Artificial fingernails offer a highly visible, customizable, and accessible surface for translating microfluidic biosensing into a wearable form. We present Lab-on-a-Nail, a research-through-design exploration of artificial fingernails with embedded microfluidic channels and colorimetric sensing elements. We describe the fabrication of functional proof-of-concept prototypes, developed with attention to curvature, scale, materials, and wearability, and show how collaboration with five nail artists informed a second iteration of 3D-printed microfluidic nail designs. Using these artifacts, we conducted a study with 21 women to examine how nail-based microfluidics were interpreted in relation to care, self-advocacy, visibility, and women's health contexts. Across these stages, the nails functioned as design probes that elicited reflections on intimacy, stigma, maintenance, and meaning-making, outlining a design space for biocosmetic interfaces grounded in familiar aesthetic practices and women's health.

Leaking bodies are often concealed or disregarded in both society and design. Likewise, bodily fluids are rarely leveraged as triggers for material interaction in HCI. In this pictorial, we investigate how fluid-responsive biomaterials can enable porous, expressive, and cyclical interactions co-shaped by the body. We focus on a milk-derived bioplastic with reversible shape-changing properties, examining fluid absorption as a meaningful design affordance. Our material-led approach contributes both formulation and fabrication methods of casein bioplastic; while autoethnographic inquiry with a lactating body informed the development of Leaky Body Maps and speculative garments that position leakage as a generative site of body-material interaction. This work contributes to the discourse of feminist and posthuman HCI by centering bodily permeability, material responsiveness, and the potential of designing with—rather than concealing—leaky bodies.

Bioactuated Tapestry is an installation that explores how biomaterials and textile craft unfold multiple temporalities of interaction. Structured in three zones, the installation moves from milk-based bioplastic samples that change shape quickly when misted, to a Sample Book that documents iterations of bioplastic integration into weaving, to a woven tapestry that changes shape slowly in response to humidity in the surrounding space. Together, these zones demonstrate how interaction can emerge from material behavior shaped through biomaterial formulation and, when woven, through structure. The work foregrounds biomaterial agency, weaving, and situated sustainability grounded in sourcing, fabrication, and practices of care. Through this convergence of biodesign and textile craft, Bioactuated Tapestry aligns with the TEI theme of Resurgence and Convergence, highlighting how material-led practices reconnect material experimentation, environmental attunement, and embodied ways of knowing.

This paper explores the dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration between designers, scientists, and engineers through ten stories as told from the perspective of material-led designers.These stories focus on material-led designers working in contexts like biodesign and smart textiles, where novel materials, fabrication methods, and technology often intersect, requiring cross-disciplinary collaboration.By including perspectives from designers within and adjacent to HCI, the study broadens the understanding of interdisciplinary teamwork that combines scientific, technical, and craft-based expertise.Our analysis highlights how designers navigate challenges like differing terminologies, epistemic hierarchies, and conflicting priorities.We discuss strategies such as material prototypes, attitudes of inquiry and openness, switching lexicons, and the value of interdisciplinary contexts.This research underscores designers as "translators" who mediate epistemological tensions, use tangible artifacts to communicate, and articulate possible applications.This research contributes ten stories as narrative resources for understanding strategies and fostering interdisciplinary spaces within HCI.

The ability to create a wide and varied set of interactive textiles depends on the materials that one has available. Currently, the range of yarns that can be used to bring interactivity to textiles is greatly limited, especially considering the diversity available in non-conductive yarns. This pictorial traces a design journey into hand spinning that seeks to address this limitation and contributes samples of techniques and materials that could be used to create conductive yarns along with reflection on design methods that enabled us to explore a wider range of aesthetic expressions. We advocate for an approach that reconnects with the textiles in e-textiles, embraces divergence, and prioritizes the material rather than function as the driver of a design concept. We offer pathways for readers and researchers to continue this exploration within varied domains and practices.

Wearable and beauty technologies face environmental sustainability challenges due to their material composition, electronic waste, and end-of-life disposal. In response, we introduce "Bio-e-Nails," a sustainable design approach for customizable, interactive artificial nails made from biobased materials. Our work considers the accessibility of creating these nails and explores the affordances of biobased materials, such as their potential for customization and design flexibility throughout their lifecycle. This pictorial covers: (1) two bioplastic formulations for Bio-e-Nails to adjust strength, color, interactivity, and biodegradability; (2) the low-tech fabrication process of Bio-e-Nails, including customization of shape, size, and interactive features like embedded NFC or external aesthetic decorations; and (3) three end-of-life strategies for Bio-e-Nails— mechanical, chemical, and biological—that offer insights for broader design contexts. We also discuss how our sustainable design approach focused on materiality can apply to temporary beauty and wearable technologies more broadly.

Smart textiles combine electronics with traditional textile forms, showing great promise in creating soft and flexible interactive systems for human-computer interaction and robotics. However, they also present significant sustainability challenges as they merge two substantial waste streams: textiles and electronics. This paper contributes to sustainability efforts by focusing on the integration of biobased materials that are biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable in the design of smart textiles. We introduce a Desktop Biofibers Spinning Machine to enable smart textile innovators to explore biobased fibers (i.e., biofibers) and envision applications in sustainable smart textiles. We describe the machine’s design, a usage walkthrough, considerations for fiber spinning, and an exploration of various formulations to make gelatin biofibers. We provide several examples of biofibers integrated into smart textile applications. Finally, we discuss lessons learned from working with biofibers and the unique opportunities our machine brings to the fiber design space in HCI.

