Daily interactions with things are becoming increasingly virtual and hidden, tucked away in minimalist UI's or dependent on clear voice commands. Motivated by a love for physical interactions, this work uses keys, a mundane, everyday technology, as our object of study, identifying what is being ‘designed away’ in the process of digitalization. This is achieved through a collection of found objects, material samples, and design probes. We present a visual exhibition in pictorial format, where each piece represents material qualities of physical, interactive artefacts. We conclude by discussing how the embodied qualities of these artifacts can be extended to the broader landscape of everyday physical things. Our work contributes to the TEI community through both the tangible artifacts and the identified qualities for designing future physical, everyday, interactive things.

This paper explores the aesthetic value shifts required for sustainable design of so called ‘high-tech’ products, highlighting an increasing down-to-earth ethos within the field. Using a spaceship metaphor and drawing from principles of post-industrial design and visions for long-term sustainable transformation, a high-level analysis is presented of how grassroot activist cultures and alternative tastemaking practices are currently steering designs towards the systemic, earthy and organic. This direction is illustrated by diverse examples from within the TEI discourse that investigates new material approaches and that critically challenge conventional aesthetic orientations. While such approaches can be criticized for insufficiently addressing interactive and electronic components, this research underscores their essential role in reimagining technology and materials, to navigate complex cultural interdependencies and advance sustainable design futures.

Movement-based design foregrounds the moving and sentient body, fostering holistic engagement with the surrounding physical, material, and sociospatial contexts. Over the years, this approach has yielded multiple methodologies, tools, and exemplars to support body-based ideation. In this studio, we explore tools that facilitate embodied thinking and the creative processes of designing with, through, and for the body. In particular, we focus on: i) embodied ideation tools, kits, and technology probes to prompt ideation; ii) sketching and other documentation techniques to materialize ephemeral embodied action during ideation. We will bring tools and techniques to engage with both aspects, and we will invite participants to bring their own, which can be physical or technological, low or high-fidelity. This hands-on studio will provide a space to collectively engage in embodied ideation and sketching; exploring, analysing, and engaging deeply with the available objects and methods. The studio will culminate in a rich set of visual material and an annotated portfolio, which will be shared with the broader community, fostering connections among designers interested in movement-based and tangible design.

The topic of time and how it can be unpacked, deconstructed and designed with is fundamental to HCI, but it is also extensively engaged within artistic practice. By analysing a selection of ten media artworks, all in different ways concerned with time and temporality, we explore how artists approach these matters as culturally and politically loaded. The selected projects align with the ongoing scholarly interest in alternatives to common perceptions on time, unmaking the normative clock time and the posthuman discourse. Following an analysis of the theoretical and material expressions of these artworks, we conceptualised four themes through which unmaking was represented: dissecting temporality, the unmaking of the singular, unmaking as messing up and unmaking the other . We close with a discussion on how these themes intersect with the current discourse on unmaking in HCI and reflect on challenges and opportunities for design and theory.

We here present a series of design explorations focusing on batteryless interactions powered by hand cranking body movements. The explorations concern not only the matter of powering but also the use of human physical engagement for controlling interactive systems, as well as how to support designers in testing, exploring, and making such interactions. This pictorial illustrates contributions concerned with the embodied and electro-physical prototyping of such experiences, in addition to our efforts to facilitate such design work through new technical tools.

Tensions in designing for care are often positioned as conflicts to be resolved. We draw upon queer theories to investigate caring for loved ones as not ”in-line” with normative expectations of care as positive and fulfilling. Through the critique of two autobiographical design projects designed for informal, everyday care of our families, we describe four troubling orientations of care: willful detours, selfish shortcuts, naughty invasions, and unhappy departures. From these, we argue that tensions in care may not always be designed against, but can also be desired and generative. We conclude by discussing a ”wickedness” in caring for loved ones that problematizes in-home technologies as attractively naughty and potentially violent, and the four orientations as resources for interaction designers to spatially navigate tensions of domestic care.

Despite various safety regulations and procedures, work accidents remain a significant problem in the global process industry and the Swedish steel industry. To address personal safety and safety culture, wearable alert systems were prototyped and tested with steelworkers in iterative workshops. A resulting design concept, in the form of an interactive textile patch worn on the protective gear, suggests a simple way of transmitting personal alerts using light. A crucial design factor identified is to enable the communication between workers and peers as well as communicating with control room staff. The visual design can positively influence the acceptance of the patch, but its impact on the safety culture cannot yet be assessed. The present study contributes by approaching workplace safety and culture with a new design concept of IoT and e-textile technologies based on the interaction modalities of light, sound, and vibration

As interactive objects get embedded into different cultural contexts and take on more varied material forms, the relationship between interaction design and crafting practices in the physical domain is becoming increasingly interwoven. In this paper, we present an explorative project that involved intense collaborations between the areas of interaction design and silversmith practice. A main focus of the investigation concerned ways of surfacing conductive metals in interactive artefacts through the making of small, three-dimensional, and close-to-skin sensors. We reflect on insights made during this process, focusing on the challenges of combining the two knowledge areas on a level of materials, tools and techniques. In particular, we discuss qualities that silversmith crafting brings forth that can inform future directions of interaction design in terms of interaction gestalts, design values and hybrid crafting practices, more broadly.

