Mirror Dwellers in Social VR: Investigating Reasons and Perception of Mirror WatchingIn social Virtual Reality (VR) environments, the significant trend of `mirror dwellers,' users who often use virtual mirrors to engage with their avatars, has emerged. This study examines discussions from the r/VRchat online community to explore the reasons for this behavior and how it is perceived within the broader community. Our findings highlight the critical role of mirrors in compensating for the sensory limitations of VR, particularly the lack of physical feedback. Users often turn to mirrors to view parts of their avatar that are not accessible from a first-person perspective. Additionally, our research uncovers that a limited Field-Of-View (FOV) hinders the development of a strong connection between users and their avatars, further driving the need for mirrors. However, while using mirrors to mitigate FOV and physical feedback limitations can be helpful, it may also disrupt social interaction in VR environments, as the excessive reliance on mirrors can hinder the social experience in VR for others. This research deepens our understanding of user behavior in social VR and provides insights that could guide future design improvements to enrich the overall user experience.2025QCQijia Chen et al.Perspectives on VRCSCW
Temporal Trajectories: Characterizing Somatic Experiences that Unfold Over Time The body technologies we design profoundly influence our somatic experiences, yet they are often evaluated through short-term or one-off studies. To design for sustained, longer-term engagements, we need to understand how somatic experiences evolve when people repeatedly interact with the same technology over time. With this goal, we report on two in-the-wild studies of body sonification, one with physically inactive individuals and another with professional dancers. For one month, participants used SoniBand, a movement sonification wearable, in their daily lives and shared their experiences with us through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Drawing from the concept of trajectories, we identified four temporal patterns that characterized the participants' evolving experience with SoniBand: singular, sustained, deepening, and meandering. We unpack these temporal trajectories and reflect on the characteristics that may contribute to their emergence. Our findings offer insights for studying and designing future technologies that embrace the dynamic, evolving nature of people's somatic experiences.2025LVLaia Turmo Vidal et al.Vibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationHaptic WearablesFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputDIS
“I Felt Everyone Was a Streamer”: An Empirical Study on What Makes Avatar Collective Streaming EngagingA novel participatory livestreaming genre, Avatar Collective Streaming, is gaining traction. Beyond traditional audience participation mechanisms, such as chat messages or commands, these livestreams allow viewers to join, socially interact, and participate through avatars in a software-driven virtual scenario without requiring the presence of a human streamer. From observations of livestreaming sessions and interviews with regular users (n=23), we define the main features of this novel form of livestreaming and we analyze what makes it engaging for participants, as well as factors that limit the user experience. The use of avatars affords a strong sense of presence and participation, and together with the absence of a streamer, it shapes new forms of sociability, being together, and belonging. Challenges include repetitive content and overcrowding. We provide design implications for synchronous collective participation scenarios and opportunities for software-driven content generation.2024QCQijia Chen et al.Session 4f: Multiplayer Gaming and CommunicationCSCW
Body Sensations as Design Material: An Approach to Design Sensory Technology for Altering Body PerceptionSensory technologies alter how we perceive our body, which can have profound implications for multiple domains. Prior work has contributed a myriad of artefacts and evaluative studies, but we still lack design knowledge to design meaningful body perception alterations facilitated by sensory technologies. To address this gap, we draw from soma design to propose a methodological approach centered on body sensations as design material. We articulate our approach based on a project on co-designing wearables to alter body perception together with professional dancers. Our approach involves engaging participants in articulating and sharing body sensations to others, and exploring somatically sensory stimuli to co-design concepts for future technologies. We contribute experiential facets of body sensations, movement and sensory potentials to alter sensations, methods and design strategies, and a collection of ideas. Our work can be relevant to design communities interested in sensory technologies, perceptual alterations and body sensations as material.2024LVLaia Turmo Vidal et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsDance & Body Movement ComputingDIS
