Positive peer interaction in nursing homes has been consistently recognized as essential to residents’ life quality. However, low rates of resident-to-resident interaction were found to be pervasive. Our research explores the potential of applying public display systems to promote residents’ unplanned co-located interaction. This article describes the design and assessment of “Reading-to-Sharing” (R2S): a tabletop display system intended to improve nursing home residents’ social interaction by enhancing their public reading experience. R2S was assessed via supervised field trials, in which the participants were invited to experience R2S in real-life settings with necessary assistance. The objectives were mainly to investigate the participants’ engagement with R2S, user experience and the potential impact on residents’ social behaviors and feelings. The result showed that R2S was capable of engaging the participants in content viewing and sharing. It was effective in catalyzing and facilitating their social interaction. The participants’ perceived user experience was primarily favorable. Although R2S was anticipated to increase the participants’ mutual closeness, no statistically significant change was seen. The key implications were highlighted to guide the design of public display systems in this context.

Abstract Mementoes act as emotional companions that anchor stories. Older adults typically have a rich knowledge of family mementoes. However, storytelling and preservation of mementoes are still problematic for them: their mementoes are still mostly in physical format, which is difficult to share and preserve. Additionally, digital applications and websites for sharing mementoes usually are inaccessible for them. As a result, they spend much time collecting mementoes, but spend less time on telling and recording the related stories. In response to this, we report our study driven by the research questions: Rq1: What are the characteristics of older adults’ intergenerational memento storytelling? And Rq2: In which ways could a tangible display facilitate intergenerational memento storytelling for older adults? We designed a tangible device named Slots-Memento. We first conducted a preliminary evaluation to refine the prototype. In the field study, eight pairs of participants (each pair consisting of an older adult and his/her child) were recruited to use the prototype for around 1 week. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted both with the older adults and their children. Subsequently, mementoes collected were categorized and analyzed. Stories collected were firstly transcribed, then were conducted with structural and interactional analysis. In the concluding discussion, we present abstract implications for the research questions: two tables summarizing characteristics of their intergenerational memento storytelling, and related strategies of designing a tangible display individually.

We follow up on a prominent line of work in which principles of embodied cognition are employed to not only account for skilled coping but also for more intellectual activities such as remembering and imagination. Imagination then, is not a reflective activity an individual does by herself, but a shared and embodied activity scaffolded by tangible design. We present a case study in which we designed a toolkit to facilitate imagining the Netherlands in 2050. We wrote speculative stories of people living in 2050 and designed an assortment of objects. We held several workshops to use the toolkit for shared imagination for our client, Rijkswaterstaat. We analyze how, in the context of the workshops, the stories and objects provided affordances for shared imagination. We thereby hope to have demonstrated that it is possible to design for more intellectual activities in a tangible and embodied way.

Institutional care settings are often described as places where residents suffer from social isolation. In the past decades, conventional social interventions changed very little and had many limitations. Our research explores the potential of integrating technologies into public caring environments. In this paper, we present "R2S", a flexible platform in care homes to support residents' social interaction through augmenting public print media products. It aims to provide caregivers a convenient way to transform any print media into interactive surfaces, which can enhance residents' public reading experience and trigger communications. This paper describes the design motivation, the design and prototype implementation, preliminary user feedback and future plans.

Mementos carry personal symbolic meaning and can be used to privately reflect on the past or share memories[28]. Older adults spend much time collecting mementos but spend less time telling stories behind the mementos. Once they pass away, stories behind mementos vanish with their owners. In this paper, we present Slots-Memento, a tangible device aiming to facilitate intergenerational story sharing and preservation for older adults. It builds on the metaphor of slot-machine, and integrates functions of memento photo display, story recording, and preservation. Our design process started with context inquiry, older adults and young adults were recruited, aiming to understand the status quo of their memento storytelling, and define design requirements. A preliminary evaluation was conducted, discussion and future work are in the final part.

