Interpretive Cultures: Resonance, randomness, and negotiated meaning for AI-assisted tarot divinationWhile generative AI tools are increasingly adopted for creative and analytical tasks, their role in interpretive practices,where meaning is subjective, plural, and non-causal, remains poorly understood. This paper examines AI-assisted tarot reading, a divinatory practice in which users pose a query, draw cards through a randomized process, and ask AI systems to interpret the resulting symbols. Drawing on interviews with tarot practitioners and Hartmut Rosa's Theory of Resonance, we investigate how users seek, negotiate, and evaluate resonant interpretations in a context where no causal relationship exists between the query and the data being interpreted. We identify distinct ways practitioners incorporate AI into their interpretive workflows, including using AI to navigate uncertainty and self-doubt, explore alternative perspectives, and streamline or extend existing divinatory practices. Based on these findings, we offer design recommendations for AI systems that support interpretive meaning-making without collapsing ambiguity or foreclosing user agency.2026MPMatthew Kieran Prock et al.The University of MichiganGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Empathy & Emotional DesignAffective Human-Computer DialogueCHI
From Breakups to Lethargy: Player Accounts of Third Variables Affecting Video Game Playtime and WellbeingTime spent playing video games (playtime) is not strongly correlated with wellbeing. However, quantitative studies often overlook `third variables' that confound this relationship---risking masked true effects or spurious associations. In this mixed-methods study, we first conducted a qualitative template analysis of 987 responses from 393 adult players, then quantitatively assessed whether the identified candidates covary with changes in playtime and wellbeing. Study 1 results show that players interpret 17 factors---spanning physical health, grief and domestic disruptions, work/school pressures, social relationships, and other leisure---as influencing their gaming and wellbeing. In Study 2, within-person models of logged Xbox playtime and wellbeing scores provided initial evidence that at least three factors---social strain, work-related stress, and lethargic illnesses---systematically relate to both gaming and wellbeing. Together, these studies demonstrate a method for mapping confounders, provide preliminary support for several potential confounds, and illustrate how directly addressing confounds can provide a stronger basis for uncovering the true causal pathways linking gaming and wellbeing.2026NBNick Ballou et al.University of OxfordGame UX & Player BehaviorWorkplace Wellbeing & Work StressMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCHI
Reimagining Data Work: Participatory Annotation Workshops as Feminist PracticeAI systems depend on the invisible and undervalued labor of data workers, who are often treated as interchangeable units rather than collaborators with meaningful expertise. Critical scholars and practitioners have proposed alternative principles for data work, but few empirical studies examine how to enact them in practice. This paper bridges this gap through a case study of multilingual, iterative, and participatory data annotation processes with journalists and activists focused on news narratives of gender-related violence. We offer two methodological contributions. First, we demonstrate how workshops rooted in feminist epistemology can foster dialogue, build community, and disrupt knowledge hierarchies in data annotation. Second, drawing insights from practice, we deepen analysis of existing feminist and participatory principles. We show that prioritizing context and pluralism in practice may require "bounding" context and working towards what we describe as a "tactical consensus.'' We also explore tensions around materially acknowledging labor while resisting transactional researcher-participant dynamics. Through this work, we contribute to growing efforts to reimagine data and AI development as relational and political spaces for understanding difference, enacting care, and building solidarity across shared struggles.2026YGYujia Gao et al.Brown UniversityParticipatory DesignUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)AI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityCHI
Tracing Creativity: A Design Space For Creative Activity Traces in HCICreativity tools are a cornerstone of HCI, with systems for video, music, writing, and design deeply embedded in modern creative practice. Yet one key element of these systems remains undertheorized: the role of activity traces. Activity traces are the records of creator data, including artifact iterations, annotations, or reference materials, produced over the course of a creative process. To examine how activity traces are leveraged, we reviewed 133 creativity systems from major HCI venues. We structure our findings through a Living Framework for Trace Awareness, which captures both the characteristics of trace data and how systems engage with their temporal features. This framework offers the first systematic account of activity trace usage in creativity tools. We highlight overlooked assumptions about creator data in feature design and position activity traces as a core design material for shaping the next generation of creativity support systems.2026NHNoor Hammad et al.Carnegie Mellon UniversityCreative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsAI-Assisted Writing & Text GenerationPrototyping & User TestingCHI
Video Game Archaeology as Hauntological Practice: A Collaborative Autoethnography in Elden Ring Shadow of the ErdtreeVideo game archaeology is a relatively new field. This can involve studying players through the traces they leave in digital game worlds, though only limited work of this kind exists. Furthermore, the potential of these methods to record ephemeral play experiences for preservation purposes has not been widely explored. We conducted an archaeological survey of five sites in Elden Ring, taking place directly before, during and after the release of a major expansion. We present what is, to our knowledge, the first collaborative autoethnography of an archaeological survey in a video game, reflecting on our recorded footage, notes and data. Through a diffractive analysis, we demonstrate the value of video game archaeology as a form of hauntological practice that allows for a deeper reflection on the knowledge production process, and in doing so contribute to the development of new interdisciplinary methodologies in HCI, archaeology and games research.2026FNFlorence Smith Nicholls et al.Queen Mary University of LondonGame UX & Player BehaviorSerious & Functional GamesFitness Tracking & Physical Activity MonitoringCHI
Domestic Cultures of Plant Care: A Moss Terrarium ProbeHouseplants are increasingly being used as part of interactive systems that aim to foster pro-environmental concern and awareness of more-than-human life. Yet such interventions rely on conflicting and untested assumptions about how people relate to houseplants. We therefore studied domestic plant care in 11 purposefully sampled households, applying a sensor-equipped moss terrarium as a living ‘thing ethnography’ probe, supplemented with semi-structured interviews. We find that social and intergenerational cultures of plant care inform people's individual concern and accountability through constituents and mechanisms like gift-giving, signalling, knowledge transfer, or joint practical care. We identify five domestic cultures of plant care in our sample, each of which frames plants differently and leads to different practical approaches to plant care. We propose design considerations that emphasise enculturation and shared care over individual behaviour change and reframe houseplants from decorative objects into living household members.2025NBNirit Binyamini Ben-Meir et al.Sustainable HCIHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)DIS
Exclusion Rates among Disabled and Older Users of Virtual and Augmented RealityThis paper examines the levels of exclusion encountered by disabled and older users of consumer-level VR and AR technology and identifies methods formed by people with diverse access needs to circumvent encountered barriers to use. First, we estimate exclusion rates for a selection of nine immersive experiences of VR and AR, computed using population statistics data for the United Kingdom (UK). We then present an empirical lab-based study evaluating the usability of the same VR and AR experiences. The study involved 60 UK-based participants with varying access needs and the study results were used to calculate the empirical exclusion rates. Both the estimated and empirical exclusion rates display high levels of exclusion, which for the more complex experiences in the study reached 100%. However, multiple participants overcame usability barriers and completed experiences through provided assistance and self-initiated adaptations, suggesting that future VR and AR can become more inclusive if designed to counter these barriers.2025RERosella P. Galindo Esparza et al.Brunel University London, Brunel Design SchoolIdentity & Avatars in XRUniversal & Inclusive DesignCHI
Archaeological Gameworld Affordances: A Grounded Theory of How Players Interpret Environmental StorytellingEnvironmental storytelling is a design technique commonly used to convey narrative through assemblages of content in video games. To date there has been limited empirical work investigating how and on what basis players form interpretations about game environments. We report on a study in which participants (N=202) played a game about exploring a procedurally generated ruined village and were then surveyed on their interpretations. We draw on methods and theory from archaeology - a field that specialises in the interpretation of material remains - to support a grounded theory analysis of the survey responses, from which we form the theory of an archaeological gameworld mental model. Our study draws a novel link between affordance theory, archaeological knowledge production and game systems, and contributes new theoretical concepts that can be applied to procedurally generated and handcrafted methods in game design, narrative design and game preservation.2025FNFlorence Smith Nicholls et al.Queen Mary University of LondonRole-Playing & Narrative GamesInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
“Actually I Can Count My Blessings”: User-Centered Design of an Application to Promote Gratitude Among Young AdultsRegular practice of gratitude has the potential to enhance psychological wellbeing and foster stronger social connections among young adults. However, there is a lack of research investigating user needs and expectations regarding gratitude-promoting applications. To address this gap, we employed a user-centered design approach to develop a mobile application that facilitates gratitude practice. Our formative study involved 20 participants who utilized an existing application, providing insights into their preferences for organizing expressions of gratitude and the significance of prompts for reflection and mood labeling after working hours. Building on these findings, we conducted a deployment study with 26 participants using our custom-designed application, which confirmed the positive impact of structured options to guide gratitude practice and highlighted the advantages of passive engagement with the application during busy periods. Our study contributes to the field by identifying key design considerations for promoting gratitude among young adults.2024ABAnanya Bhattacharjee et al.Session 3d: Teens in the Digital Age: Safety, Creativity, and Well-BeingCSCW
Using Incongruous Genres to Explore Music Making with AI Generated ContentDeep learning generative AI models trained on huge datasets are capable of producing complex and high quality music. However, there are few studies of how AI Generated Content (AIGC) is actually used or appropriated in creative practice. We present two first-person accounts by musician-researchers of explorations of an interactive generative AI system trained on Irish Folk music. The AI is intentionally used by musicians from incongruous genres of Punk and Glitch to explore questions of how the model is appropriated into creative practice and how it changes creative practice when used outside of its intended genre. Reflections on the first-person accounts highlight issues of control, ambiguity, trust, and filtering AIGC. The accounts also highlight the role of AI as an audience and critic and how the musicians’ practice changed in response to the AIGC. We suggest that our incongruous approach may help to foreground the creative work and frictions in human-AI creative practice.2024NBNick Bryan-Kinns et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)AI-Assisted Creative WritingMusic Composition & Sound Design ToolsC&C
Reflection Across AI-based Music CompositionReflection is fundamental to creative practice. However, the plurality of ways in which people reflect when using AI Generated Content (AIGC) is underexplored. This paper takes AI-based music composition as a case study to explore how artist-researcher composers reflected when integrating AIGC into their music composition process. The AI tools explored range from Markov Chains for music generation to Variational Auto-Encoders for modifying timbre. We used a novel method where our composers would pause and reflect back on screenshots of their composing after every hour, using this documentation to write first-person accounts showcasing their subjective viewpoints on their experience. We triangulate the first-person accounts with interviews and questionnaire measures to contribute descriptions on how the composers reflected. For example, we found that many composers reflect on future directions in which to take their music whilst curating AIGC. Our findings contribute to supporting future explorations on reflection in creative HCI contexts.2024CFCorey Ford et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Music Composition & Sound Design ToolsCreative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsC&C
How does Juicy Game Feedback Motivate? Testing Curiosity, Competence, and Effectance'Juicy' or immediate abundant action feedback is widely held to make video games enjoyable and intrinsically motivating. Yet we do not know why it works: Which motives are mediating it? Which features afford it? In a pre-registered (n=1,699) online experiment, we tested three motives mapping prior practitioner discourse---effectance, competence, and curiosity---and connected design features. Using a dedicated action RPG and a 2x2+control design, we varied feedback amplification, success-dependence, and variability and recorded self-reported effectance, competence, curiosity, and enjoyment as well as free-choice playtime. Structural equation models show curiosity as the strongest enjoyment and only playtime predictor and support theorised competence pathways. Success dependence enhanced all motives, while amplification unexpectedly reduced them, possibly because the tested condition unintentionally impeded players' sense of agency. Our study evidences uncertain success affording curiosity as an underappreciated moment-to-moment engagement driver, directly supports competence-related theory, and suggests that prior juicy game feel guidance ties to legible action-outcome bindings and graded success as preconditions of positive 'low-level' user experience.2024DKDominic Kao et al.Purdue UniversityGame UX & Player BehaviorGamification DesignCHI
Not All the Same: Understanding and Informing Similarity Estimation in Tile-Based Video GamesSimilarity estimation is essential for many game AI applications, from the procedural generation of distinct assets to automated exploration with game-playing agents. While similarity metrics often substitute human evaluation, their alignment with our judgement is unclear. Consequently, the result of their application can fail human expectations, leading to e.g. unappreciated content or unbelievable agent behaviour. We alleviate this gap through a multi-factorial study of two tile-based games in two representations, where participants (N=456) judged the similarity of level triplets. Based on this data, we construct domain-specific perceptual spaces, encoding similarity-relevant attributes. We compare 12 metrics to these spaces and evaluate their approximation quality through several quantitative lenses. Moreover, we conduct a qualitative labelling study to identify the features underlying the human similarity judgement in this popular genre. Our findings inform the selection of existing metrics and highlight requirements for the design of new similarity metrics benefiting game development and research.2024SBSebastian Berns et al.Queen Mary University of LondonGame UX & Player BehaviorRole-Playing & Narrative GamesCHI
RoomDreaming: Generative-AI Approach to Facilitating Iterative, Preliminary Interior Design ExplorationInterior design aims to create aesthetically pleasing and functional environments within an architectural space. For a simple room, the preliminary design exploration currently takes multiple meetings and days of work for interior designers to incorporate homeowners' personal preferences through layout, furnishings, form, colors, and materials. We present RoomDreaming, a generative AI-based approach designed to facilitate preliminary interior design exploration. It empowers owners and designers to rapidly and efficiently iterate through a broad range of AI-generated, photo-realistic design alternatives, each uniquely tailored to fit actual space layouts and individual design preferences. We conducted a series of formative and summative studies with a total of 18 homeowners and 20 interior designers to help design, improve, and evaluate RoomDreaming. Owners reported that RoomDreaming effectively increased the breadth and depth of design exploration with higher efficiency and satisfaction. Designers reported that one hour of collaborative designing with RoomDreaming yielded results comparable to several days of traditional owner-designer meetings, plus days to weeks worth of designer work to develop and refine designs.2024SWShun-Yu Wang et al.National Taiwan UniversityGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Customizable & Personalized ObjectsCHI
Thinking with Sound: Exploring the Experience of Listening to an Ultrasonic Art Installation Entanglement theories are well established in HCI discourse. These involve a commitment to view human experience in encounters with technology as relational and contingent, and research apparatuses as co-producers rather than passive observers of phenomena. In this paper, we argue that sound is the sensory modality best suited to the investigation of entanglements. Materialist theories of sound and listening guide both the design of a novel interactive sound installation and the methodological approach of a participant study exploring the experience of listening. We present a diffractive analysis whereby micro-phenomenological interview data is read with sonic theories, generating accounts that might otherwise remain mute: the temporal fluctuation and physical feeling of proximity in listener entanglements with sound, somatic intention setting, and plural interpretations of interactivity. Finally, we offer a series of provocations for HCI to embrace qualities of the sonic and consider epistemological positions grounded in other sense modalities.2024NRNicole Robson et al.Queen Mary University of LondonMid-Air Haptics (Ultrasonic)Digital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceCHI
What the Sensor Knows: More-Than-Human Knowledge Co-Production in Wood CarvingFrom an engineering perspective, sensors provide measurements of phenomena in the world. Sensor data might be noisy, biased or otherwise subject to error, and these labels presuppose the existence of an objective ground truth the sensor is intended to approximate. This paper explores an alternative look at sensor signals as situated observations entangled with the systems they seek to measure, where meaning can be carried in qualitative particulars rather than quantitative and statistical analyses. Karen Barad’s `agential realism' \cite{baradMeetingUniverseHalfway2007} and Graham Harman’s `tool-being' \cite{harmanToolbeingHeideggerMetaphyics2002} inform our approach to understanding \emph{together with} the sensors, which become co-investigators and co-creators of the subsequent knowledge. We illustrate our collaborative effort with the sensor through a case study where we examine sensor signals from a device designed to query the experience of woodcarving by making the experience unfamiliar. We seek a qualitative approach to knowledge (co-)creation with sensor data from a more-than-human perspective.2023CNCharlotte Nordmoen et al.Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)Digital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceDIS
When Materials Meet Sound: Discovering the Meaning of Deformable Materials in Musical InteractionResearch on Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) design highlights that materiality plays an important role in DMI design and musical interaction. However, DMI design research often focuses on technology-oriented factors, with less exploration of the meaning of materials in design practice. In this paper, we explore how DMI designers understand deformable sensor materials and how they use these as a resource for creative aesthetic design. Eleven DMI designers were invited to use a selection of deformable sensor materials to create prototype DMIs with them in a design activity. Three design approaches emerged, determined by how designers perceived and explored sensor materials. We discuss the potential of the methodology for exploring strongly entangled elements, such as material, gesture, and sound, in DMI design. The results contribute to the design practice for DMI designers and to further exploration of material-based design research in Human-Computer Interaction.2023JZJianing Zheng et al.Shape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsMusic Composition & Sound Design ToolsDIS
Towards a Reflection in Creative Experience QuestionnaireReflection is underexplored in Creativity Support Tool (CST) research, partly due to its ambiguous nature. We suggest that researchers could benefit from a measure of a CST's capacity to support reflection. To this end, we detail the first stages of development of the Reflection in Creative Experience Questionnaire (RiCE) – a lightweight questionnaire for differentiating between creative user experiences which exhibit more or less moments of reflection. We develop RiCE through i) an expert review of questionnaire items (n=10) and ii) an exploratory factor analysis (n=300) of the reviewed items. We also present a user study testing RiCE (n=58) across two time points (one week apart) with novel interfaces designed for creative writing and music making. Although we do not confirm validity, we identify four factors for RiCE which we suggest are interpretable in a conceptually meaningful way. Our formative studies contribute towards supporting future explorations on reflection with CSTs.2023CFCorey Ford et al.Queen Mary University of LondonMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCreative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsCHI
Negotiating Experience and Communicating Information Through Abstract MetaphorAn implicit assumption in metaphor use is that it requires grounding in a familiar concept, prominently seen in the popular Desktop Metaphor. In human-to-human communication, however, abstract metaphors, without such grounding, are often used with great success. To understand when and why metaphors work, we present a case study of metaphor use in voice teaching. Voice educators must teach about subjective, sensory experiences and rely on abstract metaphor to express information about unseen and intangible processes inside the body. We present a thematic analysis of metaphor use by 12 voice teachers. We found that metaphor works not because of strong grounding in the familiar, but because of its ambiguity and flexibility, allowing shared understanding between individual lived experiences. We summarise our findings in a model of metaphor-based communication. This model can be used as an analysis tool within the existing taxonomies of metaphor in user interaction for better understanding why metaphor works in HCI. It can also be used as a design resource for thinking about metaphor use and abstracting metaphor strategies from both novel and existing designs.2023CRCourtney N. Reed et al.Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarland Informatics Campus, Queen Mary University of LondonUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)Interactive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
"My Perfect Platform Would Be Telepathy" - Reimagining the Design of Social Media with Autistic AdultsIn this paper, we critically examine the design of mainstream social media platforms from the point of view of autistic experiences and perspectives, drawing inspiration from the neurodiversity movement, the notion of autism as neurodivergence, and the concept of autistic sociality. We conducted 12 participatory design sessions with 20 autistic adult collaborators. Through thematic analysis of qualitative data, we identify seven challenges our participants experienced when using social media, and a set of imagined features that represent their vision of how design could better support their social media use. We discuss how mainstream social media platforms are primarily designed to address neurotypical sensitivities, and fail autistic adults through lack of user control, inadequate mechanisms for expressing tone and intention, and an orientation towards phatic interactions. To close, we outline how autistic sociality can inspire the design of kinder and more considerate social media platforms.2023BPBelén Barros Pena et al.City, University of LondonCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Gender & Race Issues in HCIEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI