A tidalectic reading of landscapes: Multispecies peripatetic ethnography as a method for knowing landscapes.This study explores multispecies interactions and human-nonhuman synergies in intertidal zones through a novel autoethnographic approach. Multispecies ethnography and posthumanist thinking challenge human-centered perspectives, highlighting the need to embrace diverse temporalities and ways of knowing in ecological research. However, current methods often fail to adequately capture these complex interrelations and the lived experiences within such environments. Shifting rhythmically between land and water, we use the intertidal contact zone to unveil the delicate synergy between humans and animals that populate the salt marsh of the Tagus delta. Our findings underscore the potential of field-based, participatory methods to model multispecies interactions and experimental drawing methods with a spatiotemporal structure that allows thinking beyond the traditional representational techniques of landscape architecture - what we call tidalectic portraits. While our work does not offer immediate solutions to ecological crises, it emphasizes the importance of slowing down and engaging with landscape rhythms to cultivate embodied, situated knowledge.2025KIKaterina Christina Inglezaki et al.Field StudiesHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)DIS
Speculative Job Design: Probing Alternative Opportunities for Gig Workers in an Automated FutureAutomation is reshaping the gig economy, raising urgent concerns about worker displacement. With the global rise in gig workers, there is an increasing urgency for HCI and design research to focus on the impact of designing automation technologies on labor dynamics. This study introduces speculative job design research to probe alternative opportunities for gig workers in an automated future, engaging 20 workers in the process. Guided by Feminist HCI, we performed reflexive thematic analysis to uncover gig workers' views on automation technology, human labor, speculative jobs, and their concerns about the future of work. We highlighted how workers see labor exploitation as a competitive asset over machines, urging that future platform designs must not perpetuate this. Notably, through speculative job design and conversation with workers, we proposed labor design, suggesting labor as a designable material to help address unfair labor dynamics in technology design. Our research offers potential insights and directions for addressing labor tensions in the evolving sociotechnical landscape.2025SMShuhao Ma et al.Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, ITI / LARSySImpact of Automation on WorkEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
Hitting the Triple Bottom Line: Widening the HCI Approach to SustainabilitySustainable Development (SD) in its dimensions – environment, economy, and society – is a growing area of concern within the HCI community. This paper advances a systematic literature review on sustainability across the Sustainable Human-Computer Interaction (SHCI) body of work. The papers were classified according to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework to understand how the pillars of SD play into the HCI discourse on sustainability. The economic angle was identified as a gap in SHCI literature. To meet the TBL of SD, however, a balance needs to be sought across all ‘lines’. In this paper, we propose that HCI can advance the discussion and the understanding of the economic concepts around sustainability through taking a sociology perspective on the economic angle of the TBL. We sustain this claim by discussing economic concepts and the role that digital can play in redefining the established foundations of our economic system.2022SSSabrina Scuri et al.ITI / LARSySSustainable HCIEcological Design & Green ComputingCHI
Being Regulated: Licence to Imagine New Technology for Community RadioLicencing frameworks are embedded with sociotechnical imaginaries that limit the potential for networked technologies to make traditional media forms, like radio, more inclusive. We implemented a prototype platform that aims to enable more people to run small radio stations by using internet and mobile networks to avoid the costs of studios and specialist equipment. We sought to refine the prototype by responding to the needs of users as they set up four community radio stations in rural Romania and on Irish islands over two years. Despite national differences, their respective regulations limited who articulated requirements. Activities in applying for and complying with licences shaped design priorities by imposing temporal demands and assumptions about studios, professionalism, and certain organisational structures and division of responsibilities. Indeed, although small rural community stations present no threat of radio interference or competition to media corporations that pursue market power, they are subject to values associated with them. Regulatory frameworks are specific to nations and media form; however, our analysis illustrates that broader sociotechnical imaginaries impede designing technology to widen inclusion, which we hope will provoke discussion in HCI and CSCW about our responsibilities in engaging with the policies that shape possible futures.2021NBNicola J Bidwell et al.Sustainable Infrastructures for Rural and Local ComputingCSCW
