Curious to reflect on the factors contributing to the internal decision-making processes of intuitive design, a reflective study was established to systematically examine and document the practice of intuition while performing an iterative aesthetic task. Autoethnographic techniques were used to document the reflective practices that occurred over numerous iterations spanning several weeks of activity. Our analysis concludes with a summary of reflections on how intuition informs judgment in design cognition. We examine four dimensions of intuition in design - efficiency, inspiration, curiosity, and insight - and the reflective and sensory inputs that drive intuitive speculation and impulse.

The creation of a personal legacy is a process through which information, values, and memories are passed down to future generations. This process is inherently subjective, both as a curated collection of the elements of one's life, and as an evolving form of remembrance that is subject to the interpretations of those to whom it is left. Based on directed storytelling sessions with 14 adults from a large Midwestern city in the USA, we explore users' perceptions of how their use of digital systems and information will impact how their lives are interpreted and reflected upon by their families and by future generations. Our findings describe nuances regarding how shifting notions about technological systems and the long-term accessibility of digital information impact the ways in which we share, and subsequently manage, information online. This work, explored here in the context of legacy, exposes opportunities to help users engage with their digital information through the curation of meaningful records, the dispossession of digital debris, and a reexamination of how digital systems and services influence the accessibility and lifespan of digital information.

Very recently, there has been a perfect storm of technical advances that has culminated in the emergence of a new interaction modality: on-body interfaces. Such systems enable the wearer to use their body as an input and output platform with interactive graphics. Projects such as PALMbit and Skinput sought to answer the initial and fundamental question: whether or not on-body interfaces were technologically possible. Although considerable technical work remains, we believe it is important to begin shifting the question away from how and what, and towards where, and ultimately why. These are the class of questions that inform the design of next generation systems. To better understand and explore this expansive space, we employed a mixed-methods research process involving more than two thousand individuals. This started with high-resolution, but low-detail crowdsourced data. We then combined this with rich, expert interviews, exploring aspects ranging from aesthetics to kinesthetics. The results of this complimentary, structured exploration, point the way towards more comfortable, efficacious, and enjoyable on-body user experiences.

We present the design and deployment of a bio-electronic sensing system. This system visualizes bacterial activity inside Winogradsky columns, which incubate soil samples to culture the naturally occurring microorganisms as they process metals and nutrients in the soil. Our month-long deployments with two urban communities offer insights into individual and collective appropriations of living sensing systems. These findings reveal future design trajectories that build on emergent themes in HumanComputer Interaction (HCI), including: new perspectives on materiality, which arise from integrating organic materials with the digital; a reframing of time, as systems shift from providing instant feedback to supporting prolonged engagement; and an emphasis on collective modes of participation beyond individual behavior change.

In this paper we describe the results of a design-driven study of collaborative ideation. Based on preliminary findings that identified a novel digital ideation paradigm we refer to as chainstorming, or online communication brainstorming, two exploratory studies were performed. First, we developed and tested a distributed method of ideation we call cheatstorming, in which previously generated brainstorm ideas are delivered to targeted local contexts in response to a prompt. We then performed a more rigorous case study to examine the cheatstorming method and consider its possible implementation in the context of a distributed online ideation tool. Based on observations from these studies, we conclude with the somewhat provocative suggestion that ideation need not require the generation of new ideas. Rather, we present a model of ideation suggesting that its value has less to do with the generation of novel ideas than the cultural influence exerted by unconventional ideas on the ideating team. Thus brainstorming is more than the pooling of "invented" ideas, it involves the sharing and interpretation of concepts in unintended and (ideally) unanticipated ways.

Legacy is the meaningful and complex way in which information, values, and possessions are passed on to others. As digital systems and information become meaningfully parts of people's everyday and social relationships, it is essential to develop new insights about how technology intersects with legacy and inheritance practices. We designed three interactive systems to investigate how digital materials might be passed down in the future. We conducted in-home interviews with ten parents using the systems to provoke discussion about how technology might support or complicate their existing practices. Sessions revealed parents desired to treat their digital information in ways not fully supported by technology. Findings are interpreted to describe design considerations for future work in this emerging space.

