings people ascribe to particular positions, and how we can use this knowledge to inform automotive interaction design.

Handheld touch screen based devices, such as smartphones or tablets, typically provide limited haptic feedback. On cur- rent devices, what is visually perceived and what is tactile and kinesthetically felt is semantically uncoupled. In order to improve embodied interaction on handheld screen based devices, new ways to provide richer haptic feedback are re- quired. In this paper, we present TorqueScreen, a prototypi- cal system combining a handheld touch screen device (i.e., a tablet) with an actuated flywheel capable of imposing angular momentum onto the tablet. The TorqueScreen design allows interlinking the movement and physics of virtual objects on the screen with the torque as haptic output imposed on the tablet. We describe the design and implementation of the de- vice, illustrate the resulting design space, and discuss future improvements and potential applications.

In order to envision novel in-car user interfaces, it is important to investigate driver and passenger behavior as well as to identify relevant context factors that influence this behavior. Automotive user interfaces are often concentrated on drivers and their needs, whereas passengers and their needs are paid little attention to. In this paper we report on a probing study, which aimed at revealing novel design ideas for interfaces for both, car drivers and passengers. The overall goal of the study was to get inspired by actual driver and passenger behavior. In particular, we investigated past behaviors and what we can learn from these episodes for automotive interface design. We illustrate the user-centered process of generating innovative design concepts for the automotive domain based on the results of the probing study. Additionally, we introduce three resulting design concepts by means of design sketches and textual descriptions to provide insights on the concrete results of our efforts. We discuss probing as a method to generate novel design ideas for the automotive UI community and reflect on the three emerged design concepts which focus on collaboration, behavior change, and entertainment in the car.