Many current robot designs prioritize efficiency and one-size-fits-all solutions, oftentimes overlooking personalization, adaptability, and sustainability. To explore alternatives, we conducted two co-design workshops with 23 participants, who engaged with a modular robot co-design framework. Using components we provided as building blocks, participants combined, removed, and invented modules to envision how modular robots could accompany them from childhood through adulthood and into older adulthood. The participants’ designs illustrate how modularity (a) enables personalization through open-ended configuration, (b) adaptability across shifting life-stage needs, and (c) sustainability through repair, reuse, and continuity. We therefore derive design principles that establish modularity as a foundation for lifespan-oriented human–robot interaction. This work reframes modular robotics as a flexible and expressive co-design approach, supporting robots that evolve with people, rather than static products optimized for single moments or contexts of use.

The pictorial explores the role of domestic robots in shaping relational and emotional experiences in home environments. Through a participatory workshop featuring a speculative card game 3R (Robots, Rooms, Relationships), participants crafted future home scenarios by combining different robot types, household settings, and interaction modes. The results emphasize how different robot forms evoke unique relational responses. This research investigates how speculative scenarios expand human imagination and foster new emotional and cognitive dimensions in human-robot interaction (HRI). Our findings suggest that domestic robots are not merely functional tools but co-creators of affective ecologies, prompting new design frameworks. We advocate for a shift from deterministic robot functionalities to open-ended, imaginative design approaches that foster co-creative relationships between humans and robots.

Robotics has emerged as a critical field of technological innovation. However, current design paradigms, rooted in industrial-era models, often prioritize centralized control, planned obsolescence, and rigid, one-size-fits-all solutions, undermining adaptability, sustainability, and personal autonomy. To address these limitations, we propose a speculative robotic design framework rooted in Sustainability, Adaptability, and Modularity. Our framework envisions robots as modular systems that can be assembled, reconfigured, and personalized by people, shifting design control away from centralized decision-makers and enabling long-term usability. Modularity enables adaptability and reduces obsolescence, while adaptability reinforces sustainability through circular resource use and extended lifecycles. This speculative framework not only provides a technical vision but also reimagines robotic design as a participatory and collaborative process aligned with ecological responsibility. Our speculative framework offers a manifesto for systemic change, reshaping robotics for a more equitable, sustainable future between humans, robots, and ecology.

Reducing electronic waste is one of the key topics in Sustainable Interaction Design. However, research regarding the sustainable future of the long-term use of robots is limited. Our study employs a game-based workshop to investigate the factors influencing potential users’ sustainability choices in long-term human-robot interactions. We developed a board game called “Game of Life with Your Companion Robot” to help participants situate themselves in the context of cohabiting with companion robots of their choice. Through five workshops with seventeen participants, we explore (a) the factors mentioned by participants that influence their sustainability choices in long-term human-robot interactions, and (b) the connections between how participants frame their companion robots and their sustainability choices. We use four sustainable criteria to evaluate participants’ choices. Our findings show that different framings of robots can result in different sustainable outcomes.

We picture various forms of engagement with Tea (and Coffee). The images are selected from a large and ongoing collection of street photography and posed images along this theme. The images as presented here are prompts to interaction design inspirations, after the style of [1]. The text is deliberately minimal, as part of a focus on visually rich content for and advancement of the form of primarily photographic pictorials in HCI.

This paper presents the design rationale and concept development behind MemoryReel, a tangibly interactive desktop device that records special moments of online social interactions, between couples and friends over a long distance, and supports later reminiscence. In a human-centered design process started with a two-act design inquiry, we developed the design concept and implemented a medium-to-high-fidelity interactive prototype. We then invited 20 participants to experience the prototype and give comments. The design rationale together with the analysis of the exploratory user study findings provides insights on the dimensions and strategies of a design space for digital memories and long-distance relationships, with an emphasis on reminiscence support.

