Haru in the Care Network: Stakeholder Perspectives on Privacy with Social Robots in PediatricsSocial robots are beginning to be introduced as technologies to support the collective networks supporting pediatric treatment, but few studies on children's perceptions of privacy with robots in hospitals. Through a mixed-method approach, we introduced hypothetical vignettes and engaged in discussion with 15 youth who are either receiving cancer treatments or are in remission (ages 6-25), 11 of their parents, and 5 out of 8 of their clinical staff to learn how stakeholders in pediatric oncology discuss privacy concerns with child-robot interactions. Our thematic analysis imparts how stakeholders perceive robots as social, non-authoritative extensions of the hospital's care network. As 1) mediators of social interaction among various stakeholders, 2) companions for children and 3) informational tools for clinicians when consent is given by the family, social robots can maximize their social utility within care systems while critically engaging with the comfort and privacy preferences of stakeholders. We emphasize how assistive technologies in pediatrics should be co-designed within communities for identifying appropriate roles and returning agency to stakeholders as they navigate the blurry boundaries of privacy in healthcare.2025LLLeigh M Levinson et al.Perspectives on Data PrivacyCSCW
Studying Self-Care with Generative AI Tools: Lessons for DesignThe rise of generative AI presents new opportunities for the understanding and practice of self-care through its capability to generate varied content, including self-care suggestions via text and images, and engage in dialogue with users over time. However, there are also concerns about accuracy and trustworthiness of self-care advice provided via AI. This paper reports our findings from workshops, diaries, and interviews with five researchers and 24 participants to explore their experiences and use of generative AI for self-care. We analyze our findings to present a framework for the use of generative AI to support five types of self-care, – advice seeking, mentorship, resource creation, social simulation, and therapeutic self-expression – mapped across two dimensions – expertise and modality. We discuss how these practices shift the role of technologies for self-care from merely offering information to offering personalized advice and supporting creativity for reflection, and we offer suggestions for using the framework to investigate new self-care designs.2024TCTara Capel et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesDIS
Phenology Circles: A Method to Deepen Relations in More-Than-Human Design ProcessesWe present phenology circles, a method to deepen relations human and more-than-human in the backstage of participatory design processes. To illustrate the method, we reflect on over two years of activity in an online, global gardening community of practice (our phenology circle) initiated to coordinate and communicate with participants in the backstage of our research. Related to our research aims, the community was initiated to attune ourselves to the rhythms and interrelations of other species and between one another. Through this approach, we better understood interaction and deepened relations between humans and the more-than-human (e.g., plants, animals, spirits). The community (N=42) has shared over 1,200 images and textual posts regarding thoughts about the environment, concerns, and experiences. Reflecting on activity of eight core members, we identified shifts from scientific-natured posts to imbue sentience and storytelling, making possible a variety of cross-cultural and symbiotic encounters to appear in our online site and fostering community to encounter and embrace difference. Phenology circles illuminate more-than-human concerns intertwined with different human values and beliefs. We discuss the value of science, sentience and storytelling, reflect on facilitation, and illustrate a design pathway that links the backstage to frontstage design activities.2024SRShannon Rodgers et al.Technology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)DIS
Nature Fictions: Designing for a Sustainable Future Through Nature RelationsThis paper presents nature fictions, a co-design approach that seeks to highlight relations between people and nonhuman stakeholders in the process of imagining sustainable futures. The work was situated in gardens, to explore nature relations in gardeners' immediate surroundings and to imagine ways of combating the adverse effects human activities have on the Earth’s natural systems. Our study involved design workshops with 15 gardeners, who engaged with different prompts (phenology wheel, nature cards, and paper prototypes) to provoke relational thought for creating nature fictions. Through this process, we identified three design spaces that illustrate the relevance of the nature fictions approach: 1) Community building through awareness and collaboration around nature, 2) Multispecies care in the garden, and 3) Creating balance in public spaces – From the garden to society. We discuss key tensions and anxieties, and opportunities for each design space, and we reflect on working with nature fictions and more-than-human thought.2023SRShannon Rodgers et al.Design FictionSustainable HCIHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)DIS
