Co-Design of Technology with and for People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Scoping Review of Methods and Inclusion StrategiesPeople with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) remain underrepresented in the co-design of technology, despite a growing emphasis on inclusive design within HCI. This scoping review synthesises knowledge on co-design methods by examining how people with ID and their support networks have been involved in technology design. A systematic search of four databases identified 25 relevant papers. Our analysis draws together the design methods and inclusion strategies used across these studies, highlighting practices, tools, and adaptations that accommodated diverse abilities, built trust, and supported agency. From this synthesis, we articulate how co-design practices have been tailored to promote inclusivity and propose principles and approaches to guide future research that centres ID perspectives. These findings provide researchers, designers, and practitioners with insights for fostering the equitable participation of people with ID in the design of technology.2026JJJacqueline Johnstone et al.Monash UniversityParticipatory DesignCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)CHI
Novobo: Supporting Teachers' Peer Learning of Instructional Gestures by Teaching a Mentee AI-Agent TogetherInstructional gestures are essential for teaching, enhancing communication and student comprehension. Current training methods for developing these skills can be time-consuming, isolating, or overly prescriptive, e.g., watching lengthy, one-size-fits-all videos. Conversely, research suggests that developing these tacit, experiential skills requires teachers’ peer learning, where they learn from each other and build shared knowledge. While much HCI exploration has applied learning-by-teaching to students’ peer learning, little has explored this approach for teacher professionalization. We present Novobo, an apprentice AI-agent stimulating teachers' peer learning of instructional gestures through verbal and bodily inputs. An evaluation with 30 teachers in 10 collaborative sessions showed Novobo prompted teachers to externalize and share tacit knowledge through dialogue and movement. Teaching an AI mentee together reduced their pressure, facilitating peer exchange and the co-construction of practical knowledge. This work contributes a novel design and empirical insights into how teachable AI-agents can facilitate peer learning in teacher professionalization.2026JJJiaqi Jiang et al.Southern University of Science and TechnologyBrain-Computer Interface (BCI) & NeurofeedbackFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputHuman Pose & Activity RecognitionCHI
Criminator: An Easy-to-Use XR "Crime Animator" for Rapid Reconstruction and Analysis of Dynamic Crime ScenesLaw enforcement authorities are increasingly interested in 3D modelling for virtual crime scene reconstruction, enabling offline analysis without the cost and contamination risk of on-site investigation. Past work has demonstrated spatial relationships through static modelling but validating the sequence of events in dynamic scenarios is crucial for solving a case. Yet, animation tools are not well suited to crime scene reconstruction, and complex for non-experts in 3D modelling/animation. Through a co-design process with criminology experts, we designed “Criminator”—a methodological framework and XR tool that simplifies animation authoring. We evaluated this tool with participants trained in criminology (n=6) and untrained individuals (n=12). Both groups were able to successfully complete the character animation tasks and provided high usability ratings for observation tasks. Criminator has potential for hypothesis testing, demonstration, sense-making, and training. Challenges remain in how such a tool fits into the entire judicial process, with questions about including animations as evidence.2026VPVahid Pooryousef et al.Monash UniversityMixed Reality WorkspacesImmersion & Presence ResearchRobots in Education & HealthcareCHI
Towards Understanding the Design of Shared Bodily Control via Exoskeleton-based PlayEmerging technologies such as exoskeletons and electrical muscle stimulation can initiate movement within the human body, blurring the boundary between user and machine. While prior research has explored how such systems augment bodily action, most focus on movement execution rather than decision-making. In this work, we investigate what happens when a bodily-integrated system acts with its own logic and initiates bodily movement alongside users. We present three game scenarios where an exoskeleton controls one arm while the user controls the other, designed to evoke different relational framings: proxy, collaboration, and opposition. Through a qualitative study (N = 16), we examine how users interpret such interactions, and how shared bodily control shapes bodily experience and human-machine relationship. We further contribute a set of implications for designing bodily technologies that decide and move together with users, opening up design possibilities for systems that share bodily control, not merely actuate on users' behalf.2026ZLZhuying Li et al.Southeast UniversityForce Feedback & Pseudo-Haptic WeightSerious & Functional GamesHuman-Robot Collaboration (HRC)CHI
