Reflection and metacognition are central to the creative user experience. However, most HCI research on reflection focuses on clear, task-oriented goals such as to reflect on personal data or pedagogical outcomes. This contrasts with the open-ended and challenging to articulate goals of creative user experiences. For the first time, this workshop brings together interdisciplinary researchers, designers, educators, and artists across HCI, Cognitive Science, Design, AI, Learning Sciences, and Digital Art to examine reflection in creative interaction. The workshop will discuss themes, drawn from earlier discussions with HCI researchers and artists, on: how best to capture reflection in creative contexts, how to leverage the arts to support reflection for ethical change, and how to design creative AI that enhances – not hinders – critical thinking. By bringing interdisciplinary perspectives on reflection into discussion, the workshop will develop a guiding taxonomy for reflection in creative interaction to inform future creative practice and tool development.

Against the backdrop of a growing concern with environmental sustainability across HCI research and design, TEI'24 was the first version of the conference to include a sustainability chair. In conjunction with this increasing interest in sustainability, we organised a Studio at TEI'24 to engage the community in a conversation about the sustainability of conferences by using data physicalizations to mediate this discussion. In a one-day Studio, the organisers and attendees constructed two large-scale input physicalizations that were deployed at the conference venue to collect data around conference sustainability from TEI attendees. In this pictorial, we present the outcomes of this Studio, including the two input physicalizations and the collected data. We offer a description of the strategies we employed to design in a more sustainable way, as well as reflections on input physicalizations and the opportunities and challenges they present for facilitating data-driven dialogue.

Immersive visualisations, that enable spatial, embodied exploration (e.g., XR and physicalisations), have the potential to increase user engagement with data representations. However, which mode of representation offers a higher engagement, and how does the user experience differ? Our work compares a physicalisation to a mobile AR representation of energy consumption sources and CO2 emissions. In a counter-balanced study with 16 participants, we found no significant differences in perceived user engagement, except for higher scores in “perceived usability’’. The physicalisation was considered ‘real’ and intuitive, the AR representation technical and precise. Most participants preferred the physicalisation and felt more ‘connected’ with it. We also analysed patterns of how people moved around the representations, and found no differences between conditions. Despite people being able to touch the physicalisation, this was barely made use of—thereby turning both conditions into visual exploration. We discuss what rationale participants provided for barely touching and discuss implications.

In this studio, we will explore the potential of inflatables for tangible interfaces by designing and fabricating inflatable props using a highly versatile and low-cost technique.The WireShape prototyping process can be used by researchers, makers, designers, and artists for the rapid and reliable manufacturing of inflatables.Based on our previous work [2], we introduce an accessible method for creating inflatable user interface elements using hand-made heatsealing tools made from aluminum wire, applied to tpu-coated fabrics using a widely available T-shirt heat press.The resulting inflatable objects can be used as tangible artifacts for design and experience prototyping, or for the production of research prototypes.The proposed workshop will introduce participants to this method, focusing on the practical aspects of creating inflatables, and will enable participants to explore the potential of inflatables for unique and engaging interactions in the context of interaction design and data physicalisation.Through hands-on activities, we will demonstrate how to sketch and create inflatables for tangible interfaces and discuss their benefits, limitations, and the possible integration of sensor technology.As a studio at TEI25, our goal is to facilitate a space where HCI researchers and designers can collaborate, create, and discuss opportunities and challenges.

As the datafication of our personal lives increases, researchers have started to critique what we consider as data. Where data are often seen from a reductionist perspective –as neutral numbers and graphs– theory suggests that data are messy, subjective, and pertaining to more than the human alone. They are experienced and lived with, something which is often not accounted for in personal data. To explore what people themselves consider data, sixteen interlocutors participated in a cultural probe study where they visually documented what they considered data in their everyday lives. Our analysis indicates that data can be disciplinary, social, and extend beyond ourselves, incorporating more-than-human aspects. Data are often regarded for entertainment, work, and wellbeing purposes. As interlocutors actively engaged and lived with data, we end the pictorial with a working definition of personal data, which acknowledges people's active roles in their data creation.