Movits: a Minimalist Toolkit for Embodied SketchingWe present the design and evaluation of the Movits, a minimalist toolkit for embodied sketching design explorations. The toolkit includes technology probes featuring minimalist wearable digital units that support the hands-on exploration and design of movement-driven interactions using multisensory feedback. The Movits are self-contained and generate audiovisual or vibrotactile patterns in response to movement-based inputs. We present the theoretical and empirical grounding driving our design process. We discuss the findings of using the Movits during four co-design workshops with design students, technologists, dancers and physiotherapists, where they resulted in being generative and adaptable to a range of embodied design approaches. We contend that the Movits can be favourable for those interested in a holistic design approach to wearables in general and specifically for those targeting movement-based application domains.2024JVJosé Manuel Vega-Cebrián et al.Haptic WearablesFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputDance & Body Movement ComputingDIS
SoniWeight Shoes: Investigating Effects and Personalization of a Wearable Sound Device for Altering Body Perception, Behavior and Emotion Changes in body perception influence behavior and emotion and can be induced through multisensory feedback. Auditory feedback to one's actions can trigger such alterations; however, it is unclear which individual factors modulate these effects. We employ and evaluate SoniWeight Shoes, a wearable device based on literature for altering one's weight perception through manipulated footstep sounds. In a healthy population sample across a spectrum of individuals (n=84) with varying degrees of eating disorder symptomatology, physical activity levels, body concerns, and mental imagery capacities, we explore the effects of three sound conditions (low-frequency, high-frequency and control) on extensive body perception measures (demographic, behavioral, physiological, psychological, and subjective). Analyses revealed an impact of individual differences in each of these dimensions. Besides replicating previous findings, we reveal and highlight the role of individual differences in body perception, offering avenues for personalized sonification strategies. Datasets, technical refinements, and novel body map quantification tools are provided.2024ADAmar D'Adamo et al.Universidad Carlos III de MadridVibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputFoot & Wrist InteractionCHI
Analysis and Implementation of Nanotargeting on LinkedIn Based on Publicly Available Non-PIIThe literature has shown that combining a few non-Personal Identifiable Information (non-PII) is enough to make a user unique in a dataset including millions of users. This work demonstrates that a combination of a few non-PII items can be activated to nanotarget users. We demonstrate that the combination of the location and 5 rare (13 random) skills in a LinkedIn profile is enough to become unique in a user base of ∼970M users with a probability of 75%. The novelty is that these attributes are publicly accessible to anyone registered on LinkedIn and can be activated through advertising campaigns. We ran an experiment configuring ad campaigns using the location and skills of three of the paper's authors, demonstrating how all the ads using >13 skills were delivered exclusively to the targeted user. We reported this vulnerability to LinkedIn, which initially ignored the problem, but fixed it as of November 2023.2024AMAngel Merino et al.Universidad Carlos III de MadridPrivacy by Design & User ControlIoT Device PrivacyContent Moderation & Platform GovernanceCHI
“I’d rather drink in VRChat”: Understanding Drinking in Social Virtual RealityDrinking in social VR has become popular, yet little is known about how users perceive and experience alcohol consumption while immersed in virtual spaces with others, as well as its potential harm and negative effects on their offline and online lives. To better understand this emerging phenomenon from the perspective of both drinkers and non-drinkers, we analyzed public discussions from the r/VRchat online community on users' perceptions, and experiences with alcohol consumption in social VR. Heavy drinking is prevalent. We find that VR drinkers feel less intoxicated, which makes them drink more without being aware of it. Anti-cybersickness designs may affect users' perception of vertigo, even if the vertigo is not caused by VR. We discuss how affordances that support meaningful activities (i.e., sense of presence, embodiment, and social interactions) exacerbate alcohol abuse. We propose implications for the design of safer social VR experiences for both drinkers and non-drinkers.2024QCQijia Chen et al.Helsinki UniversitySocial & Collaborative VRImmersion & Presence ResearchSleep & Stress MonitoringCHI
