Games empowering active engagement in real-world climate adaptation measures are underexplored. Yet, bottom-up engagement is crucial for addressing natural hazard impacts at the community and individual levels. Our work employed an iterative research for and through co-design approach to develop a locally adapted tabletop game for a community-led educational Center. We tested the game onsite (n = 254), followed by two surveys, one immediately after playing (n = 57) and one conducted two weeks later (n = 11), assessing players’ awareness, and sense of empowerment and agency. Results show an increase in participants’ awareness of local countermeasures, a sense of agency, and their participatory efficacy in contributing to their own, their family’s, and their community’s climate resilience. Our work contributes a transferable game concept that reflects complex real-world interdependencies, empowering a sense of agency through practice-based game mechanics.

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.

Live action roleplay (larp) has a wide range of applications and can be relevant in relation to HCI. While there has been research about larp in relation to topics such as embodied interaction, playfulness, and futuring published in HCI venues since the early 2000s, there is not yet a compilation of this knowledge. In this article, we synthesize knowledge about larp and larp-adjacent work within the domain of HCI. We present a practitioner overview from an expert group of larp researchers, the results of a literature review, and highlight particular larp research exemplars which all work together to showcase the diverse set of ways that larp can be utilized in relation to HCI topics and research. This article identifies the need for further discussions toward establishing best practices for utilizing larp in relation to HCI research, as well as advocating for increased engagement with larps outside academia.

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.

Social closeness is important for health and well-being, but is difficult to maintain over a distance. Games can help connect people by strengthening existing relationships or creating new ones through shared playful experiences. We present the design and evaluation of 'In the Same Boat' (ITSB), a two-player infinite runner designed to foster social closeness in distributed dyads. ITSB leverages the synchronization of both players' input to steer a canoe down a river and avoid obstacles. We created two versions: embodied controls, which use players' physiological signals (breath rate, facial expressions), and standard keyboard controls. Results from a study with 35 dyads indicate that ITSB fostered affiliation, and while embodied controls were less intuitive, people enjoyed them more. Further, photos of the dyads were rated as happier and closer in the embodied condition, indicating the potential of embodied controls to foster social closeness in synchronized play over a distance.

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.