Conference Agenda

Nowadays, parents and educators are paying more attention to the intervention of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Children with ADHD typically exhibit deficits in executive functions (EF), and metacognition is crucial for enhancing these functions. However, existing interventions mostly focus on specific training of EF and lack effective strategies to promote overall improvement through higher-level metacognitive processes. Therefore, this study integrates the metacognitive theoretical framework into EF training and designs a gamified intervention program for children with ADHD. Subsequently, we conducted an experiment with 16 children with ADHD and analyzed the changes in their EF levels before and after the intervention to assess the effectiveness of the program. The results indicate that the training significantly improved the EF levels of the children. This study provides theoretical guidance and a practical framework for the future design of intervention games, tools, and other interventions for children with ADHD.

This study investigates how indoor environments, for example of schools or workplaces, can actively support the diversity of communities, by considering the case of autistic adults’ preferences for them. Employing a participatory design approach, we engaged autistic individuals to understand their lived experiences, preferences for meaningful in-person social interactions, and their strategies to engage in social settings. Key findings highlight the importance of sensory regulation, vibrant and engaging spaces that mitigate awkwardness and promote authentic interactions, and the role of predictability and autonomy in reducing unnecessary stresses. We show how autistic adults can be supported in managing their regulation to participate how they wish. The findings are discussed in the light of inclusivity of school or work communities and their physical environments. Supporting and illustrating the principle of equity, the study shows how an example outlier group’s needs can be considered in designing environments that aim to serve everyone equally.

The increased recognition that minoritised people should play a more significant role in the research and design of technologies aimed at them is welcomed. Though Interaction design research has begun to address the needs of neurodivergent people, the epistemic framing of the research aims, and practical co-construction of technologies are still infrequently from a lived-experience perspective. This work sought to address some of these concerns through a series of interaction co-design workshops with ADHD adults framed as technological design for wellbeing. This paper reflects on our adaptive use of Soma and Co-design workshop methodologies to account for and speak to the lived experience of ADHD in our participants and researchers. By foregrounding co-design of the co-design process, we demonstrate how methodological adaptation is not a matter of accommodation alone but a route to deeper agency, creativity, and equity. We contribute facilitation guidelines for co-design workshops with and for ADHD participants.

Amid the integration of AI into special education, establishing trust between AI educational robots and children with autism through emotional design is a critical challenge in HCI. While emotional design benefits general educational robots, systematic frameworks and empirical evidence for autistic children remain scarce. This study applies the three-level emotional design model (Instinctive, behavioral, reflective) to examine how multimodal elements—voice (volume, speed), appearance (color, form), and emotional expressions—affect attention, interaction willingness, and trust. A controlled experiment (N=12) revealed that higher volume, slower speech, warm colors, and positive expressions significantly improve engagement and trust. Based on the results, a design evaluation index hierarchy model was developed, incorporating perceptual adaptation, behavioral guidance, and emotional resonance. This model offers theoretical and practical guidance for developing trust-building AI robots, supporting inclusive, human-AI collaborative educational environments.

While design methods are a crucial aspect of design research, education, and practice, our understanding of how they work and what shapes their performance remains limited. To address this, this paper reports on a theory-building effort, outlining core aspects of the phenomenon of method usage in design. Following recent calls for grounding design research in cognitive science, it frames method usage as a cognitive process and integrates cognitive load theory and dual-process theory to describe central relationships between the design method, the method user, and the context of usage. The paper concludes by highlighting that method performance emerges from these interactions and by reminding us that design methods themselves do not perform—the method user do. Consequently, method performance should not only be assessed based on output, but its ability to foster effective design practices in the method user.