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We present a video-analysis study of museum visitors’ interactions at two tangible interactive exhibits in a transport museum. Our focus is on groups’ social and shared interactions, in particular how exhibit setup and structure influence collaboration patterns. Behaviors at the exhibits included individuals focusing beyond their personal activity towards companions’ interaction, adults participating via physical interaction, and visitors taking opportunities to interact when companions moved between sections of the exhibit or stepped back from interaction. We demonstrate how exhibits’ physical configuration and interactive control engendered behavioral patterns. Systematic analysis reveals how different configurations (concerning physical-spatial hardware and interactive software) distribute control differently amongst visitors. We present four mechanisms for how control can be distributed at an interactive installation: functional, temporal, physical and indirect verbal. In summary, our work explores how mechanisms that distribute control influence patterns of shared interaction with the exhibits and social interaction between museum visitor companions.

Given the material nature of data physicalization, their creators need to make many design decisions, including material choices and scale. Our study explores the impact of scale in physicalization, motivated by the assumption that size can affect user experience. We created two different physicalizations (for the same dataset) in three sizes each, and evaluated the resulting six objects with a questionnaire approach and interviews. Our findings highlight that scale needs to be chosen wisely given its impact on representation legibility (ease of viewing and understanding) and affordances for interaction. We discuss factors to take into account when designing large-scale physicalizations and in further research on the potential role of scale in physicalizaton. In particular, we argue that for large-scale physicalizations, scale should matter and communicate meaning, for instance, supporting an intuitive understanding of magnitudes, or a specific experience. Thus, scale needs to be an explicit design decision, that interacts with other design parameters.

We investigate whether presenting data in a VR visualization or as a physicalization impacts understanding and recollection. Two equivalent representations of the same data set, one in physical form and one in VR, were created. Participants answered understanding questions while they had access to the model, and were subsequently asked about the data after the model was removed. We recorded time needed to answer understanding questions and correctness rates for recollection questions. The results favour the conclusion that the virtual representation and the technical VR setup significantly inhibit participants’ ability to work with the data set. Reflecting on our study setup and participants’ comments, we discuss recommendations for future studies aiming at a systematic and comprehensive comparison of the differences in interacting with purely virtual and with physical data representations.

Taking a current critique of predominant visions of care robotics about 20 years into the future, in this paper, we imagine a world in which robotic technologies have become the predominant mode of care and outline how this came to be. Based on ethnographic experience in care homes and knowledge of robotics, we have developed fictional robots for possible future care scenarios. We describe six facets of caregiving that are rarely discussed in the current discourse about robots: recovery & rehabilitation, death & palliative care, bereavement & remembrance, growth & development, transcendent experiences and intimacy & sexuality. By doing so, we pose the question if and how we could integrate them into our view on technology in care. This fictional review highlights blind spots of current endeavors and thereby this paper contributes new directions for research and design.

Creating physicalizations requires a high amount of decision taking, in particular in selecting and staging the data to be conveyed, which can be challenging. We give insight into the process of conceptualizing and building physical representations of data. Based on our practical experiences, we discuss preliminary recommendations on how to approach design of physicalizations.

Deploying wearable technologies in the performing arts not only concerns costume wearers but affects further stakeholders whose work is impacted by the interactive effects or who help maintain the technology. Beyond the wearer, literature neglects how these other stakeholders engage with interactive costumes, though a performance production is based on the contribution of many parties. We conducted a longitudinal study to examine how stakeholders of a youth ballet production experience and appropriate interactive costuming. Our findings suggest that user experiences vary according to stakeholders' closeness to the costume, background and taste, the costume interaction mode and social environment. We expand existing models of technology appropriation with two novel technology relations: professional reserve and polite indifference. Based on these, we suggest integration into existing practices, to design for the show, and create positive experiences to incorporate interactive costumes in the performing arts and discuss relevance for other professional fields.

