Eye2Recall: Exploring Mixed-Initiative Reminiscence Activities via Gaze-Driven LLM Prompts for Older AdultsPhoto-based reminiscence can support well-being in older adults, yet most systems remain text-driven and offer little real-time adaptivity. We first conduct expert interviews to derive design considerations for accessibility, cultural fit, and safe emotional engagement. We then implemented Eye2Recall, an intelligent conversational interface that converts users’ gazes on old photos into mixed-initiative prompts for a large language model (LLM). We evaluated it in a pilot study with 12 older adults. Participants reported low-effort, smooth interactions, and perceived the agent’s questions as aligned with what they were looking at. Immediately after use, self-reported positive mood increased and negative mood decreased. Interviews further indicated that gaze-driven prompts helped retrieve concrete details and supported reflective storytelling. Our contribution is a concrete mechanism for gaze-to-prompt adaptivity that operationalizes mixed-initiative dialogue for older adults’ reminiscence experience.2026LHLei Han et al.Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)Eye Tracking & Gaze InteractionHuman-LLM CollaborationElderly Care & Dementia SupportIUI
Digital Companionship: Overlapping Uses of AI Companions and AI AssistantsLarge language models are increasingly used for both task-based assistance and social companionship, yet research has typically focused on one or the other. Drawing on a survey (N = 202) and 30 interviews with high-engagement ChatGPT and Replika users, we characterize digital companionship as an emerging form of human-AI relationship. With both systems, users were drawn to humanlike qualities, such as emotional resonance and personalized responses, and non-humanlike qualities, such as constant availability and inexhaustible tolerance. This led to fluid chatbot uses, such as Replika as a writing assistant and ChatGPT as an emotional confidant, despite their distinct branding. However, we observed challenging tensions in digital companionship dynamics: participants grappled with bounded personhood, forming deep attachments while denying chatbots "real" human qualities, and struggled to reconcile chatbot relationships with social norms. These dynamics raise questions for the design of digital companions and the rise of hybrid, general-purpose AI systems.2026AMAikaterina Manoli et al.Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain SciencesHuman-LLM CollaborationAgent Personality & AnthropomorphismAffective Human-Computer DialogueCHI
Personal Health Data Communication: Techniques, Tensions, and Implications for Design from a Clinician PerspectiveThis paper reports how clinicians explain personal health data to patients and the tensions which arise from this in practice, leading us to describe a set of implications for designing communication aids around personal health data. With the trend towards patient-centered care and shared decision making, it is crucial that patients understand their clinical data and respective implications during medical consultations. So, what strategies do clinicians currently use to ensure this? And how can these inform the development of successful patient communication aids? Through interviewing 19 healthcare professionals, we identify 57 techniques, painting a rich picture of current practices. However, we also note 9 tensions that arise when applying these techniques in reality; such as balancing transparency with disclosing data inappropriate for a patient's current situation. Based on the techniques and motivated by these tensions, we present a set of considerations to inform the design of technological patient communication aids consistent with current clinical practice.2026SDSarah Dunn et al.University of EdinburghMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesTelemedicine & Remote Patient MonitoringHealth Self-TrackingCHI
Speculative Performance: Staging Intergenerational Speculation to Explore Critical Literacies of Technological FuturesThis paper presents speculative performance as an approach for engaging participants in imagining, enacting, and reflecting on technological futures through a combination of speculative design, performance, and intergenerational engagement. While speculative and performance-based methods are well established in HCI, there has been limited exploration of how these practices might explore critical technological literacies across generations. To investigate this, we ran two five-day workshops with approximately 30 older adults and young people, who collaboratively created speculative artefacts and dramatic scenes of technological futures, which culminated in a final public performance. We demonstrate how speculative performance can foster critical literacies of digital technologies and data by enabling participants to embody technological issues, move from technological malfunction to social and relational implications, and imagine alternative futures. We reflect on the opportunities and challenges of speculative performance and argue that this methodological approach expands how HCI imagines, critiques and performs technological futures with intergenerational communities.2026TCTara Capel et al.University of EdinburghDesign FictionInclusive DesignDeveloping Countries & HCI for Development (HCI4D)CHI
