This workshop investigates how Cultures of Participation, End-User Development, and Meta-Design are evolving in the era of AI-based systems.While Large Language Models and co-piloting approaches are transforming development into a more accessible and creative activity, they also introduce challenges related to agency, transparency, ethics, and sustainability.Aligned with the AVI 2026 theme "Interactive Creativity: Agencies, Interfaces, and Ethics", CoPDA2026 wants to explore how AI-augmented participation can support creativity, learning, and collaboration while addressing risks such as overreliance and opacity.The goal is to foster discussion and define research directions for responsible and empowering AI-enabled socio-technical systems.

This paper advocates for a Human-Centered Interaction Design perspective in the design of gamified Digital Twins to support sustainability. We propose a conceptual framework for socio-technical system design grounded in three goals: supporting a sense of purpose, enhancing awareness, and fostering engagement. We discuss the applicability of the framework through two case studies (smart home management and elderly assistance) chosen to illustrate its relevance across distinct application domains.

Abstract This systematic review investigates how digital twin technologies are combined with gamification to support sustainability across different domains. Using the PRISMA 2020 framework, we retrieved 122 records from three databases. After screening, 23 papers satisfying the inclusion criteria were analyzed in depth. Each one was examined along nine dimensions: application domain, motivation, case study, use of real-time data synchronization, digital twin type, gamification elements, visualization and interaction modalities, user involvement, and alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The results reveal a research landscape that is still emerging, characterized by heterogeneous methodologies, limited maturity of digital twin implementations, and a predominant use of basic gamification strategies. The findings of this review informed a set of design implications and the formulation of a conceptual framework to guide the design of gamified digital twins that foster sustainability in its various forms.

This paper explores the development of a Digital Twin (DT) of a smart home, which allows end users to monitor the state of appliances and their energy consumption. The DT will also make it possible to simulate different ‘what-if’ scenarios related to the automations defined by the end users through End-User Development. Simulations will allow users to evaluate in advance the effects of appliance activation in terms of energy consumption and, after their analysis, to approve the deployment of automations in the domestic environment or modify them as suggested by the DT.

Meta-design promotes ‘design for designers’ or, in other words, the creation of socio-technical environments that can evolve in the hands of the users. The long-term goal of meta-design is improving the quality of life in each person’s everyday activities, that is, living, working, and learning with the aid of technology. Today, advances in Artificial Intelligence provide new opportunities and frontiers for meta-design to empower users much more than in the past, giving them new perspectives, strategies, and tools to be exploited in the ‘design for design’ process.

Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and meta-design challenge the understanding of the concept of “end user”. The 8th edition of a workshop in the series “Cultures of Participation in the Digital Age” (CoPDA 2024) aims to critically differentiate, dissect, and deepen the roles, experiences, and demands of end users considering contributions from different perspectives.

This paper presents a study about the mapping of the EUDability of End-User Development (EUD) tools with the Computational Thinking (CT) skills of users. This mapping provides an approach to evaluate the suitability of a EUD environment in supporting people performing their daily work while managing and exploiting EUD tools. EUDability is a construct encompassing different dimensions that need to be assessed through a careful scrutiny by human-computer interaction experts, while CT skills should mirror those dimensions from the point of view of assessing the level of ability of users in managing problems with a computational thinking attitude. Moving from the healthcare domain, we present two cases: a tool for geriatric professionals supporting them in the preparation of cognitive exercises for elderly patients; and a tool for pharmacists, which empowers them to create robot programs related to the preparation of personalized medications. These cases have been exploited to show how to unify the EUDability assessment with the CT skills assessment. In particular, the application of the EUDability evaluation method for each tool, as well as the administration of the Computational Thinking Scale to domain experts are shown. The results of the two assessments are reported and discussed, together with the limitations of the present study. The results show the goodness of fit of the proposed EUD tools in the healthcare domain.

Automations can help support the achievement of various types of goals in a smart home. We present an architecture enabling the possibility of supporting user goals consistent with the principles of a circular economy (such as energy saving and waste recycling). It includes meta-design tools for creating automations that better fit user needs and controlling their execution through innovative modalities based on conversational agents and augmented reality, and a home Digital Twin useful for supporting relevant simulations and analytics to understand the potential impact of specific automations on aspects relevant for circular economy.

Nowadays, end users can create routines for Amazon Echo and Google Nest devices using a companion app (Amazon Alexa and Google Home, respectively) running on smartphones. Our work explores the possibility of transferring this End-User Development activity directly to the smart speakers, with and without a touchscreen. To this aim, we designed and developed two Amazon Skills (one for Amazon Echo Show and the other for Amazon Echo Dot) and two Google Actions (one for Google Nest Hub and the other for Google Home Speaker). Then, we carried out two controlled experiments, involving 40 participants, to compare routine creation through multi-modal interaction (based on vision, speech, and touch) with routine creation through speech-only interaction. Driven by our research questions, we found that for routine creation the multi-modal interaction is preferred to the speech-only one and the perceived quality of interaction seems to depend on the brand of the smart speaker.

With the spreading of Industry 4.0, cyber-physical systems, and tools for augmented and virtual reality, Digital Twin (DT) is gaining momentum in several areas of Computer Science and Engineering. This paper presents a systematic literature review that investigates the way DTs are described in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) scientific literature. The study includes 23 papers selected through a systematic search on the 21 most ranked journals and conferences in the HCI area. As a result of this work, it appears clear that the way humans interact with DTs is a topic still far from being widely studied. A set of hints for future research about the relationship between HCI and DT constitute the main outcome of this paper.

The sixth edition of the CoPDA workshop is dedicated to discussing the current challenges and opportunities of Cultures of Participation with respect to Artificial Intelligence (AI) by contrasting it with the objectives pursued by Human-Centered Design (HCD). The workshop aims to establish a forum to explore our basic assumption (and to provide at least partial evidence) that the most successful AI systems out there today are dependent on teams of humans, just as humans depend on these systems to gain access to information, provide insights and perform tasks beyond their own capabilities.

Smart speakers can execute user-defined routines, namely, sequences of actions triggered by specific events or conditions. This paper presents a new approach to the creation of routines, which leverages the multi-modal features (vision, speech, and touch) offered by Amazon Alexa running on Echo Show devices. It then illustrates how end users found easier to create routines with the proposed approach than with the usual interaction with the Alexa app.

This paper presents a study about communicability of conversational interfaces (namely chatbots) under a semiotic perspective. A chatbot is a software system that allows you to simulate real conversations between devices and users by means of a conversational interface (CI). After introducing the chatbot concept, focusing on its advantages and issues, we will present two domains of use in which chatbot interfaces can be effective: healthcare and smart home. For carrying out simple tasks such as finding information or triggering operations, users need an easy-to-use and to an easy-to-learn system to communicate with. To face this, conversational interfaces represent the latest trend in the field of digital design. For studying the communicability aspects of a CI, we carried out a user test to compare traditional and chatbot interfaces. This paper aims at evaluating the benefits at the communicability level of a chatbot in comparison to traditional GUI for incrementing the effectiveness and efficacy of communication between users and the system specifically for users with poor attitude in using technologies. In details, we evaluated the communicability of two prototypes that can be used to solve simple tasks in order to favour user inclusion, including everyone with very little exposure to technologies.

BACKGROUND: The protein ki67 (pki67) is a marker of tumor aggressiveness, and its expression has been proven to be useful in the prognostic and predictive evaluation of several types of tumors. To numerically quantify the pki67 presence in cancerous tissue areas, pathologists generally analyze histochemical images to count the number of tumor nuclei marked for pki67. This allows estimating the ki67-index, that is the percentage of tumor nuclei positive for pki67 over all the tumor nuclei. Given the high image resolution and dimensions, its estimation by expert clinicians is particularly laborious and time consuming. Though automatic cell counting techniques have been presented so far, the problem is still open. RESULTS: In this paper we present a novel automatic approach for the estimations of the ki67-index. The method starts by exploiting the STRESS algorithm to produce a color enhanced image where all pixels belonging to nuclei are easily identified by thresholding, and then separated into positive (i.e. pixels belonging to nuclei marked for pki67) and negative by a binary classification tree. Next, positive and negative nuclei pixels are processed separately by two multiscale procedures identifying isolated nuclei and separating adjoining nuclei. The multiscale procedures exploit two Bayesian classification trees to recognize positive and negative nuclei-shaped regions. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of the computed results, both through experts' visual assessments and through the comparison of the computed indexes with those of experts, proved that the prototype is promising, so that experts believe in its potential as a tool to be exploited in the clinical practice as a valid aid for clinicians estimating the ki67-index. The MATLAB source code is open source for research purposes.

This new edition of CoPDA workshop, the 5th since 2013, is dedicated to the discussion of design trade-offs that have to be addressed for embracing diversity and implementing an inclusive society. With this workshop, we invite researchers and practitioners to discuss and exchange experiences able to inform design processes in a Cultures of Participation perspective, focusing on theoretical frameworks, practical experiences, case studies, and research projects, both in Academy and Industry.

Emerging display technologies are proposing monitors for medical imaging with an extended dynamic range of luminance. Those devices offer the opportunity to extend the range of visual information displayed, but the limits of the human visual system (HVS) in perceiving such information can cancel the advantages. To investigate this problem, we present a set of experiments, to assess the visual response of the HVS to controlled high dynamic range (HDR) content. They analyse the effects of glare. Using a typical HDR display, tailored for medical imaging applications, they first study the dependence of the visible dynamic range from the inter‐ocular glare, induced by different backgrounds, then the effect of glare on the detection of test elements on medical radiographic images. Finally, they assess the influence of luminance‐equivalent backgrounds with different structure in the detection of test patches. The results of the experiments confirm the glare as a major player in influencing visual information detection. Glare has a significant impact in limiting the amount of visual information actually perceived, consequently limiting analysis capabilities of such images. This confirms the importance of investigating and considering the characteristics of human vision in the design and test of HDR imaging systems.

Thanks to pervasiveness and mobility of wearable Internet of Things tools, we are witnessing the emergence of a new research and development domain: the eWellness. Together with this, new challenges arise, and ask for effective methods and techniques to improve the way extraction, merge, analysis, visualization, and data sharing are currently managed. In this paper, we present our research on End-User Development for the eWellness domain and in particular the design and development of the SmartFit framework.

The experience of immersive virtual reality (VR) can be considered as a communication process between human beings, mediated by computer systems, which uses visualisation and other sensory stimulation. In this paper, we analyse how VR characteristics can be explored using semiotic theory and, with methods of generative semiotics, we explore aspects of narrative and interaction in VR. We propose a semiotic analysis of VR communication focusing on syntax, semantics and pragmatics and considering also some principles of generative semiotics. The syntactic level is analysed as determined by the characteristics of the visual communication adopted. The semantic of VR is related to the functional model chosen to realise the virtual system. The pragmatic of VR is based on the human–computer interaction that changes the user's role. We explore how these aspects can be characterised in the context of VR communication design and what principles can be adopted for a VR application, and we present an analysis and a classification of the iconic signs that are being used in VR. Moreover, we present a framework that can be used to classify and describe different kinds of virtual reality systems and to better understand communication in VR, and we use it to classify eight popular systems for e-learning and collaboration.

Cultures of participation are oriented towards providing end users with the means to actively participate in problems that are personally meaningfully to them. An overall aim of cultures of participation is to apply collective knowledge to address major problems that our societies are facing today. The CoPDA Workshop is in its second edition, after the first one that was held in 2013 during the International Symposium on End-User Development in Copenhagen (Denmark) [4]. In the 2014's edition the focus is on social computing and its contributions to learning, working and living.

This paper presents the design and development of ArchMatrix, a visual interactive system that supports archaeologists in archiving, managing and studying the findings collected during archaeological excavations. This work allowed to deepen the study of participatory design in interdisciplinary communities and was carried out by computer scientists in close collaboration with archaeologists. To overcome the several issues that characterize the communication among different domain experts, participatory design's principles have been applied. The ArchMatrix system implements the Harris Matrix method, used both in archaeology and in architecture to describe the position (absolute and relative) of stratigraphic units. ArchMatrix relies on a graph database that enables to apply advanced information retrieval strategies. In this way, archaeologists are supported in developing new opportunities for investigation to increase their knowledge, improve their traditional working practices and to develop new ones.

There is an increasing request by organizations to allow people outside the IT department to create, shape and adapt the software artifacts they use as they do with real ones in their work practice. Moreover, organizations have recently become aware that they are part of a complex network of connections with partners, customers, and suppliers. This new consciousness has led them to the need for new ways to share their knowledge outside the organization borders. This paper capitalizes on the experience gained in the collaboration with a certification institution to propose a novel network of software environments, i.e., the Task Management System (TMS) network, and a web-service based architecture to support end users to exploit their knowledge and expertise in their daily work activities. In particular, the network allows the end users of an organization to design, execute, and check the execution of a workflow. The goal is not to automate the skills of the end users, but to assist them in their activity, permitting them to use the knowledge and expertise they possess. A prototype for the proposed architecture is currently under development, starting from the software environment dedicated to the design of workflows.

Information intensive activities are usually carried out by heterogeneous work groups: collaboration is needed to reach a common goal that stems from different individual tasks such as data harvesting, aggregation and presentation, dealing with a large amount of highly fragmented information that could overload the working procedure nowadays adopted. Furthermore, the persons involved in such activities often operate from remote locations and in different times and are characterized by different skills and cultures. This requires that the workflow of the complete information cycle should be analysed to design the complex information system which can effectively support the diversified tasks fitting the requirements and habits of all the operators. A complex system can nowadays be developed by integrating already available components and by making them inter-operable. Environment heritage conservation and tourism promotion refer to a complex production chain where private companies and public institutions are involved with specific interests and skills. A relevant amount of the information needed and produced by their activities are referred to the territory, therefore is represented as geo-referenced data.