We describe a field study of Chronoscope, a tangible photo viewer that lets people revisit and explore their digital photos with the support of temporal metadata. Chronoscope offers different temporal modalities for organizing one's personal digital photo archive, and for exploring possible connections in and across time, and among photos and memories. We deployed four Chronoscopes in four households for three months to understand participants’ experiences over time. Our goals are to investigate the reflective potential of temporal modalities as an alternative design approach for supporting memory-oriented photo exploration, and empirically explore conceptual propositions related to slow technology. Findings revealed that Chronoscope catalyzed a range of reflective experiences on their respective life histories and life stories. It opened up alternative ways of considering time and the potential longevity of personal photo archives. We conclude with implications to present opportunities for future HCI research and practice.

The spread of COVID-19 has encouraged the practice of using video conferencing for family doctor appointments. Existing applications and off-the-shelf devices face challenges in dealing with capturing the correct view of patients' bodies and supporting ease of use. We created Dr.’s Eye, a video conferencing prototype to support varying types of body exams in home settings. With our prototype, we conducted a study with participants using mock appointments to understand the simultaneous use of the camera and display and to get insights into the issues that might arise in real doctor appointments. Results show the benefits of providing more flexibility with a decoupled camera and display, and privacy protection by limiting the camera view. Yet, challenges remain in maneuvering two devices, presenting feedback for the camera view, coordinating camera work between the participant and the examiner, and reluctance towards showing private body regions. This inspires future research on how to design a video system for doctor appointments.

With the massive adoption of smartphones, location trackers, and GPS-based applications, data is being generated that captures people's geographic locations in more precise detail than ever before. Personal location history archives offer a potentially valuable and overlooked resource for supporting reminiscence and recollection of the past. Yet, little design research has explored how location histories can be used as a material in designing such experiences. To investigate this space, we engaged in a practice-based design research process that resulted in two design artifacts. Memory Tracer is a tangible device that occasionally, yet perpetually surfaces locations from the past bound to today's date. Memory Compass is a smartwatch application that uses a ‘casting’ interaction enabling a user to retrieve and explore locations from their past, across space and time. We unpack and reflect on key decisions in our design process and conclude with opportunities for future HCI research and practice.

This paper presents a long-term field study of the coMorphing stool: a computational thing that can change shape in response to the surrounding light. We deployed 5 coMorphing stools to 5 participants' homes over 9 months. As co-speculators, the participants reflected on their mediated relations with the coMorphing stool. Findings suggest that they perceived the subtle transformations of the coMorphing stool in the early days of the deployment. After becoming familiar with these features, they interpreted their daily entanglements with the coMorphing stool in diverse personalized ways. Over time, the co-speculators accepted the coMorphing stool as part of their homes. These findings contribute new empirical insights to the shape-changing research field in HCI and enrich discussions on higher-level concepts in postphenomenology. Reflecting on these experiences promotes further HCI explorations on computational things.

HCI research on shape change has highlighted the importance of materiality and temporality in design practice. However, little research has addressed the challenges of tailoring these qualities for everyday interactions with a shape-changing artifact. In this paper, we report from a designer-researcher perspective into the crafting of deformTable: a shape-changing form that responds to the weight of objects placed on its surface. We crafted 5 deformTables over 18 months with special attention given to the physical, temporal, and computational aspects. Specifically, we describe how we focused on speed adjustments and response times in the process to frame the temporal expressions of computing; we also discuss how the material and tools helped shape our decisions in the context of the materiality of computing. This study contributes an RtD case of designing a particular shape-changing artifact through the lens of temporality and materiality to support long-term engagements and everyday interactions.

In this pictorial, we present critical reflections on the design process of crafting the deformTable. The table is a shape-changing device that can go up and down based on the weight of objects placed on it. This pictorial focuses on key design decisions in the making of a shape-changing artifact like the deformTable that explores how deformability, temporality, and materiality can encourage creative appropriations over time. We believe this pictorial contributes to how to design research products that can investigate shape-changing artifacts in everyday settings over time.

Research into shape-changing and deformable artifacts that explore novel interactions has been growing in design and HCI. Yet, there is little discussion on the design processes behind these approaches and in particular, a theoretical understanding of materiality that is central to deformation. Informed by Wiberg's compositional interaction design, we contribute an investigation into supporting long-term relations with deformation: the transTexture lamp. Specifically, we crafted a dynamic physical form with materials at hand. We instantiated the materiality of interaction being designed as a computational whole. Reflecting on our theory-informed RtD process enriched our understanding of compositional interaction design. These reflections on our design approach may benefit further explorations into the intersections between materiality, longevity, and actuality in the context of design-oriented HCI.

The HCI and C&C communities have developed many unique shape-changing artifacts for supporting novel interactions and experiences. However, little research has been initiated to designing for supporting long-term relations with dynamic shape change. Recently, Wiberg has proposed the notion of the materiality of interaction as a new ontology for tangible computing. There is an opportunity to investigate how such a theory can frame creative and organic experiences with designed shape-changing artifacts in everyday settings over time. To do so, I aim to craft three different shape-changing artifacts as resources for supporting deployment studies. Reflecting on design processes and accumulating empirical data may contribute to further explorations on creativity, materiality, and temporality in interaction design and HCI fields.

This paper provides a materiality perspective to understanding lived experiences with a deformable domestic artefact, named transTexture lamp. The lamp is an interactive light with a deformable lampshade surface. We deployed transTexture lamps in the homes of three professional designers for two months with the aim of exploring possible interactions and engagements with the deformable lamp. Our findings show how participants experienced transTexture through pleasurable interactions and how they experienced deformation over time from reflections on these interactions. Analyzing the data through a materiality lens unpacked a creative process of drawing on the deformable lampshade surface, which results in the accumulation of substrates and transformations of deformations. These findings suggest opportunities for future material-centered interaction design research and practices in HCI.

With the massive proliferation of digital photos, new approaches are needed to enable people to engage with their vast photo archives over time. We describe the Research through Design process of Chronoscope, a domestic technology that leverages temporal metadata embedded in digital photos as a resource to encourage more temporally diverse, rich, and open-ended experiences when re-visiting one's personal digital photo archive. We unpack and reflect on design choices that made use of digital photo metadata to support new ways of interacting with personal photo archives through and across time. We conclude with opportunities for future HCI research and practice.