Digital technologies are being introduced in museums and other informal learning environments alongside more traditional interpretive and communication media. An increasing number of studies has proved the potential of digitally mediated cultural heritage experiences. However, there is still a lot of controversy as to the advantages and disadvantages of introducing the digital into museum settings, primarily related to the risks and investment in terms of time and human and financial resources required. This work introduces the MUSETECH model, a comprehensive framework for evaluating museum technology before and after its introduction into a museum setting. One of the unique features of our framework is to consider the evaluation of digital technologies from three different perspectives: the cultural heritage professional, cultural heritage institution, and museum visitor. The framework benefited from an extensive review of the current state of the art and from inputs from cultural heritage professionals, designers, and engineers. MUSETECH can be used as a tool for reflection before, during, and after introducing novel digital media resources. The model covers technologies as diverse as mobile museum guides, Augmented and Virtual Reality applications, hands-on museum interactives, edutainment applications, digitally mediated tangible and embodied experiences, or online approaches used for museum education and learning.

Millions of arguments are shared on the web. Future information systems will be able to exploit this valuable knowledge source and to retrieve arguments relevant and convincing to our specific need---all with an interface as intuitive as asking your friend "Why ...". Although recent advancements in argument mining, conversational search, and voice recognition have put such systems within reach, many questions remain open, especially on the interface side. In this regard the paper at hand presents the first study of argument search behavior. We conduct an online-survey and a focused user study, putting emphasis on what people expect argument search to be like, rather than on what current first-generation systems provide. Our participants expected to use voice-based argument search mostly at home, but also together with others. Moreover, they expect such search systems to provide rich information on retrieved arguments, such as the source, supporting evidence, and background knowledge on entities or events mentioned. In observed interactions with a simulated system we found that the participants adapted their search behavior to different types of tasks, and that up-front categorization of the retrieved arguments is perceived as helpful if this is short. Our findings are directly applicable to the design of argument search systems, not only voice-based ones.

The authors describe four interdisciplinary performance-oriented multimedia projects developed at Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar and reflect on the student participants perspective as well as lessons they learned as teachers and human-computer interaction researchers.

Research on product experience has a history in investigating the sensory and emotional qualities of interacting with objects. However, this notion has not been fully expanded to the design space of co-designing smart objects. In this paper, we report on findings from a series of co-design workshops where we used the toolkit Loaded Dice in conjunction with a card set that aimed to support participants in reflecting the sensory qualities of domestic smart objects. We synthesize and interpret findings from our study to help illustrate how the workshops supported co-designers in creatively ideating concepts for emotionally valuable smart objects that better connect personal inputs with the output of smart objects. Our work contributes a case example of how a co-design approach that emphasizes situated sensory exploration can be effective in enabling co-designers to ideate concepts of idiosyncratic smart objects that closely relate to the characteristics of their domestic living situations.

In previous work, we have developed the theoretical concept of Critical Experience and the Participatory Evaluation with Autistic ChildrEn (PEACE) method. We grounded both in a series of separate case studies which allowed us to understand how to gather more and richer insights from the children than previously. This is crucial for child-led research projects. In this paper, we present additional cases in more detail which demonstrate the applicability of our concept of Critical Experience on cases in which PEACE was used. This provides new insights into how Critical Experience handles child-led evaluation strategies and how it can be applied and potentially transferred to different contexts, guiding other researchers and practitioners in evaluating participatory processes.

Information visualization has become a popular tool to facilitate sense-making, discovery and communication in a large range of professional and casual contexts. However, evaluating visualizations is still a challenge. In particular, we lack techniques to help understand how visualizations are experienced by people. In this paper we discuss the potential of the Elicitation Interview technique to be applied in the context of visualization. The Elicitation Interview is a method for gathering detailed and precise accounts of human experience. We argue that it can be applied to help understand how people experience and interpret visualizations as part of exploration and data analysis processes. We describe the key characteristics of this interview technique and present a study we conducted to exemplify how it can be applied to evaluate data representations. Our study illustrates the types of insights this technique can bring to the fore, for example, evidence for deep interpretation of visual representations and the formation of interpretations and stories beyond the represented data. We discuss general visualization evaluation scenarios where the Elicitation Interview technique may be beneficial and specify what needs to be considered when applying this technique in a visualization context specifically. Postprint

