The science and technology world is stuck in an unresolved debate: can technologies ever be conscious? While this question dominates discussions in neuropsychology and cognitive science, it is ultimately unproductive for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). As users perceive a level of consciousness in commercially available systems, there is a need to understand the factors that lead to a perception of consciousness so that we account for consciousness in designing interactive systems. To that end, we systematically develop the Precursors of Perceived Consciousness in Interactive Systems Scale—a validated instrument for quantifying the design qualities that contribute to perceived consciousness in a technology. Through reporting on a structured scale development process, we show how the PreCoS enables studies of technologies potentially perceived as conscious. PreCoS is the first step towards the systematic study and design of systems which responsibly integrate perceived consciousness: fostering positive, engaging experiences while recognising and mitigating ethical risks such as overtrust, bias, or psychological discomfort.

Playing cards have long been a central feature in board games, despite their physical limitations, such as fragility, and repetitive content. Yet, while HCI research increasingly explores augmented board games, interactive playing cards remain underexplored. In this work, we investigate the use of e-paper displays as interactive playing cards. Based on a formative study with eight game designers, we designed and implemented InkStack—a prototype consisting of e-paper cards, a dedicated programmer, and a web application for card customisation. We then evaluated InkStack in a within-subject study with n = 20 participants, comparing its use across four board game mechanics against traditional paper cards and a smartphone. Results show that InkStack is preferred for more complex mechanics, whereas paper and smartphones are sufficient for simpler tasks. The findings also highlight how customisation and versatility can enhance gameplay and enable novel forms of interaction.

While technology is widely recognised as a tool to enhance wellbeing, there is no clear consensus on the best practices for design. Persuasive strategies, such as nudging, are often seen as effective but raise ethical concerns. Reflection-based approaches offer a potential alternative. However, a clear understanding of the balance between these strategies is crucial for designing effective and ethically sound wellbeing technologies. We conducted two studies with a total of n = 163 participants comparing nudging and reflection techniques using contrasting prototypes of fitness wearables. We verified that the prototypes represented key nudging and reflection strategies through expert feedback. Our mixed-methods inquiry shows that certain nudging strategies are perceived as more malicious and more likely to provoke rumination, i.e., negative thought cycles, compared to other wellbeing strategies. We contribute insights to inform design decisions for wellbeing technologies, balancing effectiveness with ethical considerations.

Figure 1: In this study, we explore the potential of mobile desks to provide flexible and adaptive workspace solutions for promoting healthier office habits.We designed a mobile desk capable of autonomous movement and evaluated it in three configurations: manual control using a crank, control via a physical control panel, and fully automated adaptive operation.

In the context of rising sedentary lifestyles, this paper investigates the efficacy of "Situated Artifacts"in promoting physical activity. We designed two artifacts that display users' physical activity data within their homes - one physical and one digital. We conducted a 9-week, counterbalanced, within-subject field study with N = 24 participants to assess the impact of these artifacts on physical activity, reflection, and motivation. We collected quantitative data on physical activity and administered daily and weekly questionnaires, employing individual Likert items and standardized instruments, as well as conducted interviews post-prototype usage. Our findings indicate that while both artifacts act as reminders for physical activity, the physical artifact was superior in terms of user engagement. The study revealed that this can be attributed to the higher perceived presence and, thereby, enhanced social interaction, which acts as a motivational source for activity. In this sense, situated artifacts gently nudge toward sustainable health behavior change.

Figure 1: Motion capture tags, accelerometer sensors layout and game setup.

Recent technological advances popularized the use of image generation among the general public. Crafting effective prompts can, however, be difficult for novice users. To tackle this challenge, we developed PromptMap, a new interaction style for text-to-image AI that allows users to freely explore a vast collection of synthetic prompts through a map-like view with semantic zoom. PromptMap groups images visually by their semantic similarity, allowing users to discover relevant examples. We evaluated PromptMap in a between-subject online study ($n=60$) and a qualitative within-subject study ($n=12$). We found that PromptMap supported users in crafting prompts by providing them with examples. We also demonstrated the feasibility of using LLMs to create vast example collections. Our work contributes a new interaction style that supports users unfamiliar with prompting in achieving a satisfactory image output.

The traditional values of jewellery—such as remembrance, self-expression, or symbolic meaning—are often overlooked in smart jewellery research. To examine how technological integration might influence these values, we conducted an online survey with 81 participants. Our findings suggest that many participants were reluctant to embed technology into their empowering jewellery pieces, with some describing it as “contaminating” them. At the same time, participants expressed interest in extending jewellery with features such as health monitoring and other functional utilities. We contribute initial insights into how technology may reshape the perceived meaning and value of jewellery, offering implications for the design of future smart jewellery.

The integration of motion capture technology into dance education is gaining traction, offering new possibilities for enhancing precision and technique. Traditional methods, such as instructor feedback and mirror observation, often lack the granularity required for effective self-correction, particularly among beginners. In this study, we evaluate the OptiTrack motion capture system for teaching basic dance movements, comparing it with traditional instructor feedback in a between-subjects study involving 28 novice dancers. The system proved more precise in detecting subtle posture misalignments—especially during dynamic movements such as pirouettes—yet participants expressed a clear preference for the real-time, personalised guidance. Our findings suggest that dance learning support systems could be strengthened by complementing technical accuracy with qualities such as interpersonal aspects and motivational feedback.