Most physical data representations rely on vision only and miss the opportunity of making people physically experience data. This work introduces ‘A Fair Game’: a narrative sensification that uses story-telling and embodied interaction to provide data insight. A Fair Game is a two-player horse race installation representing passport power, where people pull on a rope to move their horse. People randomly draw a high- or low-ranking passport which determines the horse’s speed, so either a lot or little physical effort is needed to win the race. The installation was deployed at an exhibition for two days, where we conducted interviews with fifteen people. Findings indicate that people’s embodied interaction and the visible unfairness of the game contributed to emotional engagement. Participant’s felt frustration and empathy, which facilitated space for discussions regarding the topic. Our work shows the potential of kinesthetic and emotional engagement, and introduces the concept of narrative sensification.

Data is often inaccessible for non-expert users, leading to a lack of data transparency and speculation in the understanding and interpretation of data, not providing personal value to individuals. The SensorBricks toolkit was evaluated during 5 workshops (N = 20) to learn how an IoT toolkit can support the development of data literacy. The SensorBricks toolkit introduced data to individuals in a fun, accessible and easy way, creating a low boundary for users to interact with data, sensors and output modalities. The toolkit helped individuals to reflect on the role of data in their environment. The collaborative aspect gave individuals the option to discuss the data and learn from each other’s experiences helping users to create a meaningful interpretation and shared understanding of sensor data. The combined digital and data physicalization data representation gives individuals both awareness and in-detail information, creating an understandable and informative way of presenting data.

This paper explores (1) the role of metaphors in physical data representations and (2) the concept of tacit data: implicitly known data which are hard to uncover. In a semester course with twenty-three students, five teams explored how to represent self-chosen ‘tacit data’ in a visualisation, haptification, and dynamic physicalisation. Throughout these phases, our notion of tacit data evolved, resulting in a proposed working definition. Moreover, we noticed that metaphors played an increasingly important role. Based on analysis of students’ work and interviews with them, we found that tacit data and physical data representations need metaphors. For haptifications and physicalisations, metaphors help to circumvent limitations, curate data, and communicate to the audience. As tacit data were seen as ‘soft’ and difficult to quantify, metaphors made the data workable. Furthermore, tacit data benefit from physical representations, which offer further dimensions to represent the feeling and intimate aspects of data.

We present pneuCNTRL, a system providing a programmable, precise air pressure control in a multi-channel setup with interactive actuated, soft and malleable inflatables which we used for studies on data physicalization. pneuCNTRL is a compact, easy-to-use, and affordable solution that allows researchers to quickly and accurately control shape and haptic properties of inflatable structures in HCI experimental studies. We describe its design and functionality, and summarize our experiences with its use in research and teaching. We also discuss potential benefits of pneuCNTRL, such as its ability to support a wide range of experimental designs and the exploration of novel research questions.

Data physicalizations embody a fascinating intersection of design, technology, and data, where physical artifacts encode information through their geometry or material properties (Jansen et al. 201...

Although physical artifacts that represent data have been used for centuries, the research field—known as data physicalization—has only recently gained traction. Compared to data visualization, there is no established vocabulary for analyzing and discussing the properties of physicalizations. Through a grounded analysis of examples and literature, we propose a comprehensive design vocabulary, which consist of three separate, but connected parts: explicit variables , implicit properties , and consequential aspects . Explicit variables build on visual variables known from visualization and extend it to account for physicalization’s multi-modal nature. Implicit properties concern elements which are central to the design intention and user experience of physicalizations, yet are not a result of “explicit” encoding strategies. Finally, consequential aspects refer to unintentional effects of design decisions, that influence how a physicalization is experienced. Our work illustrates how physicalizations incorporate opportunities and challenges that are not afforded in other data representations, such as embodiment and imagined touch . With this, we contribute to generating theory on physicalization. Our design vocabulary can support (1) creators through informing their design processes and highlighting design strategies, (2) educators, and (3) academics and practitioners to analyse existing physicalizations, and reflect on the impact of design decisions on interpretation and experience.