Based on case studies from a heritage/museum context, I present and illustrate the notion of “spatio-contextual embedding,” which conceptualizes installation designs that augment real objects and environments while keeping these primary focuses of attention. Key for this “embeddedness” is that interaction is contextualized within a meaningful setting, creating relationships between system and environment. While retaining a focus on original objects or environments, it supports user's active engagement and sense making by inviting, enticing, or forcing them to draw connections. At the heart of this is “indexing”: mindful acts of referencing back-and-forth between here and there, connecting objects or representations. Analysis of case studies provides a repertoire of examples of “indexing,” and examples for high- and low-tech installation designs that foster drawing of connections. Two core values for design underpin the argument: (1) primacy of real objects and environments and (2) supporting human agency. The case examples highlight how technological arrangements may support or hinder indexing activity. This is condensed into potential design strategies. This article contributes to design knowledge on design for human agency, sense making, and mindful engagement with our environment. “Indexing” is relevant beyond the heritage setting domain, as part of HCI design in support of human agency.

We present a textile sensor, capable of detecting multi-touch and multi-pressure input on non-planar surfaces and demonstrate how such sensors can be fabricated and integrated into pressure stabilized membrane envelopes (i.e. inflatables). Our sensor design is both stretchable and flexible/bendable and can conform to various three-dimensional surface geometries and shape-changing surfaces. We briefly outline an approach for basic signal acquisition from such sensors and how they can be leveraged to measure internal air-pressure of inflatable objects without specialized air-pressure sensors. We further demonstrate how standard electronic circuits can be integrated with malleable inflatable objects without the need for rigid enclosures for mechanical protection.

We describe the development and user testing of an ambient display for autonomous vehicles. Instead of providing feedback about driving actions, once executed, it communicates driving decisions in advance, via light signals in passengers" peripheral vision. This ambient display was tested in an WoZ-based on-the-road-driving simulation of a fully autonomous vehicle. Findings from a preliminary study with 14 participants suggest that such a display might be particularly useful to communicate upcoming inertia changes for passengers.

For pedestrian navigation support, we report on how the feeling of being in control about receiving updates impacts navigation efficiency and user experience. In an exploratory field study, 24 participants navigated to previously unknown targets using a wristband which conveyed tactile information about targets' bearing. Information was either pulled by the user at times of her choosing via a simple arm gesture, or was pushed by the armband at a regular, preset interval. While the push mode resulted in higher efficiency, more users preferred actively pulling information, possibly as this afforded feeling more in control. Interestingly, mode preference was independent of individual navigation ability. Results suggest that properties of the specific navigation context should be used to determine whether an interface offers push or pull modes for navigation support.

In the 1920s, Oskar Schlemmer, artist in the Bauhaus movement, created the Triadic Ballet costumes. These re-strict movement of dancers, creating new expressions. In-spired by this, we designed an interactive wire costume. It restricts lower body movements, and emphasizes arm movements spurring LED-light 'sparks' and 'waves' wired in a tutu-like costume. The Wire Costume was introduced to a dancer who found that an unusual bond emerged be-tween her and the costume. We discuss how sensory altera-tion (sight, kinesthetic awareness and proprioception) and bodily training to adjust to the new soma, can result in nov-el, evocative forms of expression. The interactive costume can foster a certain mood, introduce feelings, and even embody a whole character -- only revealed once worn and danced. We describe a design exploration combining cul-tural and historical research, interviews with experts and material explorations that culminated in a novel prototype.