Despite the wide adoption of wearables, electronics incorporated into jewellery remain a niche. Interactive jewellery offers a compelling design space, encompassing values of traditional jewellery and its socio-cultural roles. However, creating interactive artefacts that bear symbolic and social meaning remains challenging. We investigate how these roles can be leveraged and re-interpreted using modern technology. Utilising traditional jewellery’s socio-cultural roles as a framework, we look at interactive jewellery in participatory workshops with N = 16 design practitioners. Informed by our results, we created a prototype interactive necklace, focusing on Identity role and conducted four case studies to probe the wearer and bystander perceptions on interactive jewellery in different social contexts. Based on our findings, we contribute four directions for interactive jewellery designers.

Traditional methods for teaching electromagnetism often fall short, constrained by complex math and static 2D diagrams that fail to convey the dynamic, 3D nature of Electromagnetic fields. Even modern interactive tools frequently offer only scripted experiences, limiting exploration. This work presents a novel VR application designed to overcome these challenges by providing an interactive, real-time simulation of fundamental electromagnetic phenomena.

Building tangible interfaces or data physicalizations is a resource-intensive endeavour. There is a need for rapid means to prototype tangibles in order to facilitate research and design. To this end, we designed ProtoBricks: a research toolkit that uses capacitive bricks to facilitate rapid prototyping for tangible interfaces. Utilizing toy bricks that do not contain electronics, ProtoBricks can record brick position and color. Specialized knowledge is not required to build our system as it uses widely available components and 3D printing. We contribute the full software and hardware specification of the toolkit. We evaluate the utility of the toolkit by reporting on past use cases and prototyping workshops. We show that the toolkit facilitates creativity and effectively supports prototyping. ProtoBricks lowers the entry threshold for experimenting with tangible interfaces and enables researchers and designers to focus on the interaction with their prototype, delegating implementation to the toolkit.

Many interactive systems that support tabletop games either augment the experience with additional elements or transform game components into digital counterparts, e.g., using mixed reality. However, as many users prefer tangible game elements, digital augmentations can disrupt the immersion they seek to enhance, often due to the complexity of the hardware used. Responding to this challenge, we designed a screenless interactive tabletop system with capacitive sensing. The system is suitable for novice players and provides automatic score-keeping. Our method eliminates the need for external sensors and retains all original game pieces intact. We evaluated our system in a study with a forest planting game (n = 20). Gameplay with our system exhibited shorter turn duration, and participants adopted more effective strategies than in traditional gameplay. These results underscore the potential of screenless interactive tabletops to amplify the gaming experience without causing distractions.

Playing together is crucial to the unique and invaluable bond between grandparents and grandchildren. However, co-located interactions and play can be limited due to time, distance, or pandemic-related restrictions. To facilitate distributed play, we developed MagiBricks, a system comprised of 3D-printed smart toy bricks and baseplates that provide feedback regarding their placement. The familiarity and appeal of toy bricks to both older adults and children make them ideal for intergenerational play. We conducted a within-subjects study with six grandparent-grandchildren pairs. We compared the interactions and perceived connectedness of the pairs while playing over a distance with either i) MagiBricks or ii) identical regular toy bricks. We found that MagiBricks affected communication dynamics, role taking, nature of play, and perception of connectedness during playtime compared to regular bricks, and were unanimously preferred. We contribute design implications for future systems leveraging (smart) tangibles and fostering intergenerational connectedness.

The ever-increasing number of devices quantifying our lives offers a perspective of high awareness of one’s wellbeing, yet it remains a challenge for personal informatics (PI) to effectively support data-based reflection. Effective reflection is recognised as a key factor for PI technologies to foster wellbeing. Here, we investigate whether building tangible representations of health data can offer engaging and reflective experiences. We conducted a between-subjects study where n = 60 participants explored their immediate blood pressure data in relation to medical norms. They either used a standard mobile app, built a data representation from LEGO® bricks based on instructions, or completed a free-form brick build. We found that building with instructions fostered more comparison and using bricks fostered focused attention. The free-form condition required extra time to complete, and lacked usability. Our work shows that designing instructional physicalisation experiences for PI is a means of improving engagement and understanding of personal data.

Inevitable technological progress changes the very nature of work. On the one hand, more and more processes are subject to automation, and cooperating with a robotic workforce becomes an increasing challenge. On the other hand, society is increasingly embracing diversity, and there is an emerging social need to build diverse and inclusive spaces for work. My research attempts to answer these challenges by designing, implementing, and evaluating a novel type of work environment: an Interactive Reconfigurable Environment (IRE) IREs will leverage artificial intelligence techniques to dynamically adapt the physical surfaces around a user to provide an efficient, usable and inclusive interface. An adaptive work environment will support concentration and productivity while ensuring work safety in mixed environments - industrial, semi-automatic, automatic, and, above all, in situations of cooperation between people and autonomous agents.