Design Resources in Movement-based Design Methods: a Practice-based CharacterizationMovement-based design methods are increasingly adopted to help design rich embodied experiences. While there are well-known methods in the field, there is no systematic overview to help designers choose among them, adapt them, or create their own. We collected 41 methods used by movement design researchers and employed a practice-based, bottom-up approach to analyze and characterize their properties. We found 17 categories and arranged them into five main groups: Design Resources, Activities, Delivery, Framing, and Context. In this paper, we describe these groups in general and then focus on Design Resources containing the categories of Movement, Space, and Objects. We ground the characterization with examples from empirical material provided by the design researchers and references to previous work. Additionally, we share recommendations and action points to bring these into practice. This work can help novice and seasoned design researchers who want to employ movement-based design methods in their practice.2023JVJosé Manuel Vega-Cebrián et al.Full-Body Interaction & Embodied InputDance & Body Movement ComputingDIS
Programmable Smart Home Toolkits Should Better Address Households' Social NeedsEnd-user-programmable smart-home toolkits have engendered excitement in recent years. However, modern homes already cater quite well to users' needs, and genuinely new needs for smart-home automation seldom arise. Acknowledging this challenging starting point, we conducted a six-week in-the-wild study of smart-home toolkits with four carefully recruited technology-savvy families. Interleaved with free toolkit use in the home were several creativity workshops to facilitate ideation and programming. We evaluated use experiences at the end of the six weeks. Even with extensive facilitation, families faced difficulties in identifying needs for smart-home automation, except for social needs that emerged in all the families. We present analysis of those needs and discuss how end-user-programmable toolkits could better engage with both those household members who design new automated functions and those who merely `use' them.2021ASAntti Salovaara et al.Aalto University, University of HelsinkiSmart Home Interaction DesignSmart Home Privacy & SecurityCHI
The Design Space of Wearables for Sports and Fitness PracticesThe growing interest in wearables for sports and fitness calls for design knowledge and conceptualizations that can help shape future designs. Towards that end, we present and discuss a design space of wearables for these practices, based on a survey of previous work. Through a thematic analysis of 47 research publications in the domain, we surface core design decisions concerning wearability, technology design, and wearable use in practice. Building on these, we show how the design space takes into account the goals of introducing technology, that design decisions can be either directly designed, or left open for appropriation by end-users; and the social organization of the practice. We characterize prior work based on the design space elements, which yields trends and opportunities for design. Our contributions can help designers think about key design decisions, exploit trends and explore new areas in the domain of wearables for sports and fitness practices.2021LVLaia Turmo Vidal et al.Uppsala UniversityFitness Tracking & Physical Activity MonitoringSmartwatches & Fitness BandsCHI
Chasing Play Potentials in Food Culture: Learning from Traditions to Inspire Future Human-Food Interaction DesignIn this pictorial, we turn to culture and traditions to present an annotated portfolio of play-food potentials, i.e. interesting design qualities and/or interaction mechanisms that could help promote playful and social engagement in food practices. Our portfolio emerged from a one-day workshop where we played with and analyzed a collection of 27 food traditions from diverse cultural backgrounds and historical periods. We highlight play forms and experiential textures that are underexplored in Human-Food Interaction (HFI) research. Our contribution is intended to inspire designers to broaden the palette of play experiences and emotions embraced in HFI.2020FBFerran Altarriba Bertran et al.Gamification DesignFood Culture & Food InteractionDIS
As Light as You Aspire to Be: Changing Body Perception with Sound to Support Physical ActivitySupporting exercise adherence through technology remains an important HCI challenge. Recent works showed that altering walking sounds leads people perceiving themselves as thinner/lighter, happier and walking more dynamically. While this novel approach shows potential for physical activity, it raises critical questions impacting technology design. We ran two studies in the context of exertion (gym-step, stairs-climbing) to investigate how individual factors impact the effect of sound and the duration of the after-effects. The results confirm that the effects of sound in body-perception occur even in physically demanding situations and through ubiquitous wearable devices. We also show that the effect of sound interacted with participants' body weight and masculinity/femininity aspirations, but not with gender. Additionally, changes in body-perceptions did not hold once the feedback stopped; however, body-feelings or behavioural changes appeared to persist for longer. We discuss the results in terms of malleability of body-perception and highlight opportunities for supporting exercise adherence.2019ATAna Tajadura-Jiménez et al.Universidad Carlos III de MadridForce Feedback & Pseudo-Haptic WeightFitness Tracking & Physical Activity MonitoringCHI