Constituency as a Matter of Practice: Moving a Plant StudioHow more-than-human gatherings configure and change to support designing is not well understood. In the more-than-human theory of designing-with, these gatherings are called constituencies. This paper aims to shed light on the practices of a constituency, by analyzing the moving of a plant studio from one city to another. The plant studio includes over 250 plants and is where living-with and designing-with plants are conceptualized. The move offered an opportunity to understand the dynamics of the plant studio as a constituency using design events, a vocabulary and analytical tool, for understanding practices and temporality. In our analysis, we surface the role of humans as speaking subjects and five repertoires or considered actions that together articulate the practice of a constituency. We also illustrate the use of design events as an analytical tool for nuance and critical reflections on more-than-human design.2025OTOscar Tomico et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologySustainable HCIHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)CHI
Translating HCI Research to Broader Audiences: Motivation, Inspiration, and Critical Factors on Alternative Research OutcomesAlternative Research Outcomes (AROs) go beyond traditional academic publications, taking diverse forms such as documentaries, DIY tutorials, or exhibitions. With growing recognition of the need for more inclusive and contextually appropriate research dissemination, AROs are particularly relevant in HCI and design research. Yet, little has been discussed on why it is important to work on AROs. What are key qualities of AROs? How can the HCI community benefit from learning more about creating AROs? By analyzing six case studies, we propose four qualities of AROs and demonstrate how they emerge in the timeline of a research project. We argue AROs can be adapted to diverse audience needs and share research insights that may extend beyond the original research goals. Our work contributes to a deeper understanding of how AROs can support inclusive research dissemination practices, enabling HCI researchers to engage broader audiences and extend the relevance of their work.2025MYMinYoung Yoo et al.Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts and TechnologyParticipatory DesignInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
Backyard Practices: A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human WorldsAs design researchers committed to more-than-human designing, we found we were increasingly moving our research activities outside of our institutional studios and labs into yards and balconies where we lived. In this paper, we investigate this emerging pattern through collaborative autoethnography to arrive at the notion of backyard practices. These are distinct practices that signal the value and necessity of being there in more-than-human worlds to design-with over time. We describe the features of the practice that include time as duration and intensities, liminality as more-than-human presences, and proximity. We also describe commitments that emerged that include practice decentering, consistently engage more-than-humans as participants in the process, act with not-knowing and humility, queerly design alongside, and learn to be affected.2025RWRon Wakkary et al.Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts and Technology; Eindhoven University of Technology, Industrial DesignResearch Ethics & Open ScienceHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)CHI
Metamorphonic: A Reflective Design Inquiry into Human-Silkworm RelationshipThis work explores an alternative human-silkworm relationship through crafting a triad of interactive research artifacts that serve as a temporary habitat for domestic silk moths, \textit{Bombyx mori}. In the first part of the paper, we present the design journey from acquiring the eggs to harvesting movement in orchestrating the improvised ambient music and elaborate on the aspects of materiality and temporality that crafting the habitability involved. In the second part, we reflect on the alternative relationship as intended and embodied during the four months of co-habitation and discuss the ethical and other emergent issues informed by designer-researcher's autoethnography.2023YIYuta Ikeya et al.Human-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)DIS
Turner Boxes and Bees: From Ambivalence to DiffractionThis paper is a Research through Design (RtD) investigation that deeply reflects on our ambivalence with three design choices we made while designing in a multispecies context. The ongoing RtD project, called Turner Boxes, aims to design a technological network to interact with wild bees in an urban environment. The design choices negotiate challenges we encountered, including the potential effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on bee ecologies; sucrose feeding as an established human-bee interaction; and the question of human intervention when designing in relation to other species. We analyze our negotiations of these challenges along with the practices of beekeepers and ecologists who were part of our investigation, to realize that ambivalence is a characteristic and a resource in multispecies designing. We extend this analysis through feminist epistemologies to articulate a position of diffraction, a standpoint from which to design in multispecies worlds in which interdependencies and differences are critical.2023RWRon Wakkary et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)DIS