This paper presents a design case study from industry that explores designing for personal health ecosystems. Following on from previous work on ecologies that gives a predominantly theoretical perspective, we present a more applied and design-oriented perspective. To do so, we build on our previously-developed data-enabled design approach, which utilizes contextual, behavioral and experiential data from situated design experiments as creative material. This approach comprises two steps, of which this paper presents the first (contextual) step. We introduced a small adaptable ecosystem of multiple artifacts, in four family homes over a period of eight weeks, through which we explored and further expanded on valuable ecosystem relationships. The insights gained were translated into three design opportunities that inform a future second step. We highlight and discuss practical examples from our situated explorations, and discuss how our data-enabled design approach served in designing for the complexity and versatility inherent to these ecosystems.

This paper presents a designerly exploration of the potential values of parent-tracked baby data in interactions between parents and healthcare professionals (HCPs). Where previous work has used parent-tracked data as part of the solution to a problem, we contribute by starting our design exploration from data, using it as creative material in our design process. As we intend to work towards a system that could be viable across different levels of care, we invited three different types of HCPs and five families with newborns, for a five-week situated design exploration. Facilitated by an open and dynamic data collection toolkit, parents and HCPs could together decide what data to collect. In a continuous dialogue, they reflected on the relevance of that data in their interaction. Based on this, we continuously and remotely developed two concepts.

Public issues are complex: they concern many different stakeholders who have conflicting stakes and are involved from their unique perspective. Working on public issues requires an open process that allows stakeholders to not only contribute to decision-making but also to take up a role in the process. We propose [X]Changing Perspectives, a product service system that stimulates participatory sensemaking: the joint construction of meaning between individuals that could not have been reached on their own.

In this paper, we discuss how the implementation of design-inclusive User Experience Research (UXR) has influenced the composition of UXR and design activities in the industrial setting of Philips Design. We present three design case studies that were executed in a time span of three years: a baby sleep project; a pregnancy project; and a baby bottle-feeding project. Through a retrospective analysis we conclude that the approach adopted in these cases progressed from complete separation of UXR and design activities to design-inclusive UXR in which design forms an integral part of research. This is reflected by a rearrangement of project activities to identify, envision, enable and evaluate user experiences. Previously the UXR (identify and evaluate) and design (envision and enable) activities were executed sequentially. Now, these four project activities merge in studying design interventions in context over a prolonged time, to iteratively explore and advance UX design qualities.

How may we design coherent, physical-digital hybrid artifacts as meaningful, mediating elements in a persons' embodied "Being-in-the-World" We explore this question through two cases, one of designing for a person with autism spectrum disorder and one for people with dementia. We reflected in an iterative way on how the designs evolved, and on how our theoretical lens, grounded in embodied theory, helped to shape the designs. In the final round of reflection, we compared both case studies, looking for overall commonalities, which formed the basis for the resulting design framework that we introduce in this paper. The framework consists of seven principles, of which three support embodied activity in the here-and-now, three support developmental processes over a longer time-scale, and finally the idea of a reflective process to connect them.

This paper describes the process of designing the Blue Studio: an interactive space for embodied multi-stakeholder ideation processes. Inspired by embodied sensemaking -- the way people make sense of things through external expression and interaction with other people -- we iteratively designed material, interactive and spatial interventions in the Blue Studio and evaluated them with multi-stakeholder participants in various studies. Thereupon, we analyzed the impact of the design interventions, based on the seven principles to design for embodied sensemaking and highlighted opportunities for refining our interactive space for embodied ideation. Based on the insights gained, a final design of the Blue Studio was realized and evaluated on functionality.

This paper presents the design case study of a connected baby bottle, which is used as an exploration towards a data-enabled design framework for designing intelligent products, services and ecosystems targeting behavior change. We explore how contextual, behavioral and experiential data can be used as design material for remote insight collection and remote design intervention. The first "contextual" iteration sets out to understand the design context with its complexities, based on a combination of quantitative sensor data and qualitative interview sessions. The second "informed" iteration utilizes design probes, remotely connected to a data-canvas, to explore behavioral, experiential and contextual consequences of design interventions. The dynamic and open character of the introduced data-canvas allowed us to iterate quickly without requiring physical presence of the designer. Finally, we translate the findings from this case study into a two step model for data-enabled design that we further discuss to outline what next steps are required towards constructing a framework for data enabled design.

In this paper, we show the development of the Ideating in Skills (IiS) toolset: an embodied design tool aimed at supporting co-design processes. The iterative process of developing the toolset was carried out by students. They worked individually at first, exploring their own skills and moods through movement, visualisations and poetry. These explorations were translated into objects that were able to communicate and connect with each other. In each iteration, the design of the qualities of these connections was based on the findings of the previous explorations. After several individual and team-based iterations, a final toolset was collaboratively created and evaluated in various short design sessions. Based on the potential of the first version of the toolset, a second version was created that is currently used and tested in one-on-one settings all over the world and in multi-stakeholder settings in a creative hub in Sweden.

Many current wearables have a technology-driven background: the focus is primarily on functionality, while their possible personal and social-cultural value is underappreciated. We think that developing wearables from a jewellery perspective can compensate for this. The personal and social cultural values embodied by traditional jewellery are often tightly connected to their function as memento. In this paper we reflect from a jewellery perspective, a memory-studies perspective and a TEI-perspective on three design proposals for interactive jewellery. We identify 1) drawing inspiration from interaction with traditional jewellery, 2) using relatively simple technology with high experiential qualities, 3) abstract and poetic data representation and 4) storing data uniquely on the digital jewel as possible design directions.

As part of the one-year project "Engaging Encounters: Sketching the Future together", this studio-workshop will explore hands-on how the work and ideas of TEI can influence our interaction with the world in the upcoming decade. It explores the character of the different paradigms underlying the TEI community and their potential influence on our future society and as well as on our TEI community. Especially for this TEI'15 conference, six personal 1.5-hour encounters with TEI participants are organised to discuss, explore and sketch the future of TEI. The results of these encounters will be included on a blog, book and movie about the overall Engaging Encounters project, as well as in a special publication about the future of TEI. Through all the encounters and 'publications', this project aims at inspiring people in their work and perspective on the world, including TEI, and their contribution in shaping the future together.

The TEI-community is based a various paradigms. We believe that the community matures by scrutinising these different paradigms and unravelling the consequences for designing for tangible, embedded and embodied interaction. In this paper we explore the consequences and possibilities of phenomenology-inspired embodied theory, and more specifically the concept of embodied sensemaking, i.e. human sensemaking using sensorimotor couplings to support social coordination between people. Based on our theoretical setting, we introduce seven design principles for developing face-to-face embodied sensemaking technology. We show in this paper how we used these principles to develop a mobile design and sensemaking studio for the encounter between two persons to sketch a future at the cross-section of their disciplines. By explaining these principles, we aim to show what embodied theory can bring the TEI-community, and invite others to do the same.

This paper presents a work in progress design case that is used to exemplify how a phenomenology-inspired perspective on time can impact the design of highly interactive systems and products. The design presents a calendar with a re-orientated layout that is based on a bodily relationship with time, rather than on the more established linear chronological layout found in most products and systems. The presented design offers a promising perspective as well as emergent technical issues and questions. With this work we hope to inspire interaction designers to consider embodied mechanisms.

Embodied Cognition has been proposed as a relevant theory for tangible and embedded interaction [14]. Based on two 2-year lasting Research-through-Design cases we identify three variations of the theory: 1) Distributed Representation and Computation, 2) Socially Situated Practices and 3) Sensorimotor Coupling & Enactment. Both social situatedness and sensorimotor coupling proved relevant for design and for understanding user behavior in context. We show how the 'social' and the 'sensorimotor' are part of one integrated sensemaking process we call 'socio-sensorimotor coupling'. We argue that the, intuitively appealing, idea of using tangibles for external representation actually hinders designing for sensemaking as socio-sensorimotor coupling. We present a vision of Embodied Cognition Design, which goes beyond a representational interpretation, aiming to intervene more directly into the socio-sensorimotor loop.

The Designing in Skills Studio provides a framework and tools to address the theme of collaboration in a design process, applying the theories of embodiment and skilful coping. Each participant will collaborate with the others in order to explore one of his perceptual-motor skills, and find out how this skill shapes his sensitivity and can contribute to a richer shared design process and outcome. The studio aims at creating the stage for reflecting on the impact of embodiment on cooperation, and based on these insights, discussing and initiating the development of new ways of tangible and embodied interaction for multi-stakeholder cooperation in the future.