It’s Like a GPS Community Tool”: Tactics to Foster Digital Commons Through Artifact EcologyDigital Commons have been widely studied in HCI and co-design literature as an alternative to technologies produced by capitalistic corporations. In this paper, we present an action-research process that facilitates the use of digital commons among a group of participants. The process core aspect is understanding our participants' interests and values to present multiple off-the-shelf tools fitting their needs. In doing so, we leveraged on Artifact Ecologies, using them as an action-research tool. The process is articulated in three main phases: 1) we engaged participants in a reflection on their Artifact Ecologies, connecting the artifacts in use to their values; 2) we used these results to selected valuable digital commons; 3) we presented these tools to the group, connecting them to participants' ecologies. At the end of the process, we performed a collective interview to evaluate the process alongside assessing the adoption of the proposed technologies. Based on our findings, we developed five tactics to foster digital commoning.2021MBMela Bettega et al.Community Engagement & Civic TechnologyParticipatory DesignDIS
Dynamic Field of View Restriction in 360º Video: Aligning Optical Flow and Visual SLAM to Mitigate VIMSHead-Mounted Display based Virtual Reality is proliferating. However, Visually Induced Motion Sickness (VIMS), which prevents many from using VR without discomfort, bars widespread adoption. Prior work has shown that limiting the Field of View (FoV) can reduce VIMS at a cost of also reducing presence. Systems that dynamically adjust a user's FoV may be able to balance these concerns. To explore this idea, we present a technique for standard 360º video that shrinks FoVs only during VIMS inducing scenes. It uses Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping and peripheral optical flow to compute camera movements and reduces FoV during rapid motion or optical flow. A user study (N=23) comparing 360º video with unrestricted-FoVs (90º), reduced fixed-FoVs (40º) and dynamic-FoVs (40º-90º) revealed that dynamic-FoVs mitigate VIMS while maintaining presence. We close by discussing the user experience of dynamic-FoVs and recommendations for how they can help make VR comfortable and immersive for all.2021PBPaulo Bala et al.Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico - U. de LisboaMotion Sickness & Passenger ExperienceImmersion & Presence ResearchCHI
"Human, All Too Human": NOAA Weather Radio and the Emotional Impact of Synthetic VoicesThe integration of text-to-speech into an open technology stack for low-power FM community radio stations is an opportunity to automate laborious processes and increase accessibility to information in remote communities. However, there are open questions as to the perceived contrast of synthetic voices with the local and intimate format of community radio. This paper presents an exploratory focus group on the topic, followed by a thematic analysis of public comments on YouTube videos of the synthetic voices used for broadcasting by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio. We find that despite observed reservations about the suitability of TTS for radio, there is significant evidence of anthropomorphism, nostalgia and emotional connection in relation to these voices. Additionally, introduction of a more "human sounding" synthetic voice elicited significant negative feedback. We identify pronunciation, speed, suitability to content and acknowledgment of limitations as more relevant factors in listeners' stated sense of connection.2020KSKristen M. Scott et al.Madeira Interactive Technologies InstituteIntelligent Voice Assistants (Alexa, Siri, etc.)Agent Personality & AnthropomorphismCHI
Teenage Visitor Experience: Classification of Behavioral Dynamics in MuseumsTeenagers' engagement in museums is much talked about but little research has been done to understand their behavior and inform design. Findings from co-design sessions with teenagers suggested they value games and stories when thinking about enjoyable museum tours. Informed by these findings and working with a natural history museum, we designed: a story-based tour (Turning Point) and a game-based tour (Haunted Encounters), informed by similar content. The two strategies were evaluated with 78 teenagers (15-19 years old) visiting the museum as part of an educational school trip. We assessed teenagers' personality in class; qualitative and quantitative data on their engagement, experience, and usability of the apps were collected at the museum. The triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data show personality traits mapping into different behaviors. We offer implications for the design of museum apps targeted to teenagers, a group known as difficult to reach.2020VCVanessa Cesário et al.Interactive Technologies Institute/LARSyS & University of PortoCollaborative Learning & Peer TeachingMuseum & Cultural Heritage DigitizationInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