“My Tummy Has a Little Dragon”: From Everyday Experiences of Gut Sounds to Interoceptive Interaction Design Gastrointestinal sounds are a constant part of human physiology, offering potential insights into digestive functions and everyday bodily awareness. However, these sounds are rarely noticed and often socially stigmatised, remaining underexplored in HCI despite calls to recognise the gut as a site for embodied awareness. We extend HCI’s engagement with involuntary biosignals by positioning gut sounds as a uniquely generative context for interoceptive interaction design, where systems can scaffold awareness, reflection, and care. We conducted a week-long in-the-wild qualitative study with ten participants, which showed how making gut sounds audible reshaped bodily awareness, provoked affective responses, and prompted acts of reflection and tinkering. From these insights, we contribute four bodily perspectives – Registering, Reacting, Reflecting, and Responding- that capture the oscillatory nature of interoceptive engagement and offer design strategies that position biosignals as sites of curiosity, care, and awareness that are socially situated.2026NPNandini Pasumarthy et al.Monash UniversityEmotion-Sensing WearablesBehavior Change & Reflection TechnologyEmpathy & Emotional DesignCHI
Machine Eye: Designing Relational Engagement with Embodied Large Language ModelsLarge Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly being integrated into embodied, tangible, and ambient forms, expanding beyond the established chatbot interaction paradigm. LLMs are inherently general and open-ended. In contrast, design practice typically stabilises artefacts by prescribing their role or function through fixed metaphors. We present Machine Eye, a Research through Design (RtD) exploration of an embodied LLM that resists metaphorical closure. Rather than prescribing a specific role or function, the artefact is deliberately ambiguous, inviting participants to explore new forms of relational engagement with AI. Firstly, we explicate our design process, revealing three key tensions encountered when designing against metaphor for embodied LLMs. Secondly, we present findings from a qualitative study (N=15) investigating how participants interpret and engage with Machine Eye. We find that as participants actively explore new and non-prescriptive modes of embodied interaction, perceived roles can be dynamically contested and renegotiated, allowing for a kind of boundless relationship to emerge.2026ANAileen Ng et al.Monash UniversityHuman-LLM CollaborationPhysical-Digital Hybrid InteractionBrain-Computer Interface (BCI) & NeurofeedbackCHI
CoMap: A Collaborative 3D Sketch Mapping Game to Engage Spatial Communication in Search and RescueSearch and rescue (SAR) is a complex teamwork environment that requires efficient spatial communication between commanders and field teams with heterogeneous perspectives and asymmetric information. Maps are central artifacts in SAR, yet they are also a space of technological tension due to constantly changing situation at disaster sites. Sketch mapping is an effective method of externalizing and communicating spatial understanding, increasing situation awareness in spatial decision-making tasks including SAR. Current paper-based sketch mapping in SAR struggles to handle the three-dimensional nature of physical space and remote collaboration. We propose CoMap, a collaborative 3D sketch mapping system validated in a virtual reality fire-rescue game. In a within-subject study with 13 commander–field team pairs, CoMap enabled more accurate and efficient spatial communication than conventional 2D sketch mapping. Communication analysis further showed that CoMap fostered proactive descriptions. We distill three design implications for next-generation mapping tools to advance SAR training and real-world operations.2026TXTianyi Xiao et al.Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation, ETH ZurichVolunteer Coordination & Crowdsourced Disaster ReliefPost-Disaster Community Recovery TechnologySocial & Collaborative VRCHI
Radical Gender Neutrality: Agender Euphoria in Gaming and Play ExperiencesAgender euphoria is a new term representing the powerful feelings of happiness, joy, and contentment derived from experiences in gender-free embodiments, spaces, and activities. People with and without agender and adjacent identities (e.g., genderless, gender-free, non-binary, gender-apathetic) may have such experiences under the right circumstances. Video games can offer gender minorities a safe haven for gender euphoric experiences. However, the possibility of agender euphoric experiences was unexplored. We considered this overlooked frame of self-actualization with 142 people who identified as having or desiring agender euphoric experiences. Using the critical incident technique (CIT), we uncovered how games and play experiences create (and inhibit) agender euphoria. We surface this experiential phenomenon and provide empirically-grounded criteria for the design of games to elicit agender euphoric experiences for everyone, but especially agender and agender adjacent players. This work adds to the growing critical literatures on marginalized experiences in games research and human-computer interaction.2026KSKatie Seaborn et al.Institute of Science TokyoGame UX & Player BehaviorGender & Race Issues in HCIEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
