As populations age and digital technologies become increasingly embedded in everyday life, fostering ICT competencies among older adults is essential for promoting independence, social inclusion, and well-being. While peer learning has shown promise in supporting digital engagement, existing research often adopts a deficit perspective that emphasises limitations and barriers. This study takes a strengths-based approach, focusing on older adults’ capabilities and agency in peer-led ICT learning environments. Drawing on qualitative data from observations and interviews with learners and peer tutors at an older adult learning organisation, we identify four key strengths-based behaviours – Pioneering, Experiencing, Enabling, and Responding – that support ICT skill development. These behaviours are mapped to corresponding collaborative mindsets, forming the PEER framework. Our findings demonstrate how peer learning can empower older adults through mutual respect, practical engagement, emotional support, and responsiveness to individual needs. The study offers theoretical and practical contributions to the design of ICT programmes that build on older adults’ strengths.

Self-monitoring devices are becoming increasingly popular in the support of physical activity experiences. These devices mostly represent on-screen data using numbers and graphs and in doing so, they may miss multi-sensorial methods for engaging with data. Embracing the opportunity for pleasurable interactions with one's own data through the use of different materials and digital fabrication technology, we designed and studied three systems that turn this data into 3D-printed plastic artifacts, sports drinks, and 3D-printed chocolate treats. We utilize the insights gained from associated studies, related literature, and our experiences in designing these systems to develop a conceptual framework, “ Shelfie. ” The “ Shelfie ” framework has 13 cards that convey key themes for creating material representations of physical activity data. Through this framework, we present a conceptual understanding of relationships between material representation and physical activity data and contribute guidelines to the design of meaningful material representations of physical activity data.

Self-monitoring offers benefits in facilitating awareness about physical exercise, but such data-centric activity may not always lead to an enjoyable experience. We introduce EdiPulse a novel system that creates activity treats to offer playful reflections on everyday physical activity through the appealing medium of chocolate. EdiPulse translates self-monitored data from physical activity into small 3D printed chocolate treats. These treats (< 20 grams of chocolate in total) embody four forms: Graph, Flower, Slogan and Emoji. We deployed our system across 7 households and studied its use with 13 participants for 2 weeks per household. The field study revealed positive aspects of our approach along with some open challenges, which we disseminate across five themes: Reflection, Positivity, Determination, Affection, and Co-experience. We conclude by highlighting key implications of our work for future playful food-based technology design in supporting the experience of being physically active

In this paper, we introduce palatable representations that besides improving the understanding of physical activity through abstract visualization also provide an appetizing drink to celebrate the experience of being physically active. By designing such palatable representations, our aim is to offer novel opportunities for reflection on one's physical activities. We present TastyBeats, a fountain-based interactive system that creates a fluidic spectacle of mixing sport drinks based on heart rate data of physical activity, which the user can later consume to replenish the loss of body fluids due to the physical activity. We articulate our experiences in designing the system as well as learning gained through field deployments of the system in participants' homes for a period of two weeks. We found that our system increased participants' awareness of physical activity and facilitated a shared social experience, while the prepared drink was treated as a hedonic reward that motivated participants to exercise more. Ultimately, with this work, we aim to inspire and guide design thinking on palatable representations, which we believe opens up new interaction possibilities to support physical activity experience.

Visualizing heart rate on screen has become popular to measure physical activity performance and progress towards set health goals. However, we believe that this prevalent method of visualizing data often reduces the interaction to only reading of information. In response, we propose a new way of visualizing heart rate data through a public interactive water fountain installation we call, TastyBeats. TastyBeats engages participants in a fluidic spectacle by creating a personalized sports drink representing their heart rate data while serving the additional purpose of replenishing lost energy during physical activity. We present findings and three design strategies from the three exhibitions of this work to inform designers interested in using drinkable fluids to support the physical activity experience. Ultimately, with our work we aim to expand our understanding of the potential of interactive technology to support the energy-cycle when being physically active.

In this paper, we advocate a novel approach of representing physical activity in the form of material artifacts. By designing such material representations, we aim to understand what these artifacts might offer in terms of reflecting upon physical activity. For example, what types of affect do material artifacts, representing ones' physical activity create for the user' In order to advance this understanding, we designed a system called SweatAtoms that transforms the physical activity data based on heart rate into 3D printed material artifacts. We conducted an 'in the wild study' by deploying our system in six households where participants were experiencing five different material representations of their physical activity for a period of two weeks each. We found that the material artifacts made participants more conscious about their involvement in physical activity and illustrated different levels of engagement with the artifacts. Along with reporting the gained insights from the deployments, we offer reflections on designing material representations for physical activity. We hope that our work will inspire designers to consider new possibilities afforded by digital fabrication to support user's experience with physical activity by utilizing interactive technologies at our disposal.