The material foundations of computer systems and interactive technology is a topic that gained an increased interest within the HCI community during the last years. In this paper we discuss this topic through the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi, a philosophy that embraces three basic realities of the material world: 'nothing lasts', 'nothing is finished', and 'nothing is perfect'. We use these concepts to reflect on four unique interactive artefacts, which all in different ways embrace aspects of Wabi-Sabi, in terms of their design gestalt, materiality, but also in terms of use practices. Further, we use our analysis to articulate three high-level principles that may help addressing the long-term realities faced in physical interaction design, and for the design of interactive systems in general.

We present a case in which an existing tangible system and its core design values has been used to create a new variation with available standard technology exactly one decade later. We reflect on how the new technological setup fundamentally changed the interaction in terms of electronic media and behavior, as well as regarding perception, physical manipulation, and overall social activity. The new design is discussed in terms of transformations of practice, which shifted our conceptual understanding of the interaction from the metaphor of making a patchwork to that of an appliqué.

With this paper we propose bricolage as an interaction design practice. We make the case that bricolage promotes design qualities that are specifically tuned to tangible and material computing practices in that it is highly sensible towards the unstable physical world and proposes a non-hierarchical negotiation of forms. We further show how bricolage can aid design results with strong and rich cultural and material grounding. Finally, we argue how bricolage and mythical thinking can be proponents for new ways of thinking and using technology.

Ajna is a musical cabinet made from a rich composition of acoustic materials and designed to perform digitally composed music. In this paper, we aim to unpack the design as well as key aspects of the design process that lead up to this unique artwork. We base our analysis on interviews with its two creators as well as on observations of Ajna performing in different contexts. From the perspective of interaction design, we first analyse the process of its making through the negotiations between physical form, temporal from, and the interactive gestalts. Lastly, we place these negotiations in a larger picture of bricolage as a design approach. Based on this we then discuss the qualities of bricolage in interaction design.

Leather is a material used for the making of artifacts ever since early human history, and which can be used also in contemporary design for various types of interactive and electronic products. In this paper, we present a series of small scale explorations of leather, first as skin close interfaces for physical engagement, and secondly in terms of crafting using hand tools and a laser cutter. We reflect on our experiences along these two strands and discuss future possibilities of leather as a rich material for providing new types of interactive experiences. By discussing emerging topics related to traditional crafting processes and contemporary rapid fabrication with this material, we find a great potential of merging such processes and tools for future interaction design settings.

In this studio we explore the design of interactive electronic accessories made from natural materials such as wood, copper, silver, wool and leather. A set of handcrafted sensor components along with easy to use sensor boards that connect with example smartphone software, will be utilized as a toolkit for the studio activities. Participants will, through hands-on activity, create with, learn about and discuss the role of natural materials in the design of wearable interactive designs.

In this paper, we describe the design of an interactive glove, 'Teleglove' in order to investigate new ways of crafting and interacting with mobile applications through wearable technology. The system we designed was a simple control to answer a call, end a call and make it silent by just pressing two fingers of the glove, grounded in basic interaction challenges with touch screens using ordinary gloves. The glove was built quickly using newly available small-scale sensor board and connects to a smartphone via the ANT+ protocol. The robust and simple interaction with the application using the glove suggests many opportunities for practices of crafting similar systems on a broader scale.

We present a design exercise illustrating how fashion practices and the fashion design process can be used to create new opportunities both in the mobile domain and in product design, as well as in wearable computing. We investigate the concept of outfit-centric design by extending the support for social and visual interaction with digital devices beyond the currently available shells and stickers, and drawing on the ways in which people vary their dress ensembles. We designed a set of mock-up samples in a local fashion style, as a first step in understanding possible applications of the emerging technology of organic interfaces. Initial user feedback shows how fashion-conscious participants creatively experimented with the set's variations of shape and color in outfits created from their personal wardrobes, which revealed the importance of the objects' size and location on the body. It also points out that a lack of integration with the fashion system's processes reduces the attractiveness of the samples.

