STEM education is an important component of broadening participation in computational fields, and robotics-inspired kits are a common avenue for teaching youth computational concepts. In this pictorial, we contrast widely used kits (i.e., Lego Mindstorms, Sphero, and DASH) with a kit we created in the form of a module embedded in a summer camp, that takes an alternative approach. Most existing kits are designed with clear-cut, narrowly defined end goals for learners to accomplish. The lessons typically do not include teaching design concepts, and do not offer opportunities for crafting, personalization, and storytelling. We offer a more flexible and creative kit design; integrating concepts such as design thinking, iterative design, and collaboration. We illustrate our design process used to craft the kit/module, along with artifacts collected from its use, and discuss how this approach might help support a broader range of groups—particularly those that are underrepresented in STEM.

Cuteness in design can brighten our daily lives by bringing feelings of joy, comfort, and healing to our experiences. Previous HCI works have explored how cuteness can be leveraged to create more joyful user experiences across a variety of technologies, for example, in the design of cute interfaces for AI agents and the cute physical and behavioral aspects of robots. These works rely on the “Baby Schema” identified by ethologist Konrad Lorenz to apply cuteness as a decoration. This pictorial explores ways that artists and designers can contribute their cultural and aesthetic understandings of cuteness to create richer interactive experiences. Our interpretive framework serves as a provocation for discussing the value of style in the design of interactive systems, and provides guidance for defining cuteness building blocks to support interdisciplinary teams of artists, designers and engineers in the creation of cute user experiences.

Teams that build software are largely demographically homogeneous. Without diversity, homogeneous perspectives dominate how, why, and for whom software is designed. To understand how teams can successfully build and sustain diversity, we interviewed 11 engineers and 9 managers from some of the most gender and racially diverse teams at Google, a large software company. Qualitatively analyzing the interviews, we found shared approaches to recruiting, hiring, and promoting an inclusive environment, all of which create a positive feedback loop. Our findings produce actionable practices that every member of the team can take to increase diversity by fostering a more inclusive software engineering environment.

This paper presents a case study of designing and running a Larp (live action role play)-based summer camp in which middle school-age girls create social wearables, toward building computational and design skills, interest, and self-efficacy. Our design draws upon prior evidence that edu-larps can address the identity gap for underrepresented groups in STEM. The focus on creation of social wearables built using E-textiles builds on existing larp practices that use costuming as a method for establishing identity as well as for providing a platform campers can use to enhance their dramatic spectacles. Our findings will be of interest to those working in the areas of informal learning of computation through Arduino and another small device programming, as well as those interested in the intersection of larp and technology design practices, and edu-larp.

We present Project IRL (In Real Life), a suite of five mobile apps we created to explore novel ways of supporting in-person social interactions with augmented reality. In recent years, the tone of public discourse surrounding digital technology has become increasingly critical, and technology's influence on the way people relate to each other has been blamed for making people feel "alone together," diverting their attention from truly engaging with one another when they interact in person. Motivated by this challenge, we focus on an under-explored design space: playful co-located interactions. We evaluated the apps through a deployment study that involved interviews and participant observations with 101 people. We synthesized the results into a series of design guidelines that focus on four themes: (1) device arrangement (e.g., are people sharing one phone, or does each person have their own?), (2) enablers (e.g., should the activity focus on an object, body part, or pet?), (3) affordances of modifying reality (i.e., features of the technology that enhance its potential to encourage various aspects of social interaction), and (4) co-located play (i.e., using technology to make in-person play engaging and inviting). We conclude by presenting our design guidelines for future work on embodied social AR.

We present a Research-through-Design case study of the design and development of an intimate-space tangible device perhaps best understood as a socially assistive robot, aimed at scaffolding children’s efforts at emotional regulation. This case study covers the initial research device development, as well as knowledge transfer to a product development company toward translating the research into a workable commercial product that could also serve as a robust “research product” for field trials. Key contributions to the literature include: (1) sharing of lessons learned from the knowledge transfer process that can be useful to others interested in developing robust products (whether commercial or research) that preserve design values, while allowing for large scale deployment and research; (2) articulation of a design space in HCI/HRI (Human Robot Interaction) of intimate space socially assistive robots , with the current artifact as a central exemplar, contextualized alongside other related HRI artifacts.

In this paper, we propose a strong concept for interaction design: Synergistic Social Technology (SST). This concept describes systems in which technology is designed with its own ‘need’ for interaction. As a result of responding to these needs, people who use the system may benefit from social interaction with others who use the system. This concept arose through the design, prototyping, and study of a social wearable design that we called Robo-Shoe-Flies. We articulate the core principles of the SST concept. We also describe the Research-through-Design process that inspired its development and associated design-focused observations. This work may inspire those in the IxD or HCI communities focused on the design and development of technology intended to support social interaction, particularly in the sense of encouraging collective, mutually-beneficial action.

In this pictorial, we explore the potential of social media to help inspire ideas for future drone design applications that support playful and social experiences. Drawing from a Situated Play Design approach [3], we turn to social media posts to identify recurring playful and social instances of drone use in social settings. We present the results of collecting 143 posts found on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, from which we identified a non-exhaustive.list.of.drone-based.play.potentials, i.e. existing ways in which people already appropriate drones to playfully augment social situations. We present these play potentials as potentially.valuable and inherently situated intermediate-level knowledge with generative power. We argue they might inspire the design of future.drone.technologies.and.experiences in Human-Drone Interaction (HDI), in directions that increasingly respond to people's desires for play and social connection.

Wearables are integrated into many aspects of our lives, yet, we still need further guidance to develop devices that truly enhance in-person interactions, rather than detract from them by taking people's attention away from the moment and one another. The value of this paper is twofold: first, we present an annotated portfolio of 'social wearables', namely technology designs worn on the body that augment co-located interaction. The design work described can serve as inspiration for others. Then we propose a design framework for social wearables grounded in prior work, as well as our own design research, that can help designers to ideate by raising valuable questions to begin their inquiry with and use to evaluate their designs. We illustrate the evaluative value of this framework through two social wearable designs, each tested in the appropriate social setting.

Vulnerability is a common experience in everyday life and is frequently perceived as a flaw to be excised in technology design. Yet, research indicates it is an essential aspect of wholehearted living among others. In this paper, we present the design and deployment of 'True Colors', a novel wearable device intended to support social interaction in a live action roleplay game (LARP) setting. We describe the Research-through-Design process that helped us to discover and articulate the possibility space of vulnerability in the design of social wearables, as support for producing a sense of social empowerment and connection among wearers within the LARP. We draw conclusions that may be of value to others designing wearables and related technologies aimed at supporting co-located social interaction in games/play.

Designing wearable technology that supports physical and social engagement in a collocated setting is challenging. In this research, we reached out to an expert community of crafters of social experiences: larpers (live action role players). Larpers and larp designers have a longstanding tradition of designing and making use of a variety of elements, such as costumes, physical objects, environments, and recently also digital artifacts. These are crafted in support of co-experience values that we argue can inform the design of social wearables. We engaged in a co-design process with a game designer and co-founder of a larp production company, and embedded the resulting social wearables in a larp. Here, we present the results of this design and implementation process, and articulate design affordances that resonate with our larp designer' values. This work may inspire and inform researchers and designers creating wearable technology that is aimed at supporting collocated engagement.

This paper presents the concept and instances of implementation of a documentary embodied art installation named 'The Cloakroom'. The Cloakroom is an interactive aesthetic experience which is made out of multiple interpersonal relationship stories and their connection to objects. People are invited to embody a relationship by literally donning a jacket and going through the motions of finding things in its pockets. The objects they find are then used as triggers to play pre-recorded stories, bringing analog artifacts to meet the digital content. The use of pockets highlights the physical intersection between tangibles and wearables.

Interventions that help children develop protective factors against mental health disorders are an inherently social endeavour, relying on a number of actors from within the family as well as the school context. Little work thus far in CSCW and HCI has examined the potential of technology to support or enhance such interventions. This paper provides the first steps to unpacking this socio-technical design space, focusing on emotional regulation (ER) as a specific instance of a protective factor. We combine a user-centred approach to understanding lived experiences of families (interviews, design workshops) with an expert-led understanding of what makes interventions psychologically effective. Our findings suggest the potential of technology to enable a shift in how prevention interventions are designed and delivered: empowering children and parents through a new model of 'child-led, situated interventions', where participants learn through actionable support directly within family life, as opposed to didactic in-person workshops and a subsequent 'skills application'. This conceptual model was then instantiated in a technology probe, which was deployed with 14 families. The promising field study findings provide an initial proof-of-concept validation of the proposed approach.