Prototyping with Uncertainties: Data, Algorithms, and Research through DesignSeen both as a resource and an obstacle to clarity, uncertainty is a concept that permeates many areas of design. As the concept gains prominence in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), this special issue specifically explores the interplay between uncertainty and prototyping in Research through Design (RtD). We first outline three histories of uncertainty in design, in relation to its philosophical significance, its role in statistical and algorithmic processes, and its importance in prototyping. The convergence of these aspects is crucial as design evolves toward more agentive and entangled systems, introducing challenges such as Design as a Probabilistic Outcome. We then investigate the design spaces for engaging with “being uncertain” that emerge from the papers: from nuancing the relationship between designers and quantitative data to blurring the line between humans, fungi, and algorithms. Finally, we illuminate some preliminary threads for how RtD can navigate and engage with these shifting technological and design landscapes thoughtfully.2025EGElisa Giaccardi et al.Prototyping & User TestingComputational Methods in HCICHI
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 CultureCHI
Un/making Data Imaginaries: The Data EpicsWith the increase of Internet of Things devices in home environments, data will become an even more dominant part of people’s everyday lives. The invisibility of data leads us to rely on our imagination to make sense of them, yet this imagination is heavily shaped by a technocentric lens that views data as neutral and transparent. In response, in this article, we present the Data Epics project, where we commissioned seven fiction writers to write short stories based on smart home device data provided by seven households. We offer an analysis of the writers and households’ experiences with the project, presenting seven ways in which data imaginaries are made and unmade. We contribute a reflection around how making new data imaginaries unmakes common ones, the friction in unmaking certain imaginaries, and how we might further disseminate alternative data imaginaries.2025ADAudrey Desjardins et al.Universal & Inclusive DesignDesign FictionCHI
Robot Characters for Innovative Medical Eye Exams in KidsWe contribute to new design directions towards robots that can socially engage with pediatric patients while imaging their eyes reliably. Eye imaging is essential to diagnose and manage ocular diseases, but practically impossible to conduct due to children’s fear and aversion during the exam. Pediatric patients frequently require an exam under anesthesia, adding significant medical risk, stress, delay, and cost of care. We explored the design space of character design for an eye-imaging robot system to make eye exams more fun for children. Using contextual inquiry, we collected needs from stakeholders around eye exams, leading to the understanding of pain points. We then conducted design explorations of robot characters that could mitigate negative effects while amplifying moments of fun for pediatric patients. We built two low-fidelity robot characters and showed them to stakeholders. Our research highlights the need for these approachable characters to realize eye exams in pediatric patients with engagement.2025ISIlkyaz Sarimehmetoglu et al.VR Medical Training & RehabilitationSocial Robot InteractionRobots in Education & HealthcareCHI
Designing Tools for Data AdvocacyLocal governments, nonprofits, and community-based organizations are increasingly producing data, but there remains a gap between producing data and using it to advocate for local change. In this Research through Design (RtD) engagement, we partner with a local nonprofit to build tools that support the work of data advocacy. Building on insights from interviews and ethnographic field notes, we designed, prototyped, developed, and deployed tools to support our partner in leveraging data for digital activism. We present three tools that employed data for \textit{constructing}, \textit{amplifying}, and \textit{visibilizing} bird-building collisions. Reading across these artifacts and reflecting on our design process, we find that data production alone fails to meet the action goals of the organization. To better leverage data for social change, we recommend (1) exploring the uses of provisional data, (2) embracing heterogeneous data sources, and (3) supporting data work that cultivates deep engagement.2025ABAshley Boone et al.Community Engagement & Civic TechnologyComputational Methods in HCIClimate Change Communication ToolsCHI
Metaphors for Good Digital IdentitiesDigital identities are often discussed or explained as digital versions of physical documents such as passports. This metaphor tends to ignore, intentionally or not, the social challenges associated with real-world implementation of these technologies. This paper presents eight alternative metaphors for “good" digital identities which are derived from a 12-month Research-through-Design process. This process is presented as an annotated portfolio showcasing insights from a variety of design activities and stakeholder engagements, including design sprints, workshops, an artist residency and an exhibition, with the metaphors operating as “meta-annotations" on the portfolio. The eight metaphors intend to provoke and enable wider conversation with various stakeholders including academics, non-profits, industry professionals and policy makers about what “good" digital identities might mean, by focusing on societal rather than common technical concerns.2025KSKim Snooks et al.Online Identity & Self-PresentationInclusive DesignParticipatory DesignCHI
