DIS2025

Attending workshops

Workshops at DIS include one and two day workshops over Saturday and Sunday, July 5-6, 2025. You can find more details below and how to participate via the individual workshop organisers and related individual workshop pages.

The workshop chairs for 2025 are Colin M. Gray, Indiana University Bloomington, Vera Fearns, University of Lisbon, and António Coelho, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto. workshops@dis2025.acm.org 

Register Now for DIS 2025

Workshops at a glance

*All workshops are one day workshops:

Saturday 5 July

Sunday 6 July

Saturday 5 July

W1. Six Degrees of Speculation: Towards a Taxonomy of Temporality

Speculation is a powerful tool in HCI research. It enables researchers to envision

future technologies, anticipate societal impacts, and critically examine the role of technology in shaping human experiences. However, the nuances and variations of the temporality of speculative practices within HCI are understudied. This workshop addresses this gap by bringing together researchers, designers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds who engage with speculation or are interested in doing so.We welcome submissions from researchers, designers, and practitioners who:

  • Explicitly use speculative methods in their HCI research
  • Implicitly engage with speculation in their work
  • Are interested in exploring the potential of speculative practices in HCI
  • Come from diverse disciplines intersecting with HCI (e.g., design, sociology, anthropology, computer science, philosophy, psychology).

W2. Fostering Eudaimonia: Design to Support Virtues and Practical Wisdom

Emerging technologies like generative AI offer powerful capabilities but also embed value judgments that can significantly influence human behavior, decisions, and habits—both positively and negatively. A major challenge in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research is to design these technologies in a way that promotes psychological well-being and eudaimonia (flourishing through virtue). Many philosophical traditions emphasize the importance of virtues (e.g., care, generosity, tolerance) in guiding human actions. Developing these virtues requires learning how to act wisely in everyday situations, guided by phronesis—or practical wisdom—which helps individuals evaluate their actions in relation to the kind of person they aspire to become. The goal of the proposed workshop is to explore how virtues and practical wisdom can be integrated into the design of interactive technologies. The focus will be on identifying design principles that support the development of virtuous behaviors, understanding the role of design in shaping user motivations, and determining how such effects can be measured empirically to support sustainable psychological well-being.

W3. Cite Your Well-being First: What Happens When Personal Life, Mental Health, and HCI Research Become Entangled?

HCI research often demands emotional and relational engagement, from building trust with participants to navigating ethically complex fieldwork. Yet the well-being of researchers themselves remains largely invisible. Personal challenges, ranging from academic pressures to difficult life events, can influence how we conduct studies, interpret data, and relate to our work. Despite this, such experiences are rarely acknowledged in formal academic spaces, and there is limited discussion about their impact on research. Our workshop offers a space for HCI researchers to reflect on their well-being, share personal experiences, and examine how personal struggles intersect with their research practices. Together, we will foreground researchers’ well-being as an essential concern and explore how these lived realities can be meaningfully integrated into our methodologies. In doing so, we invite the HCI community to not only centre the human in our research, but also recognise the researcher as human; one whose life is deeply intertwined with the work they do.

W4. Design Knowledge in AI: Navigating Temporality and Continuity

Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing at a rapid pace, particularly with regard to large language models (LLMs) where capabilities, applications, and interfaces are frequently reshaped. While these developments create new opportunities for design research, they also bring forth important considerations regarding the temporality and continuity of design knowledge. The fast-paced evolution of AI reshapes research focus and methodologies, often rendering previously established knowledge obsolete. Additionally, emerging concerns related to usability, ethics, and societal impact necessitate ongoing reassessment of research priorities. Despite these challenges, foundational theories in design research remain relevant, offering valuable frameworks for sustaining design inquiry amid AI’s rapid progression. This one-day workshop examines how design research can navigate AI’s evolving technical landscape while fostering knowledge that remains relevant over time. It aims to equip design researchers with strategies to sustain meaningful contributions in an ever-changing technological landscape.