While the neck-worn garments are an integral part of fashion around the world, few interactive systems utilize them as form factors. As neck is located beyond the natural field of view, it offers wide opportunities for subtle haptic interaction. While tactile acuity of the neck is well studied in clinical research, these results are difficult to apply for interactive systems. In this paper, we present HaptiCollar - a research prototype for studying tactile acuity of the neck. We conducted two experimental studies comparing different numbers of actuators on the neck, in two contextual scenarios simulating stationary and mobile use. We found that pattern actuations are recognised more effectively than single-point vibrations, independently of use scenario. Our analysis shows that introducing a primary cognitive task and motion does not impair recognition accuracy, while highly increasing the cognitive load. Our work contributes empirical insights for designing haptic interaction for future neck-worn interfaces.

Abstract Remote health monitoring (RHM) provides various benefits to older adults, but its use is still limited. Remote monitoring may help in avoiding emergencies and prolong users’ independence. To understand how to design systems which support older adults, we studied a large-scale remote health monitoring system. The system used fitness-grade smartwatches to monitor the vital signs of more than 2000 users constantly. To probe the lived experience of using RHM, we conducted an explorative interview study (N = 41) with operators, carers, and users of the RHM system. Our thematic analysis reveals that personalisation of care ecology is crucial for developing users’ confidence and trust in the system. We found that participation in RHM may catalyse positive changes in older adults’ lifestyles. Based on our findings, we formulate five recommendations for designing future health monitoring systems. Our work contributes to insights into the lived experience and stakeholder ecology of health monitoring systems.

Human perception lacks the capabilities to accurately assess distance. The recent Covid-19 pandemic outbreak rendered this ability particularly important. Augmenting our sense of distance can help maintain safe separation from others when required. To explore how systems can help users maintain physical distance, we designed, implemented and evaluated Gapeau—a head-mounted system for augmenting the sense of distance. Our system uses proximity sensors and thermal sensing to detect and measure the distance to other people. We conducted a validation protocol, an experiment, in which we compared different feedback modalities, and an in-the-wild study to evaluate Gapeau’s performance and suitability for use in social contexts. We found that our system enabled users to more accurately determine whether they were maintaining a safe distance from others. Vibration and auditory feedback were found most effective and usable. Gapeau was perceived as socially acceptable. Our work contributes insights for augmented sensing systems with social relevance.

Due to multimodal approach, the virtual reality experiences become increasingly more immersive and entertaining. New control modalities, such as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), enable the players to engage in the game with both their bodies and minds. In our work, we investigate the influence of employing BCI-driven mechanics on player’s in-game immersion. We designed and implemented an escape room-themed game which employed player’s mental states of focus and relaxation as input for selected game mechanisms. Through a between-subject user study, we found that controlling the game with mental states enhances the in-game immersion and attracts the player’s engagement. At the same time, using BCIs did not impose additional cognitive workload. Our work contributes qualitative insights on psychocognitive effects of using BCIs in gaming and describing immersive gaming experiences.

Although robots have become an everyday companion for medical personnel in various domains, few solutions have been crafted to facilitate therapy of psychological disorders. Treatment of phobias is one of the areas which could highly benefit from introducing device-mediated interactions. To address the challenges of arachnophobia therapy, we designed SpiderHand - robot-based system for quasi-direct interaction with unpleasant creatures. We first identified the challenges of cognitive-behavioral therapy through interviews with a professional therapist and elicited functional requirements through experimental inquiry. Then, we designed and implemented an operational research prototype of motion-controlled robotic manipulator including remote touch features. We contribute a complete implementation toolkit for constructing DIY robot manipulator and provide insights on designing interactive robots for psychological therapy.

While the sport of golf offers unique opportunities for people of all ages to be active, it also requires mastering complex movements before it can be fully enjoyed. Extensive training is required to begin achieving any success, which may demotivate prospective players away from the sport. To aid beginner golfers and enable them to practice without supervision, we designed Subtletee---a system that enhances the bodily awareness of golfers by providing feedback on the position of their feet and elbows. We first identified key problems golf beginners face through expert interviews. We then evaluated different feedback modalities for Subtletee---visual, tactile and auditory in an experiment with 20 beginner golfers. We found that providing proprioception feedback increased the users' performance on the driving range, with tactile feedback providing the most benefits. Our work provides insights on delivering feedback during physical activity that requires high precision movements.

While we usually have no trouble with orientation, our sense of direction frequently fails in the absence of a frame of reference. Open-water swimmers raise their heads to look for a reference point, since disorientation might result in exhaustion or even drowning. In this paper, we report on Clairbuoyance - a system that provides feedback about the swimmer's orientation through lights mounted on swimming goggles. We conducted an experiment with two versions of Clairbuoyance: Discrete signals relative to a chosen direction, and continuous signals providing a sense of absolute direction. Participants swam to a series of targets. Proficient swimmers preferred the discrete mode; novice users the continuous one. We determined that both versions of Clairbuoyance enabled reaching the target faster than without the help of the system, although the discrete mode increased error. Based on the results, we contribute insights for designing directional guidance feedback for swimmers.