Doing research is, in part, an act of foresight. Even though it is not explicit in many projects, we especially value research that is still relevant five, ten or more years after it is completed. However, published research in the field of interactive computing (and technology research in general) often lacks evidence of systematic thinking about the long-term impacts of current trends. For example, trends on an exponential curve change much more rapidly than intuition predicts. As a result, research may accidentally emphasize near-term thinking. When thinking about the future is approached systematically, we can critically examine multiple potential futures, expand the set of externalities under consideration, and address both negative and positive forecasts of the future. The field of Futures Studies provides methods that can support analysis of long-term trends, support the identification of new research areas and guide design and evaluation. We survey methods for futuristic thinking and discuss their relationship to Human Computer Interaction. Using the sustainability domain an example, we present a case study of a Futures Studies approach - the Delphi Method. We show how Futures Studies can be incorporated into Human Computer Interaction and highlight future work such as rethinking the role of externalities in the validation process.

This paper examines the role of narrative in the process of interactive experience design, focusing on the potential uses of narrative in prototyping and iteration efforts to uncover deeper and more meaningful responses from users by engaging them in the co-creation of narratives of use around the design. We created a series of narrative fictions with embedded design concepts, and built low-fi prototype artifacts for directed storytelling sessions with twelve participants. We conclude with a discussion of findings regarding the opportunities to more effectively use narrative techniques and immersive storytelling to create valuable experiences between designers and users.

Workers in microtask work environments such as Mechanical Turk typically do not know if or how they fit into a workflow. The research question we posed here was whether displaying information about the number of other workers doing the same task would motivate better or poorer work quality. In experiment 1, we varied the information about co-workers presented to the worker and the number of his or her co-workers: "you" or "you alone" are doing a task, or "you" plus 5, 15, or 50 co-workers. We compared these conditions with a no-social information control. In experiment 2, we crossed the number of co-workers (5 vs. 50) with the type of incentive (individual or group). Results show that visual presentations of co-workers changed workers' perceptions of co-workers, and that the more co-workers participants perceived, the lower their work quality. We suggest future work to determine the kinds of co-worker information that will reduce or increase work quality in microtask settings.

In this paper we explore the potential of using photos and images to promote social connections in the online space. We have conducted contextual interviews focusing on users' photo sharing, organizing, and viewing behaviors to identify the mechanisms and motivations driving image-based social media. Our findings indicate that people are socially motivated by photographs, selective in what they view, and use photographic narratives to correspond with others and to browse information. We conclude with a framework of opportunities for the design of photographic social media: communities where people connect through photo-sharing.

This paper reviews and extends educational principles from recent learning sciences literature to address the nuanced needs of creative design education. We have performed a variety of ethnographic and qualitative research activities, including interviews with design students and learning experts, as well as reflecting on our experiences as design educators and practitioners. Our findings identify opportunities in the areas of the classroom environment, learning objectives, formative strategies for student achievement, iterative learning, and suggest the value of an adaptive interface between objectives and learning strategies. We therefore propose a new model of reflexive learning to both improve design education and support creativity and self-leadership in studio design practice.

Digital mind mapping tools present a fertile area for research on human-computer interaction. We evaluated numerous existing mind mapping software applications, performed ethnographic research with a variety of users, and developed a framework of principles to inform the design of future tools for collaborative knowledge management. Our findings suggest an opportunity to advance digital mind mapping beyond the existing state-of-the-art, particularly in the areas of improving workflow, facilitating collaboration, and supporting information storage and retrieval. We conclude with suggestions for how to improve digital mind mapping systems, specifically with regard to real-time collaborative thinking.

Among the billions of photos that have been contributed to online photo-sharing sites, there are many that are provocative, controversial, and deeply personal. Previous research has examined motivations for sharing images online and has identified several key motivations for doing so: expression, curation of identity, maintaining social connections, and recording experiences. However, few studies have focused on the perceived risks of posting photos online and even fewer have examined the risks associated with provocative, controversial, or deeply personal images. In our work, we used photo-elicitation interviews to explore the motivations for posting these types of images and the perceived risks of doing so. In this paper, we describe our findings from those interviews.

Robotic interfaces combined with virtual reality provide an unparalleled platform for cognition research. Using a combination of design strategy, trend analysis and the programming of immersive virtual 3D worlds, we have developed a low-cost aesthetic multimodal experience. Our intent has been to design the “ultimate interface ” for creative interaction. This paper discusses the process, content, results, and impact on our engineering laboratory that this research has produced.