The topic of Materials has recently surfaced as a major theme within the research field of interaction design. In this paper we further discuss the need for in-depth descriptions of specific design cases, by revisiting some of our own research-through-design efforts when working with new or not yet fully explored materials for mobile interaction. We outline a series of design challenges that we see commonly arising in this domain, divided into three general themes; 1) affordances of hardware and casings, 2) experiential properties of different software solution, and 3) material properties of sensors, radio-signals, and electricity. Our main conclusion is that research in interaction design needs an extended focus on how systems are crafted from and together with properties of digital materials, and how new knowledge gained from those processes can be shared.

In the recent developments of human computer interaction, one central challenge has been to find and to explore alternatives to the legacy of the desktop computer paradigm for interaction design. To investigate this issue further we have conducted an analysis on a fascinating piece of machinery often referred to as one of the predecessors of the modern day computer, the Jacquard loom. In analysing the Jacquard loom we look at qualities in design and interaction from some different perspectives: how historical tools, crafts, and practices can inform interaction design, the role of physicality, materiality, and full-body interaction in order to rethink some current conceptions of interaction and design of computational devices.

With soft hardware we refer to electronic components, coatings, and shells built from materials that make them elastic, flexible, floppy and malleable. By introducing new material properties into electronic and computational contexts we expect to open new paths for designing interactive things. Building electronics with textile and other soft materials may easily degrade elements such as speed, power, and storage capacities; however, these constraints can be acceptable if not down right desirable in these new contexts. We see how sensors, actuators, computers and even battery cells made of soft materials enables us to embed them into soft shapes that in turn afford certain forms of interaction. With the term soft hardware, we also highlight the interplay between computational and physical materials in interaction designs.

This workshop, following one with the same name held at Mobile HCI 2010, aims at further exploring different approaches and challenges in studying playfulness as a mode of interacting with mobile technology.

We present a series of design explorations for controlling autonomous robotic movement based on a metaphor of clothing and accessorising. From working with various sketches, scenarios and prototypes we identify a number of particular features of this form of interaction, as well potential challenges for designers of other systems based on this design concept. Finally we conclude with a few general implications, especially concerning the inert properties of visibility, physicality and modularity with respect to the particular case of interaction and robotic movement.

Pleo is one of the more advanced interactive toys currently available for the home market, taking the form of a robotic dinosaur. We present an exploratory study of how it was interacted with and reflected upon in the homes of six families during 2 to 10 months. Our analysis emphasizes a discrepancy between the participants' initial desires to borrow a Pleo and what they reported later on about their actual experiences. Further, the data suggests an apparent tension between participants expecting the robot to work as a 'toy' while making consistent comparisons with real pet animals. We end by discussing a series of implications for design of this category of toys, in order to better maintain interest and engagement over time.

Robotic devices, such as the Roomba vacuum cleaner, are customised and personalised by their users, using for example signs, stickers and clothes.

This workshop aims to explore different approaches and challenges in studying playfulness as a mode of interacting with mobile technology. Researchers, designers and developers with interest in this theme are welcome to participate in a full day activity of demos, presentations and discussions. In particular, our emphasis is on how to introduce, explore and understand playful interaction in mobile applications used in the wild.

As computation plays an ever larger role as an embedded part of the environment, research that seeks to understand the embodied nature of children's interactions with computation becomes increasingly important. Embodied interaction is an approach to understanding human-computer interaction that seeks to investigate and support the complex interplay of mind, body and environment in interaction. Recently, such a perspective has been used to discuss human actions and interactions with a range of computational applications including tangibles, mobiles, robotics and gesture-based interfaces. Physically-based forms of child computer interaction including body movements, the ability to touch, feel, manipulate and build sensory awareness of the relationships in the world are crucial to children's cognitive and social development. This workshop aims to critically explore the different approaches to incorporating an embodied perspective in children's interaction design and HCI research, and to develop a shared set of understandings and identification of differences, similarities and synergies between our research approaches.

We use the Cargo Cult metaphor to discuss visions, methods and communication of robot research. Essentially cargo cult involves performing of imitative rituals that are conducted without understanding the underlying cause of a phenomenon. We discuss how this is an ongoing challenge within the field of HRI, and what researchers could do to avoid contributing to a robotic cargo cult.

In this report we discuss some of the challenges when applying a user-centred design approach in the field of human-robot interaction (HRI). The discussion is based on a one-day workshop at the NordiCHI'08 conference, investigating how methods, techniques and perspectives from the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) could contribute to and learn from recent developments in the area of HRI. Emphasis was put on topics that are infrequent in mainstream HCI such as machine movement, autonomy, anthropomorphism, physical interaction, environmental issues and issues concerned more generally with cultural notions of robots.

This paper aims to illustrate how robotic artefacts and applications may be described from a perspective of human action and experience. This is done by presenting an interaction model based on four ways that interactive artefacts may work as resources for human action. In contrast to data-centric models, this model includes socially and contextually oriented actions performed around the artefact, as well as actions related to the computational system running on the machine. A goal with the framework is to provide a concrete reference for designers, focusing on the experiential dimensions of the products that they develop.

This paper concerns the design of physical languages for controlling and programming robotic consumer products. For this purpose we explore basic theories of semiotics represented in the two separate fields of comics and fashion, and how these could be used as resources in the development of new physical languages. Based on these theories, the design concept of actDresses is defined, and supplemented by three example scenarios of how the concept can be used for controlling, programming, and predicting the behaviour of robotic systems.

In the design of interactive systems, developers sometimes need to engage in various ways of physical performance in order to communicate ideas and to test out properties of the system to be realised. External resources such as sketches, as well as bodily action, often play important parts in such processes, and several methods and tools that explicitly address such aspects of interaction design have recently been developed. This combined with the growing range of pervasive, ubiquitous, and tangible technologies add up to a complex web of physicality within the practice of designing interactive systems. We illustrate this dimension of systems development through three cases which in different ways address the design of systems where embodied performance is important. The first case shows how building a physical sport simulator emphasises a shift in activity between programming and debugging. The second case shows a build-once run-once scenario, where the fine-tuning and control of the run-time activity gets turned into an act of in situ performance by the programmers. The third example illustrates the explorative and experiential nature of programming and debugging systems for specialised and autonomous interaction devices. This multitude in approaches in existing programming settings reveals an expanded perspective of what practices of interaction design consist of, emphasising the interlinking between design, programming, and performance with the system that is being developed.

We present the results of a study on how Swedish children aged 10--12 use their mobile phones in public indoor and outdoor settings, and in particular how these are taken into use in unsupervised social play. Through a combination of ethnographic observations and focus group interviews we report on how existing mobile phone functionalities were handled in these settings, as well as how the children themselves described their own and each other's mobile phone usage. Our findings illustrate a general pattern of appropriating and utilising commonly available technical features to extend existing play activities, and also to invent new ones based on the functionalities that they discovered. An important observation was also the extensive sharing of media content, which played an essential role in social interactions.

The practice-oriented turn in social sciences has implied a series of fundamental consequences and design challenges for HCI in general, and particularly in tangible interaction research. This could be interpreted as a move away from scientific ideals based on a modernist tradition, reflected in four contemporary themes in tangible interaction research. The first theme concerns a shift from an information centric to an action centric perspective on interaction. The second concerns a broadened focus from studying properties of the system, to instead aim at supporting qualities of the activity of using a system. The third concerns the general shift towards supporting sharable use, rather than primarily individual use settings. The last theme concerns the shift towards multiple and subjective interpretation of how to use new technological artefacts. We discuss how these themes are grounded in theoretical as well as more concrete technical developments in the area of tangible computing.

We present an approach to children's programming inspired by the semiotics of comics. The idea is to build computer programs in a direct and concrete way by using a class of signs that we call contextual signs. There are two aspects that distinguish contextual signs from other sign systems used for programming. The first is that the signs are displayed in the immediate visual context of the object that they refer to. The second is that the signs are used to illustrate actions and properties in a way that is directly perceivable by the user. We argue that these two properties make contextual signs a promising high-level approach for building systems that are rich in dynamic properties, such as the ones that children often like to build.

We reflect upon the process of developing a tangible space for children's collaborative construction of screen-based systems. As in all design work, the design process involved continual refinements of initial ideas and their practical realisation. We discuss how some widely held assumptions often put forward with tangible interfaces were given up in favour of reaching overall goals of interaction. In particular our design involved a shift from a focus on persistent representation and readability of tangible code structures, to instead focus on achieving reusability of programming resources. On a general level, our results illustrate a view on tangibles as resources for action instead of only as alternative forms of data representation. Importantly, this view includes action directed towards the computer as well as off-line socially oriented action conducted with the tangible artefacts.

Research on computer programming usually views the interactions as mostly cognitively based, with focus on concepts such as memory, perception and conceptual understanding. However, the current trend towards embodied and social perspectives on interaction provides an alternative way of looking at interactive processes, instead emphasising aspects such as social and physical performance with and around technology. We have explored a range of activities and tools that explicitly address these aspects in programming, with a specific focus on children’s making of own computer games and simulations. We exemplify this work through three different situations where tools and activities are used by children as recourses for building of interactive systems, while at the same time allowing for bodily action in negotiation of design ideas. We discuss how situations like these may provide directions for new technologies for programming as well as methodological developments in the area of interaction design.

No abstract available.