People's annotations on books can serve as valuable traces for people to revisit their past thoughts, emotions, and other experiences. For e-books, however, the lack of physicality and their e-reading infrastructure make it difficult for people to revisit them as these traces continue to accumulate in digital archives. In this paper, we describe the design and deployment of Quologue, an LLM-powered web application that allows users to reconnect with their e-book highlights through ongoing dialogue and stepwise interactions. We conducted a field study with 10 participants over 8 weeks. Our aim was to investigate the reflective and self-expressive potentialities of personal e-book metadata; and to learn about any opportunities and tensions that emerge from surfacing one's data with a generative AI model. Findings revealed that Quologue generated diverse reflective experiences and influenced participants’ current digital highlighting practices. We conclude with implications and opportunities for future HCI studies and practice.

As digital photos grow exponentially, people need new approaches to engage with their photos over time. We describe our study of PhotoClock, a mobile application that leverages the temporal metadata embedded in digital photos to encourage contemplation of memories bound up in one's photo archive. PhotoClock uses the clock-time of the present moment to re-present one's photos taken around that same time of the day in the past. As time ticks away relentlessly, PhotoClock highlights the ephemeral and ongoing quality of time. We conducted the field study with 12 participants over 8 weeks. Our goals are: (i) to investigate the reflective potential of clock-time as an alternative design approach for supporting memory-oriented photo interaction, and (ii) to explore conceptual propositions related to slowness and temporality. Findings revealed that PhotoClock generated diverse and reflective experiences on participants’ life stories. We conclude with implications and opportunities for future HCI and design research.

We describe a field study of Chronoscope, a tangible photo viewer that lets people revisit and explore their digital photos with the support of temporal metadata. Chronoscope offers different temporal modalities for organizing one's personal digital photo archive, and for exploring possible connections in and across time, and among photos and memories. We deployed four Chronoscopes in four households for three months to understand participants’ experiences over time. Our goals are to investigate the reflective potential of temporal modalities as an alternative design approach for supporting memory-oriented photo exploration, and empirically explore conceptual propositions related to slow technology. Findings revealed that Chronoscope catalyzed a range of reflective experiences on their respective life histories and life stories. It opened up alternative ways of considering time and the potential longevity of personal photo archives. We conclude with implications to present opportunities for future HCI research and practice.

The spread of COVID-19 has encouraged the practice of using video conferencing for family doctor appointments. Existing applications and off-the-shelf devices face challenges in dealing with capturing the correct view of patients' bodies and supporting ease of use. We created Dr.’s Eye, a video conferencing prototype to support varying types of body exams in home settings. With our prototype, we conducted a study with participants using mock appointments to understand the simultaneous use of the camera and display and to get insights into the issues that might arise in real doctor appointments. Results show the benefits of providing more flexibility with a decoupled camera and display, and privacy protection by limiting the camera view. Yet, challenges remain in maneuvering two devices, presenting feedback for the camera view, coordinating camera work between the participant and the examiner, and reluctance towards showing private body regions. This inspires future research on how to design a video system for doctor appointments.

This paper presents a long-term field study of the coMorphing stool: a computational thing that can change shape in response to the surrounding light. We deployed 5 coMorphing stools to 5 participants' homes over 9 months. As co-speculators, the participants reflected on their mediated relations with the coMorphing stool. Findings suggest that they perceived the subtle transformations of the coMorphing stool in the early days of the deployment. After becoming familiar with these features, they interpreted their daily entanglements with the coMorphing stool in diverse personalized ways. Over time, the co-speculators accepted the coMorphing stool as part of their homes. These findings contribute new empirical insights to the shape-changing research field in HCI and enrich discussions on higher-level concepts in postphenomenology. Reflecting on these experiences promotes further HCI explorations on computational things.

HCI research on shape change has highlighted the importance of materiality and temporality in design practice. However, little research has addressed the challenges of tailoring these qualities for everyday interactions with a shape-changing artifact. In this paper, we report from a designer-researcher perspective into the crafting of deformTable: a shape-changing form that responds to the weight of objects placed on its surface. We crafted 5 deformTables over 18 months with special attention given to the physical, temporal, and computational aspects. Specifically, we describe how we focused on speed adjustments and response times in the process to frame the temporal expressions of computing; we also discuss how the material and tools helped shape our decisions in the context of the materiality of computing. This study contributes an RtD case of designing a particular shape-changing artifact through the lens of temporality and materiality to support long-term engagements and everyday interactions.

