Designing with the more-than-human:Temporalities of thinking with care

This one-day workshop brings together HCI researchers, designers, and practitioners to engage with more-than-human temporalities in the context of designing with care. We invite participants to experiment and think with more-than-human time experiences as a starting point to integrate emergent methodologies and practices for more-than-human discourses in design. By using living and once-living media (e.g., fungi, plant and insect specimens, biodesigned artefacts) as starting points for investigating more-than-human temporalities, participants will discuss how a pluralistic temporal approach can offer to the discourse of designing-with nonhuman entities, and how this aligns with emerging HCI research trajectories and concerns

From Research Prototype to Research Product

Prototypes and prototyping have had a long and important history in the HCI community and have played a highly significant role in creating technology that is easier and more fulfilling to use. Yet, as focus in HCI is expanding to investigate complex matters of human relationships with technology over time in the intimate and contested contexts of everyday life, the notion of a ‘prototype’ may not be fully sufficient to support these kinds of inquiries. We propose the research product as an extension and evolution of the research prototype to support generative inquiries in this emerging research area. We articulate four interrelated qualities of research products—inquiry-driven, finish, fit, and independent—and draw on these qualities to describe and analyze five different yet related design research cases we have collectively conducted over the past six years. We conclude with a discussion of challenges and opportunities for crafting research products and the implications they suggest for future design-oriented HCI research

Understanding everyday experiences of reminiscence for people living with blindness: Practices, tensions and probing new design possibilities

There is growing attention in the HCI community on how technology could be designed to support experiences of reminiscence on past life experiences. Yet, this research has largely overlooked people living with blindness. I present a study that aims to understand everyday experiences of reminiscence for people living with blindness. I conducted a qualitative study with 9 participants living with blindness to understand their personal routines, wishes and desires, and challenges and tensions regarding the experience of reminiscence. Findings are interpreted to discuss new possibilities that offer starting points for future design initiatives and openings for collaboration aimed at creating technology to better support the practices of capturing, sharing, and reflecting on significant memories of the past

Organic User Interfaces for InteractiveInterior Design

PhD ThesisOrganic User Interfaces (OUIs) are flexible, actuated, digital interfaces characterized by being aesthetically pleasing, physically manipulated and ubiquitously embedded within real-world environments. I postulate that OUIs have specific qualities that offer great potential to realize the vision of smart spaces and ubiquitous computing environments. This thesis makes the case for embedding OUI interaction into architectural spaces, interior elements and decorative artefacts using smart materials – a concept I term ‘OUI Interiors’. Through this thesis, I investigate: 1) What interactive materials and making techniques can be used to design and build OUIs? 2) What OUI decorative artefacts and interior elements can we create? and 3) What can we learn for design by situating OUI interiors? These key research questions form the basis of this PhD and guide all stages of inquiry, analysis, and reporting. Grounded by the state-of-the-art of Interactive Interiors in both research and practice, I developed new techniques of seamlessly embedding smart materials into interior finishing materials via research through design exploration (in the form of a Swatchbook). I also prototyped a number of interactive decorative objects that change shape and colour as a form of organicactuation, in response to seamless soft-sensing (presented in a Product Catalogue). These inspirational artefacts include table-runners, wall-art, pattern-changing wall-tiles, furry-throw, vase, cushion and matching painting, rug, objets d’art and tasselled curtain. Moreover, my situated studies of how people interact idiosyncratically with interactive decorative objects provide insights and reflections on the overall material experience. Through multi-disciplinary collaboration, I have also put these materials in the hands of designers to realize the potentials and limitations of such a paradigm and design three interactive spaces. The results of my research are materialized in a tangible outcome (a Manifesto) exploring design opportunities of OUI Interior Design, and critically considering new aesthetic possibilities

Designing for Disconnection : long-distance Family Relationships in a South Korean Context

PhD ThesisThis PhD thesis aims to understand communication in long-distance relationships (LDRs) in the context of South Korean culture and define the value of disconnection in communication. I have situated this work within the South Korean context due to the prioritisation of the family unit in Korean culture and the additional demands this can cause for family members. I have conducted a design-led, experience-centred research to develop a rich understanding of the communication practices and the value of disconnection to support healthy family relationships between South Korean international students in the UK and their parents in their home country. I have done this through three interrelated research steps. Firstly, I ran two exploratory studies consisting of in-depth diaries and extended interviews. These provided a rich understanding of LDRs between Korean students and their parents, the challenges they face, and the communication strategies they use to maintain those relationships. The studies surfaced many students feel a duty to always be in contact with their parents and are trying to find ways to respectfully disconnect so that they can focus on their academic performance and adjusting to life in the UK. I then designed an experiential prototype, Silent Knock, to explore how technology might be designed to support it. Lastly, the system was deployed with geographically separated families between the UK and South Korea, exploring its role in reducing the communication pressure that the students feel while reassuring their parents that they are still thinking of them. I identified that intended disconnection may have a positive impact on alleviating communicational tensions between individuals and developing new channels for healthy LDRs. This research makes four significant research contributions: (i) it provides a rich account of the lived experiences of South Korean family, highlighting a series of tensions in their LDRs. (ii) it presents a concept of Respectful Disconnection, which supports intended disconnection (or limitation) in communication to form healthy patterns of LDRs within a South Korean context. (iii) it proposes disconnection as an important component when designing future relationship-based technology, with Silent Knock as an implementation example. (iv) it details the sketching interviewing method, Sketching Dialogue, which was used in the extended interview study, to support participant’s engagement in the research, especially participants from more reserved cultures