About being an “influencer” or how to exploit the tool of the oppressor for our own expressionSurveillance is at the core of today’s monitored society. Privacy is becoming a fluid regulatory process the values and expectations of which are being actively rewritten, deconstructed, reconstructed and negotiated as new technologies open up novel forms of social relations and identity construction opportunities. Our proposal is based on using our bodies as tools for identity expression and personal proclamation, seeking to pervert surveillance and its embodied data as a site for opportunity, disruption and resistance. We asked XXX, a writer and journalist, to work with us on a design exploration, to understand new implications of what being an “influencer” means by shaping identities through technologies in an extreme way. After analyzing some of the most commonly employed surveillance technologies worldwide and the main biometric parameters used to monitor the human body, we came up with a series of prostheses and garments in order to exploit XXX’s algorithmic presence.2023SASaúl Baeza Argüello et al.Inclusive DesignEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIDIS
Exploring Long-Term Mediated Relations with a Shape-Changing Thing: A Field Study of coMorphing StoolThis paper presents a long-term field study of the coMorphing stool: a computational thing that can change shape in response to the surrounding light. We deployed 5 coMorphing stools to 5 participants’ homes over 9 months. As co-speculators, the participants reflected on their mediated relations with the coMorphing stool. Findings suggest that they perceived the subtle transformations of the coMorphing stool in the early days of the deployment. After becoming familiar with these features, they interpreted their daily entanglements with the coMorphing stool in diverse personalized ways. Over time, the co-speculators accepted the coMorphing stool as part of their homes. These findings contribute new empirical insights to the shape-changing research field in HCI and enrich discussions on higher-level concepts in postphenomenology. Reflecting on these experiences promotes further HCI explorations on computational things.2023CZCe Zhong et al.Simon Fraser UniversityShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsCHI
Weaving Stories: Toward Repertoires for Designing ThingsWhile much work is underway within the context of posthuman design, this research is often described from a dominantly human perspective. It rarely accounts for the creative capacities of nonhumans in design, such as materials, tools, and software. There is a need to further engage with posthuman theories conceptually, materially, and methodologically. We approach this challenge through Ron Wakkary's concept of repertoires: actions the human designer can take to increase participation of nonhumans in design research practice. This paper reports on potential repertoires' development by exploring three approaches from outside of HCI: describing the landscape, noticing, and translations. We use these methods to account for weaving events that the first author was engaged in. Through critical reflection of these accounts, we contribute three repertoires and an example of applying the theoretical framework of Designing Things.2022DODoenja Oogjes et al.Simon Fraser UniversityHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)Interactive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
transTexture Lamp: Composing a Deformable Device as a Computational WholeResearch into shape-changing and deformable artifacts that explore novel interactions has been growing in design and HCI. Yet, there is little discussion on the design processes behind these approaches and in particular, a theoretical understanding of materiality that is central to deformation. Informed by Wiberg’s compositional interaction design, we contribute an investigation into supporting long-term relations with deformation: the transTexture lamp. Specifically, we crafted a dynamic physical form with materials at hand. We instantiated the materiality of interaction being designed as a computational whole. Reflecting on our theory-informed RtD process enriched our understanding of compositional interaction design. These reflections on our design approach may benefit further explorations into the intersections between materiality, longevity, and actuality in the context of design-oriented HCI.2021CZCe Zhong et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsDIS
Exploring the Potential of Apple Face ID as a Drag, Queer and Trans Technology Design ToolThis pictorial is the result of a long-term research project focused on finding opportunities to use Apple Face ID software and infrastructure to build new hybrid identities, exploring its potential as a drag, queer and trans technology design tool. The aim of the project is to validate new paradigms for identity ambiguity, multiplicity and fluidity, using biometric artificial intelligence systems and technologies of control as tools for free identity expression, definition and personal proclamation. To do that, we present our motivation, methodology, approach to exploration, workshop results and validated outputs, and analyse the physical and digital implications of the research. The prostheses shown in this paper are functional, and allow users to train Apple Face ID software to design their own identities connected to their name, Apple ID Number, bank account, social networks, and any other data or online activity digitally associated to this persona.2021SASaúl Baeza Argüello et al.Gender & Race Issues in HCITechnology Ethics & Critical HCIDIS
deformTable: Crafting a Shape-changing Device for Creative Appropriations Over TimeIn this pictorial, we present critical reflections on the design process of crafting the deformTable. The table is a shape-changing device that can go up and down based on the weight of objects placed on it. This pictorial focuses on key design decisions in making a shape-changing artifact like the deformTable that explores how deformability, temporality, and materiality can encourage creative appropriations over time. We believe this pictorial contributes to how to design research products that can investigate shape-changing artifacts in everyday settings over time.2021CZCe Zhong et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsDIS
Fragile! Handle with care: the Morse ThingsMorse Things are Internet connected ceramic cups and bowls that communicate with each other in Morse Code. This ongoing research iteratively asks thing-centered questions of things and technology. A premise of the Morse Things is that any understanding of a thing or technology is unstable and arguably fragile. In this pictorial, we reflect on how we as researchers, in the course of doing research with the Morse Things, unexpectedly found ourselves literally entangled in the conceptual and physical fragility of the research. This pictorial describes our growing awareness of this instability, beginning with a kintsugi repair of a broken Morse Thing, our false confidence in our package design for shipping, and the difficulties to conceptualize the machine learning world that we ourselves created. We reflect on these experiences, and now see these as reminders of the inevitable fragility and instability of research on thing-perspectives.2020DODoenja Oogjes et al.Empowerment of Marginalized GroupsDigital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceDIS
Alternative Presents for Dynamic FabricIn this paper we investigate how a combination of “speculative” design methods can be used to generate theoretical understandings for dynamic, colour-changing fabrics for garments. Specifically, we combine a first-person, autobiographical, research through design (RtD) approach that draws strategies from speculative design. We call this approach alternative presents, inspired by the work of James Auger, and explore it as a way to generate theoretical propositions for dynamic fabric that emphasize the lived experience over technological innovation. The contributions of this framing are twofold. Firstly, we offer a theoretical contribution to the literature on dynamic fabric. Secondly, we make a methodological contribution for how autobiographical design and RtD can be oriented speculatively to generate intermediate knowledge, with particular emphasis on social-technical aspects.2020AMAngella Mackey et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsDesign FictionDIS
FamilyStories: Asynchronous Audio Storytelling for Family Members Across Time ZonesFamily members who are separated across time zones can easily miss out on feeling connected. We designed and studied the usage of an asynchronous storytelling system, called FamilyStories, to explore the use of audio-based sharing. FamilyStories allows family members to share activities and experiences over distance in different time zones using three different devices that contain different contextual features. To evaluate the design, we conducted a five-week long field study with two family member pairs. Our results show the value of slow, flexible, and non-suggestive interfaces for asynchronous audio communication. We also found ephemerality helped in the sharing of 'instant' feelings, while large time zone differences could be 'synchronized' with time delayed messages. We raise these as design opportunities for asynchronous audio storytelling systems.2020YHYasamin Heshmat et al.Simon Fraser UniversityHome Voice Assistant ExperienceFood Culture & Food InteractionCHI
transTexture Lamp: Understanding Lived Experiences with Deformation Through a Materiality LensThis paper provides a materiality perspective to understanding lived experiences with a deformable domestic artefact, named transTexture lamp. The lamp is an interactive light with a deformable lampshade surface. We deployed transTexture lamps in the homes of three professional designers for two months with the aim of exploring possible interactions and engagements with the deformable lamp. Our findings show how participants experienced transTexture through pleasurable interactions and how they experienced deformation over time from reflections on these interactions. Analyzing the data through a materiality lens unpacked a creative process of drawing on the deformable lampshade surface, which results in the accumulation of substrates and transformations of deformations. These findings suggest opportunities for future material-centered interaction design research and practices in HCI.2020CZCe Zhong et al.Simon Fraser UniversityShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsCHI
The Magic Machine Workshops: Making Personal Design KnowledgeNew technologies emerge into an increasingly complex everyday life. How can we engage users further into material practices that explore ideas and notions of these new things? This paper proposes a set of qualities for short, intense, workshop-like experiences, created to generate strong individual commitments, and expose underlying personal desires as drivers for ideas. By making use of open-ended making to engage participants in the imagination of new things, we aim to allow a broad range of knowledge to materialise, focused on the making of work that is about technology, rather than of technology.2019KAKristina Andersen et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationMakerspace CultureParticipatory DesignCHI
Encoding Materials and Data for Iterative PersonalizationData is changing how we design consumer products. Shoe production is a prime example of this; foot size, footstep pressure and personal preferences can be used to design personalized shoes. Research done around metamaterials, programming materials and computational composites illustrate the possibilities of creating complex data & material relationships. These new relationships allow us to look at future products almost like software apps, becoming a kind of product service systems, where the focus is on its iterative personalization improvement over time. Can we create systems of such data driven objects that in turn allow us to design new objects that are informed by the data trail? In this paper we report on four RtD project iterations that explore this challenge and provide a set of insights on how to close this new iterative loop.2019TNTroy Nachtigall et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyCustomizable & Personalized ObjectsCHI
From HCI to HCI-Amusement: Strategies for Engaging what New Technology Makes OldNotions of what counts as a contribution to HCI continue to be contested as our field expands to accommodate perspectives from the arts and humanities. This paper aims to advance the position of the arts and further contribute to these debates by actively exploring what a "non-contribution" would look like in HCI. We do this by taking inspiration from Fluxus, a collective of artists in the 1950's and 1960's who actively challenged and reworked practices of fine arts institutions by producing radically accessible, ephemeral, and modest works of "art-amusement." We use Fluxus to develop three analogous forms of "HCI-amusements," each of which shed light on dominant practices and values within HCI by resisting to fit into its logics.2019LDLaura Devendorf et al.University of Colorado BoulderDigital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
Investigating Slowness as a Frame to Design Longer-Term Experiences with Personal Data: A Field Study of OllyWe describe the design and deployment of Olly, a domestic music player that enables people to re-experience digital music they listened to in the past. Olly uses its owner's Last.FM listening history metadata archive to occasionally select a song from their past, but offers no user control over what is selected or when. We deployed Olly in 3 homes for 15 months to explore how its slow pace might support experiences of reflection and reminiscence. Findings revealed that Olly became highly integrated in participants lives with sustained engagement over time. They drew on Olly to reflect on past life experiences and reactions indicated an increase in perceived value of their Last.FM archive. Olly also provoked reflections on the temporalities of personal data and technology. Findings are interpreted to present opportunities for future HCI research and practice.2019WOWilliam Odom et al.Simon Fraser UniversityGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Creative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsCHI
Philosophers Living with the Tilting BowlThis paper reports on a postphenomenological inquiry of six trained philosophers, who as study participants lived with and reflected on a research product we designed known as the Tilting Bowl: a ceramic bowl that unpredictably but gently tilts multiple times daily. The Tilting Bowl is a counterfactual artifact that is designed specifically for this study as part of a material speculation approach to design research. A postphenomenological inquiry looks to describe and analyze accounts of relationships between humans and technological artifacts, and how each mutually shapes the other through mediations that form the human subjectivity and objectivity of any given situation. This paper contributes an empirical account and analysis of the relations that emerged (background and alterity) and the relativistic views that co-constitute the philosophers, Tilting Bowl, and their specific worlds. The findings demonstrate the relevance of this philosophical framing to fundamentally and broadly understand how people engage digital artifacts.2018RWRon Wakkary et al.Simon Fraser University, Eindhoven University of TechnologyDesign FictionCHI