Autism’s heterogeneity makes it challenging for non‑autistic people to understand, and conventional research methods often place an unintended explanatory burden on autistic individuals. This paper presents a novel case study that combines digital ethnography with the creation of a tangible artefact to support researcher immersion in autistic cultural and experiential contexts. We demonstrate how this approach can promote researcher enculturation, foster empathy, and productively unsettle preconceived assumptions about autism. The method is not intended to replace existing participatory practices but to serve as an early‑stage, proactive strategy for researcher self‑education when preparing to work with a marginalised community.

This paper argues how a more reflective design practice that embraces critical discourses can transform interactive exhibition design and therefore the museum visiting experience. Four framing arguments underpin our exhibition design making: the value of materiality, visiting as an aesthetic experience, challenging the authorized voice, and heritage as a process. These arguments were embodied through design, art and craft practice into one interactive exhibition at a house museum. We draw from our design process discussing the implications that adopting an approach informed by critical heritage debates has on exhibition design and suggest three sensitizing concepts (polyvocal narratives, dialogical interaction, interweaving time and space) bridging the practice of interactive exhibition design and critical heritage theory.

This paper presents the design, implementation, use and evaluation of a tangible data souvenir for an interactive museum exhibition. We define a data souvenir as the materialisation of the personal visiting experience: a data souvenir is dynamically created on the basis of data recorded throughout the visit and therefore captures and represents the experience as lived. The souvenir provides visitors with a memento of their visit and acts as a gateway to further online content. A step further is to enable visitors to contribute, in other words the data souvenir can become a means to collect visitor-generated content. We discuss the rationale behind the use of a data souvenir, the design process and resulting artefacts, and the implementation of both the data souvenir and online content system. Finally, we examine the installation of the data souvenirs as part of a long-lasting exhibition: the use of this souvenir by visitors has been logged over 7 months and issues around the gathering of user-generated content in such a way are discussed.

We present a study of children collaborating around interactive tabletops in three different countries: India, the United Kingdom and Finland. Our data highlights the key distinctive physical strategies used by children when performing collaborative tasks during this study. Children in India employ dynamic positioning with frequent physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in the UK tend to prefer static positioning with minimal physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in Finland use a mixture of dynamic and static positioning with minimal physical contact and object movement. Our findings indicate the importance of understanding collaboration strategies and behaviours when designing and deploying interactive tabletops in heterogeneous educational environments. We conclude with a discussion on how designers of tabletops for schools can provide opportunities for children in different countries to define and shape their own collaboration strategies for small group learning that take into account their different classroom practices.

It is of paramount importance that cultural heritage professionals are directly involved in the design of digitally augmented experiences in their museum spaces. We propose an approach based on a catalogue of reusable narrative and interaction strategies with step-by-step instructions on how to adapt and instantiate them for a specific museum and type of visitors. This work is conducted in the context of the European-funded project meSch.

We use design research to explore ways in which tangible and embodied interaction can be used to create novel experiences of heritage. We identified five design principles and used them to frame the challenge. In collaboration with curators, we co-created an interactive multi-narrative soundscape for the remains of trenches and a fortified camp from World War I. The soundscape is activated by presence and the use of a bespoke device. The design intertwines technology and historical content in context to augment the visitors' experience of the place in an evocative, personal way. The field trial showed that experimenting with different forms is key, as they have an impact on visitors' expectations beyond what they experience directly. It also showed the value in simultaneously designing interaction and content to achieve an effect that goes beyond the contribution of the single components.

In this paper we reflect on the process of co-design by detailing and comparing two strategies for the participatory development of interaction concepts and prototypes in the context of technologically-enhanced museum visiting experiences. While much work in CSCW, HCI and related disciplines has examined different role configurations in co-design, more research is needed on examining how collaborative design processes can unfold in different ways. Here we present two instances of co-design of museum visiting aids, one stemming from an open brief, another from an initial working prototype; we discuss the process in each case and discuss how these alternative strategies presented the team with different possibilities as well as constraints, and led to different patterns of collaboration within the design team. Finally, we draw a set of themes for discussion and reflection to inform and aid researchers and practitioners participating in similar co-design processes, particularly in the domain of cultural heritage.

This paper presents the design, creation and use of tangible smart replicas in a large-scale museum exhibition. We describe the design rationale for the replicas, the process used in their creation, as well as the implementation and deployment of these replicas in a live museum exhibition. Deployment of the exhibition resulted in over 14000 visitors interacting with the system during the 6 months that the exhibition was open. Based on log data, interviews and observations, we examine the reaction to these smart replicas from the point of view of the museum curators and also of the museum's visitors and reflect on the fulfillment of our expectations.

Capturing data is a key part of archaeological practice, whether for preserving records or to aid interpretation. But the technologies used are complex and expensive, resulting in time-consuming processes associated with their use. These processes force a separation between ongoing interpretive work and capture. Through two field studies we elicit more detail as to what is important about this interpretive work and what might be gained through a closer integration of capture technology with these practices. Drawing on these insights, we go on to present a novel, portable, wireless 3D modeling system that emphasizes "quick and dirty" capture. We discuss its design rational in relation to our field observations and evaluate this rationale further by giving the system to archaeological experts to explore in a variety of settings. While our device compromises on the resolution of traditional 3D scanners, its support of interpretation through emphasis on real-time capture, review and manipulability suggests it could be a valuable tool for the future of archaeology.

In order to better explore the opportunities for tangible interaction in new areas such as the home or cultural heritage sites, we used multiple rapidly-developed prototypes that take advantage of existing technology. Physical prototypes allow us to give form to ideas and to evaluate the integration of form and function, two core components of tangible interaction. We discuss potentials and pitfalls when using off-the-shelf digital devices (by embedding a device, cracking it open and building on it, or collating board and parts) through six prototypes developed in two studies. Hacking devices to materialize our ideas proved excellent for fast prototyping. Technology imposed constraints and prompted different design solutions than initially intended offering unexpected ways to engage. On the basis of this experience we outline a process and offer guidelines for the fast prototyping of tangible interactions.

Interactive tables provide multi-touch capabilities that can enable children to collaborate face-to-face simultaneously. In this paper we extend existing understanding of children's use of interactive tabletops by examining their use by school children in a school in Delhi, India. In the study, we explore how the school children exhibit particular types of collaboration strategies and touch input techniques when dealing with digital objects. In particular, we highlight a number of behaviours of interest, such as how the children would move the same digital object on the table together. We also discuss how the children work in close proximity to each other and dynamically organize their spatial positions in order to work together, as well as establish territory and control. We go on to examine some of the finger-based interaction and manipulation strategies that arise in these contexts. Finally, the paper considers the implications of such behaviours for the deployment of tabletop applications in these particular educational contexts.

Tangible objects placed on interactive surfaces allow users to employ a physical object to manipulate digital content. However, creating the reverse effect - having digital content manipulate a tangible object placed on the surface - is a more challenging task. We present a new approach to this problem, using ultrasound-based air pressure waves to move multiple tangible objects, independently, around an interactive surface. We describe the technical background, design, implementation, and test cases for such a system. We conclude by discussing practical uses of our system, Ultra-Tangibles, in the creation of new tangible user interfaces.

We present the Augmentalist: a system that allows a musician to augment their existing musical instrument using a variety of sensors. This system is focused on the musician and their musical aims, rather than the sensor technology being used. The overall goal is to create allow musicians to easily explore new musical performance techniques with augmented musical instruments. We present the design process and implementation of the system, an example of an instrument developed by one of the 10 participating musicians and a discussion of a number of issues raised by the project, including musicians as designers, the potential for exploration and mastery and the transferability of instruments between performers.

With gesture-based interactions in mobile settings becoming more popular, there is a growing concern regarding the social acceptance of these interaction techniques. In this paper we begin by examining the various definitions of social acceptance that have been proposed in the literature to synthesize a definition that is based on how the user feels about performing a particular interaction as well as how the bystanders perceive the user during this interaction. We then present the main factors that influence gestures' social acceptance including culture, time, interaction type and the user's position on the innovation adoption curve. Through a user study we show that an important factor in determining social acceptance of gesture-based interaction techniques is the user's perception of others ability to interpret the potential effect of a manipulation.