"When the Elephant Trumps": A Comparative Study on Spatial Audio for Orientation in 360º VideosOrientation is an emerging issue in cinematic Virtual Reality (VR), as viewers may fail in locating points of interest. Recent strategies to tackle this research problem have investigated the role of cues, specifically diegetic sound effects. In this paper, we examine the use of sound spatialization for orientation purposes, namely by studying different spatialization conditions ("none", "partial", and "full" spatial manipulation) of multitrack soundtracks. We performed a between-subject mixed-methods study with 36 participants, aided by Cue Control, a tool we developed for dynamic spatial sound editing and data collection/analysis. Based on existing literature on orientation cues in 360º and theories on human listening, we discuss situations in which the spatialization was more effective (namely, "full" spatial manipulation both when using only music and when combining music and diegetic effects), and how this can be used by creators of 360º videos.2019PBPaulo Bala et al.Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute & Universidade Nova de Lisboa360° Video & Panoramic ContentMusic Composition & Sound Design ToolsCHI
Fostering Commonfare. Infrastructuring Autonomous Social CollaborationRecently, HCI scholars have started questioning the relationship between computing and political economy, with both general analyses of such relationships, and specific design cases describing design interventions. This paper contributes to this stream of reflections, and argues that IT designers and HCI scholars can critically engage with the contemporary phase of capitalism by infrastructuring the emergence of new institutional forms of autonomous social collaboration through IT projects. More specifically, we discuss strategies and tactics that are available for IT designers embracing an activist agenda while infrastructuring autonomous social collaborations. We draw on empirical data from an H2020 EU funded project -- Commonfare -- that seeks to foster the emergence of alternative forms of welfare provision rooted in social collaboration. In this context, we discuss how the necessary multiple relations that unfold in a project with such ambitions shape both the language and the technologies of the project itself.2018PLPeter Lyle et al.Madeira Interactive Technologies InstituteCommunity Engagement & Civic TechnologyTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignCHI
Maker Movements, Do-It-Yourself Cultures and Participatory Design: Implications for HCI Research.Falling costs and the wider availability of computational components, platforms and ecosystems have enabled the expansion of maker movements and DIY cultures. This can be considered as a form of democratization of technology systems design, in alignment with the aims of Participatory Design approaches. However, this landscape is constantly evolving, and long-term implications for the HCI community are far from clear. The organizers of this one-day workshop invite participants to present their case studies, experiences and perspectives on the topic with the goal of increasing understanding within this area of research. The outcomes of the workshop will include the articulation of future research directions with the purpose of informing a research agenda, as well as the establishment of new collaborations and networks.2018MSMichael Smyth et al.Edinburgh Napier UniversityMakerspace CultureParticipatory DesignComputational Methods in HCICHI
The Space of Possibilities: Political Economies of Technology Innovation in Sub-Saharan AfricaHCI researchers work within spaces of possibility for potential designs of technology. New methods (e.g., user centrism); expected types of interaction (user with device); and potential applications (urban navigation) can extend the boundaries of these possibilities. However, structural and systemic factors can also foreclose them. A recent wide and shallow survey of 116 individuals involved in technology development across 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa reveals how factors of political economy significantly impact upon technological possibilities. Monopolies, international power dynamics, race, and access to capital open or constrain technological possibilities at least as much as device-centric or user-focused constraints do. Though their thrust may have been anticipated by reference to political economic trends, the structural constraints we found were underestimated by technologists even a decade ago. We discuss the implications for technology development in Africa and beyond.2018CCChris Csikszentmihalyi et al.Madeira-ITICommunity Engagement & Civic TechnologyDeveloping Countries & HCI for Development (HCI4D)CHI