We contribute to an improved understanding of how physical multisensory data representations are experienced and how specific modalities affect the user experience (UX). We investigate how people make sense of Birdbox, a crossmodal data representation that employs combined haptic-audio, audio-visual, or visual-haptic output for data about birds. Findings indicate that participants preferred haptic output for the bodily experience it triggered. Participants further created their own mappings between data and modality; haptic was mapped to aggression, and audio to speed. Especially with (soft) haptic output, Birdbox was experienced as a living entity. This can also be seen in participants’ bodily interactions, holding Birdbox as if it were a small bird. We contribute to a better understanding of the UX of different modalities in multisensory data representations, highlight strengths of the haptic modality, and of metaphorical understandings of modalities.

Self-tracking technologies have long promised to enhance our well-being. However, our initial work and that of others show that most of these technologies focus on data, not the user. Based on interviews, development of mood boards, and the creation of a research product, we propose an alternative approach to self-tracking: re-humanising self-tracking technologies. Our work shows that feelings play an important role with data, that data are temporal, and associated with work and utility. We interpret four design criteria, which are applied in the creation of Frankie: a human-centred tracking device which records both quantitative (number of activities) and qualitative (perceived weight of the activity and spoken reflections) data to foster self-reflection. Through this design case we add to the discussion on re-imagining self-tracking technologies to go beyond data-centric artefacts.

A growing body of work focuses on physicalisations based on personal, everyday data. Despite growing interest, little is known about how to educate people on their creation. We designed a teaching method of ’Data Diaries’, which consists of five representation assignments that move from visualising to physicalising personal data. The Data Diaries were used in a semester project, with the aim of creating an interactive physicalisation. We analysed the Data Diaries, written reports, and participant interviews. Our analysis shows that people need to overcome the challenge of using materiality to communicate data, which happens in four stages. Moreover, the materiality made participants realise that physicalisations do not focus on efficiency and accuracy, but on the story of the data, by referring to its origin, use of personal mappings, and reduction. As physicalisations blur the line between quantitative and qualitative, designing them engenders a change in our notion of ’data’.

A growing body of work in InfoVis explores its user experience (UX), however, emotions remain underexplored. Our study reveals barriers for investigating personal connection and emotional reaction to visualisations. This provides an explanation for why the role of emotions so far received little attention in InfoVis. Twenty-four participants viewed two traditional data visualisations, answered UX questionnaires for each, and were interviewed about their experience. Our findings show that traditional visualisations are seen as ‘just a graph’, that represents neutral information. Participants referred to aesthetics, legibility, and usability, instead of the actual topic. Moreover, to make sense of the data, emotions have to be separated from it. We found four possible explanations underlying this belief and argue that a form of post-hoc rationalisation takes place, which obscures people’s initial connections and affective responses to visualisations. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for future research on the UX of visualisations.

Passwords have become a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, needed for every web-service and system. However, it is challenging to create safe and diverse alphanumeric passwords, and to recall them, imposing a cognitive burden on the user. Through consecutive experiments, we explored the movement space, affordances and interaction, and memorability of a tangible, handheld, embodied password. In this context, we found that: (1) a movement space of 200 mm × 200 mm is preferred; (2) each context has a perceived level of safety, which—together with the affordances and link to familiarity—influences how the password is performed. Furthermore, the artefact’s dimensions should be balanced within the design itself, with the user, and the context, but there is a trade-off between the perceived safety and ergonomics; and (3) the designed embodied passwords can be recalled for at least a week, with participants creating unique passwords which were reproduced consistently.