W5. Surfing the Opportunities for Water Sustainability when Designing Outdoor Water Sports Experiences

Oceans, lakes and rivers, dynamic and vital ecosystems, face increasing threats from climate change. To ensure its sustainability, there is an urgent need for technologies that promote responsible and sustainable human-water interactions. Water sports engagement fosters mental and physical health benefits, as well as environmental care when responsible practices are encouraged. Although prior work has investigated how interactive technology can support sports practice to make it sustainable, water sports are less explored due to the unique technical challenges they pose. We argue that by exploring the design of interactive water sports experiences through a soma design lens, we will better understand the intricate synergy between our bodies and the felt and lived body of water, hence, supporting meaningful body-water interactions. In this one-day workshop, we aim to engage researchers in exploring the potential of soma design in the context of water and water sports, guided by discussing theoretical frameworks and hands-on prototyping. 

W6. Bring Your Own Interface: Exploring Tactile Interaction in Maritime Automation

Join us for an exciting workshop that delves into the dynamic world of interaction design for automation through an engaging hands-on simulation! Participants are invited to bring their physical prototypes or share innovative conceptual ideas about interaction, control, and evaluation. Our collaborative simulation environment promises to spark vibrant discussions and inspire fresh approaches to designing and evaluating interfaces. We welcome contributions from diverse fields, including Haptics, Digital Fabrication, Human-Robot Interaction, Interface Design, and Simulation Research.

W7. Designing for Community Care: Reimagining Support for Equity & Well-being in Academia

Academic well-being is deeply influenced by peer-support networks, yet they remain informal, inequitable, and unsustainable. Drawing on HCI methodologies, participatory design, and care ethics, this workshop will provide a space for rethinking how academic communities can support inclusive networks through peer support and community building. Through collective reflection, collaborative brainstorming, and hands-on co-design, we will co-create a care-driven roadmap for academic well-being. Applications are open to everyone passionate about reimagining equitable support systems – particularly those with backgrounds in peer support, community building, or care ethics. If that’s you, prior to the workshop, you should submit via email either a 1-2 page PDF or a 2-minute video sharing personal or professional experiences and reflections on care, equity, and resilience in academia. Submissions may take any creative form (design sketches, manifestos, autoethnographies, case studies, or anything else you can think of). Accepted contributions will appear on the workshop website beforehand, pending your approval. Let’s make academia a kinder place for ourselves and others, together!

W8. From Data to Transformative Change: Designing Interactive Systems for Citizen Science Empowerment

Citizen Science (CS) is a research approach in which scientists and everyday people collaborate to address a research problem. Advancements in digital technologies have significantly expanded the reach of CS by enabling large-scale data collection and collaboration. In addition to its scientific benefits, CS enhances participants’ science literacy, fosters public engagement, and promotes collaborative problem-solving. Despite this being true, we believe that the true potential of CS has not yet been fully explored as a collaborative practice for transformative change. With this in mind, we planned a one-day workshop as a forum for critical discussions and reflections on the role of HCI researchers, designers, and practitioners in designing CS-empowered interactive systems for increasing awareness about social good and societal issues and promoting concrete actions and behavioural change, from data to sustainable futures. Participants will have the possibility to reflect on and discuss the main open challenges still affecting the design of CS-empowered interactive systems, and to prototype, exploiting data physicalization and co-design, solutions that focus on a specific real-world challenge as presented by experts of the Madeira Island that offers a unique ecosystem to spark reflections on the interplay between sustainability, technology and CS.

W9. Haka’a’Museum: Designing for a Sustainable Ocean

We invite you to join us for the “Haka’a’Museum: Designing for a Sustainable Ocean” workshop at DIS 2025, an immersive one-day event exploring how AR can transform museum experiences and engage visitors in marine conservation. Hosted at the Funchal Natural History Museum – the oldest museum in Madeira, located in the heart of Funchal’s historic center – this hands-on workshop will introduce participants to co-creation methodologies, guiding them through the design and implementation of interactive AR experiences. In the workshop you will Know and use the artefacts of the Funchal Natural History Museum – located in the historic center of Funchal – where participants can make an optional free pre-visit. This practical workshop will introduce participants to co-creation methodologies, guiding them through the design and implementation of interactive AR experiences. The session is open to museum professionals, educators, designers, students and researchers, with no prior programming experience required. Using no-code AR development tools, participants will collaborate in small groups to create interactive prototypes that enhance museum storytelling and environmental education. This workshop will provide a unique opportunity to engage with experts in digital heritage and interactive media, learn about the latest innovations in museum engagement, and contribute to a meaningful, real-world project. Participants will also gain practical skills in design thinking, digital storytelling, and interactive experience design.

Sunday 6 July

W10. From Dead-ends to Dialogue: Third Workshop on Design Research & GenAI

Building on two previous GenAI workshops at DIS and the community conversations they sparked, this third iteration responds to a persistent challenge: despite growing familiarity with generative artificial intelligence in design practice, practitioners continue to encounter significant barriers that block deeper integration and understanding. These obstacles manifest as “semantic stopsigns”—oversimplified narratives that halt inquiry (emotional, mental, social, or political in nature)—and various practical or theoretical barriers in design research. We invite participants to share experiences where they’ve faced these blockages in their GenAI work through a structured submission template. During the workshop, participants will get a chance to present their narrative and we will collectively explore them through creative and collaborative activities designed to unpack underlying challenges. Together, we will develop strategies for moving beyond these obstacles toward more nuanced and thoughtful integration of GenAI in design research. Participants will also have the opportunity to contribute to an ongoing collaborative paper, the pre-print of which is available at the workshop website.

W11. Bring Your Own Biodata (BYOB): Feminist, Corporeal and Collective Approaches to Datafied Bodies

Quantitative representations of the body have become increasingly commonplace, a requisite for many navigating complex health issues, yet also heavily scrutinized under feminist lenses for flattening embodied experiences and perpetuating norms. How might designers and researchers navigate this tension, engaging with quantified (bio)data in corporeal, sensory, collective, and anti-solutionist ways? This 1-day workshop will bring together HCI researchers, practitioners, and designers to solidify the role of design in shaping how we interact with, know, grasp, and enjoy our data, while staying true to critical feminist values. Attendees will be invited to Bring Your/their own (Bio)Datasets (BYOB) as well as any tools or data physicalization crafting techniques they want to employ.  The intended outcome of this workshop is a plurality of datasets, data tools, and data representations that empower people to engage with their data in ways other than the ones afforded by screens and dashboards, emphasizing agency, embodiment, and community.

W12. Diving Into the Ocean of Religious and Spiritual Design Research

Religion and spirituality (R/S) are deeply ingrained in everyday life and are an essential aspect of many individuals’ existence. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is progressively engaging in research and design within specific R/S contexts. Building on previous workshops organized by the SPIRITED Collective, this one-day workshop will focus on the under-explored intersections of R/S and HCI design research, drawing from oceanic notions of fluidity, mystery and depth of the unknown, transcendence, and sustainability and resilience. Participants will reflect on their experiences, uncover common research priorities, and develop joint approaches to investigate the intersection of R/S and design. Through the workshop, participants will gain insights into R/S to inform their research and design work. Collectively, we hope to strengthen our network and disseminate our work.

W13. Mindful Value Creation and Destruction: Unpacking the Complexity of Design Practice in Human-Data Interaction

In the digital economy, data is regarded as a critical resource for value creation, while digital technologies are reshaping how values are reflected and enacted in society. This transformation demands new frameworks for understanding both value creation and destruction. Yet, research in HCI reveals that these processes are far more complex than simple resource exploitation, posing significant theoretical and practical challenges. In this one-day, in-person workshop, we aim to deepen our understanding of the complexities of design practice, while envisioning the future of mindful value destruction in human-data interaction. Our goal is to provide an unapologetically honest platform for broader public discourse on the real societal, ethical and environmental impact of design and its unintended consequences. 

W14. Paradoxes, Tensions and Challenges in Decentering the Human 

In recent years, More-Than-Human-Design (MTHD) has gained traction in HCI, as exemplified by a growing body of workshops and publications. As this nascent field progresses, unresolved conceptual and practical methodological challenges, paradoxes and tensions continue to surface. It is time for MTHD researchers to critically revisit underlying assumptions, concepts and processes that shape their work. We invite researchers to contribute theoretical reflection on the concept anthropocentrism as well as insights into the tensions they encounter in their practical MTHD processes. During the workshop, we will not only analyze and map the tensions but also explore ways to navigate and integrate them within MTHD. For instance, could the challenge of adopting the non-human perspective as a human be addressed by altering the human body – by becoming a non-human? Might meditation help counteract the human tendency to take control, fostering instead a sense of “response-ability” that allows space for others to act?

W15. Expanding Historical Approaches to Speculative Design

This workshop expands historical approaches in HCI and design research, with a particular focus on speculative design. We aim to bring together researchers with diverse orientations and practices to open discussions about historicism and how historical approaches and methods can be applied to critical and speculative design, fostering reflexivity in design practice. Through hands-on activities, we will explore various approaches drawn from the humanities, social sciences, and design studies. The workshop activity topic will revolve around three themes that we believe can be productive for historicizing speculative design: rupture and continuity, figure-ground reversal, and the present as past or future. To that end, we will synthesize insights to develop a research agenda that identifies key topics and possible directions for expanding historical approaches to speculative design and outline a set of design strategies that integrate these theoretical concepts into practice. 

W16. Playing with Telepresence Robots for Design Speculation 

In this workshop we invite participants to explore the intersection of playfulness and telepresence. We want to talk about how playfulness can be designed into telepresence activities, how telepresence robot technology can be used in playful ways and how play can be conceptualised in a telepresence enabled system. Thus, we are mainly looking for participants with expertise with design playful experiences, games, and embodied design ideation, as well as participants with interest in telepresence robotics, remote collaboration and mixed reality.

Participants of this workshop will actively engage in a full day session of hands-on creative activities to design new versions of physical games so they can be played with telepresence robots controlled by remote users. We will provide telepresence robots at the workshop’s physical location, as well as in remote locations in the UK. Online participants may join through the telepresence robots and tablets we will provide as part of the creative design activities, which will include methods such as embodied sketching, magic machines, and role-playing, among others, which will be facilitated by experts in these methods. Examples of games to be re-imagined for telepresence are (1) What time is it, Mr. Wolf? (2) Hide and Seek, (3) Hokey Pokey, (4) Pacman, (5) Keep Away, (6) Treasure Hunts, (7) Obstacle Course, (8) Red Light, amongst others. Participants are also encouraged to come up with original game ideas, and to reflect how they may balance asymmetries introduced by the telepresence robot’s physical constraints to achieve playful activities and game tasks such as driving the robots and maneuvering through spaces, avoid or encourage (playful) collisions, finding objects and so on. Participants of the workshop will be invited to publish their game ideas in our workshop archive as well as to be part of a full paper publication emerging from the results of this workshop. 

W17. Designing Ocean Futures Literacies: Reimagining the shoreline cleanup as a tool for ‘amphibious thinking’

In an era where data proliferation often substitutes for genuine understanding, this workshop challenges participants to explore alternative modes of environmental engagement beyond traditional knowledge acquisition. We invite participants to question: How does knowing something truly catalyze change? And more critically, how might we move beyond the paradigm of data-driven knowledge to embrace more nuanced, collective approaches to environmental stewardship? Drawing from our ongoing research on Community Ocean Futures: Activating Data for Eco-social Change, in Vancouver, Canada, this workshop introduces participatory methods for engaging with marine environments and ocean conservation. Our approach deliberately moves away from conventional citizen science initiatives that prioritize data collection and quantification, instead emphasizing what we term “amphibious thinking”: a mode of engagement that embraces precarity, multiplicity, and collective imagination. 

*Please note that the majority of this workshop will take place outside at a nearby beach. For accessibility information, please see our workshop website.