People’s daily experiences and the environments they inhabit have become saturated with digital devices and systems. With this shift, new concerns have emerged across the HCI community over the rol...

In this pictorial, we present critical reflections on the design process of crafting the deformTable. The table is a shape-changing device that can go up and down based on the weight of objects placed on it. This pictorial focuses on key design decisions in the making of a shape-changing artifact like the deformTable that explores how deformability, temporality, and materiality can encourage creative appropriations over time. We believe this pictorial contributes to how to design research products that can investigate shape-changing artifacts in everyday settings over time.

Research into shape-changing and deformable artifacts that explore novel interactions has been growing in design and HCI. Yet, there is little discussion on the design processes behind these approaches and in particular, a theoretical understanding of materiality that is central to deformation. Informed by Wiberg's compositional interaction design, we contribute an investigation into supporting long-term relations with deformation: the transTexture lamp. Specifically, we crafted a dynamic physical form with materials at hand. We instantiated the materiality of interaction being designed as a computational whole. Reflecting on our theory-informed RtD process enriched our understanding of compositional interaction design. These reflections on our design approach may benefit further explorations into the intersections between materiality, longevity, and actuality in the context of design-oriented HCI.

We describe a long-term field study of Olo Radio, a music player that lets people re-experience digital music they have listened to previously. Olo Radio offers different 'timeframe modes' for organizing one's personal listening history data, and for exploring possible connections among songs and across time. We deployed 5 Olo Radios in 5 households for 8 months to understand participants' experiences over time. Our goals are to: (i) investigate the reflective potentialities of personal data for memory- oriented music listening and (ii) empirically explore conceptual propositions related to slow technology. Findings revealed Olo Radio became highly integrated in participants lives and triggered reflection on past life experiences. They also showed that Olo Radio was perceived to subtly change over time, and open up different ways of experiencing time. Findings are interpreted to present opportunities for future HCI research and practice.

This paper provides a materiality perspective to understanding lived experiences with a deformable domestic artefact, named transTexture lamp. The lamp is an interactive light with a deformable lampshade surface. We deployed transTexture lamps in the homes of three professional designers for two months with the aim of exploring possible interactions and engagements with the deformable lamp. Our findings show how participants experienced transTexture through pleasurable interactions and how they experienced deformation over time from reflections on these interactions. Analyzing the data through a materiality lens unpacked a creative process of drawing on the deformable lampshade surface, which results in the accumulation of substrates and transformations of deformations. These findings suggest opportunities for future material-centered interaction design research and practices in HCI.

With the massive proliferation of digital photos, new approaches are needed to enable people to engage with their vast photo archives over time. We describe the Research through Design process of Chronoscope, a domestic technology that leverages temporal metadata embedded in digital photos as a resource to encourage more temporally diverse, rich, and open-ended experiences when re-visiting one's personal digital photo archive. We unpack and reflect on design choices that made use of digital photo metadata to support new ways of interacting with personal photo archives through and across time. We conclude with opportunities for future HCI research and practice.

Motivated by prior work on everyday creativity, we adopt a design-oriented approach seeks to move beyond designing for explicit interactions to also include the implicit, incremental and, at times even, unknowing encounters that slowly emerge among people, technologies, and artifacts over time. We contribute an investigation into designing for slowness grounded in the practice of making a design artifact called Slow Game. We offer a detailed critical-reflective accounting of our process of making Slow Game into a research product. In attending to key design moves across our process, we reveal hidden challenges in designing slow technology research products and discuss how our findings can be mobilized in future work.

We describe the design and deployment of Olly, a domestic music player that enables people to re-experience digital music they listened to in the past. Olly uses its owner's Last.FM listening history metadata archive to occasionally select a song from their past, but offers no user control over what is selected or when. We deployed Olly in 3 homes for 15 months to explore how its slow pace might support experiences of reflection and reminiscence. Findings revealed that Olly became highly integrated in participants lives with sustained engagement over time. They drew on Olly to reflect on past life experiences and reactions indicated an increase in perceived value of their Last.FM archive. Olly also provoked reflections on the temporalities of personal data and technology. Findings are interpreted to present opportunities for future HCI research and practice.