Empowering Independence Through Design: Investigating Standard Digital Design Patterns For Easy-to-Read Users.As designers and researchers, it is our duty to ensure information accessibility for all, irrespective of cognitive abilities. Currently, Easy-to-Read (ETR) is commonly used to simplify text for individuals with cognitive impairments. Although design aspects of text comprehensibility have recently gained attention, digital design patterns remain relatively unexplored. Our understanding of how ETR users interact with digital media, and how to design specifically for their needs, is still limited. Our study involved observing 20 German ETR users engaging with a digital PDF and a website designed in a participatory process. We collected data on their access to digital media, personal use and workarounds, and their interaction with digital design patterns. Tasks on the smartphone were completed mostly successfully, while only 50% could navigate a digital PDF. In both cases, visual cues played a significant role. Our findings contribute recommendations for beneficial digital design patterns and future research.2024SSSabina Sieghart et al.University of Hasselt, PXL University College of Applied Science and ArtCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Universal & Inclusive DesignParticipatory DesignCHI
Designing Instructions using Self-Determination Theory to Improve Motivation and Engagement for Learning CraftRecent HCI research has shown significant interest in investigating digital working instructions for guiding novices to perform manual tasks. While performance enhancement has been a primary focus, it is increasingly recognized that technology's impact extends beyond objective metrics. Trainee motivation and engagement plays a pivotal role in enhancing learning outcomes and effectiveness. This paper investigates the utilization of principles from Self Determination Theory--clear attainable goals, meaningful rationale, and perspective taking--in designing multimedia instructions to enhance novice users' indicators of psychological well-being. We present findings from an experiment involving real-world woodworking, where novice users, in a between-subjects study, followed interactive, in-situ projection-based guidance. Results demonstrate that adhering to SDT postulates can positively influence perceived competence, intrinsic motivation and task execution quality. These findings offer valuable insights for designing digital instructions to guide and train novices, emphasizing the importance of psychological well-being alongside task performance.2024HDHitesh Dhiman et al.Institute Industrial IT, OWL University of Applied Sciences and ArtsAging-Friendly Technology DesignPrototyping & User TestingCHI
Measurement Patterns: User-Oriented Strategies for Dealing with Measurements and Dimensions in Making ProcessesThe majority of errors in making processes can be tracked back to errors in dimensional specifications. While technical aspects of measurement, such as precision and speed have been extensively studied in metrology, the user aspects of measurement received significantly less attention. While little research exists that specifically addresses the user aspects of handling dimensions, various systems have been built that embed new interactive modalities, processes, and techniques which significantly impact how users deal with dimensions or conduct measurements. However, these features are mostly hidden in larger system contributions. To uncover and articulate these techniques, we conducted a holistic literature survey on measurement practices in crafting techniques and systems for rapid prototyping. Based on this survey, we contribute 10 measurement patterns, which describe reusable elements and solutions for common difficulties when dealing with dimensions throughout workflows for making physical artifacts.2023RRRaf Ramakers et al.Flanders Make - Expertise Centre for Digital MediaDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationCircuit Making & Hardware PrototypingCHI
Wearable Microphone JammingWe engineered a wearable microphone jammer that is capable of disabling microphones in its user's surroundings, including hidden microphones. Our device is based on a recent exploit that leverages the fact that when exposed to ultrasonic noise, commodity microphones will leak the noise into the audible range.<br>Unfortunately, ultrasonic jammers are built from multiple transducers and therefore exhibit blind spots, i.e., locations in which transducers destructively interfere and where a microphone cannot be jammed. To solve this, our device exploits a synergy between ultrasonic jamming and the naturally occur- ring movements that users induce on their wearable devices (e.g., bracelets) as they gesture or walk. We demonstrate that these movements can blur jamming blind spots and increase jamming coverage. Moreover, current jammers are also directional, requiring users to point the jammer to a microphone; instead, our wearable bracelet is built in a ring-layout that al- lows it to jam in multiple directions. This is beneficial in that it allows our jammer to protect against microphones hidden out of sight.<br>We evaluated our jammer in a series of experiments and found that: (1) it jams in all directions, e.g., our device jams over 87% of the words uttered around it in any direction, while existing devices jam only 30% when not pointed directly at the microphone; (2) it exhibits significantly less blind spots; and, (3) our device induced a feeling of privacy to participants of our user study. We believe our wearable provides stronger privacy in a world in which most devices are constantly eavesdropping on our conversations.2020YCYuxin Chen et al.University of ChicagoPrivacy by Design & User ControlIoT Device PrivacySmart Home Privacy & SecurityCHI