Some recently emergent themes in HCI include adapting to changing conditions by simplifying life, learning skills of adaptation, and finding balance between the digital world and an authentic physical world. These themes imply that design is best understood as ontological-that is, design concerns lifestyles and ways of being. This pictorial celebrates the delight the authors take in nuclear family and the wisdom of their parents' simpler lifestyle. This case may be understood more generally as an instrument of inspiration to help find balance between the potentials of technology and traditional notions of a life worth living. Our images are accompanied by inspirations for thinking about interaction design differently.

This paper privileges visual contributions-original images and referenced materials-nearly as much as text. As such, it follows a trend towards pictorials and image intensive papers elsewhere in SIGCHI venues that have yet to find acceptance in the CHI paper tracks. The paper in both its text and its visual contributions takes up (a) ongoing questions of how designs matter-especially in relation to sustainability, (b) questions of extending notions of sustainability beyond the environment to include notions from respect for human labor to respect between nations, (c) questions of the utility of photographic methods in building design understanding and conceptualization, (d) questions of emphasis and extension for Rams' principles of good design, and (e) hypotheses about the relations between seemingly small design details and global attitudes, policy, and harmony, inspired by Allison's account of Thucydides' Trap. These are big questions. It is their ambitious character that unifies them.

The genre of this pictorial is photographs as primary content. All of the images are deliberately and extremely out of focus, creating a puzzle for the viewer. The implications of this work are considered in terms of the images themselves, boundaries and balance in pictorials, politics and cognition, and technology. Qualities of focus in images--from everywhere in focus to selective to everywhere out of focus--are discussed as a technique and material quality of interaction design.

This paper does two things. (1) First, it describes the role of the photo-visual in HCI and Design. The paper appeals primarily to the literature within HCI relating to photo-visual contributions. It appeals also to literatures outside of HCI, but it does not do so exhaustively. (2) Second, it illustrates the role of the photo-visual with two photographic essays that are comprised of both original arranged photographs and original accompanying texts. The photographs are intended to engage the reader as much as the text. The paper seeks to add constructively to the growing acceptance of the photo- visual as a methodologically sound manner of creating and recording design knowledge in HCI and Design. The paper leaves to future reporting much that the reviewers have thoughtfully recommended, owing to the lack of any room for additional material. In particular, more guidance about how this work may be applied and how photographic skills may be taught in design-oriented HCI is forthcoming.

This pictorial presents a five year retrospective of the visual thinking gallery images and annotations that have appeared as the last page of each issue of ACM interactions since 2011. The selected images are grouped together here both aesthetically and categorically. This is the first time these images have appeared together as a collection. The images are presented as thematic pairings that are emergent from the historical collection. The images are particular instances of the sorts of observations that may be represented photo-visually in and as HCI.

Interactive devices and the services they support are reliant on the cloud and the digital infrastructure supporting it. The environmental impacts of this infrastructure are substantial and for particular services the infrastructure can account for up to 85% of the total impact. In this paper, we apply the principles of Sustainable Interaction Design to cloud services use of the digital infrastructure. We perform a critical analysis of current design practice with regard to interactive services, which we identify as the cornucopian paradigm. We show how user-centered design principles induce environmental impacts in different ways, and combine with technical and business drivers to drive growth of the infrastructure through a reinforcing feedback cycle. We then create a design rubric, substantially extending that of Blevis [6], to cover impacts of the digital infrastructure. In doing so, we engage in design criticism, identifying examples (both actual and potential) of good and bad practice. We then extend this rubric beyond an eco-efficiency paradigm to consider deeper and more radical perspectives on sustainability, and finish with future directions for exploration.

This pictorial essay is a collection of images that picture the theme of stillness and motion. The intention is to deliberately push at the boundaries of what a pictorial contribution might be and mean in the context of HCI and design. In this contribution, the collection of images does not so much play the role of documentation of process, nor photo-ethnographic design research, but rather in its curation and concern for both meaning and quality of form, it is intended as design making in-and-of-itself.

This paper explores the relationships between fashion and Sustainable HCI, with an eye towards identifying positive design opportunities that create sustainable good. First, we report on a review of fashion-related literatures outside of HCI, mostly in sociocultural studies, business and marketing research. Within HCI, we use Blevis' five sustainable interaction design principles as a frame to present new directions that arise from thinking about fashion in relation to sustainability. In order to construct a clear basis for fashion thinking within the domain of HCI, we postulate six fashion concepts that owe to literatures outside of HCI. For each fashion concept, we derive a fashion thinking issue, provide design examples, and propose actionable design principles, to illustrate the instrumental value that each fashion concept offers to sustainable HCI. We conclude simply by identifying future research directions to which we and others may contribute.

What happens if efforts to achieve sustainability fail? Research in many fields argues that contemporary global industrial civilization will not persist indefinitely in its current form, and may, like many past human societies, eventually collapse. Arguments in environmental studies, anthropology, and other fields indicate that this transformation could begin within the next half-century. While imminent collapse is far from certain, it is prudent to consider now how to develop sociotechnical systems for use in these scenarios. We introduce the notion of collapse informatics—the study, design, and development of sociotechnical systems in the abundant present for use in a future of scarcity. We sketch the design space of collapse informatics and a variety of example projects. We ask how notions of practice—theorized as collective activity in the “here and now”—can shift to the future since collapse has yet to occur.

In this workshop, we intend to explore within the HCI community the importance of fashion in the IT industry. We will explore the meaning of fashion and how fashion and sustainability could and might interplay in the IT industry. Participants in the workshop will collaborate in a practical exercise to act as a stimulus for thought concerning how the notion of fashion affects people's behaviors and attitudes toward digital consumption. Participants will also form different groups and share their own personal experience, behavioral changes, as well as insights related to sustainability and fashion. The outcomes of the workshop will include 1) a collection of exemplars and patterns relevant to fashion related to digital devices and technology services; 2) the identification and description of the characteristics of fashion in the digital technology domain; 3) a summary of the discussion on how interaction designers and researchers can use fashion as a positive force in sustainable HCI.

As a starting point, this paper considers a compelling idea concerning fashion and sustainable HCI---rather than attempt to thwart fashion, or exhort people not to engage in fashion-related behavior, instead, based on a deeper understanding of the complexity of fashion, utilize this concept to design products and services so as to resonate with those dimensions of fashion that are most compatible with sustainability. Our ultimate vision is to provide mechanisms to allow designers to use fashion as a positive force for sustainable design, especially in the context of HCI and interaction design. As a step along the path between this starting point and our ultimate vision, this paper describes some related literature and thoughts about methods, reports on a collection of interviews and emergent insights, and several general design implications which link fashion positively to sustainable practices and futures. Moreover, we hope to inspire others to contribute to this idea and its potential for sustainable HCI.

Research in many fields argues that contemporary global industrial civilization will not persist indefinitely in its current form, and may, like many past human societies, eventually collapse. Arguments in environmental studies, anthropology, and other fields indicate that this transformation could begin within the next half-century. While imminent collapse is far from certain, it is prudent to consider now how to develop sociotechnical systems for use in these scenarios. We introduce the notion of collapse informatics---the study, design, and development of sociotechnical systems in the abundant present for use in a future of scarcity---as a complement to ICT4D and mitigation-oriented sustainable HCI. We draw on a variety of literatures to offer a set of relevant concepts and articulate the relationships among them to orient and evaluate collapse informatics work. Observing that collapse informatics poses a unique class of cross-cultural design problems, we sketch the design space of collapse informatics and provide a variety of example projects. We explore points of connection and distinction between collapse informatics and sustainable HCI, ICT4D, and crisis informatics. Finally, we discuss next steps and comment on the potential value of collapse informatics work even in the event that collapse never occurs.

In this paper, we describe the present lack of understanding about if the potential environmental effects of transitions to cloud computing are positive or negative. We describe that research about the human interactivity implications of and for cloud computing has yet to enter the arena of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in a significant way. We describe a short inventory of what is presently in the HCI literature apropos of cloud computing and interactivity. In addition, we offer a description of how we think the issues of cloud computing in the perspective of HCI may be framed, as well as an inventory of social issues implicated in cloud computing. Finally, we suggest some projects and problems that may be appropriate for advancing cloud computing in the perspective of HCI with sustainability as a key goal.