International audience; The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) brings abundant new opportunities to create more effective and pleasing tangible user interfaces that capitalize on intuitive interaction in the physical world, whilst utilizing capabilities of sensed data and Internet connectivity. However, with these new opportunities come new challenges; little is still known how to best design tangible IoT interfaces that simultaneously provide engaging user experiences and foster a sense of understanding about the often-complex functionality of IoT systems. How should we map previous taxonomies and design principles for tangible interaction into the new landscape of IoT systems? This workshop will bring together a community of researchers from the fields of IoT and tangible interaction, in order to explore and discuss how parallels between tangible interaction and the properties of IoT systems can best be capitalised on as HCI research moves increasingly toward the Internet of Tangible Things (IoTT). Through ideation and discussion, the workshop will function as a springboard for the community to begin creating new taxonomies and design considerations for the emerging IoTT.

Sonnengarten is an interactive light installation, controlled by touching plants. It was developed for an urban festival, with the aim of increasing attractiveness of a courtyard and passageway. Light patterns were varied over the course of the festival. Requiring prolonged touch for a more complex light reaction increased interaction duration compared to the initial 1-step process and resulted in the installation being rated higher in hedonic quality in AttrakDiff questionnaires.

A variety of interactive books, including 'touch and feel books', enable children to physically learn and develop knowledge. We developed an interactive touch and feel book for children that integrates sound and LED light to enhance the child's interaction. Our project explores the development of textile-based electronic touch and feel books, integrating textiles with ready-made and self-made sensors and actuators in a book format. It is called 'Hello World' as this is the common name of the very first program by someone new to software or hardware development, and thought ta good metaphor for children exploring their very first touch-and-feel book enhanced with interactive features.

We here present two interactive costumes deployed for a fairy tale performance of a children and youth ballet. These are the costumes of two underwater world characters, a Jellyfish and a Seahorse. Both costumes sense the performers' motion and decode them to an individual on-body light concept, underlining the role's expressivity while respecting the overall appearance of the show. A major prospect was to develop the interaction concept according to the choreographic work that evolved simultaneously. Finally, the artistic statement of the costume creators and the choreography are integrated concurrently, and resulted in a harmonious and aesthetically pleasant performance.

The Goethe-Schiller monument at the centre of Weimar's Theatre Square is a tourist attraction that embodies German national cultural heritage. In summer 2016, an interactive participatory live projection mapping lent refugees in Weimar a voice by projecting them onto the statues of German poets Goethe and Schiller and to engage Weimar citizens in a dialogue.

We present a user study of the mock-up for a learning environment on electro-mobility, based on tracking of physical interactions and projected augmentation. We discuss observations and interviews with participants that were led through a task scenario. Our insights highlight user needs in an educational context. There is generally high acceptance for augmented reality in experimentation environments, but issues concerning user guidance and system concept are critical for practical experimental education in schools and universities. We describe the most important decisions for further development. Frequently, these concern questions about degrees of freedom - on the part of users as well as the system.

Research in sonification and physicalization have expanded data representation techniques to include senses beyond the visual. Yet, little is known of how people interpret and make sense of haptic and sonic compared to visual representations. We have conducted two phenomenologically oriented comparative studies (applying the Repertory Grid and the Microphenomenological interview technique) to gather in-depth accounts of people's interpretation and experience of different representational modalities that included auditory, haptic and visual variations . Our findings show a rich characterization of these different representational modalities: our visually oriented representations engage through their familiarity, accuracy and easy interpretation, while our representations that stimulated auditory and haptic interpretation were experienced as more ambiguous, yet stimulated an engaging interpretation of data that involved the whole body. We describe and discuss in detail participants' processes of making sense and generating meaning using the modalities' unique characteristics, individually and as a group. Our research informs future research in the area of multimodal data representations from both a design and methodological perspective. Postprint

Research in sonification and physicalization have expanded data representation techniques to include senses beyond the visual. Yet, little is known of how people interpret and make sense of haptic and sonic compared to visual representations. We have conducted two phenomenologically oriented comparative studies (applying the Repertory Grid and the Microphenomenological interview technique) to gather in-depth accounts of people's interpretation and experience of different representational modalities that included auditory, haptic and visual variations . Our findings show a rich characterization of these different representational modalities: our visually oriented representations engage through their familiarity, accuracy and easy interpretation, while our representations that stimulated auditory and haptic interpretation were experienced as more ambiguous, yet stimulated an engaging interpretation of data that involved the whole body. We describe and discuss in detail participants' processes of making sense and generating meaning using the modalities' unique characteristics, individually and as a group. Our research informs future research in the area of multimodal data representations from both a design and methodological perspective. Postprint

Our case study explores how interactive systems may influence and enhance theatre performances. We pro-duced a short play featuring four interactive systems. Using a mixed-method evaluation approach we strive to answer two main research questions: How do users (actors and directors) adapt to the technology, and how do spectators perceive interactive scenes? We found the success of using interactive systems in theater to be based mainly on how interaction is conceptualized in reference to the script. Adaptions are done on both sides -- system and user need to "understand" each other, and the audience's perception is not necessarily characterized by recognizing interactivity per se but ra-ther by experiencing it in a theatre play as a whole.

Capturing and describing the multi-faceted experiences autistic children have with technologies provides a unique research challenge. Approaches based on pragmatist notions of experience, which mostly rely on empathy, are particularly limited if used alone. To address this we have developed an approach that combines Actor-Network Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis. Drawing on this approach, we discuss the experiences autistic children had with technologies resulting from the collaborative design process in the OutsideTheBox project. We construct a holistic picture of the experience by drawing on diverse data sources ranging from interviews to log-data, and most importantly, the first-hand perspective of autistic children. In four case studies, we demonstrate how this approach allowed us to develop unique individual and structural insights into the experiences of autistic children with technology.

Although public displays are increasingly being deployed in everyday situations, they are still mostly used as auto-active information sources. Adding interactivity can help to attract and engage users. We report on the design and in-the-wild evaluation of an interactive advert for a public display in a tourist information center. We evaluate and compare 3 different variants - non-interactive, interaction using body tracking, and interaction using personal mobile devices - with respect to attracting the attention and interaction from passersby. We further compare these variants with an iterated version of the body tracking system with an extended tracking area. Our findings include an unexpected reluctance of passersby to use their mobile device in public, and the increased interactive area for body interaction resulting in increased engagement and spontaneous multi-user interaction, while removing the so-called 'landing effect'. Based on our findings, we suggest guidelines for interactive adverts on public displays.

Currently, our cities become more and more equipped with information and communications technology (ICT). Rarely do these systems provide a fit with everyday public life. They focus primarily on efficiency, security, safety and business. There are few system designs which support social aspects such as identification with the city and community, responsibility, everyday habits, leisure, pleasurable stay, social interaction, courtesy behaviour, play, etc.—in short, aspects of social sustainability. To outfit our future city with technology currently lacking the support of those qualities, we created several novel interaction designs to explore how to best merge ICT with the public space. This chapter presents some of our theory developed from our research-through-design approach and three case studies including suggestions for measures of success such as the number of shared encounters, average interactions per minute (ipm), or accumulated interaction time. We believe those hard facts are needed to argue for the need of playful ICT in our city that makes our public life more enjoyable.

We present a media art installation based on Human-Plant Interaction, which aimed to increase people's awareness of nature via a light-based reaction to touching the plants. We describe the setup and conceptual design and discuss how such an interactive installation might affect usage and overall attractiveness for a central urban place.

This article presents a video-based field study of the Reactable, a tabletop tangible user interface (TUI) for music performance, in a hands-on science centre. The goal was to investigate visitors’ social interactions in a public setting. We describe liminality and cross-group interaction, both synchronous with fluid transitions and overlaps in use between groups and asynchronous. Our findings indicate the importance of: (i) facilitating smooth transitions and overlaps between groups and (ii) supporting not only synchronous but also asynchronous group interaction. We discuss the lessons learned on how best to enable liminal situations in the design of interactive tabletops and TUIs for social interaction and particularly collaborative tangible music in public museum settings. • Presentation of a video-based field study describing cross-group interaction. • Description of exemplar vignettes of video for illustrating liminal situations in social interaction. • Discussion of the nature of different levels of cross-group interaction and their relevance for social interaction and collaboration. • Lessons learned in how best to enable liminal situations in the design of collaborative tangible user interfaces for promoting social interaction and collaboration.

Humans have represented data in many forms for thousands of years, yet the main sensory channel we use to perceive these representations today still remains largely exclusive to sight. Recent developments, such as advances in digital fabrication, microcontrollers, actuated tangibles, and shape-changing interfaces offer new opportunities to encode data in physical forms and have stimulated the emergence of 'Data Physicalization' as a research area. The aim of this workshop is (1) to create an awareness of the potential of Data Physicalization by providing an overview of state-of-the-art research, practice, and tools and (2) to build a community around this emerging field and start to discuss a shared research agenda. This workshop therefore addresses both experienced researchers and practitioners as well as those who are new to the field but interested in applying Data Physicalization to their own (research) practice. The workshop will provide opportunities for participants to explore Data Physicalization hands-on, by creating their own prototypes. These practical explorations will lead into reflective discussions on the role tangibles and embodiment play in Data Physicalization and the future research challenges for this area.

A common issue in gesture elicitation studies is that participants are influenced by interaction with digital products, imitating touchscreen gestures or WIMP icons. In our study, we adapted and experimentally tested two of Morris' et al.'s suggestions for reducing legacy bias: increased production of gestures and covert kinaesthetic priming. Our findings indicate that the practical effectiveness of these strategies might be limited, given we only found medium effect sizes and a wide variance between participants that overshadows any effects. Our work contributes to reflection on, and indirectly, by experimentally testing potential variations, to future improvements of the gesture elicitation method.

This work explores an emerging category of interfaces: pneumatibles -- interactive, pneumatically driven actuator/sensor elements, made from pliable materials and inspired by soft-robotics principles -- and their potential for the design of tangible interfaces with integrated pneumotactile feedback. We present a novel pneumatic control-system, specifically designed for pneumotactile applications and a case study of a pneumatically actuated, pressure sensitive button pneumatible capable of providing tactile feedback. Our work further contributes to a better understanding of the underlying technical parameters (i.e. air-pressure, material properties, dimensions, actuation-sequences, etc.) that determine the design space of soft and pliable actuators for providing distinct tactile stimuli and enabling expressive control. We provide insights learned from the process of constructing and controlling pneumotactile actuators and present a preliminary user study, focused on participants' ability to identify pneumotactile feedback patterns. Finally, implications for the design of pneumotactile interfaces and the transfer of principles from soft-robotics to HCI are discussed.

Children are not necessarily motivated to collaborate if no common ground can be found. In this paper, we present t-vote, a system supporting children's decision making. To encourage collaboration in a museum's context, we employ tangible pawns on a tabletop interface and implicitly script the decision making process of children. We describe the system design, our design process, and rationale.

Multi-touch surfaces are becoming increasingly popular. An assumed benefit is that they can facilitate collaborative interactions in co-located groups. In particular, being able to see another's physical actions can enhance awareness, which in turn can support fluid interaction and coordination. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence or measures to support these claims. We present an analysis of different aspects of awareness in an empirical study that compared two kinds of input: multi-touch and multiple mice. For our analysis, a set of awareness indices was derived from the CSCW and HCI literatures, which measures both the presence and absence of awareness in co-located settings. Our findings indicate higher levels of awareness for the multi-touch condition accompanied by significantly more actions that interfere with each other. A subsequent qualitative analysis shows that the interactions in this condition were more fluid and that interference was quickly resolved. We suggest that it is more important that resources are available to negotiate interference rather than necessarily to attempt to prevent it.