The Making of Women: Creating Trajectories for Women’s Participation in MakerspacesThis paper investigates how making activities and participation in makerspaces supports the wellbeing and empowerment of women, particularly in making domains that are typically male-dominated. We spent six months undertaking participant observations in a women-only makerspace that runs workshops aimed at teaching women skills in using power tools and woodwork. We conducted contextual interviews with 12 workshop attendees as well as with the makerspace founder and lead instructor. Through the lens of feminist HCI and legitimate peripheral participation, we present trajectories of participation within a women-only makerspace – from beginning as a peripheral participant to becoming a competent and confident maker. We found that through structured workshops in a women-only space that actively teach making skills, the women-only makerspace works to transform the current makerspace landscape so more women can engage with these spaces and participate within them. We contribute three core qualities to foster participation: women-only but without a ‘feminist’ label, configuring a formal and collaborative learning environment, and reification through artefacts. Collectively these work towards new configurations of makerspaces for women that enable their participation within them, and we detail how such configurations work to create trajectories for women’s participation.2021TCTara Capel et al.Equity, Inclusion, and NarrativesCSCW
Human-Nature Relations in Urban Gardens: Explorations with Camera TrapsAs cities grow, their people become increasingly distanced from nature except within private and public green spaces. Sensing technologies provide a means to harness curiosity about the animals living in these spaces, and possibly also connect interest to care. Yet little is known as to how people may use these technologies, or the implications for human-nature relations. To learn more, we gave commercial camera traps to ten adult participants to understand how they explored their gardens, what they wanted to learn, and what they did with this knowledge. We discovered trade-offs between control and care; the usefulness of different media and mystery; the temporalities of engaging in natural sensing practice; and a prevalence of sharing media within households. We discuss design for convivial cohabitation with the creatures in our garden. This research contributes to better human-nature relations through citizen sensing, as well as HCI for urban biodiversity conservation.2021KVKellie Vella et al.Queensland University of Technology (QUT)Citizen Science & Crowdsourced DataHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)CHI
Diagramming Working Field Theories for Design in the HCI ClassroomHCI has historically provided little support for moving from fieldwork insights or theories to design outcomes. Having witnessed many students struggle and then justify their designs with a form of marketing hype, we developed a supporting approach of “field theories”. A field theory is a working theory about salient interactions in a particular domain and sensitizing concepts in order to frame design investigations. It is presented visually in a field theory diagram to support succinct communication and critique. Studying use of design prototypes that have been informed by a field theory helps to reflect upon and refine the theory. In this paper we present examples from our HCI classes and reflections based on interviews with students. We discuss how field theories offer an orientation in the spirit of a ‘bricoleur’ who harnesses elements of theory and practice to produce deeper understandings and more fitting outcomes for the task at hand.2021BPBernd Ploderer et al.Queensland University of Technology (QUT)User Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)CHI
Including Adults with Severe Intellectual Disabilities in Co-Design through Active SupportIn recent work, design researchers have sought to ensure that people with disabilities are engaged as competent and valued contributors to co-design. Yet, little is known about how to achieve this with adults with severe intellectual disabilities. Navigating design in the context of complex care practices is challenging, charged with uncertainty, and requires sustained effort of methodological and affective adjustments. To establish a respectful co-design relationship and enrich participation, we turn to Active Support (AS), an evidence-based strategy for engaging adults with severe intellectual disabilities. We present a reflective account of long-term field work that utilized the four aspects of AS, a) every moment has potential; b) graded assistance; c) little and often; d) maximizing choice and control. We discuss how these principles contribute to deepening HCI methods by ensuring interactional turns for adults with severe disabilities, revealing their unique competences, thereby shaping design direction and providing design insight.2021FBFilip Bircanin et al.QUTCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Participatory DesignCHI
