The Development and (Mis)appropriation of a Digital Kit for JewellersJewellers’ participation in interaction design is scarce, yet the creativity of jewellers could add value as they interpret materials and mediate personal connections in poetic ways. We investigate how to empower jewellers to experiment with the possibilities that physical computing offers to their practice. This article presents the making of a Digital Jewellery Kit, a composite of pre-assembled circuitry, used by second-year BA jewellery students during a 10-week project which brought together theory and practice. Drawing on students’ reflective accounts, we discuss what made the jewellers’ path into physical computing more meaningful to their practice, what type of artefacts they created with electronics as well as what values drove their creative process. We offer design recommendations on how to support the praxes of jewellers whilst allowing their creativity to grow through their new understanding of physical computing and contribute to the discussions around hybrid craft within HCI and educational contexts.2025NKNantia Koulidou et al.Shape-Changing Materials & 4D PrintingMakerspace CultureDIS
Lull: Designing Crip Pacing Technologies Energy limiting conditions (ELC), such as long COVID and ME/CFS, require the careful monitoring and pacing of activity and rest to avoid over-exertion. Commercially available fitness tracking technologies are currently being “misused” to manage these conditions. Based on co-design research with people with ELC, we conducted a research-through-design process to ideate upon what ELC pacing technologies could be. Our ongoing design process is informed by crip theories that highlight the social and political, rather than medical, aspects of disability and chronic conditions. In an attempt to offer non-medicalising pacing technologies, we explored integrating bronze casting as a jewelry making technique within the prototyping process. We also explore how we can present quantitative pacing data gathered from wearable sensors through felt vibrations on the body in a way that can be therapeutic and allow for the user to calibrate the quantitative data with their own felt sense of fatigue.2025SHSarah Homewood et al.Vibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationHaptic WearablesCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)DIS
Art Digital Jewellery as Atmospheres: An Autobiographical RtD Exploration into IoT for Poetic ContextsIn a process of Research-through-Design two art digital jewellery pieces were created on the same bespoke IoT device that connects a person with the sea: a hand-held piece (SeaVessel) and a necklace (Thalassa). Drawing on the notion of atmosphere, the design development (2020-21) and the first author’s lived experience with the pieces (2021-2022) are illustrated and narrated. We share insights into how the pieces augmented intimacy with a significant place and offer a space for self-reflection for the first author to explore their connection with the sea and ultimately the self. We offer insights gained from working with IoT, live data and online servers in such a poetic context. We contribute to experiential approaches to designing reflective and curious ways of interacting with digital technology with the notion of atmosphere as a concept for aesthetics for interaction design and an understanding of data as poetic data.2024NKNantia Koulidou et al.Smart Home Interaction DesignDigital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceDIS
A Plurality of Practices: Artistic Narratives in HCI ResearchThe arts and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) have a lot in common. As part of computer science HCI is ground breaking, interdisciplinary and focused on the interactions that form part of our everyday world. As part of the arts, HCI is a lens on technology, showing us spaces where there is room to interact and create new and meaningful blended experiences. It is therefore no surprise that many researchers and practitioners in our field have and maintain creative practices alongside, and as part of their research. We discuss how these dual practices relate to each other, and how we might reconcile our mindful creative experiences with the formality of research. What benefits does such duality have, and can we illustrate the value of arts practice in HCI? This pictorial curates diverse artistic practice from a range of researchers, and offers reflection on the benefits and tensions in creativity and computing.2021MSMiriam Sturdee et al.Digital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingC&C
Drawing on Experiences of Self: Dialogical SketchingIn this paper, we present a method of Dialogical Sketching. We introduce the development of this method as a discursive aid to understanding design probe responses within participatory co-design engagements but also articulate its potential more broadly within participatory research. Situated within a research study into the potential of digital jewellery to support self, we focus on how sketching can elucidate reflection on layers of meaning conveyed both explicitly and implicitly in participants’ probe responses. The method enabled an iterative dialogue not bound by certainty, but more by inference, interpretation and suggested meanings. Systems of sketching scaffolded conversations about personal issues and feelings that were difficult to articulate in a way that was imaginative, rather than descriptive. We argue that the method firstly enriches the potential of probes, secondly encourages discourse in open and often uncertain ways and thirdly can enable sustained participatory engagement even through challenging circumstances.2020NKNantia Koulidou et al.Participatory DesignDesign FictionComputational Methods in HCIDIS
ReFind: Design, Lived Experience and Ongoingness in BereavementWe describe the design and use of ReFind, a handheld artefact made for people who are bereaved and are ready to re-explore their relationship to the deceased person. ReFind was made within a project seeking to develop new ways to curate and create digital media to support ongoingness – an active, dynamic component of continuing bonds. We draw on bereavement theory and care championing practices that enable a continued sense of connection between someone bereaved and a person who has died. We present the design development of ReFind and the lived experience of the piece by the first author. We discuss our wider methodology which includes autobiographical design and reflections on if and how the piece supported ongoing connections, the challenges faced, and insights gained.2020JWJayne Wallace et al.Northumbria UniversityMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesFood Culture & Food InteractionCHI
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
Crafting Critical Heritage Discourses into Interactive Exhibition DesignThis paper argues how a more reflective design practice that embraces critical discourses can transform interactive exhibition design and therefore the museum visiting experience. Four framing arguments underpin our exhibition design making: the value of materiality, visiting as an aesthetic experience, challenging the authorized voice, and heritage as a process. These arguments were embodied through design, art and craft practice into one interactive exhibition at a house museum. We draw from our design process discussing the implications that adopting an approach informed by critical heritage debates has on exhibition design and suggest three sensitizing concepts (polyvocal narratives, dialogical interaction, interweaving time and space) bridging the practice of interactive exhibition design and critical heritage theory.2020CCCaroline Claisse et al.Northumbria UniversityMuseum & Cultural Heritage DigitizationInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
Collaborating Around Digital Tabletops: Children's Physical Strategies From India, The UK And FinlandWe present a study of children collaborating around interactive tabletops in three different countries: India, the United Kingdom and Finland. Our data highlights the key distinctive physical strategies used by children when performing collaborative tasks during this study. Children in India employ dynamic positioning with frequent physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in the UK tend to prefer static positioning with minimal physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in Finland use a mixture of dynamic and static positioning with minimal physical contact and object movement. Our findings indicate the importance of understanding collaboration strategies and behaviours when designing and deploying interactive tabletops in heterogeneous educational environments. We conclude with a discussion on how designers of tabletops for schools can provide opportunities for children in different countries to define and shape their own collaboration strategies for small group learning that take into account their different classroom practices.2018IJIzdihar Jamil et al.University of BristolK-12 Digital Education ToolsCollaborative Learning & Peer TeachingCHI
Phone vs. Tangible in Museums: A Comparative StudyDespite years of HCI research on digital technology in museums, it is still unclear how different interactions impact on visitors’. A comparative evaluation of smart replicas, phone app and smart cards looked at the personal preferences, behavioural change, and the appeal of mobiles in museums. 76 participants used all three interaction modes and gave their opinions in a questionnaire; participants interaction was also observed. The results show the phone is the most disliked interaction mode while tangible interaction (smart card and replica combined) is the most liked. Preference for the phone favour mobility to the detriment of engagement with the exhibition. Different behaviours when interacting with the phone or the tangibles where observed. The personal visiting style appeared to be only marginally affected by the device. Visitors also expect museums to provide the phones against the current trend of developing apps in a “bring your own device” approach.2018DPDaniela Petrelli et al.Sheffield Hallam UniversityHuman Pose & Activity RecognitionMuseum & Cultural Heritage DigitizationCHI