Cultural Erosion or Innovation? Artisans’ Attitudes Toward AI-Generated Patterns in Traditional Chinese SubculturesGenerative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), particularly text-to-image (T2I) generation tools, presents new possibilities for preserving and innovating traditional cultural patterns. However, AI-generated images often lack cultural context, which risks cultural bias and the loss of cultural significance. This study explores the use of GAI in generating culturally meaningful patterns, focusing on Chinese intangible cultural heritage Huayao cross-stitch as a case study. By applying Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) fine-tuning to optimize T2I tools and using in-situ interviews and focus groups, we collected feedback from 18 Huayao artisans. The results show that while fine-tuned models improved stylistic accuracy, the cultural meaning of the patterns remained insufficient. This research highlights AI’s limited role in cultural innovation and emphasizes the necessity for dynamically maintaining cultural authenticity through the daily practices of cultural holders. It also reflects on how AI might have a long-term impact on the creative position of artisan communities.2025XYXiaojing Yuan et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Technology Ethics & Critical HCIMuseum & Cultural Heritage DigitizationCHI
Towards Yarnier Interactive Textiles: Mapping a Design Journey through Hand Spun Conductive YarnsThe ability to create a wide and varied set of interactive textiles depends on the materials that one has available. Currently, the range of yarns that can be used to bring interactivity to textiles is greatly limited, especially considering the diversity available in non-conductive yarns. This pictorial traces a design journey into hand spinning that seeks to address this limitation and contributes samples of techniques and materials that could be used to create conductive yarns along with reflection on design methods that enabled us to explore a wider range of aesthetic expressions. We advocate for an approach that reconnects with the textiles in e-textiles, embraces divergence, and prioritizes the material as the driver of a design concept. We offer pathways for readers and researchers to continue this exploration within varied domains and practices.2025ESEtta W Sandry et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsElectronic Textiles (E-textiles)CHI
Exploring the Potential of Metacognitive Support Agents for Human-AI Co-CreationDespite the potential of generative AI (GenAI) design tools to enhance design processes, professionals often struggle to integrate AI into their workflows. Fundamental cognitive challenges include the need to specify all design criteria as distinct parameters upfront (intent formulation) and designers’ reduced cognitive involvement in the design process due to cognitive offloading, which can lead to insufficient problem exploration, underspecification, and limited ability to evaluate outcomes. Motivated by these challenges, we envision novel metacognitive support agents that assist designers in working more reflectively with GenAI. To explore this vision, we conducted exploratory prototyping through a Wizard of Oz elicitation study with 20 mechanical designers probing multiple metacognitive support strategies. We found that agent-supported users created more feasible designs than non-supported users, with differing impacts between support strategies. Based on these findings, we discuss opportunities and tradeoffs of metacognitive support agents and considerations for future AI-based design tools.2025FGFrederic Gmeiner et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Human-LLM CollaborationCreative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsCHI
Values as Problems, Principles, and Tensions in Sociotechnical System Design for JournalismThrough a systematic review of design contributions in journalism, this work examines how domain-specific values shape sociotechnical systems for newswork. We illustrate the different ways in which values define design problems and act as guiding principles for solutions. For instance, the value ``accountability'' functions as both a design problem (how to support journalists in accountability reporting) and as a guiding principle (features for ensuring systems remain accountable to users). Our analysis reveals how ten domain values shape design choices, and how these values can support or conflict with each other in practice. Building on these findings, we then discuss how designers might position their work in relation to stakeholders: journalists, the public, and technology providers. Each of these relationships presents unique value tensions for designers to consider and balance. In this way, our work provides practical guidance for creating systems that better serve newswork, helps designers reflect on how their choices impact different stakeholders, and contributes to critical computing discourses on where values require adjudication or deeper attention.2025SNSachita Nishal et al.Content Moderation & Platform GovernanceActivism & Political ParticipationTechnology Ethics & Critical HCICHI
GesPrompt: Leveraging Co-Speech Gestures to Augment LLM-Based Interaction in Virtual RealityLarge Language Model (LLM)-based copilots have shown great potential in Extended Reality (XR) applications. However, the user faces challenges when describing the 3D environments to the copilots due to the complexity of conveying spatial-temporal information through text or speech alone. To address this, we introduce GesPrompt, a multimodal XR interface that combines co-speech gestures with speech, allowing end-users to communicate more naturally and accurately with LLM-based copilots in XR environments. By incorporating gestures, GesPrompt extracts spatial-temporal reference from co-speech gestures, reducing the need for precise textual prompts and minimizing cognitive load for end-users. Our contributions include (1) a workflow to integrate gesture and speech input in the XR environment, (2) a prototype VR system that implements the workflow, and (3) a user study demonstrating its effectiveness in improving user communication in VR environments.2025XHXiyun Hu et al.Hand Gesture RecognitionMixed Reality WorkspacesHuman-LLM CollaborationCHI
Good Accessibility, Handcuffed Creativity: AI-Generated UIs Between Accessibility Guidelines and Practitioners’ ExpectationsThe emergence of AI-powered UI generation tools presents both opportunities and challenges for accessible design, but their ability to produce truly accessible outcomes remains underexplored. In this work, we examine the effects of different prompt strategies through an evaluation of ninety interfaces generated by two AI tools across three application domains. Our findings reveal that, while these tools consistently achieve basic accessibility compliance, they rely on homogenized design patterns, which can limit their effectiveness in addressing specialized user needs. Through interviews with eight professional designers, we examine how this standardization impacts creativity and challenges the design of inclusive UIs. Our results contribute to the growing discourse on AI-powered design with (i) empirical insights into the capabilities of AI tools for generating accessible UIs, (ii) identification of barriers in this process, and (iii) guidelines for integrating AI into design workflows in ways that support both designers' creativity and design flexibility.2025AGAlexandra-Elena Gurita et al.Explainable AI (XAI)Universal & Inclusive DesignPrivacy by Design & User ControlCHI
Adopting Mixed Reality Product Customisation in Brick-and-Mortar Retail: Stakeholder Insights for Commercialisation ChallengeAlthough increasing attention is being paid to implementing mixed reality (MR) technology in retail purchases, integrating MR with brick-and-mortar shops has been overlooked. This study focuses on adopting MR product customisation interfaces in brick-and-mortar shops using fashion retail as an example. It evaluates the designed Mixed Reality Product Configurator (MRPC) through prototype testing (n=15) and in-depth stakeholder interviews (n=26). The study provides recommendations for software developers, designers, and retail managers in four aspects: 1) addressed the significance of MRPC for brick-and-mortar retailing, 2) identified four aspects for MR retail mass adoption, namely system development, interior environment design, marketability, and management strategy, 3) defined prospective retail shop genres that adopt MRPC, and 4) defined prospective consumer genres that adopt MRPC. The findings define the challenges and requirements of MR retail commercialisation, facilitating stakeholders to develop MR-based retail for commercial mass customisation in the marketplace.2025LJLingyao JinMixed Reality WorkspacesMotor Impairment Assistive Input TechnologiesCustomizable & Personalized ObjectsCHI
Copyrighting Generative AI Co-CreationsWhile different countries vary in their determination of copyrightability, jurisdictions like the United States currently do not allow an artist to copyright AI-generated content when they do not have creative control. One avenue for an author to support their case for copyright protections over work created with AI may then be to demonstrate their intent to ``predict'' outputs of the generative AI tool during the creation process, shifting elements of randomness from the AI to the human's own decision-making as much as possible. When this happens, the artist might claim to have expressed their idea with generative AI, and seek copyright protection for their work. We propose that generative AI co-creation tools can support this intention by keeping records of the predictability statistics at each generative AI iteration, and capturing the potential other options so that they can be later assessed for how closely they have predictably matched the prompt.2025JHJeff Huang et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)AI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityAlgorithmic Transparency & AuditabilityCHI
Beyond the Prompt: Community-Oriented Futures for Creative GenAIThe recent impact of generative AI on how we create art together demands interdisciplinary perspectives to inform HCI and design research. To spark interdisciplinary dialogue, we created three speculative designs exploring: What if--instead of the current paradigm of individualized prompting--GenAI afforded communal creative processes and artifacts? Designs include an alternative model of sustainable AI art-making driven by plant growth, wall art reflecting AI interpretations of personal data, and a community mural created through multi-modal human-AI collaboration. We held workshops with 18 participants with interdisciplinary backgrounds who responded to designs and co-created AI futures using a novel toolkit. Thematic analysis of participant discussions surfaced opportunities and concerns related to time expression, representation, data privacy, resource distribution, and ownership. This paper contributes speculative designs of creative AI futures, a novel toolkit for eliciting interdisciplinary discussions on speculative designs, and key tensions for the HCI and design communities to consider for the future of community-oriented creative GenAI.2025LLLauren Lin et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Creative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsDesign FictionCHI