In this studio, we will explore sustainable tangible interfaces by making a range of biomaterials that are bio-based and readily biodegradable. Building off of previous TEI studios that were centered around one specific biomaterial (i.e., bioplastics at TEI’22 and microbial cellulose at TEI’23), this studio will provide participants the ability to experience a wide variety of biomaterials from algae-based bioplastics, to food-waste-based bioclays, to gelatin-based biofoams. We will teach participants how to identify types of biomaterials that are applicable to their own research and how to make them. Through hands-on activities, we will demonstrate how to implement biomaterials in the design of sustainable tangible interfaces and discuss topics sensitized by biological media such as more-than-human temporalities, bioethics, care, and unmaking. Ultimately, our goal is to facilitate a space in which HCI researchers and designers can collaborate, create, and discuss the opportunities and challenges of working with sustainable biomaterials.

The goal of this studio is to facilitate a space in which HCI researchers and designers can explore SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast), a sustainable biofilm, grown in kombucha tea, that acts similarly to traditional leathers when harvested and dried. While SCOBY is a popular biomaterial in biodesign and DIYBio practices, we aim to introduce SCOBY as a biomaterial for HCI and ground it in sustainable HCI and slow design theory. Participants will then gain hands-on experience with SCOBY through a material exploration phase (e.i., learning how to embed colors, patterns, and electronics) followed by a structured SCOBY application creation phase. Ultimately, the goal of this studio is to give HCI practitioners who are interested in biodesign a space and time to collaborate, create and discuss the opportunities and challenges of kombucha SCOBY as a biomaterial for HCI.

Each new material developed opens a broader pallet of aesthetic and functional possibilities for designers. This paper introduces DIS to biofoam, a material that is water-soluble, biodegradable, and can be made conductive. We describe the material in detail: the process of making the material from scratch, the material’s fabrication into forms with hand-craft techniques, and present two HCI specific applications of the biofoam. The biofoam can be cooked, molded, layered, extruded, dissolved or recooked opening up possibilities to consider the entire life cycle of the material in the design process. We contribute design considerations to allow designers to “tune” the biofoam to the desired quality, as well as a characterization of many aspects of the biofoam such as compression, spring back time, water permeability, and electrical conductivity. Finally, we discuss the unique opportunities this material and its life cycle bring to the design and HCI communities.

This paper introduces the Sustainable Prototyping Life Cycle for Digital Fabrication, an adaptation from the Life Cycle Assessment method that presents the environmental impact of digital fabrication in every phase of prototyping. The cycle has four phases: raw materials acquisition, manufacturing and distribution, use, and end of life. It presents designers as manufacturers of their own materials for digital fabrication, and bio-based materials are used as an alternative and sustainable prototyping material. We interviewed ten experts in digital fabrication and introduced the use of bio-based materials such as mycelium-composite for prototyping with digital fabrication.Using experts' reflections, we conducted a workshop about the environmental impact of prototyping with 22 design students. We reported their decisions on materials used for prototyping and their perception of using mycelium-composite within the Sustainable Prototyping Life Cycle. Our aim is to increase environmental awareness in prototyping and highlight the importance of designers' decision-making through the cycle.

Sustainability has been addressed in fashion, product design and furniture making fields. Recycling and disposing e-textiles has been a concern in this community for years[20]; however, the impact of designing sustainable wearables is still new territory that requires more exploration. This paper approaches sustainability in the prototyping process by producing wearables that make use of biodegradable material for embedding electronics. We have used mycelium, that unlike other biodegradable materials such as kombucha, algae, or bioplastics, has heat resistance, thermal resistance and hydrophobic properties which makes it suitable to apply in wearables. Moreover, this paper proposes a sustainable life cycle that uses biodegradable materials to embed electronics. For example, we embedded an electronic circuit into mycelium skin to make an accessory. After the accessory has been worn, the electronic components can be reused and the mycelium skin composted. Lastly, we present our method for growing mycelium, our design process using common techniques in embedding electronics, and Myco-accessories as applications to envision the possibilities of this material. This paper aims to contribute to prototyping wearables sustainably by intertwining biomaterials and electronics.

The auto-adjustable bra combines new technologies such as soft robotics, computational design, and e-textiles to develop a bra which uses a pneumatic system to compensate severe asymmetries in breast volume (Anisomastia). In the present work, the bra aims to adjust to the measurements of a woman's breasts through air channels which are located in the internal mesh of the bra cup. This inflatable structure gives a balance in the breasts' volume while holding them. Furthermore, the conductive fabric which covers the bra cup works as a sensor to control the air injection system by comparing the fabric's resistance in both bra cups to send a signal to the air pump to stop the air injection. Thus, the bra keeps in shape and the air pump is disengaged. The project could have a global impact on women with Anisomastia by raising their self-esteem, recovering their emotional balance, and possibly enhancing their social and sexual relationships.