triMorph: Bridging Shape-Change and Cross-Sensory Correspondences for Haptic InteractionCross-sensory correspondences provide opportunities for designing rich sensory HCI, with prior work showing that features such as roundness and sharpness are systematically linked to language, color, sound, and emotion. Yet two challenges remain: few technologies can dynamically transition between these features, and little is known about the thresholds at which a form is judged as sufficiently rounded or spiky to realize these cross-sensory effects. We present triMorph, a pneumatic shape-changing interface capable of smoothly morphing between spiky, flat, and rounded configurations. In a psychophysical study with 30 participants, we quantified perceptual accuracy and precision in mapping triMorph shapes to visual-linguistic categories and examined shape–color and shape–emotion correspondences. Results reveal threshold values for reliable categorization, with rounded shapes linked to pleasant emotions and lighter colors, and spiky shapes to arousal and darker tones. Our findings provide empirical foundations and design guidelines for grounding shape-changing artifacts more firmly in cross-sensory cognition.2026ZFZhuzhi FAN et al.University of BristolShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsMultisensory Fusion ExperienceAffective Feedback & Emotion Regulation InterfacesCHI
When EmotionTech Causes Harm: The Case of Therapeutic XREmotional harm and discomfort in therapeutic extended realities (XR) remains underexamined, even as immersive tools are increasingly deployed in healthcare contexts. We frame therapeutic XR as EmotionTech and reflect on 12 cases from 9 researchers and designers through interviews and workshops. We locate four concerns for emotional harm and identify ways to address them: how to talk about emotion, when to talk about emotion, whose emotions are centred, and which emotions are valued. Building on these themes and therapeutic XR as one form of EmotionTech, we propose strategies to legitimise concerns for emotional safety in design and research practice, legitimise knowers by recognising diverse perspectives and situated experiences, and leveraging ambiguity in design and training tools that foster reflexivity rather than closure. These strategies together reposition design responsibility in EmotionTech innovation and make visible its potential to cause emotional discomforts and harms.2026TSThida Sachathep et al.The University of SydneyVR Medical Training & RehabilitationEmpathy & Emotional DesignAffective Human-Computer DialogueCHI
Towards Understanding the Design of Mixed Reality Systems to Enrich the Beverage ExperienceDrinking is an inherently multisensory activity, yet the potential of immersive technology to dynamically shape flavor experiences remains underexplored in Human-Food Interaction (HFI) research. We introduce “XTea”, an adaptive beverage cup-based system that integrates large language models to translate natural language input into modifications of a parameterized immersive environment experienced through a headset when drinking bubble tea. Through a study with 12 bubble tea enthusiasts, we derived themes that demonstrate how “XTea” can enrich sensory engagement, support personalized and agentic experiences, and foster social qualities of drinking, pointing toward new explorations for multisensory HFI design. We also present four design strategies for multisensory beverage experiences. Ultimately, we aim to contribute to the advancement of HFI research on how multisensory interaction design can enrich flavor perception and engagement.2026YZYuchen Zheng et al.Monash UniversityMultisensory Fusion ExperienceHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)CHI
GreenCompass: Weaving Playful Nature Engagement into Urban Micro-Moments through Context-Aware GamificationUrbanization increasingly separates people from nature, negatively affecting well-being. While prior work has explored technological interventions to foster human-nature interaction (HNI), embedding nature engagement into daily urban life remains challenging. We present GreenCompass, a social mobile application that recommends nearby micro-opportunities for nature encounters through context-aware scheduling, gamification, and adaptive tasks. To evaluate its effectiveness, we conducted a four-week mixed-methods field study with 40 participants split into two conditions: GreenCompass and a reminder-based baseline. Results showed that GreenCompass better improved nature relatedness, outdoor activity levels, well-being, perceived stress, and social connectedness. Our analysis identified four design themes: embedding nature into micro-moment integration, collective nature engagement, cultivating intrinsic bonds with nature, and system challenges. We further provide design implications to support everyday urban nature engagement. This work demonstrates how everyday mobile technology can help bridge the urban-nature divide and promote well-being.2026MWMingtao Wu et al.Southeast UniversitySustainable HCIEcological Design & Green ComputingBehavior Change & Reflection TechnologyCHI