DancingBox: A Lightweight MoCap System for Character Animation from Physical ProxiesCreating compelling 3D character animations typically requires either expert use of professional software or expensive motion capture systems operated by skilled actors. We present DancingBox, a lightweight, vision-based system that makes motion capture accessible to novices by reimagining the process as digital puppetry. Instead of tracking precise human motions, DancingBox captures the approximate movements of everyday objects manipulated by users with a single webcam. These coarse proxy motions are then refined into realistic character animations by conditioning a generative motion model on bounding-box representations, enriched with human motion priors learned from large-scale datasets. To overcome the lack of paired proxy–animation data, we synthesize training pairs by converting existing motion capture sequences into proxy representations. A user study demonstrates that DancingBox enables intuitive and creative character animation using diverse proxies, from plush toys to bananas, lowering the barrier to entry for novice animators.2026HYHaocheng Yuan et al.University of Edinburgh3D Modeling & AnimationTangible Programming & Physical ComputingCHI
HCI for Agroecology: Agri-Tech between Grassroots and CapitalismDigital technologies in agriculture are typically portrayed as enabling more sustainable production while increasing productivity. Yet, commercial solutions rarely address the root causes of unsustainable farming, limiting the uptake of more radical solutions such as agroecology. We conducted fieldwork on 11 UK small-scale agroecological farms investigating their adoption of digital technologies. Far from being anti-technological, agroecological farmers are currently poorly supported by appropriate digital tools. Further, the collaborative nature of agroecological farming, market productivity pressures, and regulatory requirements necessitate complex data practices for coordination, planning, monitoring, and learning. These data practices require labour that is often hidden and causes tension within farms. We develop these insights into a set of guiding principles for designing digital technologies appropriate for agroecology and suggest concrete design opportunities. We present a call to action for HCI to reimagine digital agriculture beyond capitalism and work with existing farmer-led grassroots networks towards technological sovereignty.2026SPSebastian Prost et al.City St George's, University of LondonSustainable HCIEcological Design & Green ComputingCitizen Science & Crowdsourced DataCHI
Behind the Meme: Understanding User Experiences with Memes on Social MediaWhile memes enhance social interaction on social media, they can raise privacy and security concerns. Despite research on overtly toxic or unsafe memes, little attention has been given to users' experiences with seemingly safe memes and how contextual factors trigger privacy concerns. This study explores users’ comfort levels, influencing factors, underlying reasons for discomfort, and unmet needs when engaging with such memes. We first collected and analyzed 2,317 Reddit posts describing real-world meme experiences, then conducted an online survey with 324 participants to evaluate comfort across curated scenarios. Our findings reveal that perceived-safe memes can cause harm when shared inappropriately, with comfort shaped by content and context. Privacy concerns intensify with deeper involvement, strangers, and sensitive meme topics. We identified users' desire for consent and control in meme interactions. Based on our study, we make recommendations for users, developers of social media platforms and policymakers to address meme-related privacy and contextual concerns.2026YNYuqi Niu et al.Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityPrivacy Perception & Decision-MakingSocial Platform Design & User BehaviorContent Moderation & Platform GovernanceCHI
ORAgen Fables: Advancing the Design and Management of Content AttributionAs the internet thrives on the circulation of easily copied content, ensuring attribution is properly given has been a perennial challenge. Following the rise of synthetic media and generative AI tools, and corresponding technologies which enable detailed media provenance, the picture has become considerably more complicated. We present a design research project to consider the implications of these developments from the perspective of the public, everyday (non-professional) user and ‘mundane content’ creation. Through the design, exhibition, and study of a collaborative storytelling tool, ORAgen Fables, we introduce technologies which enable detailed attribution and media provenance and explore contemporary attitudes and concerns about attribution. Our findings suggest that attribution should be understood as relational and dynamic with users having the right to ongoing management of their attribution. This opens a design space for understanding how technical systems could be deployed to define and ascribe attribution for past and future interactions.2026FLFrances Liddell et al.University of EdinburghGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)AI-Assisted Decision-Making & AutomationAI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityCHI
Caring about Care: A Meta-Narrative Review of HCI Research on CareThe number of HCI papers on care has grown rapidly in recent years. Despite growing interest in care both as an application domain for technology and as an ethical stance in research and design, our integrated understanding of the concept is limited. It remains unclear how various application areas of care relate to one another, to what extent their underlying assumptions align or contradict, and how they collectively shape HCI discourse on care. To address this, we present a meta-narrative review of 317 SIGCHI papers on care. We first outline the landscape of care in HCI. We then present six paradigmatic framings of care, and a conceptual map that positions these framings in relation to each other, their representative care–tech relations, and the temporal development of the field. We conclude by discussing the implications from the review, as well as gaps in the field and future directions.2026ZWZixuan Wang et al.University of EdinburghMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsTechnology Ethics & Critical HCICHI
Characterizing Scam-Driven Human Trafficking Across Chinese Borders and Online Community Responses on RedNoteA new form of human trafficking has emerged across Chinese borders, where individuals are lured to Southeast Asia with fraudulent job offers and then coerced into operating online scams. Despite its massive economic and human toll, this scam-driven trafficking remains underexplored in academic research. Through qualitative analysis of 158 RedNote posts, we examined how Chinese online communities respond to this threat. Our findings reveal that perpetrators exploit cultural ties to recruit victims for cybercriminal roles within self-sustaining compounds, using sophisticated manipulation tactics. Survivors face serious reintegration barriers, including family rejection, as the cultural values that enable trafficking also hinder their recovery. While communities present protective strategies, efforts are complicated by doubts about the reliability of support and cross-border coordination. We discuss key implications for prevention, platform governance, and international cooperation against scam-driven trafficking. Warning: This paper contains descriptions of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.2026JZJiamin Zheng et al.University of EdinburghContent Moderation & Platform GovernanceActivism & Political ParticipationEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
Speculating with Older Adults in HCI: A Scoping ReviewOlder adults are increasingly invited into speculative activities within HCI, yet little is known about how researchers facilitate these processes or how this population engages in shaping alternative presents and socio-technical futures. While speculative design methods often aim to support non-designers to contribute to design processes, engaging older adults poses unique challenges that complicate their involvement. To build a comprehensive understanding, we conducted a scoping review of 44 prior studies on speculative design involving older adults, focusing on the research objectives and methodological rationales, facilitation, and how older adults engage in speculation. Through this analysis, we identify persistent methodological tensions, opportunities to advance more inclusive speculative practices with aging populations, and suggest implications for future practice.2026YZYuxiang Zhai et al.Tsinghua UniversityParticipatory DesignAging-Friendly Technology DesignInclusive DesignCHI
Augmenting Clinical Decision-Making with an Interactive and Interpretable AI Copilot: A Real-World User Study with Clinicians in Nephrology and ObstetricsClinician skepticism toward opaque AI hinders adoption in high-stakes healthcare. We present AICare, an interactive and interpretable AI copilot for collaborative clinical decision-making. By analyzing longitudinal electronic health records, AICare grounds dynamic risk predictions in scrutable visualizations and LLM-driven diagnostic recommendations. Through a within-subjects counterbalanced study with 16 clinicians across nephrology and obstetrics, we comprehensively evaluated AICare using objective measures (task completion time and error rate), subjective assessments (NASA-TLX, SUS, and confidence ratings), and semi-structured interviews. Our findings indicate AICare's reduced cognitive workload. Beyond performance metrics, qualitative analysis reveals that trust is actively constructed through verification, with interaction strategies diverging by expertise: junior clinicians used the system as cognitive scaffolding to structure their analysis, while experts engaged in adversarial verification to challenge the AI's logic. This work offers design implications for creating AI systems that function as transparent partners, accommodating diverse reasoning styles to augment rather than replace clinical judgment.2026YZYinghao Zhu et al.Peking UniversityExplainable AI (XAI)AI-Assisted Decision-Making & AutomationEV Charging & Eco-Driving InterfacesCHI
LLooM: Weaving Stories and Probing Experiences of Language TechnologiesThis paper presents LLooM, a probe designed to capture situated, temporal, and contradictory experiences with language technologies such as voice assistants, chatbots, and LLMs. The design of LLooM draws on work in probes, feminist HCI, and storytelling to invite participants to write stories about their encounters with language technologies on fabric strips and weave them into looms. Through a public, researcher-facilitated, and collective participant deployment with 56 participants, LLooM enabled participants to share diverse perspectives on language technologies. This methodological approach makes two contributions to probe design in HCI: enabling participants to reshape the methodological assumptions underlying research and allowing participants' visible contributions to become provocations that support collaborative meaning-making across diverse experiences.2026KPKimberley Paradis et al.University of EdinburghConversational ChatbotsAgent Personality & AnthropomorphismParticipatory DesignCHI
``God says we are right!'': The Interplay between Religion and Propaganda on Arabic Social MediaReligion is a main aspect of life in many parts of the world; hence, it acts as a powerful tool for influencing people's views and actions. In the context of propaganda and misinformation, religion has been perceived as a factor that impacts people negatively leading them to be influenced by false or biased information. However, there are limited quantitative studies that explore the exact role of religion in this process. In this study, we investigate whether state-sponsored propaganda accounts share religious content in a different way than the typical norms reported in the literature and whether they mobilize this content to promote their agendas. We find by exploring 15 Middle Eastern propaganda Twitter datasets encompassing around 124 million tweets from 32.5K accounts that propagandists share religious texts according to patterns that reflect aspects of their state's agenda. We also demonstrate examples where such texts were used to modulate political messages.2026MFMahmoud Fawzi et al.The University of EdinburghMisinformation & Fact-CheckingActivism & Political ParticipationCHI
ElectroGrasp: Electrotactile Aids for Visually Impaired Individuals in Anticipatory Planning and Control of GraspGrasping objects typically relies on visual input to pre-shape the hand and plan movement trajectories, a process often disrupted in visually impaired (VI) individuals. ElectroGrasp is a wearable electro-tactile system that delivers anticipatory proprioceptive and tactile information through three complementary modalities: Grasping Orientation, Size, and Shape. This system dynamically conveys spatial features-thereby enhancing anticipatory grasp planning and control through tactile perception. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate ElectroGrasp. The first examined tactile pattern discriminability, size perception thresholds, and the reliability of orientation encoding. The second assessed learning time with ElectroGrasp and its effectiveness in supporting spatial representation, demonstrating accurate spatial perception of objects from electrotactile input. The third compared grasp aperture under audio versus electrotactile cues, revealing that ElectroGrasp reduced hand overshoot and regrasp corrections. Overall, the results demonstrate that ElectroGrasp provides efficient tactile information, enables improved anticipatory grasp planning comparable to visual cues, and offers a novel assistive solution for VI users.2026HZHechuan Zhang et al.Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of SciencesVibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationHaptic WearablesVisual Impairment Technologies (Screen Readers, Tactile Graphics, Braille)CHI
From Blank Box to Creative Partner: Designing Ecological On-Ramps for First-Time AI ArtistsWhile generative AI promises to democratize creativity, we lack empirical understanding of how creative professionals begin using these systems. Through a 10-week longitudinal study following one artist's self-directed exploration, we ask three case-bounded questions: what interaction patterns emerged? What dynamics characterized sustainable co-creation for this artist? How might we evaluate successful integration in this case? Our findings from this case study reveal: (1) physical environments and material practices drove digital interaction; (2) specific temporal patterns emerged (short prompt bursts, consolidation periods, multi-day resurfacing cycles) and (3) productive discomfort and sustained tension marked successful sessions. These patterns suggest alternative design spaces worth exploring. We contribute: (1) four empirically-grounded design patterns (park-and-resurface, warm-up modes, affect-to-action bridges, comfort controls) that could be prototyped and tested; and (2) speculative provocations that challenge efficiency-first paradigms. This case study demonstrates that some users may benefit from approaches orthogonal to current design paradigms.2026CBCharlotte Bird et al.University of EdinburghGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)AI-Assisted Creative WritingCreative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsCHI
'The plan is just survival': Data Work in Kenya and the Regime of EntrapmentThe rapid expansion of the AI industry relies heavily on the production, verification, and maintenance of data, otherwise known as "data work". Companies outsource and offshore this work through global AI supply chains that operate under exploitative conditions. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Kenyan data workers across platforms and BPOs, this paper examines how such conditions take shape and persist. We argue that workers are caught within a regime of entrapment, a system of interconnected mechanisms that make it difficult for workers to leave or improve their positions. These mechanisms include the push to invest in the promise of ‘AI’ jobs, the use of precarious contracts to govern workers, the capture of regulatory institutions, and the exploitation of global labor arbitrage. Using complementary lenses of neoliberal governmentality, precarity, and supply chain capitalism, we analyze why labor mobilization in this sector remains uniquely constrained. We conclude by outlining an orientation for research and scholarly practice that can support workers' organizing efforts and contest the structural conditions sustaining this regime.2026SKShivani Kapania et al.Carnegie Mellon UniversityDeveloping Countries & HCI for Development (HCI4D)Surgical Assistance & Medical TrainingGig Economy PlatformsCHI
From Squishing to Meaning: Exploring Data Physicalization Through Children’s Embodied ExperiencesData physicalization is a promising approach for empowering children to understand and enjoy their own data. However, it relies on embodied metaphors to convey information effectively. This paper explores how to elicit children's embodied experiences using a set of shape-changing objects that can inform the design of dynamic physicalizations. We propose a set of auxetic metamaterials, which can bend, twist, scale and shear. Following principles of tangible interaction, we conducted a study with 59 children who participated in four movement-based games before being introduced to the collection of shape-changing tangibles. Children expressed metaphors based on these activities related to concepts such as containers, rhythm, resistance, and semantic analogies, which we categorised into embodied schemas. Our findings reveal that characteristics of the shape-changing tangibles aid children in connecting their bodily experiences to dynamic transformations. Translating these insights into idea sketches, we outline how to tailor these affordable shape-changing mechanisms into usable prototypes.2026ADAndres Alberto Ramirez Duque et al.University of GlasgowData PhysicalizationHaptic WearablesTangible Interaction in EducationCHI
Silencing \& Surging: A Layered Ecology of Algorithmic Repression and Resistance in the Gaza EscalationsDuring the 2023–ongoing Gaza war, Palestinian advocacy on social media has faced rapid removals, downranking, and account sanctions. In this contribution, we offer a layered analysis of how people endure and counter this repression across affective, mechanistic, and material dimensions. Using patchwork ethnography over 295 first-person testimonies and 85 NGO/press documents, we identify a recursive Contest Loop: hostile mass-report brigades and automated enforcement that spur supporter ``appeal brigades,'' mirroring, and migration. Findings are organized as a three-layer ecology---Invisible Scars (whiplash, shadowbanning as probabilistic throttling, self-censorship), Dueling Brigades (frictions, coordinated reports, supporter procedures), and Feed-to-Street Ripples (fundraising, evidentiary preservation, livelihoods). Conceptually, we extend platform-assemblage thinking with a Resistance Assemblage: ad-hoc technical, emotional, and legal mutual-aid infrastructures that keep visibility alive under sanction. We contribute: (1) an event-centered, experience-near account of co-produced moderation in conflict; (2) two integrative lenses (Contest Loop, Resistance Assemblage); and (3) design/policy directions, including collective-appeal dashboards, and evidentiary safeguards that separate archiving from distribution.2026HEHouda Elmimouni et al.University of ManitobaContent Moderation & Platform GovernanceMisinformation & Fact-CheckingOnline Harassment & Counter-ToolsCHI
Holding MenstaRay: Expressing Menstrual Pain through Tactile and Knitted Soft Robotic InteractionsMenstrual pain is an embodied, unpredictable, and diverse lived experience. However, current menstrual tracking technologies mainly adopt medicalised and quantitative approaches, reducing pain to numerical data, concealing its organic and messy nature. To uncover the felt, lived experience of pain, we explored soft robotics as a tactile, dynamic medium. Through a series of material workshops, we designed MenstaRay, a novel artefact that mimics the temporality and fluctuations of menstrual pain. Findings from sensory interactions with MenstaRay show that soft robotic materials sensitise and enhance menstruators’ bodily awareness, supporting them in contextually recalling, introspecting, and reflecting on their pain experiences, and encouraging a sense of self-care, self-acceptance, and companionship toward menstrual pain. We frame MenstaRay’s dynamic entanglements with fluid bodily experiences as a meaningful material practice through a feminist lens, highlighting the creative potential of novel programmable interactions of knitted soft robotics to express nuanced pain characteristics, extending to other somatic experience design beyond menstruation.2026YLYixun Li et al.University of EdinburghShape-Changing Interfaces & Soft Robotic MaterialsHaptic WearablesAffective Feedback & Emotion Regulation InterfacesCHI