Driven by a critique of Ishii et al's recent vision of Radical Atoms we call for a debate on the different conceptual paradigms underlying the TEI community and its activities. TEI was initiated to share and connect different perspectives, but we feel conceptual debate is lacking. To fuel this debate, we start with comparing two paradigms by examining the Radical Atoms proposal and balance it from our design-led perspective. Our aim with this paper is to revive the richness of TEI's multidisciplinary approach.

In this paper we present the final research prototype of LinguaBytes, a tangible interface aimed at stimulating the language development of non- or hardly speaking children between 1 and 4 years old. LinguaBytes was developed in a three-year Research through Design process in which five incremental prototypes were designed, built and evaluated in real-life settings. In this paper we present the original starting points of the project, describe our method and illustrate the resulting end-design using example scenarios of use. We give an overview of the most significant findings at the ten-month evaluation moment, after which we reflect on the original starting points and assess whether they hold up.

Control errors often occur in repetitive and monotonous tasks, such as manual assembly tasks. Much research has been done in the area of human error identification; however, most existing systems focus solely on the prediction of errors, not on increasing worker accuracy. The current study examines force responses before, during and after errors in a simulated assembly line task in order to determine an optimal feedback system for error reduction. Confirming previous findings, enhanced movement speed and reduced force occurred before erroneous trials and slowing occurred after erroneous trials. Given the results, we suggest a haptic feedback system which stimulates users to exert increased force levels after completing an erroneous task in order to increase degree of control and re-build worker confidence and thereby reduce overall error rate.

Sometimes, the way in which we interact with products implicitly communicates how we feel. Based on previous studies on how emotions can be detected and communicated via product interaction, we discuss how an interactive product could influence affect by responding and changing behaviors expressing affect. We discuss the proposal of the affective feedback loop in product interaction by its implementation in the prototype of a pen that senses two implicit behaviors related to restlessness, rock and roll. Furthermore, the pen provides inherent feedback, focusing on the perceptual motor skills, as a means to reflect on these behaviors. The pen was evaluated in an experiment, by which we explored whether this type of feedback would influence the emotional experience. Two participant groups were compared, and participants that used the pen with feedback showed a lower heart rate throughout the whole experiment. Because these participants were not aware that the pen provided any feedback, we propose the concept of unaware interaction and discuss what its implications are for design.

In this paper, we describe "The Other Brother", a semi-autonomous device that captures images and video of spontaneous moments in the course of everyday life. It was our goal to design a situated, tangible object for life-time capturing purposes. In addition to describing the object and our deployment findings, this paper also discusses the design process and the goals we were aiming to achieve through the design. This was an iterative process from initial sketches, concepts and physical explorations towards a final design and several prototypes. The final prototype acts as an agent that behaves to some extent autonomously, capturing spontaneous moments that enable people to re-experience these moments in a playful way. Testing The Other Brother in a domestic environment, we describe several findings of the impact of the object in the home, reflect on several design and interaction issues, and discuss future directions for continuation of this research.

Here we present LinguaBytes, a modular, tangible play-and-learning system developed to stimulate the language and communication skills of toddlers (with a developmental age between 1 and 4 years) with multiple disabilities. The typical characteristics of these children and their common learning environment call for intelligent systems that are quickly and easily adaptable, or, even better, adjust themselves proactively. Over the last two and a half years we have designed and tested such a system within LinguaBytes. In this paper we will outline starting points, indicate the opportunities of Tangible Interaction and finally give an overview of the current LinguaBytes prototype.

The LinguaBytes-project is a three-year research project aimed at developing an adaptive, interactive, tangible play and learning system to stimulate the early language competencies of toddlers at a developmental age between 1 and 4 years - with severe motor and/or multiple disabilities. It serves as the main case study for the first author's PhD research on designing adaptive products. We believe that children from the abovementioned, highly heterogeneous user group could benefit greatly from products or interfaces that could either be adjusted (adaptability) or adjust themselves (adaptivity) to their individual needs. Advances in technology are gradually enabling designers to create such products, but guidelines that help designers do this are scarce. Designers need more insight in the implications of adaptivity and adaptability on the form and content of their design in order to make good design decisions. Using a research-through- design method, we try to generate some of the knowledge that can help designers, not only when designing products or interfaces for this specific user group, but also for heterogeneous user groups in general.

Affective computing focuses on the interpretation of users emotions via physiological and behavioral inputs. Irrelevant gestures with a pen were found to increase when users were given a mentally demanding task. Accordingly, an embedded tangible interface was developed which afforded and measured a rolling behavior, and guided the user towards reaching a balanced state of movement. During informal evaluations users acknowledged how the device could contribute to stress reduction. Conclusion, tangible interfaces appear to offer a non-obtrusive means towards interpreting and reducing stress in the office work context.

In this paper we focus on two aspects of Tangible Interaction that have our particular interest: 1) the added value of tangibility when designing interfaces for toddlers and 2) the value of actuators. Especially the latter is something that in our opinion has been under-investigated within the field of Tangible and Embedded Interaction. In this paper we will address the abovementioned topics by giving examples from the LinguaBytes project, which is aimed at developing an intelligent interactive play and learning environment for toddlers with multiple disabilities. These two aspects of Tangible Interaction have our particular interest since we see that multi-handicapped children could benefit highly from Tangible Interaction, but often lack the necessary bodily skills. Using actuators could offer these children possibilities to become more autonomous, thus enhancing their self-esteem and motivation. We feel that our work could not only benefit multi-handicapped toddlers in particular, but could also be used to design interactions that are more respectful to heterogeneous users in general.

In this paper we explain that we focus on tangible interaction, because the physical world is inherently meaningful for people, i.e. we perceive the world in terms of what we can do with it, in terms of our skills. By physically interacting with the world this meaning emanates. We elucidate this principle by means of E-scale, a tangible device to enter answers on questionnaires into a computer. Meaning is created by coupling the graphical layout of the scales on the questionnaires, to the layout of buttons on E-scale, and by enabling to slide down E-scale along the scales while entering data. The results from our experiment show that unity of location and time, increasing bandwidth by controlling multiple parameters simultaneously and physical learning and thus development of bodily skills, increase usability (reduce time) as well as experience (overall satisfaction). We hope that sharing the rationale behind our TEI designs and research might contribute to the discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of TEI.

To develop the concept of user experience in HCI, McCarthy et al. introduce the notion of enchantment in interaction design. They describe five sensibilities that support exploration and evaluation in design for enchantment. In this paper, we discuss design for enchantment in light of our approach to design for interaction, called design for meaningful mediation. Based on our experiences from case studies, we argue that ‘considering the whole person with feelings, desires and anxieties’, one of the sensibilities McCarthy et al. formulate, influences the desirability and realisation of the other four sensibilities. By way of case studies, we show how we explored the link between ‘the whole person’ and desired interaction experience in a designerly way. We place enchantment in a context of other interaction experiences and demonstrate possible design techniques relevant to design for interaction experiences, including enchantment.

This paper presents and evaluates examples from our work with role playing exercises in design, both in design education and in our own design work. Rationales for role playing in design are: communication within the design process, the increase of technological complexity, the experience and empathy of designers, and the tangibility of interaction, and attentiveness to social change. They led us in developing role playing techniques for design ideation. Here, we reflect on the practical problems of integrating role playing exercises in design teaching and in a design process, and evaluate what hinders or aids the ability to engage with interaction experientially and empathically. Careful consideration of the actor-audience relationship, the setting, sufficient preparation for acting, and props emerge as important elements.

Interactive products can help very young multi-handicapped children (1-4 years) develop their language and communication skills, under the condition that they are optimally tuned to the individual child. This has great consequences for design, since this kind of interactive products need to be adaptive to the child's development, possibilities, interests and needs. There are currently hardly any guidelines for designing adaptive interactive tangible products for such a heterogeneous user group. Through LinguaBytes, a three-year research project aimed at the development of an adaptive interactive toy for stimulating language and communication skills of multi-handicapped toddlers, we want to establish a theoretical framework, including guidelines and tools, for designing complex interactive products.