Movement as Medium: Personalisation of Instruments for Inclusive Creative Expression in Disability-Led PerformanceThis paper presents a practice-based case study that explores personalisation as a design methodology for embodied gestural instruments. Through a multi-year collaboration with a professional performer with physical disability, we employed research-through-design and co-design methods to iteratively develop a personalised instrument responsive to the performer’s unique movement style and creative vision. The system enabled real-time control of sound, stage lighting, and visualisations, and was ecologically validated in rehearsals and in an award-winning disability-led theatre production. Extending beyond the stage, we refined the instrument through workshops with young people with motor, sensory, and communication disabilities, demonstrating its adaptability to diverse bodies and creative practices. Rather than focusing on generalised solutions, this work advances methods for designing technologies that embrace difference, tailoring interaction to individual capabilities. We contribute to HCI research by articulating personalisation as a methodological approach to inclusive interaction design, expanding opportunities for creative expression among people with physical disability.2026STSam Trolland et al.Monash UniversityHaptic WearablesFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputTangible Interaction in EducationCHI
I'm Always a Little Skeptical of It: Verification Practices of Blind Users When Working with Generative AI in SpreadsheetsGenerative AI (GenAI) tools are increasingly used for spreadsheet tasks, yet little is known about how blind users verify their outputs in accuracy-critical contexts. We conducted a study with 12 blind spreadsheet users to explore verification practices across tasks such as information extraction, formula generation, trend analysis, chart creation, and formatting. Participants never fully trusted outputs without verification and employed diverse strategies, including manual checks with screen reader and spreadsheet features, same AI-assisted verification, cross-AI tool validation, leveraging prior knowledge, and human assistance. These approaches were adapted based on task context, perceived risk, and users’ expertise. Errors were common, particularly in chart generation and formatting, some detected, others overlooked. While verification improved confidence, it was often effortful, time-consuming, or infeasible for visual tasks. We discuss how blind users utilize GenAI not only as a task performer but also as a verification aid and validator, highlighting design opportunities for more accessible and reliable spreadsheet use.2026MPMinoli Perera et al.Monash UniversityGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Visual Impairment Technologies (Screen Readers, Tactile Graphics, Braille)Universal & Inclusive DesignCHI
Challenges in Synchronous & Remote Collaboration Around VisualizationWe characterize 16 challenges faced by those investigating and developing remote and synchronous collaborative experiences around visualization. Our work reflects the perspectives and prior research efforts of an international group of 29 experts from across human-computer interaction and visualization sub-communities. The challenges are anchored around five collaborative activities that exhibit a centrality of visualization and multimodal communication. These activities include exploratory data analysis, creative ideation, visualization-rich presentations, joint decision making grounded in data, and real-time data monitoring. The challenges also reflect the changing dynamics of these activities in the face of recent advances in extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI). As an organizing scheme for future research at the intersection of visualization and computer-supported cooperative work, we align the challenges with a sequence of four sets of research and development activities: technological choices, social factors, AI assistance, and evaluation.2026MBMatthew Brehmer et al.University of WaterlooInteractive Data VisualizationRemote Work Tools & ExperienceMulti-User Large Display CollaborationCHI
"Deprived of support because we're born women": Emerging Socio-Technical Pathways and Evolving Struggles for Women Entrepreneurs in BangladeshWomen's entrepreneurship is a key driver of socio-economic empowerment in the Global South, yet patriarchal sociocultural contexts limit entrepreneur’s autonomy and, despite increasing attention to gender issues in HCI, shifting digital infrastructures cause privacy, security, and logistical challenges. We conduct 15 interviews with women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh who rely on digital technology, offering insight into who they are, their business and supply chains, technology use, and the gendered challenges of balancing work with family. We present women’s accounts of navigating in-person and online harassment and crime, including through payment platforms, and banking tools that legally enforce gender discrimination. We discuss how digital technology design must adapt to these pervasive issues and propose digital interventions to support developing their businesses and achieving financial independence. Our work contributes to understanding how HCI can take a transformative role in overcoming barriers and advancing mechanisms for women's financial empowerment in the Global South.2026MSManika Saha et al.Monash UniversityDeveloping Countries & HCI for Development (HCI4D)AI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityPrivacy by Design & User ControlCHI
Zenergy: Designing Taoist-Inspired Transformative Nature Imagery for Everyday EmpowermentNature has long been valued for its restorative impact on emotion and well-being, motivating many HCI systems to incorporate nature as a calming design material. However, cultural traditions such as Taoism frame nature not as passive, but as an active, symbolic force for emotional transformation. We present Zenergy, a mobile application that uses a large language model to generate personalized guided meditations grounded in Taoist nature imagery. Based on users' emotional and contextual input, Zenergy leads them through a symbolic journey using natural metaphors such as wind to release burdens, rivers to restore flow, and sunlight to renew strength. A mixed-method field study (N = 27) showed that Zenergy enhanced users' self-efficacy, emotional clarity, and spiritual connection. We introduce transformative nature imagery as a design lens for everyday empowerment, and offer strategies for embedding culturally grounded symbolism into interactive well-being technologies.2026ZLZhuying Li et al.Southeast UniversityGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesAffective Feedback & Emotion Regulation InterfacesCHI
Grand Challenges around Designing Computers’ Control Over Our BodiesAdvances in emerging technologies, such as on-body mechanical actuators and electrical muscle stimulation, have allowed computers to take control over our bodies. This presents opportunities as well as challenges, raising fundamental questions about agency and the role of our body when interacting with technology. To advance this research field as a whole, we brought together expert perspectives in a week-long seminar to articulate the grand challenges that should be tackled when it comes to the design of computers’ control over our bodies. These grand challenges span technical, design, user, and ethical aspects. By articulating these grand challenges, we aim to begin initiating a research agenda that positions bodily control not only as a technical feature but as a central, experiential, and ethical concern for future human–computer interaction endeavors.2026FMFlorian 'Floyd' Mueller et al.Monash UniversityElectrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS)Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) & NeurofeedbackEmpathy & Emotional DesignCHI
MarioChart: Autonomous Tangibles as Active Proxy Interfaces for Embodied Casual Data ExplorationWe introduce the notion of an Active Proxy interface, i.e. tangible models as proxies for physical data referents, supporting interactive exploration of data through active manipulation. We realise an active proxy data visualisation system, ``MarioChart", using robot carts relocating themselves on a tabletop, e.g., to align with their data referents in a map or other visual layout. We consider a casual-data exploration scenario involving a multivariate campus sustainability dataset, using scale models as proxies for their physical building data referents. Our empirical study (n=12) compares active proxy use with conventional tablet interaction, finding that our active proxy system enhances short-term spatial memory of data and enables faster completion of certain data analytic tasks. It shows no significant differences compared to traditional touchscreens in long-term memory, physical fatigue, mental workload, or user engagement. Our study offers an initial baseline for active proxy techniques and advances understanding of tangible interfaces in situated data visualisation.2026SDShaozhang Dai et al.Monash UniversityPhysical-Digital Hybrid InteractionTabletop Tangible InteractionInteractive Data VisualizationCHI
Nudging the Somas: Exploring How Live-Configurable Mixed Reality Objects Shape Open-Ended Intercorporeal MovementsMixed Reality (MR) increasingly explores how virtual elements can shape physical behavior, yet how MR objects guide group movement remains underexplored. We address this gap by examining how virtual objects can nudge collective, co-located movement without relying on explicit instructions or choreography. We developed GravField, a research-through-design, co-located MR performance system where an “object jockey” live-configures virtual objects (e.g., ropes, springs, magnetic fields) with real-time, parameterized “digital physics” (e.g., weight, elasticity, force) to influence headset-wearing participants' movement, made perceptible through augmented visual and audio feedback serving as cognitive-somatic cues. Our bricolage analysis of the performances, based on video, interviews, soma trajectories, and field notes, indicates that these live nudges support emergent intercorporeal coordination and that ambiguity and real-time configuration sustain open-ended, exploratory engagement. Ultimately, our work offers empirical insights and design principles for MR systems that can guide group movement through embodied, felt dynamics while preserving participants’ sense of agency.2026BHBotao Amber Hu et al.Reality Design LabSocial & Collaborative VRImmersion & Presence ResearchInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI