Flowing bodies: Exploring the micro and macro scales of bodily interactions with urban media installations

In this paper we investigate human interactions with urban media installations by adopting two scales of analysis: the body scale (micro) and the city scale (macro). This twofold approach allows us to better understand the relationships between the design properties of outdoor installations and the urban spatial layout around them. We conducted in-the-wild studies of two urban media installations, one consisting of fixed components, and the other of movable components, which were deployed in different places and encouraged different types of whole-body interaction. We provide a detailed account of the micro and macro levels of interactions, based on observational and qualitative explorations. Our studies reveal that the urban spatial layout is a key element in defining the interactions and encounters around outdoor interfaces, and therefore it needs to inform the design process from the outset

Smart citizen sentiment dashboard: A case study into media architectural interfaces

In this paper we introduce the notion of media architectural interfaces (MAIs), which describe the relation between users engaging with dynamic content on media façades through tangible artifacts on street level. Firstly, we outline existing research concerned with public displays, urban screens and media facades, secondly we summarize related works that explore mediated urban interactions in connection with MAIs. We report on the technical set up of a field study, in which we deployed a novel tangible user interface (TUI), called the Smart Citizen Sentiment Dashboard (SCSD). This device gives citizens the opportunity to express their mood about local urban challenges. The input from this TUI is then instantly displayed on a very large (3700 sqm) media façade. The installation ran for three weeks during a media arts festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During this deployment period, we were able to gather data to help us understand the relationship between passers-by, participants, the TUI and the media façade. As a result we identified emergent behavior in the immediate space around the TUI and the wider urban space. The contribution this paper makes is in highlighting challenges in the design and deployment of large-scale media architectural interfaces. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5 [Information interfaces and presentation] General Terms Design, Human Factors

SandBOX: An intuitive conceptual design system

We describe the development and use of a new conceptual design system, called SandBOX, which combines a range of intuitive interfaces with real-time analysis, thus enabling a wide variety of users to develop performative concept designs. We show how this interactive design platform can overcome some of the limitations of current physical model-based design processes, whilst retaining many of their advantages

Introduction to human-building interaction (HBI): Interfacing HCI with architecture and urban design

Buildings and urban spaces increasingly incorporate artificial intelligence and new forms of interactivity, raising a wide span of research questions about the future of human experiences with, and within, built environments. We call this emerging area Human-Building Interaction (HBI) and introduce it as an interdisciplinary domain of research interfacing Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with Architecture and Urban Design. HBI seeks to examine the involvement of HCI in studying and steering the evolution of built environments. Therefore,we need to ask foundational questions such as the following:what are the specific attributes of built environments that HCI researchers should take into account when shifting attention and scale from "artefacts" to "environments"? Are architecture and interaction design methods and processes compatible? Concretely, how can a team of interaction designers bring their tools to an architectural project, and collaborate with other stakeholders? Can and will architecture change the theory and practice of HCI? Furthermore, research in HBI should produce knowledge and practical guidelines by experimenting novel design instances that combine architecture and digital interaction. The primary aim of this article is to specify the mission, vision, and scope of research in HBI. As the introductory article to the TOCHI special issue, it also provides a summary of published manuscripts and describes their collective contribution to the development of this field