The Wooden Quilt: Carving Out Personal Narratives in a Women-Only MakerspaceWomen can face barriers to participation in universal makerspace environments and are consequently underrepresented within them. Further, women have historically been excluded from learning and working with particular types of materials, such as wood. To explore how we might address these inequalities in regards to both access to makerspaces and to diverse materials, we present the wooden quilt probe. Through this probe we aimed to 1) create a makerspace environment specifically for women where they could engage with materials and tools traditionally found in more male-dominated craft environments, and 2) facilitate the sharing of stories and experiences with other women within the community center where this work took place. We contribute a rich understanding of the stories and experiences of women from the community center, and discuss the implications of the work for Interaction Design: how designers can contribute towards diversifying makerspace environments that enable women’s participation within them, the benefits of intertwining storytelling and making, and the boundaries around sharing personal narratives.2020TCTara Capel et al.Makerspace CultureEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsDIS
Self-Expression by Design: Co-Designing the ExpressiBall with Minimally-Verbal Children on the Autism SpectrumExpressing one's thoughts and feelings is a fundamental human need - the basis for communication and social interaction. We ask, how do minimally-verbal children on the autism spectrum express themselves? How can we better recognise instances of self-expression? And how might technologies support and encourage self-expression? To address these questions, we undertook co-design research at an autism-specific primary school with 20 children over one school year. This paper contributes six Modalities of Self-Expression, through which children self-express and convey their design insights. Each modality of self-expression can occur across two different dimensions (socio-expressive and auto-expressive) and can be of a fundamental or an integrative nature. Further, we contribute the design trajectory of a tangible ball prototype, the ExpressiBall, which - through voice, sounds, lights, and motion sensors - explores how tangible technologies can support this range of expressive modalities. Finally, we discuss the concept of Self-Expression by Design.2020CWCara Wilson et al.Queensland University of TechnologyCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)Special Education TechnologyCHI
Position Exchange Workshops: A Method to Design for Each Other in FamiliesExisting methods for researching and designing to support relationships between parents and their adult children tend to lead to designs that respect the differences between them. We conducted 14 Position Exchange Workshops with parents and their adult children, where the child has left home in recent years, aiming to explicate and confront their positions in creative and supportive ways. We designed three co-design methods (Card Sort for Me & You, Would I Lie to You? and A Magic Machine for You) to support participants to explore, understand, empathize, and design for each other. The findings show that the methods facilitated understanding, renegotiating, and reimagining their current positions. We discuss how positions can help consider both perspectives in the design process. This paper seeks to contribute (1) how the notion of positions enables generating understandings of the relationship, and (2) a set of methods influenced by position exchange, empathy, and playful engagement that help explore human relationships.2019DMDiego Muñoz et al.Queensland University of TechnologyFitness Tracking & Physical Activity MonitoringCommunity Engagement & Civic TechnologyParticipatory DesignCHI
Co-Design Beyond Words: 'Moments of Interaction' with Minimally-Verbal Children on the Autism SpectrumExisting co-design methods support verbal children on the autism spectrum in the design process, while their minimally-verbal peers are overlooked. We describe Co-Design Beyond Words (CDBW), an approach which merges existing co-design methods with practice-based methods from Speech and Language Therapy which are child-led and interests-based. These emphasise the rich detail that can be conveyed in the moment, through recognising occurrences of, for example, Joint Attention, Turn Taking and Imitation. We worked in an autism-specific primary school over 20 weeks with ten children, aged 5 to 8. We co-designed a playful prototype, the TangiBall, using the three iterative phases of CDBW; the Foundation Phase (preparation for interaction), the Interaction Phase (designing-and-reflecting in the moment) and the Reflection Phase (reflection-on-action). We contribute a novel co-design approach and present moments of interaction, the micro instances in design in which minimally-verbal children on the spectrum can convey meaning beyond words, through their actions, interactions, and attentional foci. These moments of interaction provide design insight, shape design direction, and reveal unique strengths, interests, and abilities.2019CWCara Wilson et al.Queensland University of TechnologyCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Special Education TechnologyEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI