Personal tracking technologies for family life, including speech tracking, have long been conceptualised in HCI as tools to support wellbeing and parenting at scale. However, speech tracking is inherently invasive because it captures intimate family interactions, and its ethical introduction and appropriation into everyday life remains uncertain. Using research through design, we examined family speech tracking by developing seven plausible design fictions grounded in parenting theory, and then conducting a 1-week technology probe study with 60 parents to understand their perceptions. Parents envisaged both positive and negative outcomes for family speech tracking, including concerns about diminishing authentic connection and potential misappropriation. Unlike existing parenting interventions, parents envisioned technologies supporting children’s intervention goals directly rather than focusing on parental skill development. We contribute seven evidence-informed speculative speech tracking concepts, empirical insights revealing concerns about diminishing authentic parent-child connection, and identification of technical, interactional, and systemic sociotechnical dilemmas.

Parental emotion coaching approaches that advocate for noticing and validating child emotions can greatly impact children's regulatory abilities. However, in daily life, parents often struggle to apply emotion coaching strategies that they access through parenting programmes or online help, suggesting a need for in situ support. This paper explores a potential new avenue for providing such support. We undertook conceptual work to develop a set of emotion-focused reflective questions that could increase parents’ attention to child emotions and delivered these as daily ecological momentary assessments (EMAs). We investigated the perceived impact of the approach through a 2-week online trial (n=33) and then co-designed child-facing component with parents through a 4-week asynchronous remote community study (n=15). Our paper contributes (1) conceptual insights on designing a potential novel intervention approach, (2) empirical insights on its acceptability and perceived impacts for parents, and (3) design implications for applying the approach to wider psychological constructs.

Engaging with people's lived experiences is foundational for HCI research and design. This paper introduces a novel narrative elicitation method to empower people to easily articulate 'micro-narratives' emerging from their lived experiences, irrespective of their writing ability or background. Our approach aims to enable at-scale collection of rich, co-created datasets that highlight target populations' voices with minimal participant burden, while precisely addressing specific research questions. To pilot this idea, and test its feasibility, we: (i) developed an AI-powered prototype, which leverages LLM-chaining to scaffold the cognitive steps necessary for users' narrative articulation; (ii) deployed it in three mixed-methods studies involving over 380 users; and (iii) consulted with established academics as well as C-level staff at (inter)national non-profits to map out potential applications. Both qualitative and quantitative findings show the acceptability and promise of the micro-narrative method, while also identifying the ethical and safeguarding considerations necessary for any at-scale deployments.

Co-design is not merely a set of design activities, but is grounded in the belief of equitable access and input in design. However, a common assumption in co-design is that participants can use their hands, easily communicate, and are able to actively participate in a timeframe based on the researcher’s agenda. These assumptions can exclude underserved populations, including participants with motor and communication disabilities. We present Aligned Co-Design (ACD), a multi-modal, temporally flexible method grounded in communication theory and interdependent relationships. ACD requires the researcher to address their assumptions, communication, and role in co-design. We provide a proof-of-concept of ACD in practice, demonstrating multi-modal communication techniques and how those techniques align understanding and an equitable partnership in co-design. ACD achieves co-design’s theoretical commitment to establish an interdependent partnership with a currently under-represented population in co-design, adults who have motor or communication disabilities, thereby increasing equity and inclusion in co-design.

Understanding the situated challenges that people face when attempting to apply online parenting advice is crucial for building effective digital parenting supports. However, existing HCI methods do not enable researchers to capture the complete breadth of experience relevant to gathering experiential data on both behaviour change processes and lived experiences at scale. This article describes the full development process of adapting existing probe-like methods to capture data about these parenting experiences. We drew on a systematic review of existing probe-like methods and developed a digital probe through user-centred design involving parents. Our study included parent interviews (n = 15), online trials (n = 30, n = 200) and an evaluation of the probe alongside a UK National Health Service parenting intervention (n = 35). Our article contributes insights into how to adapt probes to collect rich parenting data, reveals the kinds of insights gathered and presents new considerations for designing digital parenting interventions that resonate with families.

Since their introduction, there has been wide discussion about how probes are used in human computer interaction (HCI) research. This variation can be problematic for researchers and designers who plan on using probes in the child computer interaction space, as it can be difficult to know which approach is best suited to address their design situation. In this review, we surveyed the ways that HCI researchers have used probes in studies with children and families. Based on 25 articles, we analysed the methodological decisions that researchers have taken in their empirical studies, relating to: a.) the goals for using the probes, b.) the probe itself, c.) participant involvement, and d.) the data and data use. Based on our methodological findings, we highlight four key tensions—including probes as sources of information versus creative input–and consider questions that can guide decision making for developing probes studies with children and families.

