Theatres and concert halls play a crucial role within the performing arts, where managerial and administrative staff are essential to bringing live performances to audiences. Existing AI research has focused on artistic creation, but less attention has been paid to the purposeful design of AI systems that support organisational practices. This paper addresses this gap by identifying the needs, challenges and opportunities for AI integration into everyday workflows, forming the basis for design principles to guide the architecturing, training, and deployment of AI systems that empower staff, rather than replace them. This is explored through a co-design workshop with theatre marketing and communication professionals. Through reflections of the themes explored in the workshop and by following the guiding principles, this paper presents examples of implementation of AI systems that could be adopted, offering concrete directions for developing AI that benefits the cultural sector.

Although information about addressing the challenge of climate change is widely available, many people struggle in making sense of the actions they can take in the context of their everyday lives. We present Climate Club, a group-based role-playing card game designed to help people make sense of the climate actions they can take in relation to the barriers they face. Gameplay involves helping relatable fictional characters in actualising climate actions, by providing alternative solutions that work within their constraints. We describe the game and how it was shaped through iterative playtesting using the tandem transformational game design process. By reflecting on this process and a qualitative study conducted with university students exploring the game's features, capabilities and limitations, we reveal design insights that can be useful for researchers, designers and educators to design and evaluate games, and other purposeful HCI artefacts, for climate action.

This paper explores how novel possibilities for personalisation and interactivity in video media, posed by developments in responsive video technology, can be applied to support patients as they make complex decisions about their health and care. We present the stakeholder-centred design of Exploring Your Options, a narrative-based responsive video developed to support young female patients in understanding and negotiating the fertility preservation options available to them following a cancer diagnosis. By reflecting on findings resulting from the process of designing and analysing Exploring Your Options with the involvement of cancer-experienced young people, health professionals and related stakeholders, we reveal opportunities for designing health information videos leveraging personalisation and interactivity to meet both informational and emotional support needs of patients, and highlight insights and considerations that can guide designers seeking to leverage these opportunities in ways that are sensitive and appropriate to the demands of complex healthcare contexts.

General anxiety is a common mental health condition across the world, with many barriers preventing people from accessing treatments. A growing body of evidence suggests that serious games offer appealing and effective solutions for anxiety. Despite their potential, an understanding of game design qualities and contextual game mechanics in game-based interventions are significantly under-explored, especially for general anxiety. Alternative and emerging game genres may offer new intervention approaches previously overlooked in digital mental health research. We use story-led exploration games, particularly the environmental storytelling walking simulator game genre, as an analytical template to understand new game design strategies and features that can potentially enable engaging and efficacious serious games as interventions for general anxiety. Using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, we summarize input from expert clinical participants who identified and evaluated several game design qualities towards developing walking simulators as potential serious game interventions.

The practice of interactive documentary can provide participatory opportunities thanks to its capacity for making space for audiences to leave their marks in a film. However, participants’ inclusion has often been limited to an a-posteriori contribution of materials rather than a structural involvement in the film design. What happens when we treat participants as authors and let them imagine and design their own interactive film? This paper explores how design processes from participatory filmmaking can be adapted to achieve this goal by presenting the design process that led to the production of an interactive participatory film on mental health, Stepping Through Interactive. Five participants with lived experience of mental health problems explored, designed, and produced a non-linear film form to effectively represent their personal accounts of mental health. We review the challenges faced and the strategies deployed in the design process in view of supporting similar forms of production in other contexts.

Esport is a large and still growing industry with vast audiences. Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs), a sub-genre of esports, possess a very complex environment, which often leads to experts missing important coverage while broadcasting live competitions. One common game event that holds significant importance for broadcasting is referred to as a team fight engagement. Professional player's own knowledge and understanding of the game may provide a solution to this problem. This paper suggests a model that predicts and detects ongoing team fights in a live scenario. This approach outlines a novel technique of deriving representations of a complex game environment by relying on player knowledge. This is done by analysing the positions of the in-game characters and their associated cameras, utilising this data to train a neural network. The proposed model is able to both assist in the production of live esport coverage as well as provide a live, expert-derived, analysis of the game without the need of relying on outside sources.

Work in AI-based explanation systems has uncovered an interesting contradiction: people prefer and learn best from why explanations but expert esports commentators primarily answer what questions when explaining complex behavior in real-time strategy games. Three possible explanations for this contradiction are: 1.) broadcast audiences are well-informed and do not need why explanations; 2.) consuming why explanations in real-time is too cognitively demanding for audiences; or 3.) producing live why explanations is too difficult for commentators. We answer this open question by investigating the effects of explanation types and presentation modalities on audience recall and cognitive load in the context of an esports broadcast. We recruit 111 Dota 2 players and split them into three groups: the first group views a Dota 2 broadcast, the second group has the addition of an interactive map that provides what explanations, and the final group receives the interactive map with detailed why explanations. We find that participants who receive short interactive text prompts that provide what explanations outperform the no explanation group on a multiple-choice recall task. We also find that participants who receive detailed why explanations submit reports of cognitive load that are higher than the no explanation group. Our evidence supports the conclusion that informed audiences benefit from explanations but do not have the cognitive resources to process why answers in real-time. It also supports the conclusion that stacked explanation interventions across different modalities, like audio, interactivity, and text, can aid real-time comprehension when attention resources are limited. Together, our results indicate that interactive multimedia interfaces can be leveraged to quickly guide attention and provide low-cost explanations to improve intelligibility when time is too scarce for cognitively demanding why explanations.

Brooke Leave Home is a personalized film designed to engage a non-expert audience with open data about the support young adults receive when leaving the care system in England. The film draws upon a range of video-based data storytelling techniques to present each viewer with a personalized perspective on the topic based on data from their own local area. We present the film's design and describe how its storytelling techniques were developed to support viewers in understanding, and fostering empathic connections with, the data sources featured and the implications they have for care leavers. We also present a study with 47 viewers, which explores how these techniques were experienced and how effective they were in aiding engagement with the data included and its meaning.

Esports (competitive videogames) have grown into a global phenomenon with over 450m viewers and a 1.5bn USD market. Esports broadcasts follow a similar structure to traditional sports. However, due to their virtual nature, a large and detailed amount data is available about in-game actions not currently accessible in traditional sport. This provides an opportunity to incorporate novel insights about complex aspects of gameplay into the audience experience – enabling more in-depth coverage for experienced viewers, and increased accessibility for newcomers. Previous research has only explored a limited range of ways data could be incorporated into esports viewing (e.g. data visualizations post-match) and only a few studies have investigated how the presentation of statistics impacts spectators’ experiences and viewing behaviors. We present Weavr, a companion app that allows audiences to consume data-driven insights during and around esports broadcasts. We report on deployments at two major tournaments, that provide ecologically valid findings about how the app’s features were experienced by audiences and their impact on viewing behavior. We discuss implications for the design of second-screen apps for live esports events, and for traditional sports as similar data becomes available for them via improved tracking technologies.

This paper introduces a generic framework for OBM storytelling. Aiming to function as a complete end-to-end reference for authoring OBM narrative content - from conception to realization - it proposes an integrated model that includes the three essential levels: conceptual, technological and aesthetic. At the conceptual level, we introduce a set of abstractions which provide a unified reference for thinking, describing and analysing interactive narrative structures of OBM content. Their recursive nature make our model stand out in terms of its power of expression. These abstractions have direct one-to-one operational counterparts implemented in our production-independent authoring toolkit – Cutting Room. This ensures that any specific story designs conceived within the proposed conceptual model are directly realisable as OBM productions. This isomorphic relationship between the abstract concepts and their operationalisation is another distinguishing aspect of our overall proposition. We have validated the model at the aesthetic level through the production of the interactive film What is Love?, experienced by over 900 people at the media art festival Mediale 2018 in York, UK, and evaluated through a dedicated questionnaire by 94 of them. As the foundations of OBM storytelling have not yet been established, we trust this paper constitutes a significant milestone in its development.

We have recently seen the emergence of new platforms that aim to provide remotely located entrepreneurs and startup companies with support analogous to that found within traditional incubation or acceleration spaces. This paper offers an understanding of these 'virtual hubs', and the inherently socio-technical interactions that occur between their members. Our study analyzes a sample of existing virtual hubs in two stages. First, we contribute broader insight into the current landscape of virtual hubs by documenting and categorizing 25 hubs regarding their form, support offered and a selection of further qualities. Second, we contribute detailed insight into the operation and experience of such hubs, from an analysis of 10 semi-structured interviews with organizers and participants of virtual hubs. We conclude by analyzing our findings in terms of relational aspects of non-virtual hubs from the literature and remediation theory, and propose opportunities for advancing the design of such platforms.

This paper aims to understand interactions at creative hubs, and how this understanding can be used to inform the design of virtual creative hubs -- i.e., social-technical infrastructures that support hub-like interactions amongst people who aren't spatially or temporally co-located. We present findings from a qualitative field study in UK creative hubs, in which we conducted seventeen observations and ten interviews in three sites. Our findings reveal a range of key themes that define interactions within creative hubs: smallness of teams; neutrality of the hubs; value of the infrastructure; activities and events; experience sharing; and community values and rules. These interactions together form a network and elements that influence one another to make a creative hub more than just physical space. We employ the concept of Assemblage introduced by Deleuze and Guattari to explore this network of interactions and, in doing so, reveal implications for the design of virtual creative hubs that seek to replicate them.

Viking VR is a Virtual Reality exhibit through which viewers can experience the sights and sounds of a 9th Century Viking encampment. Created as part of a major museum exhibition, the experience was developed by an interdisciplinary team consisting of artists, archaeologists, curators and researchers. In this paper, approaches to the design of authentic, informative and compelling VR experiences for Cultural Heritage contexts are discussed. We also explore issues surrounding interaction design for the long-term deployment of VR experiences in museums and discuss the challenges of VR authoring workflows for interdisciplinary teams.

Recent innovations in online, social and interactive media have led to the emergence of new forms of documentary, such as interactive documentaries ('i-Docs'), with qualities that lend themselves to more open and inclusive production structures. Still, little is known about the experience of making and/or participating-in these kinds of documentary. Our two-year in-the-wild study engaged a large community-of-interest in the production of an i-Doc to explore the ethically-desirable yet challenging aim of enabling multiple subjects to have agency and control over their representation in a documentary. Our study reveals insights into the experiences of participating in an i-Doc and highlights key sociotechnical challenges. We argue that new sociotechnical infrastructure is needed, that frames both "executory" and "structural" forms of participation as symbiotic elements of a co-design process.

Expressiveness, which we define as the extent to which rich and complex intent can be conveyed through action, is a vital aspect of many human interactions. For instance, paint on canvas is said to be an expressive medium, because it affords the artist the ability to convey multifaceted emotional intent through intricate manipulations of a brush. To date, touch devices have failed to offer users a level of expressiveness in their interactions that rivals that experienced by the painter and those completing other skilled physical tasks. We investigate how data about hand movement -- provided by a motion sensor, similar to those found in many smart watches or fitness trackers -- can be used to expand the expressiveness of touch interactions. We begin by introducing a conceptual model that formalizes a design space of possible expressive touch interactions. We then describe and evaluate Expressy, an approach that uses a wrist-worn inertial measurement unit to detect and classify qualities of touch interaction that extend beyond those offered by today's typical sensing hardware. We conclude by describing a number of sample applications, which demonstrate the enhanced, expressive interaction capabilities made possible by Expressy.

We explore how digital technology might support the documentation of experiences of participatory arts engagement. During a fourteen session workshop series, we worked with artists, project managers, support workers and participants to explore the integration of digital media capture and presentation technologies into participatory arts workshops, and the implications that this would have for the experiences and practices of key stakeholders involved. We contribute insight into the social and practical challenges faced when using digital technology to create documentation of participatory arts. Our findings highlight the importance of situating documentation, sense making and re-telling of experiences in sensitive contexts such as participatory arts within the practices of skilled interpreters that are mindful of the complexities involved.

Much of the knowing employed in skilled craft practice is difficult to communicate solely through written or verbal description. Consequently, the reflection and development of a craft practice in this manner may miss important nuances of practitioners' skills and experiences. We created digital technologies to sonify (using audio to perceptualize data) a group of craft practitioners' gestures to explore how we can aid their reflection in and on their craft, and consequently develop it. Over a number of workshops, the design of these sonifications were iterated based on how the practitioners responded to them. We found that direct sonification of gesture (sounds generated directly from motion sensor data) helped practitioners understand and reflect upon their own and each other's practice, encouraged discussion and enabled modification of craft technique.

The term Do It Yourself Assistive Technology (DIY-AT) refers to the creation and adaptation of AT by non-professionals, including people with disabilities and their families, friends and caregivers. Previous research has argued that the development of technologies and services that enable people to make their own DIY-AT will lead to the rapid and low cost development of assistive devices that are tailored to meet the complex needs of individual people with disabilities. We present the results of a qualitative study that explored challenges related to the process of making DIY-AT for children with disabilities. A series of eleven semi-structured interviews with a broad range of stakeholders involved in the current use, provision and adaptation of AT for children with disabilities revealed a number of challenges relating to the prevalence and scope of ongoing DIY-AT practice, barriers to participation, and the challenges faced by makers and users of DIY-AT.

We present the findings of an empirical design study exploring how situating digital fabrication within a souvenir-making activity can enrich an audience's encounter with cultural events and engage visitors in discussion and reflection upon their experiences. During an incremental accumulative design process, in collaboration with an arts organisation, we developed a series of fabrication activities that offered visitors the opportunity to create their own personalised souvenirs based on their experience of a cultural event. By analyzing visitors' trajectories of engagement with the event we explore three key findings: activity embedded digital fabrication engages new audiences, encourages conversation and reflection, and presents organisations with new and more playful ways to gain insights into audience experiences.

This paper describes our Experience-centered Design (ECD) inquiry into the current and potential role of digital photography to support interpersonal communication and expression in a class at a mixed special education needs school. Presented as a case study, we describe five classroom-based Creative Photography workshops that engaged pupils with a broad range of complex special needs, along with classroom staff. We further describe how, from these workshops, we generated a set of qualitative considerations for the design of digital photographic tools to support interpersonal communication and expression in this setting. Additionally, we present the preliminary evaluation of a photo-sorting tool that we developed in response. Our case study demonstrates how an ECD approach can guide an interaction design process in a special education needs setting, supporting interaction designers in understanding and responding pragmatically to the complex and dynamic interactions at play between the stakeholders.

The paper reflects on three approaches to the dissemination and display of digital art. \'1c"s[edition]\'1d" is a novel, web-based service that offers limited editions of "\'1cdigital prints"\'1d. Analysis of user comments suggests that the metaphor of a \'1c"limited digital edition"\'1d raises issues and to some extent is resisted. The second approach is the Flickr Brushes Gallery, where digital painters post images and comment on one another's work. Analysis of comment boards indicates that the shared art and comments are a form of gift exchange. Finally, the paper discusses a field study in which artists exhibited their work as it develops over time in digital frames and also in an immersive digital projection room. Analysis of field notes and interviews indicate that the digital frame approach was unsuccessful because of aesthetic and environmental concerns. The immersive projection suggested that more experiential approaches may be more interesting. It is argued that there is an inherent resistance in digital media to previous models of art commoditization. None of the approaches discussed here resolve the dilemma but rather indicate the scope and complexity of the issues.

We explore whether idiographic design, a category of interaction design that focuses upon responding to detailed personal accounts of individuals' practices, can be used to support interaction designers in responding to the complex and multifaceted design space posed by live performance. We describe and reflect upon the application of an idiographic approach during the design of Waves, an interface for live VJ performance. This approach involved a close and dialogical engagement with the practices and experiences of an individual live performer, during a series of semi-structured interviews and then the discussion and iteration of an evolving prototypical design. Reflection on the experience of applying this approach highlights idiographic design as a practical means to support interaction designers in proposing innovative designs that respond sensitively to the kinds of subtle and complex issues that underpin people's lived and felt experiences of live performance and, potentially, many other domains.

The ReflecTable is a digital learning environment that explores how design games and video-led reflection might be combined to bridge the gap between the theoretical and practical components of design education. The concept seeks to leverage the qualities of exploratory design games and video to inspire design students to critically reflect upon the relationship between their evolving design practices and the theories and techniques they are taught in lectures, by allowing them to capture, review and reflect upon short videos of a design game. In this paper, we present the ReflecTable design and nine studies conducted during the course of its development. The studies suggest that the ReflecTable has the potential to support design students in understanding how theoretical concepts and methods relate to different design situations and their own evolving design practices.

This paper identifies key themes of expressive interaction for VJs. VJs are visual artists who use digital media to express themselves to an audience during a live audio-visual performance. Those designing for the expressive use of technology can gain insight from an articulation of expressive interaction from the perspective of VJ practice. This is developed using a novel qualitative methodology designed to be sensitive to the subtle and tacit nature of expression. We detail our methodology, present the results of its application to a group of VJs and conclude with a discussion of the implications our findings may have for those wishing to design for VJs, or those in related domains that involve expressive interaction with technology.

The introduction of tabletop interfaces has given rise to the need for the development of secure and usable authentication techniques that are appropriate for the co-located collaborative settings for which they have been designed. Most commonly, user authentication is based on something you know, but this is a particular problem for tabletop interfaces, as they are particularly vulnerable to shoulder surfing given their remit to foster co-located collaboration. In other words, tabletop users would typically authenticate in full view of a number of observers. In this paper, we introduce and evaluate a number of novel tabletop authentication schemes that exploit the features of multi-touch interaction in order to inhibit shoulder surfing. In our pilot work with users, and in our formal user-evaluation, one authentication scheme - Pressure-Grid - stood out, significantly enhancing shoulder surfing resistance when participants used it to enter both PINs and graphical passwords.

Live media production -- the presentation of audio-visual content at events such as conferences and concerts -- is a high intensity task where a small production team must interact with an amalgamation of separate hardware tools to transform and direct a variety of media sources to outputs such as large screens, preview monitors, and web-casts. We present Media Crate, a tangible tabletop interface crafted in response to the key actions and needs of live media producers. Using tangibles, previously complex and ambiguous actions can now become collaborative and easy to learn, whilst providing expressive features not present in traditional interfaces. In this paper we give a description of the Media Crate's interface, discuss how knowledge and experience of live media production impacts on the design, and finally present the results of an initial deployment of the system at a live event.

We present a novel hardware device based on ferromagnetic sensing, capable of detecting the presence, position and deformation of any ferrous object placed on or near its surface. These objects can include ball bearings, magnets, iron filings, and soft malleable bladders filled with ferrofluid. Our technology can be used to build reconfigurable input devices – where the physical form of the input device can be assembled using combinations of such ferrous objects. This allows users to rapidly construct new forms of input device, such as a trackball-style device based on a single large ball bearing, tangible mixers based on a collection of sliders and buttons with ferrous components, and multitouch malleable surfaces using a ferrofluid bladder. We discuss the implementation of our technology, its strengths and limitations, and potential application scenarios. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and