The GenUI Study: Exploring the Design of Generative UI Tools to Support UX Practitioners and BeyondAI can now generate high-fidelity UI mock-up screens from a high-level textual description, promising to support UX practitioners' work. However, it remains unclear how UX practitioners would adopt such Generative UI (GenUI) models in a way that is integral and beneficial to their work. To answer this question, we conducted a formative study with 37 UX-related professionals that consisted of four roles: UX designers, UX researchers, software engineers, and product managers. Using a state-of-the-art GenUI tool, each participant went through a week-long, individual mini-project exercise with role-specific tasks, keeping a daily journal of their usage and experiences with GenUI, followed by a semi-structured interview. We report findings on participants' workflow using the GenUI tool, how GenUI can support all and each specific roles, and existing gaps between GenUI and users' needs and expectations, which lead to design implications to inform future work on GenUI development.2025XCXiang 'Anthony' Chen et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Human-LLM CollaborationAI-Assisted Creative WritingCHI
The Office Awakens: Building a Mobile Desk for an Adaptive Workspace with RolliDeskOver the past century, office desks have evolved with technological advancements, yet they have largely overlooked individual user preferences and diverse body types. Traditionally, desks remain static objects, forcing users to adapt their workspaces around them. This research explores how mobile desks can offer a more flexible and adaptive solution. We developed RolliDesk, a mobile desk capable of automatically moving within the workspace. Our open-source desk kit enables researchers to make desks mobile using off-the-shelf electronics and 3D printing. In a mixed-methods study (n=21), we compared three desk configurations: manually controlled via a crank, control panel-operated, and automatically adaptive. Participants found the manual desk creepy, while the automatic desk was considered the most useful, particularly for promoting healthier office habits. This paper contributes RolliDesk’s design and practical insights for advancing reconfigurable and adaptive workstations.2025JDJulia Dominiak et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsMixed Reality WorkspacesKnowledge Worker Tools & WorkflowsCHI
Exposing the Ideology of Large Language Models with Creative PracticesIdeology is power exerted by language, whether generated by humans or machines. It manifests in the biases produced by Large Language Models (LLMs), reflecting power relations between users and providers. Following this assumption, we engaged in an artistic critique of how ChatGPT produces ideology. We conducted two experiential workshops with 20 artists, analysing their reflections and interactions through ethnographic inquiry and formal linguistic analysis grounded in Thompson’s account of ideology. The artists reported that both commercial goals and debiasing efforts constrain artistic expression, reinforcing dominant cultural values. To support critical engagement, we introduce a framework that maps recurring linguistic patterns in ChatGPT outputs to ideological modes of operation. This framework offers HCI practitioners an analytical tool to interrogate the socio-political implications of LLMs in design contexts. Our findings highlight the role of artists as critical agents in socio-technical transitions and call for interdisciplinary approaches to language technology critique.2025MCMichele Cremaschi et al.Human-LLM CollaborationAI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityTechnology Ethics & Critical HCICHI
Conversations With The Stressed Body: Facilitating Stress Self-Disclosure Among Adolescent Girls Through an Embodied Approach Adolescent girls face significant mental health challenges during their transition to adulthood, often experiencing heightened stress from various sources. While various interactive technologies for self-disclosure had been explored to support stress relief, little is known about how to encourage stress-related self-disclosure through an embodied approach. This study presents a co-design workshop centred on Embodied Probes—a series of artefacts and activities incorporating embodied methods and technologies. During the workshop, nine participants aged 15-18 engaged with their bodies, expressed bodily sensations through tangible means, and designed embodied prototypes tailored to their personal needs for stress perception and relief. The workshop revealed insights into somatic symptoms, sources, and coping strategies for stress among adolescent girls, as well as how embodied methods can support their stress self-disclosure. This paper contributes to the HCI community by offering design implications on leveraging embodied technologies to support self-disclosure for young women’s mental well-being.2025XSXinglin Sun et al.Full-Body Interaction & Embodied InputMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesSleep & Stress MonitoringCHI
HCI for Climate Resilience: Developing an Individual and Community Focused Framework through a Grounded Theory ApproachNatural hazards, such as floods and wildfires, increasingly impact our lives severely, requiring everyone living in risk areas to become climate resilient. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research has explored climate change and sustainable user behavior but has yet to understand its role in developing and maintaining climate resilience. We approach the gap with a Grounded Theory approach, conducting 16 semi-structured expert interviews to understand individuals' and communities' ongoing challenges and needs and the role of technology in developing climate resilience. Results show that technology is deeply entangled in the process and both supports and hinders factors for communicating, engaging, and empowering communities and individuals. Our work contributes to defining and structuring HCI's role in individuals' and communities' climate resilience with the framework HCI for Climate Resilience of Individuals and Communities. Additionally, we highlight open research and interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities to approach, maintain, and increase climate resilience from the bottom up.2025LHLinda Hirsch et al.Community Engagement & Civic TechnologySustainable HCIClimate Change Communication ToolsCHI