Designers rely on various tools to create probes, prototypes, and artifacts. However, many of these tools are dependent on complex or resource-intensive fabrication methods that are not widely accessible and are often unsuited for rapid iteration. My research addresses this primary challenge by developing democratic methods for creating expressive and interactive physical prototypes using their hands, basic tools, and widely accessible machinery such as conventional printers and vinyl cutters. This approach lowers the threshold for participation, allowing more diverse practitioners to experiment and iterate on form and function. Furthermore, my secondary challenge is to facilitate sustainable practices and material awareness throughout the prototyping process, which encourages reflection and focuses on the reusability of materials, making prototyping more environmentally responsible and efficient. To address both challenges, we explore toolkits that computationally generate foldable paper templates to construct precise, structurally stable 3D forms that support visual integration with clarity at different scales, and to support the integration of fiducial markers and reusable electronics. The ongoing research generates results that potentially contribute to the democratization of design tools and facilitate sustainable design practices for a broader range of practitioners, designers, and researchers to create expressive interactive physical prototypes.

Sleep diaries are essential self-reporting tools for understanding children’s sleep patterns, but maintaining sustained engagement and high-quality self-reporting remains challenging. While voice input has been explored in child-computer interaction research as a method to improve engagement, limited evidence exists regarding its effectiveness in supporting sustained self-reporting over time. To address this gap, we conducted a five-day field study with 20 children aged seven to twelve, using a multimodal sleep diary that integrated both voice and text input modalities. Our findings reveal that voice input significantly supports younger children in maintaining engagement over five days, though their response quality remains lower than that of older children. Two distinct response quality patterns over time also emphasize the importance of accounting for individual differences in task performance. Furthermore, input modality preferences varied by age: older children consistently favored text input, while younger children generally preferred voice input over time. These results highlight the potential of incorporating voice input into text-based sleep diaries to better accommodate the diverse needs of children, enhancing both sustained engagement and response quality. Future studies with longer observation periods are needed to validate and extend these findings.

Crowd management is crucial for large-scale events, requiring a 90% upfront planning effort with inter-disciplinarity and collaboration. However, existing tools often fall short of facilitating dynamic interactions between stakeholders during the planning process. This paper presents CrowdCollab, an interactive system consisting of a portable tabletop display platform with tangibles and a handheld display that adds a situated experience, fostering hands-on exploration from multiple perspectives. A user study was conducted with 16 participants to evaluate the usability and gather user feedback. The findings demonstrate valuable insights into how the designed system facilitates shared understanding and an engaging collaboration experience in crowd management.

Tracking fluid intake can help reduce the risk of dehydration and, subsequently, the rehospitalization of older adults. Several technological solutions have been developed to track fluid intake, but older adults have not widely embraced them. We report on a study using an existing solution, MyBeaker, as a probe to explore the limitations when used in the daily lives of the expected user group. We underscore the insights gathered from the study and address them by suggesting a proof-of-concept redesign aimed at integrating elderly users' current fluid intake practices more seamlessly. We highlight insights gained from the study and demonstrate the potential benefits of using existing technology as probes to better understand the home context of older adults for the purpose of improving existing or informing the design of new assistive technologies.

Using information and communication technology (ICT) while solo dining can alleviate loneliness but may also lead to unhealthy food choices and decreased satiety. Mindful eating practices are needed to raise awareness about the impact of ICT technology on eating behavior. Our work aims to use technology to augment physical practices and generate physical artifacts by physicalizing sensor data and letting users self-annotate and make sense of the sensor data. With a toolkit that supports constructive physicalization of inertia sensor data related to the users' eating behavior, users increase their awareness of their mundane routine of solo dining with ICT devices by building personalized data physicalization and adding annotations. Results of a five-day preliminary study indicate how annotating data physicalization could be a beneficial intervention for promoting mindful eating behavior in a personal context.