Umeå University's logo

Through a series of excursions into the historical archives of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), this text aims to excavate the disciplinary roots of posthuman scholarship. By doing so, a lineage is outlined of how this philosophical strand first emerged in descriptions of people’s relationships to and interactions with new technology. Drawing from cybernetics, ecological psychology, and people-centred approaches, interaction design evolved from these entangled understandings of real-world practice. A conclusion is that the contemporary turn to posthumanism does not reflect a radical departure from, but rather a return to our field’s own foundational commitments. Ultimately, this is positioned as a theoretical homecoming that reorients HCI toward relational, situated, and ecologically responsible design.

Daily interactions with things are becoming increasingly virtual and hidden, tucked away in minimalist UI's or dependent on clear voice commands. Motivated by a love for physical interactions, this work uses keys, a mundane, everyday technology, as our object of study, identifying what is being ‘designed away’ in the process of digitalization. This is achieved through a collection of found objects, material samples, and design probes. We present a visual exhibition in pictorial format, where each piece represents material qualities of physical, interactive artefacts. We conclude by discussing how the embodied qualities of these artifacts can be extended to the broader landscape of everyday physical things. Our work contributes to the TEI community through both the tangible artifacts and the identified qualities for designing future physical, everyday, interactive things.

Movement-based design foregrounds the moving and sentient body, fostering holistic engagement with the surrounding physical, material, and sociospatial contexts. Over the years, this approach has yielded multiple methodologies, tools, and exemplars to support body-based ideation. In this studio, we explore tools that facilitate embodied thinking and the creative processes of designing with, through, and for the body. In particular, we focus on: i) embodied ideation tools, kits, and technology probes to prompt ideation; ii) sketching and other documentation techniques to materialize ephemeral embodied action during ideation. We will bring tools and techniques to engage with both aspects, and we will invite participants to bring their own, which can be physical or technological, low or high-fidelity. This hands-on studio will provide a space to collectively engage in embodied ideation and sketching; exploring, analysing, and engaging deeply with the available objects and methods. The studio will culminate in a rich set of visual material and an annotated portfolio, which will be shared with the broader community, fostering connections among designers interested in movement-based and tangible design.

In this extended abstract, we combine perspectives from sustainability studies, retrogaming cultures, and theories of imaginaries. The purpose is to explore new ways ofthinking about technology to promote environmental sustainability. First, we argue for the need for a contrast to contemporary perspectives where not-yet-existingtechnologies are believed to solve issues such as the climate crisis. Second, we propose that mindsets and practices from gaming cultures can aid us in thinkingdifferently about the relationship between technology and sustainability.

In this workshop we investigate “alternative futures” of programming with generative-AI tools. The workshop aims to establish a strand of HCI research on the future of AI-supported programming that goes beyond the current focus on usability and performance of GenAI-assisted programming tools, to instead explore radical re-conceptualizations of co-coding and co-creation with AI. The workshop is open to researchers and practitioners engaged in critically exploring novel ways of coding and interacting with AI-based programming tools. We encourage speculative design inquiries exploring prototypes, and provocations that facilitate engagement with a wider spectrum of human skills, experiences and ways of knowing when programming with AI. The workshop welcomes contributions that i) present examples of novel interaction, empirical studies or prototypes of AI-based programming, ii) re-conceptualize how programming with AI-based tools may be conducted and designed for, iii) reflect on values and ethical challenges of AI-based programming.

Many of the current debates in technology concern the extractive practices around planetary resources and data, which produce electronic waste as well as everyday sense of clutter among media channels and files. In this paper, we engage with this problem space through a specific focus on Terms of Service agreements, which have become a prerequisite for even the most rudimentary use of technology. We do this by presenting an exploded view of an existing Terms of Service policy ecosystem, in the form of an outdoor installation, temporarily littering a patch of nature. Through this installation, we expose eco-social contracts as a design opening for more-than-human data governance, ecological temporalities, and the right to patchwork as generative concepts.

This paper explores the aesthetic value shifts required for sustainable design of so called 'high-tech' products, highlighting an increasing down-to-earth ethos within the field. Using a spaceship metaphor and drawing from principles of post-industrial design and visions for long-term sustainable transformation, a high-level analysis is presented of how grassroot activist cultures and alternative tastemaking practices are currently steering designs towards the systemic, earthy and organic. This direction is illustrated by diverse examples from within the TEI discourse that investigates new material approaches and that critically challenge conventional aesthetic orientations. While such approaches can be criticized for insufficiently addressing interactive and electronic components, this research underscores their essential role in reimagining technology and materials, to navigate complex cultural interdependencies and advance sustainable design futures.

This study explores the design challenges of connecting passive NFC wearables such as fobs, rings, and bracelets, to online services such as payment and access. Through field studies, co-design workshops, and auto-ethnographic design work, we investigate how physical action and online media could be coupled, allowing for more considerate onboarding experiences. Our main contribution is four de-sign concepts specific to this domain: using media to link experience to new concepts, supporting physical practice, giving feedback on physical success, and providing interactive function through physical form. In sum, the work highlights media content as a fundamental element in the design of passive tangibles, to support embodied understanding of the manipulations involved.