AirTouch: 3D-printed Touch-Sensitive Objects Using Pneumatic Sensing3D printing technology can be used to rapidly prototype the look and feel of 3D objects. However, the objects produced are passive. There has been increasing interest in making these objects interactive, yet they often require assembling components or complex calibration. In this paper, we contribute AirTouch, a technique that enables designers to fabricate touch-sensitive objects with minimal assembly and calibration using pneumatic sensing. AirTouch-enabled objects are 3D printed as a single structure using a consumer-level 3D printer. AirTouch uses pre-trained machine learning models to identify interactions with fabricated objects, meaning that there is no calibration required once the object has completed printing. We evaluate our technique using fabricated objects with various geometries and touch sensitive locations, obtaining accuracies of at least 90% with 12 interactive locations.2020CTCarlos E. Tejada et al.University of CopenhagenDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationCircuit Making & Hardware PrototypingCHI
JigFab: Computational Fabrication of Constraints to Facilitate Woodworking with Power ToolsWe present JigFab, an integrated end-to-end system that supports casual makers in designing and fabricating constructions with power tools. Starting from a digital version of the construction, JigFab achieves this by generating various types of constraints that configure and physically aid the movement of a power tool. Constraints are generated for every operation and are custom to the work piece. Constraints are laser cut and assembled together with predefined parts to reduce waste. JigFab's constraints are used according to an interactive step-by-step manual. JigFab internalizes all the required domain knowledge for designing and building intricate structures, consisting of various types of finger joints, tenon & mortise joints, grooves, and dowels. Building such structures is normally reserved for artisans or automated with advanced CNC machinery.2019DLDanny Leen et al.Katholieke Universiteit LeuvenDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationLaser Cutting & Digital FabricationCircuit Making & Hardware PrototypingCHI
NavigaTone: Seamlessly Embedding Navigation Cues in Mobile Music ListeningAs humans, we have the natural capability of localizing the origin of sounds. Spatial audio rendering leverages this skill by applying special filters to recorded audio to create the impression that a sound emanates from a certain position in the physical space. A main application for spatial audio on mobile devices is to provide non-visual navigation cues. Current systems require users to either listen to artificial beacon sounds, or the entire audio source (e.g., a song) is repositioned in space, which impacts the listening experience. We present NavigaTone, a system that takes advantage of multi-track recordings and provides directional cues by moving a single track in the auditory space. While minimizing the impact of the navigation component on the listening experience, a user study showed that participants could localize sources as good as with stereo panning while the listening experience was rated to be closer to common music listening.2018FHFlorian Heller et al.Hasselt University - tUL - imecAR Navigation & Context AwarenessContext-Aware ComputingCHI
Intellingo: An Intelligible Translation EnvironmentTranslation environments offer various translation aids to support professional translators. However, translation aids typically provide only limited justification for the translation suggestions they propose. In this paper we present Intellingo, a translation environment that explores intelligibility for translation aids, to enable more sensible usage of translation suggestions. We performed a comparative study between an intelligible version and a non-intelligible version of Intellingo. The results show that although adding intelligibility does not necessarily result in significant changes to the user experience, translators can better assess translation suggestions without a negative impact on their performance. Intelligibility is preferred by translators when the additional information it conveys benefits the translation process and when this information is not part of the translator's readily available knowledge.2018SCSven Coppers et al.Hasselt University - tUL - imecGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Explainable AI (XAI)CHI
Familiarisation: Restructuring Layouts with Visual Learning ModelsIn domains where users are exposed to large variations in visuo-spatial features among designs, they often spend excess time searching for common elements (features) in familiar locations. This paper contributes computational approaches to restructuring layouts such that features on a previously unvisited interface can be found quicker. We explore four concepts of familiarisation, inspired by the human visual system (HVS), to automatically generate a representative (familiar) design for each user. Given a history of previously visited interfaces, we use this computed design to restructure the spatial layout of a new (unfamiliar) interface, with the goal of making features more easily findable. Familiariser is a browser-based implementation that automatically restructures webpage lay- outs based on the visual history of the user. Our evaluation with users provides first evidence favouring familiarisation.2018KTKashyap Todi et al.Interactive Data VisualizationPrototyping & User TestingComputational Methods in HCIIUI
Silicone Devices: A Scalable DIY Approach for Fabricating Self-Contained Multi-Layered Soft Circuits using MicrofluidicsWe present a scalable Do-It-Yourself (DIY) fabrication workflow for prototyping highly stretchable yet robust devices using a CO2 laser cutter, which we call Silicone Devices. Silicone Devices are self-contained and thus embed components for input, output, processing, and power. Our approach scales to arbitrary complex devices as it supports techniques to make multi-layered stretchable circuits and buried VIAs. Additionally, high-frequency signals are supported as our circuits consist of liquid metal and are therefore highly conductive and durable. To enable makers and interaction designers to prototype a wide variety of Silicone Devices, we also contribute a stretchable sensor toolkit, consisting of touch, proximity, sliding, pressure, and strain sensors. We demonstrate the versatility and novel opportunities of our technique by prototyping various samples and exploring their use cases. Strain tests report on the reliability of our circuits and preliminary user feedback reports on the user-experience of our workflow by non-engineers.2018SNSteven Nagels et al.Hasselt UniversityShape-Changing Materials & 4D PrintingCircuit Making & Hardware PrototypingCHI