Social stigma negatively impacts the well-being of neurodivergent individuals. Specifically for autistic people, the social isolation and pressure to conform to normative ways of being can take a tremendous toll; such as a thwarted sense of belonging to the point of higher rates of suicide. Yet, few technologies are directly targeting the problem of stigma. Socio-technical systems have tremendous potential to shift public perception of traditionally marginalized populations. However, these systems are not consistently designed to reflect the values and needs of neurodivergent individuals. This work explores the use of design sprints to envision CT– a spectrum of technology that could reduce social stigma by increasing the public’s awareness, accommodations, acceptance, advocacy, and appreciation. This work reports on two design sprints across 25 HCI community members with varying lived experiences with neurodiversity and knowledge of design practice. The resulting design concepts were discussed in the groups and then analyzed to reflect on how they might combat stigma. Results reveal designs that support the freedom to be oneself via (1) safe spaces (2) public understanding, and (3) authentic expression of strengths, challenges, and needs.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies are typically fixed-form factor mobile devices, which can be physically obtrusive and visually identifiable – perpetuating public stigmas and limiting non-verbal communication. These qualities are undesirable for many AAC-using communities including stroke survivors, who can have complex communication needs onset by aphasia and hemiplegic body paralysis. Furthermore, underrepresented communities such as people with aphasia are often unconsidered in the design of emerging technologies. We contest these trends by asking what these emerging and future technologies might mean for communication support. To do this, we envision and prototype mixed reality and discreet assistive technologies that support communication with people living with aphasia. We report results from the co-design process, including participants’ perspectives on nascent mixed reality, diegetic technologies, and outcomes from low-fidelity AAC prototyping. These activities culminated in three high-fidelity prototypes with different characteristics and form-factors: Pico-project AAC, Prompt AAC and Holo AAC, which embody projection, worn audio devices, and headset driven mixed reality. From subsequent focus groups, we present findings from an evaluation of all prototypes, reflecting on the possibilities of present and future mixed-reality technologies to augment communication.

How might emerging modalities (e.g., NLP) be leveraged to transform the provision of parenting support? To explore the role of AI technologies in supporting parenting behaviour—and child-well-being—we surveyed 92 parents to gather their perspectives on nine future-oriented scenarios. We used Design Fiction and Speed Dating to understand parents needs and preferences around the design of agent-based supports. We explore the perceived benefits of AI assistants (i.e., receiving objective feedback, managing emotions and personalised guidance) and the most voiced concerns (i.e., AI undermining parental authority, replacing human interactions, and promoting lazy parenting). Finally, we highlight a number of plausible design directions based on the scenarios that parents were positive about.

Early parenting is one of the strongest predictors of child well-being. Online social communities have shown promise in supporting parents across a range of contexts. However, we only have a limited understanding of how posters and commenters interact within a forum, or how well commenter responses can support complex parenting questions, such as attempts to change a child's behaviour or to apply new parenting approaches. We start addressing this gap by combining an empirical analysis of 1 year of parent posts from an exemplar online forum (Mumsnet) with literature on parenting interventions from psychology. In particular, we examine the types of question parents of 2-5 year olds seek help for around their children's behaviour, and the challenges with the support that they do (or do not) receive from the Mumsnet community. Combining empirical and theory-driven insights, we outline an 'information-to-application' gap that conceptually underpins the difficulties observed, and suggest plausible research directions that could address such design problems.

Whilst digital education is becoming a reality for schools there is a role for CCI research to move beyond researcher-led school engagements to other types of research that support schools and their staff to lead on the appropriation of digital technologies. One way to advance our understanding of this issue is to examine and consolidate reflections from cases of school technology appropriation. This half-day workshop seeks to capture the enabling practices as well as those that posed barriers within the school. The work will be oriented to further identify necessary changes at different levels: e.g., the organizational level (school), the level of the practitioners (teachers) the level the school community. The mind-set of all the involved actors will also be explored aiming to identify the structures and mechanisms that can support a culture of participation and of collective responsibility by including also students and their families in the process of technology integration and appropriation.

School-driven technological innovation has the potential to positively impact on classroom practice, yet it can also be disrupted by incompatibilities between the existing school ecology and new educational technologies. To help mitigate this disruption a particular staff member often takes on a facilitative leadership role to champion new technology initiatives. However little is known about how this technology leader role impacts on the adoption of new technologies in the classroom. Taking a situated lens, we embarked on a multiple case study of four schools who were aiming to adopt a new literacy game in the classroom. Through interviews with technology leaders and fieldnotes from our site observations, we systematically analysed their actions and concerns over two academic terms. This highlighted an overwhelming concern with managing the material dimension of the technology, teacher agency and division of labour and mechanisms for communication and monitoring. Our findings raise important considerations for HCI researchers seeking to embed their technologies into practice alongside recommendations for supporting leaders tasked with coordinating this process.

This paper shows how design documentaries can motivate new perspectives for design and disability. We critically consider the ways in which design documentaries can foreground children's lived experiences and priorities, in cases where it is not always possible to involve children early on in the design process. By presenting a design case for supporting communication that involves children with severe speech and physical impairments and their social peers, we discuss how this narrative method can evoke designer empathy and guide new interpretations. Our findings show that design documentaries can convey to designers rich and multifaceted accounts of children's communication experiences. Although this is found to be generative, we also identify a tension with a bodily impairment understanding of disability. Drawing on reflections from our case study, we propose new methodological implications for embedding design documentaries in the design process of technologies for disability.

To improve functional communication and behavioral management, many children with disabilities receive behavioral and communication-related intervention from professionals such as behavioral analysts and speech and language therapists. This paper presents user perspectives from three clinicians who have used and/or designed assistive technology with children with disabilities, and calls for researchers to recognize and leverage clinicians' knowledge to design accessible technology for children with complex sensory and communication needs.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies can support children with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) to express themselves. Yet, these seemingly 'enabling' technologies are often abandoned by this target group, suggesting a need to understand how they are used in communication. Little research has considered the interaction between people, interaction design and the material dimension of AAC. To address this, we report on a qualitative video study that examines the situated communication of five children using AAC in a special school. Our findings offer a new perspective on reconceptualising AAC design and use revealing four areas for future design: (1) incorporating an embodied view of communication, (2) designing to emphasise children's competence and agency, (3) regulating the presence, prominence and value of AAC, and (4) supporting a wider range of communicative functions that help address children's needs.