Advances in the creation of computational materials are transforming our thinking about relations between the physical and digital. In this paper we characterize this transformation as a "material turn" within the field of interaction design. Central to theorizing tangibility, we advocate supporting this turn by developing a vocabulary capable of articulating strategies for computational material design. By exploring the term texture, a material property signifying relations between surfaces, structures, and forms, we demonstrate how concepts spanning the physical and digital benefit interaction design. We ground texture in case study of the Icehotel, a spectacular frozen edifice. The site demonstrates how a mundane material can be re-imagined as precious and novel. By focusing on the texture of ice, designers craft its extension into the realm of computational materiality. Tracing this process of aligning the physical and digital via the material and social construction of textures speaks back to the broader field of interaction design. It demonstrates how the process of crafting alliances between new and old materials requires both taking seriously the materialities of both, and then organizing their relation in terms of commonalities rather than differences. The result is a way of speaking about computational materials through a more textured lens.

This article presents the results of two experimental laboratory studies that establish relationships between displays and people's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward self, others, and social situations. Experiment I investigates how participants (N = 40) engaging in a trivia game respond when their answers and performance feedback evaluations are made public via either a large shared display or each person's laptop display. Using a 2 (answer display: shared vs. personal) × 2 (feedback display: shared vs. personal) between-participants, nested design, we find that participants exhibit differential levels of social anxiety, enjoyment, willingness to change answers, and attributions of coparticipant competence. Participants whose answers are shown on the shared display exhibit greater social anxiety but are attributed with greater competence by their peers. Viewing information on the shared display induces a greater degree of change in answers. Precisely because all information is public throughout the experiment, we are able to isolate the effects of sharing screens as opposed to sharing information. Experiment II (N = 40) builds from Experiment I by employing similar display configurations within an explicitly persuasive context. In a 2 (display: shared vs. personal) × 2 (context: common vs. personal) × 2 (content presentation style: common vs. interpersonal), mixed experimental design we produce systematic differences in the persuasiveness of information, people's engagement with content, and sense of social distance from each other. Through both experiments strong consistency effects are evident: enjoyment, engagement, and persuasiveness are all diminished where incongruencies are part of the experimental conditions. So too these mismatches increase the sense of social distance from others in the setting. We discuss the implications for future research and design of display ecologies and situated media.

This paper explores the relationship between display of feedback (public vs. private) and the basis for evaluation (present vs. absent) of that feedback. Using a controlled, laboratory setting, we employ a fundamentally social, interpersonal context (speed-dating). Two participants (one male and one female) receive real-time performance feedback about either only themselves (private) or about both participants (public). We measure participant perceptions of monitoring, conformity, and self-consciousness about themselves and their dating partner. We also assess perceptions of system invasiveness, system competence, and system support. Results reveal a consistent pattern of significant interaction between feedback display and basis for evaluation conditions. In each of these interactions, public feedback with an added, trivial, basis for evaluation creates significantly lower perception of monitoring, conformity, self-consciousness, and system invasiveness, than the other three conditions. Additionally there is a main effect for basis for evaluation with respect to system competence and supportiveness. In each case, the presence of a basis produces more positive assessments than its absence. The experiment shows that reactions to being monitored and evaluated do not differ strictly along the dimension of public vs. private; basis for evaluation of feedback functions as a mediator and thus co-determines participant attitudinal responses. We discuss the implications of this at several levels, and present a broader cultural explanation in terms of the theory of rationalization. We also discuss the issues around and functionality of linking laboratory settings to larger cultural contexts in this and related fields of inquiry.

According to usability experts, the top user issue for Web sites is difficult navigation. We have been developing auto-mated usability tools for several years, and here we describe a prototype service called InfoScent™ Bloodhound Simula-tor, a push-button navigation analysis system, which auto-matically analyzes the information cues on a Web site to produce a usability report. We further build upon previous algorithms to create a method called Information Scent Absorption Rate, which measures the navigability of a site by computing the probability of users reaching the desired destinations on the site. Lastly, we present a user study involving 244 subjects over 1385 user sessions that show how Bloodhound correlates with real users surfing for in-formation on four Web sites. The hope is that, by using a simulation of user surfing behavior, we can reduce the need for human labor during usability testing, thus dramatically lower testing costs, and ultimately improving user experience. The Bloodhound Project is unique in that we apply a concrete HCI theory directly to a real-world prob-lem. The lack of empirically validated HCI theoretical model has plagued the development of our field, and this is a step toward that direction.