The commitment to multiplicity and pluriversality challenges design to move beyond singular, stable conceptions of the human. Personal sensing systems offer a rich site for examining this challenge because in mediating the human experience, they constitute the human, although typically as a bounded, rational subject. Building on the critical discourse around sensing technologies, we examine what it might mean to make space for multiplicity in sensing. We articulate "purple zone" as an ontologically ambiguous space emerging from crossing boundaries previously naturalized or deemed fixed, and instantiate it through "EDA purple zone," marking the threshold of in/visibility in Electrodermal Activity sensing. Through a multi-year process, we developed a real-time biofeedback system that surfaces EDA purple zone. Through a two-week study with 24 participants, we examine encounters with purple zone, instances where the relational human emerges through assemblages, and participants' strategies for navigating such encounters. We conclude by reflecting on the inherent tensions and possibilities for reconstituting the human in/through personal sensing and engaging ontological multiplicity through design.
Sounds play a crucial role in shaping dining experiences. Recently, designers have increasingly integrated them into interfaces that connect diners with food. Yet, little is known about how sounds can function as culinary materials to enrich chefs' creativity, particularly in creating meaningful auditory interactions that resonate with their culinary creations. Hence, we present GastroConcerto, an auditory dining system that combines a magnetic contact microphone equipped under the plate with a companion mobile application. This system delves into the interactive space between diners and their food to introduce a novel interactive mechanism of dining–sound pairing, enabling chefs to design specific auditory interactions that respond to diners' individual interactions with the dining containers. Through a within-subjects study and field deployment, we examined how GastroConcerto enriches chefs' creative practices in crafting "sonic dish" experiences. Ultimately, our goal is to shift the ownership of auditory interaction design from interface designers to chefs, thereby supporting their culinary creativity.
Our bodies mediate every interaction with technology, yet—as soma design and feminist HCI remind us—the body is not a neutral canvas. We introduce and examine felt asymmetries—somaesthetic experiences of difference in the body—as a site for generative and critical engagement in interaction design. Through an autobiographical design exploration, and a series of somatic explorations with nine designers including individual inquiries and workshops, we sensitised to, articulated, and shared personal experiences of asymmetry. We draw from these explorations to contribute: (1) Opening a design space exploring the aesthetics of felt asymmetries; (2) Reflections on engaging with asymmetry in design, e.g. as a design material, an estrangement activity or doorway into intimate experience; (3) Considerations for creating technologies that resonate with, rather than erase, the asymmetries of lived experience. We argue that bodily asymmetries are not only to be accommodated in design, but embraced as aesthetic resources—sources of joy, tension, and creativity.
Emerging 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.
Mixed 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.
In virtual reality, users are typically represented by and interact through a virtual body. Research frequently manipulates different features of these bodies. We analyze 208 studies to identify what aspects of virtual bodies are manipulated, how these manipulations affect interaction and other outcomes, and why they are assumed to do so. Based on the analysis, we propose a design space comprising seven types of visual manipulations: appearance, size, morphology, viewpoint, transfer, remapping, and control. We also synthesize findings on their effects—ranging from task performance to physiological responses and social outcomes—and examine the theories used to explain them, such as embodiment, Proteus effect, and presence. The design space helps researchers identify key variables and their interconnections in design and empirical research of virtual bodies. The synthesis further reveals unexplored causal connections and highlights theories that may account for observed effects.
Sharing with others can play a vital role in helping to cope with stress and emotional burdens. Biofeedback systems have been growing in HCI as supportive of individual stress management; however, the potential of leveraging neurofeedback systems for embodied forms of interpersonal stress sharing remains unexplored. We present MinusxMinus=Plus, an interactive system that externalizes collective neural activity to create a shared affective space. The system allows two participants to visualize their stress in real time via Electroencephalography (EEG) and to jointly transform it through two forms of haptic interaction. The system was tested with 110 participants (55 pairs), and their experience of embodied stress sharing was evaluated. Results show that our system significantly promoted the sharing process, underscoring the central role of visual and haptic modalities. This work contributes empirical evidence and design insights for developing neurofeedback systems that foster interpersonal stress sharing and support mental health.