Workshop Schedule

Engaging with Nature in a Digital World

Digital technologies increasingly influence our engagement with the natural world, yet understanding their role in human- nature interactions is dispersed across various perspectives and orientations. This workshop, aimed at HCI researchers and practitioners, will address key trends, practical challenges, and ethical considerations in designing technology to foster harmonious human-nature relationships, seeking to promote future collaborations and expand interdisciplinary approaches to this field. Participants will engage in a guided nature walk, group discussions, presentations, and speculative design activities. Topics include enhancing nature visits with technology, promoting children's connection to nature, more-than-human design principles, indigenous perspectives, and evaluating technology's impact on nature connection.

Moving with Machines: A Human-Robot Experience (HRX) Theatre Workshop

The Human-Robot Experience (HRX) Theatre Workshop invites participants to reimagine our relationships with robots by exploring the social potential of machinelike artifacts. HRX frames human-robot interaction as a more-than-human encounter, challenging traditional HRI perspectives. This workshop aims to establish a creative playground for participants to develop and enact inclusive human-robot scenarios, harnessing the generative potential of movement. We introduce our Relational Body Mapping (RBM) method, using robot costumes to facilitate perspective-taking and enable participants to step into the shoes of a robot, experiencing its unique affordances. This immersive approach aims to cultivate diverse perspectives beyond anthropocentric views, opening up new modes of empathy, nonverbal communication, and meaning-making with machinelike artifacts.

Inclusive HCI: Second International Workshop on Developing Digital Technologies or Supporting Societal Inclusion of Disadvantaged Groups

Digital assistive technologies open entirely new opportunities of independent participation and social inclusion for persons with disabilities or otherwise disadvantaged groups. However, many barriers to its usability exist that prevent

digital assistive technologies to work beneficially in terms of inclusion or participation. This workshop will provide the platform for practitioners and scientists to exchange their experiences on best practices, concepts and methods in developing truly inclusive, assistive technologies. We aim to create a lively ‘room’ for discussing and defining the interrelation of technical, practical and social factors of inclusive usability design of future technologies.

Re-examining TEIs Using Provocations

Revisiting Tangible and Embodied Interaction (TEI) design to create a framework of different "reality types" and their relation to interaction styles offers a promising approach for design evaluation. This framework is applied to the challenge of distanced intergenerational communication, particularly between young children and their older relatives, using digital technology. We argue that a tangible and embodied design approach can enhance such interactions. We invite participants to submit provocations (video, storyboard, or slides) exploring the application of this reality spectrum.

Pushing the Boundaries of Participatory Design for Greater Impact

Participatory design (PD) has traditionally focused on individual projects within specific contexts. To achieve greater societal impact and address "big problems," we need methods for planning, conducting, and reporting PD research that enable the comparison and integration of projects. This workshop aims to develop guidelines or a framework for understanding PD processes and data on a larger scale. Participants are optionally invited to submit 2-page position papers, discussing their experiences of PD methodologies. We are interested in discussing what methods can be used (or not) for comparing PD results? Are there PD methods that are well suited for upscaling studies and is it suitable to upscale PDs

More-than-Human Moments via Movement-based Design & Cultural Insights

The field of HCI is experiencing a more-than-human turn, expanding its focus on non-human entities, sustainable practices, and the integration of agentic technologies in daily life. This one-day workshop invites participants to co- create moments that facilitate encounters with more-than-human worlds using movement-based design methodologies and exploring cultural insights. Such as from Indigenous Australian games, the Incas in Peru, and human-animal/plant transmutation fables. These playful, make-believe, embodied experiences can enrich our understanding, research, and relations with the more-than-human. The workshop’s outcomes include a toolkit to engage audiences beyond academia and an academic publication to contribute to the field of more-than-human design.

Using what makes us human: Reflecting upon the use of AI in design education

The advent of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed the educational landscape. While research highlights AI's potential to enhance critical thinking among tertiary students, it also underscores the necessity of teaching students to critically evaluate AI outputs. In this workshop, we aim to address these challenges by gathering diverse professionals to share experiences and expertise in this area. We invite academics, researchers, educators, industry practitioners, and other interested people to engage in discussions, AI-driven ideation activities, and reflective exercises to explore the integration of new technologies into teaching while preserving critical thinking skills. The outcomes will help guide future educational practices in a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Disability and Emerging Technologies

This workshop focuses on designing emerging technologies that are accessible and inclusive from the outset. Researchers, designers and industry practitioners interested in inclusive technology and addressing one or more of the following are invited to register:

• Applications of emerging technologies for accessibility
• Novel methods for incorporating diverse users in the design process of emerging technologies
• Strategies for identifying and addressing potential accessibility barriers in new technologies
• Case studies of successful inclusive design of emerging technologies
• Ethical considerations in designing inclusive emerging technologies
• Strategies for scaling inclusive innovations

Participants can choose to submit (but are not required to) a 1-4 pages position paper about any of the topics listed above.

Unmaking AI: Engaging Critically and Creatively with Generative AI

Generative AI offers powerful possibilities but also introduces significant social, cultural, political, and environmental issues. How can researchers critically grasp AI and engage with it in creative and ethical ways? In this workshop, we provide an “unmaking” framework to support this aim. Participants will be introduced to AI models, will see how other researchers use AI in real-world projects, and will carry out hands-on “unmaking” activities using a custom card deck designed for experimentation and reflection. Participants require no prior knowledge or engagement with GenAI systems. The workshop aims to cultivate a community interested in engaging with and shaping GenAI and collaboratively developing tools, resources, and readings to support it.

Exploring Socio-Technical Aspects of Digital Health

Join us at OzCHI 2024 for a dynamic workshop exploring the socio-technical aspects of digital health. This workshop aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Our goal is to develop actionable insights for effectively integrating digital health technologies. Through experience sharing, discussions, and collaborative activities, we will address user-centered design, accessibility, ethics, and more, highlighting the interplay between social and technical elements.

The workshop will cover a broad range of topics essential to understanding and addressing the socio-technical aspects of digital health. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Methodology and Concepts
2. Applications and Technologies
3. Social and Ethical Aspects