Animal behavior (ethology) has emerged as a promising source of inspiration for social robot design. However, existing efforts have commonly resulted in isolated design instances. Our high-level understanding of the design processes for integrating ethological insights into social robot design and evaluation remains limited. To address this gap, we conducted a two-step investigation. First, we developed a stage-based framework through a systematic review, identifying six core design stages along with their descriptive dimensions. Using this framework as an analytic lens, we then analyzed design cases drawn from academic, commercial, and public contexts, deriving stage-specific considerations and actionable strategies to support designers in navigating the process. Our findings provide a conceptual scaffold for operationalizing ethology as a design resource, enabling more systematic, reflective, and transferable practices, while also surfacing new opportunities for future social robot interaction design.

Zoos play a crucial role in public education and wildlife engagement, yet traditional visits often lack interactive elements that foster meaningful connections between visitors and animals. In this paper, we introduce ZooWear, a head-mounted wearable featuring cartoon-style animal ears that provides haptic feedback patterns simulating an animal’s reactions to other species in the food chain. With ZooWear, we focused on examining its effectiveness in affording perspective-taking during human-animal encounters, promoting embodied knowledge retention, and enriching the zoo experiences. We first conducted a between-subject experiment in lab-based virtual zoo visits to evaluate its effectiveness in creating effective learning experiences and enhancing connections to wildlife. This was followed by a real-world zoo experiment, which showed that ZooWear promoted nature connectedness and enabled more emotionally and socially engaging experiences. Our findings highlight the potential of integrating perspective-taking into zoo experiences through animal-inspired wearables, embodied sensory feedback, and narrative-driven experiences.

Integrating motor and cognitive training is crucial for stroke patients. However, interactive technologies for assisting such synergistic trainings are underdeveloped. This article presents the design and evaluation of CalliRehab, an AR-enhanced multisensory tool for facilitating the coordinated training of upper limb motor skills and cognitive functions through calligraphy therapy tasks. The effects of CalliRehab were examined through a within-subject experiment involving 21 stroke patients. Results indicate that, compared to the non-feedback baseline, multimodal feedback improved the task accuracy with a significant reduction in error counts (p < 0.001). Participants’ cognitive load has been remarkably lowered in the NASA task load index (p < 0.001), whereas the intrinsic motivation (p < 0.001) and the technology acceptance (p < 0.001) have been increased significantly. This study confirms that AR-enhanced multisensory training tools can effectively support integrating motor and cognitive training in stroke patients, particularly in enhancing task quality and training experiences.

It is important to motivate healthy behaviors, especially in office environments. However, there are few systems which integrate physical engagement mechanisms in such environments. This paper presents the design and evaluation of DistKey, a set of hotkeys allocated in different spatial interfaces of the workspace, enabling users to engage in some office tasks through intentional body movements. Through a within-subject experiment with 20 office workers, we compared DistKey with a traditional keyboard to assess the health benefits and effectiveness of integrating exercise into the workflow. Our results confirmed the benefits of DistKey-led healthful interactions in enhancing physical health and reducing mental stress during different tasks at work. Based on our follow-up qualitative research, a range of design insights are discussed to enlighten the design and development of future healthful spatial interfaces for increased office vitality.

This article examined how different time and task management information widgets affect time perception across modalities. In mentally demanding office environments, effective countdown representations are crucial for enhancing temporal awareness and productivity. We developed TickSens, a set of information widgets with different modalities, and conducted a within-subjects experiment with 30 participants to evaluate the five types of time perception modes: visual, auditory, haptic, as well as the blank and the timer modes. Our assessment focused on the technology acceptance, cognitive performance and emotional responses. Results indicated that compared to the blank and the timer modes, the use of modalities significantly improved the cognitive performance and positive emotional responses, and was better received by participants. The visual mode had the best task performance, while the auditory feedback was effective in boosting focus and the haptic mode significantly enhances user acceptance. The study revealed varied user preferences that enlightened the integration of these widgets into office.

Storyboarding is an established method for designing user experiences. Generative AI can support this process by helping designers quickly create visual narratives. However, existing tools mainly focus on improving the accuracy of text-to-image generation. There is a lack of understanding on how to effectively support the entire creative process of storyboarding and how to develop AI-powered tools to be integrated into designers' diverse workflows. In this work, we designed and developed StoryDiffusion, a system that integrates text-to-text and text-to-image models, to support the generation of narratives and images in a single pipeline. In a user study, we observed 12 UX design students using the system for both concept ideation and illustration tasks. Our findings identified AI-directed vs. user-directed creative strategies in both tasks and revealed the importance of supporting the interchange between narrative iteration and image generation. We also found effects of the design tasks on their strategies and preferences, providing insights for future development. © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

College students are known to face many stressors, making them one of the most vulnerable groups to mental disorders. To tackle such an issue, this paper presents a design study that investigated data-enabled analogue journaling (DEAJ) to help college students improve their mental wellness through paper-based self-reflection aided by automatic self-tracking. Specifically, based on several design iterations we developed a DEAJ tool, called EmoVis, which could generate a printed visualisation based on daily physiological data and event tags to support doodling or structured writing in analogue journaling for everyday stress management. We conducted a six-day mixed methods field study with 32 college students to evaluate the effectiveness and user experience of EmoVis. Results suggested that EmoVis can significantly improve the engagement and need for self-reflection due to context-based reflection and data-enabled exploratory journaling. Furthermore, the doodling canvas was experienced as a joyful tool for mindfulness and creative DEAJ, while reflecting with a writing template was perceived as efficient. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of DEAJ approaches for daily stress coping in students’ college life.

Serious game can potentially improve social awareness and health literacy related to the epidemic, where interactivity, such as strategic game elements, could play a crucial role in increasing learning engagement and motivation. In this paper, we present the user study of InfecBlock, a tower-defense game designed to facilitate individual users to acquire public health knowledge related to coronavirus disease and epidemic prevention. We employed a between-subject experiment design and collected a variety of quantitative data to examine players’ learning outcomes, engagement, and emotional responses. Our results confirmed the effectiveness of InfecBlock in improving learning performance and highlighted its potential to facilitate a more engaged and enjoyable learning experience. We discussed a set of implications for designing tower-defense serious games for supporting the improvements of public health literacy.

Metaphorical auditory displays are increasingly recognized for data presentation and self-reflection. This article presents the design and evaluation of RainMind, a web-based soundscape application that represents physiological data with dynamic natural sounds for daily stress reflection. Based on different combinations of auditory display with visualization, we identified three modes: the Visual-Aided Mode (VAM), the Audio-Aided Mode (AAM), and the Audio-Visual Mode (AVM). Through a within-subject study involving 30 participants, we conducted a mixed-methods evaluation to assess the task load, engagement, and user experience among the three modes. The findings indicated that the combination of dynamic natural soundscapes with visualization (AVM) contributes to a lower task load compared to the other two modes. Moreover, dynamic natural soundscapes as metaphors for stress data significantly enhanced engagement and user experience of self-reflection compared to static natural sounds. Based on our study, we discuss the potential of leveraging dynamic natural soundscapes as a new way of data-driven self-reflection.

In the era of Industry 5.0, the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to extend its applications to broader human–computer interaction (HCI) and human–machine connectivity. With the increasing number of healthcare groups, there is an urgent need to develop embodied neuromorphic intelligent human–machine connectivity products based on these technologies. However, it remains a critical challenge to address the influencing factors of such product designs and how to quantify interaction efficacy. This study proposes a product framework combining IoT with embodied neuromorphic intelligence and conducts a user study. A cognitive rehabilitation product was developed using Leap Motion technology, with gesture recognition difficulty as a design variable, and product efficacy was quantified using a combination of brain–computer interaction and multisource interactive feedback. Fifteen elderly and fifteen young participants engaged in puppet control tasks under resting, simple, and complex conditions. The study compared brain activation levels, brain network connectivity, and eight behavioral indicators. The results demonstrated that the difficulty level significantly affects interaction efficacy. This research reveals neurological changes in the rehabilitation process of healthcare groups and opens new directions for the design and efficacy evaluation of embodied neuromorphic intelligence in HCI rehabilitation products through IoT and big data analytics, thereby advancing the development of Healthcare Industry 5.0.

In this paper, we present a field study on using sonification of augmented eating sounds to intervene snacking behaviors in daily routines. The sonic feedback achieved through a snack storing device named Hicclip for verifying snacking behaviors and producing augmented eating sounds. The study was conducted with nine participants who were commonly addicted to snacking. The effectiveness of the sonification was examined by comparing snack-related data and questionnaire over the three study weeks: a baseline week, a Hicclip intervention week, and a post-intervention week. We also analyzed interview results to understand user experiences and opportunities for future research. Quantitative results showed that the snacking pattern has been improved due to reduced eating duration and snack consumptions. Qualitative results suggested that Hicclip may benefit self-regulation, afford easy adoption, and support data acquisition. We discuss design implications for embodiment of augmented eating sounds for healthy snacking.

The field of Sports Human-Computer Interaction (SportsHCI) investigates interaction design to support a physically active human being. Despite growing interest and dissemination of SportsHCI literature over the past years, many publications still focus on solving specific problems in a given sport. We believe in the benefit of generating fundamental knowledge for SportsHCI more broadly to advance the field as a whole. To achieve this, we aim to identify the grand challenges in SportsHCI, which can help researchers and practitioners in developing a future research agenda. Hence, this paper presents a set of grand challenges identified in a five-day workshop with 22 experts who have previously researched, designed, and deployed SportsHCI systems. Addressing these challenges will drive transformative advancements in SportsHCI, fostering better athlete performance, athlete-coach relationships, spectator engagement, but also immersive experiences for recreational sports or exercise motivation, and ultimately, improve human well-being.

This research was motivated by a desire to help office workers change their sedentary behavior because a prolonged sedentary posture increases the risks of developing musculoskeletal injuries and chronic diseases, thus threatening their physical and psychological well-being. Regular breaks involving low-effort physical activities are effective in reducing the adverse impacts of inactive behaviors. In this article, we present the design of a posture-based interactive system called HealthSit, which was developed to promote a short lower-back stretching exercise during work breaks. Through a within-subject study involving 30 office workers, the effectiveness of HealthSit in facilitating the stretching exercise was examined by making comparisons between an interaction-aided, a guided, and a self-directed exercise mode. We also used HealthSit as a research probe to investigate the interactivity of the system in enhancing user experience and the psychological benefits of the fitness breaks. Compared with the other two modes, the interaction-aided exercise mode significantly improved the quality of the stretching exercise and enhanced motivation and emotional state. These results confirm the effectiveness of HealthSit in supporting fitness breaks as a new workplace technology. Based on our study, a set of design implications have been derived for technology-assisted fitness work breaks.

Physical Education (PE) is beneficial for students' mental and physical health, however, teenagers are increasingly becoming less motivated to actively participate in the current form of PE. Motivational studies show that collective physical activity augmented by playful interactions could encourage more participation and social engagement in physical activities (PA). In this paper, we present a within-subject field study with 20 teenagers formed into five groups sized equally. The study is conducted using Shuttlezap, a prototype that provides real-time playful audio augmentation to the process of the activity. Results show that the teenagers enjoyed playful audio augmentation and were socially engaged with an enhancement of their perception of competence. By further comparing the conditions between with and without the audio augmentation, we found that the playful audio augmentation positively contributed to the playfulness in terms of perceived relaxation and expression. We conclude with design implications for social play in the context of PE for teenagers.

This paper presents a field study on using peer-based cooperative fitness tracking (PCFT) to promote workplace fitness. The social bonding achieved through a collective fitness goal and the sharing of fitness data between two co-workers has been explored as a motivational factor that can encourage physical activity. The study involved 10 dyads of co-workers in two groups (a distributed vs. a co-located group) based on their proximity at work. The effectiveness of the proposed PCFT was examined by comparing fitness data over a period of three weeks: the baseline week, the PCFT intervention week, and the post-intervention week. The proximity effects on PCFT were investigated by comparing the fitness data, goal commitment, and interview results between the two groups. The quantitative results showed that the physical activity of participants in the co-located group improved significantly after the PCFT intervention. The qualitative results suggested that PCFT may improve the awareness of being physically active, stimulate exchange of knowledge to support active lifestyles and facilitate including fitness breaks in the daily work routine. Based on these findings, we discuss design implications for the future development of the PCFT-based applications and their potential contribution to increased office vitality.