In 1987 Brundtland defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." [1] The simplicity of this statement is seductive - but what really constitutes sustainable development, and defines the role of user experience research and design within it, is at best elusive. This workshop aims at bringing together experts and researchers in User Experience and related disciplines for a hands-on discussion of questions, insights, and approaches in designing for a sustainable future.

This paper takes up the problem of understanding why we preserve some things passionately and discard others without thought. We briefly report on the theoretical literature relating to this question, both in terms of existing literature in HCI, as well as in terms of related literatures that can advance the understanding for the HCI community. We use this reading to refine our frameworks for understanding durability in digital artifice as an issue of sustainable interaction design in HCI. Next, we report in detail on our ongoing work in collecting personal inventories of digital artifice in the home context. We relate our prior and most current personal inventories collections to the framework that owes to our reading of the theoretical literature. Finally, we summarize the theoretical implications and findings of our personal inventories work in terms of implications for the design of digital artifice in a manner that is more durable.

This paper describes the design and interprets the results of a survey of 435 undergraduate students concerning the attitudes of this mainly millennial population towards sustainability apropos of the material effects of information technologies. This survey follows from earlier work on notions of Sustainable Interaction Design (SID)---that is the perspective that sustainability can and should be a central focus within HCI. In so doing it advances to some degree the empirical resources needed to scaffold an understanding of the theory and principles of SID. The interpretations offered yield key insights about understanding different notions of what it means to be successful in a material sense to this population and specific design principles for creating interactive designs differently such that more sustainable behaviors are palatable to individuals of varying attitudes.

This paper presents the perspective that sustainability can and should be a central focus of interaction design-a perspective that is termed Sustainable Interaction Design (SID). As a starting point for a perspective of sustainability, design is defined as an act of choosing among or informing choices of future ways of being. This perspective of sustainability is presented in terms of design values, methods, and reasoning. The paper proposes (i) a rubric for understanding the material effects of particular interaction design cases in terms of forms of use, reuse, and disposal, and (ii) several principles to guide SID. The paper illustrates--with particular examples of design critique for interactive products and appeals to secondary research--how two of these principles may be applied to move the effects of designs from less preferred forms of use to more preferred ones. Finally, a vision for incorporating sustainability into the research and practice of interaction design is described.

Based on a naturalistic study of industrial designers engaged in collocated collaborative design work in a technologically unsophisticated environment, we observed a number of interactions that lead to a number of insights, namely, (1) seating and the shape and orientation of the working surface has an effect on line of sight and eye-contact behaviors, (2) being able to reach objects on the working surface effects an individual collaborator's ability to become the focus of attention, (3) in collaborative work, people may work on the same document or divide labors to work on different documents simultaneously, (4) supporting the use of conventional artifacts that users are familiar with is as important as supporting the use of informational devices, (5) large workspaces with different privacy levels support both the needs of sharing information and the needs of keeping information private, (6) changes of document orientation socially represents a corresponding change of control and privacy level. From these insights and from other sources in the literature, we describe and illustrate a number of concepts for integrated technologies and environments that can support collocated collaborative work specifically in the context of design work. These concepts are intended as an exercise in divergent design thinking that owes to carefully constructed insights based on observations.

Nial is a programming language designed around a mathematical treatment of data as nested arrays. A goal of the research described is to integrate within Nial a functional style of programming based on the theory of arrays with the declarative capabilities of a logic programming environment. This is partially accomplished by storing logic clauses as arrays which can be manipulated using logic clauses. Arrays as terms are considered as part of the syntax of the clauses. The approach to logic programming is based on providing a flexible environment for experimenting with full clausal or Horn clause logic. A variety of predefined control strategies and the capability for user-defined control strategies have been provided. The expressive capabilities of combining logic and functional programming styles provides a suitable language for many application areas. The philosophy and design behind a combined logic/database model used to prototype a knowledge-based systems application are described.>