Conference Agenda

Social virtual reality platforms present new opportunities for embodied design processes. This paper illustrates a range of embodied design techniques made possible through social engagement with VR/XR technology. Drawing from a case study involving the prototyping of a conversation visualization system for VR meetings, we present several novel embodied design methods in VR (also applicable to XR). These include: new techniques for supporting embodied ideation; new ways of acting out and improvising scenarios together; and new opportunities for preparing and manipulating assets, environments, and lo fi interactions for embodied design processes. These novel techniques and approaches point to exciting new opportunities for expanding the repertoire of embodied design practice more broadly.

This study explores transition spaces across physical, digital, and virtual environments. From hallways to digital loading screens and virtual portals, these spaces serve as cognitive buffers, aiding users in navigating environmental shifts. Our comparative analysis reveals consistent human experiences across diverse environments, while also identifying distinct attributes of each transition space. We identify two main categories: transition-focused spaces, which emphasize efficient movement, and experience-focused spaces, which offer richer, immersive experiences. We also identify four core transition types: Environmental, Perspective, Identity, and Sensory transitions. Experience-focused spaces, such as lobbies and VR gathering areas, play a pivotal role in facilitating identity transitions. Sensory transitions are present in physical and virtual spaces, but often absent in digital spaces. Our findings highlight the potential of well-designed VR transition spaces, emphasizing their significant influence on immersion, user experience, and virtual social interactions.

Designers must frequently work rapidly under deadlines to produce minimum viable products (MVPs) in collaboration with other disciplinary experts. While results may be good enough for now, it is important that limitations of hasty work are not codified as permanently acceptable design solutions. A method called function mapping has previously been shown to aid in the translation of theoretically-derived functions across media platforms, where functionally equivalent products may need to appear superficially dissimilar, thus complicating true equivalency. Here we demonstrate function mapping’s efficacy at the threshold between MVPs and revisions. We use function mapping to explain the process of translating a virtual environment for a VR headset into an exhibition gallery with 90 feet of touchscreens, which raised fundamental issues about the nature of graphic design in the interaction of environment and surface. We then revisit function mapping to isolate solution shortcomings and strategize next steps.

Image-generation models are changing how we express ourselves in visual art. However, what people think of AI-generated art is still largely unexplored, especially compared to traditional art. In this paper, we present the design of an interactive research product, GenFrame – an image-generating picture frame that appears as a traditional painting but offers the viewer the agency to modify the depicted painting. In the current paper, we report on a study where we deployed the GenFrame in a traditional art museum and interviewed visitors about their views on AI art. When provoked by AI-generated art, people need more of the artist’s backstory and emotional journey to make the artwork commensurate with traditional art. However, generative AI-enabled interactive experiences open new ways of engaging with art when a turn of a dial can modify art styles or motifs on a painting.

A demo can be seen here: https://youtu.be/1rhW4fazaBY.

Generative AI tools foreshadow fundamental changes in the dynamics of creative work. Albeit controlling the output is still challenging, the rapid conceptual development and visualization can be particularly helpful in the exploratory phase, facilitating approaches such as design fiction. The contribution aims at providing an overview of how AI can fit in various steps, demonstrating in particular how the AI-enabled visualization from text and sketches allows imagining and iterating quickly on future scenarios. Starting from a benchmarking of over sixty AI tools according to the Design Thinking process, the efficacy of a human-AI collaboration has been experimented through workshops with over hundred and fifty students. These activities have demonstrated the efficacy of following a well-defined dialogue protocol of Human Intelligence “framing” Artificial Intelligence, which serves as an AI skill-building tool, as well as a creative icebreaker, leading to vivid representations of speculative scenarios as foundation for the forward-thinking design process.

We understand this world through our sense perceptions and past associations. The main objective of the study was to sketch the face of a character with a specific identity, so that it aligns with its intended description, thus ensuring it is perceived as intended. The use of shapes and features of animals have helped to derive characters that represent an archetype. The digital representations of these characters find their place along two distinct axes: (i) transitioning from elaborate to minimal and (ii) shifting between animalistic and human features. The methodology harmoniously merges diverse character appearances, eliminating fragmentation. We place significant emphasis on symmetry, streamlined line reduction, and the incorporation of compound shapes, facilitating the seamless shift from elaborate portrayals to minimal representations while retaining elements reminiscent of the initial elaborate stage. This study can offer insights into game and character design, cross-disciplinary studies of psychology and perception, anthropology and semiotics.