In the design process, designers make a wide variety of decisions that are essential to transform a design from a conceptual idea into a concrete solution. Recording and tracking design decisions, a first step to capturing the rationale of the design process, are tasks that until now are considered as cumbersome and too constraining. We used a holistic approach to design, deploy, and verify decision cards; a low threshold tool to capture, externalize, and contextualize design decisions during early stages of the design process. We evaluated the usefulness and validity of decision cards with both novice and expert designers. Our exploration results in valuable insights into how such decision cards are used, into the type of information that practitioners document as design decisions, and highlight the properties that make a recorded decision useful for supporting awareness and traceability on the design process.

Body posture is one of many visual cues used by sighted persons to determine if someone would be open to initiate a conversation. These cues are inaccessible for individuals with blindness leading to difficulties when deciding whom to approach for eventual assistance. Current camera technologies, such as depth cameras, enable to automatically scan the environment to assess the approachability of nearby persons. We present Whom-I-Approach, a system that translates postures of bystanders into a measure of approachability and communicates this information using auditory and tactile cues. The system scans the environment and determines the approachability based on body posture for the persons in the vicinity of the user. Efficiency as well as perceived system usability and psychosocial attitudes are measured in a user study showing the potential to improve competence for users with blindness prior to engagement in social interactions.

Design, and in particular user-centered design processes for interactive systems, typically involve multidisciplinary teams. The different and complemen- tary perspectives of the team members enrich the design ideas and decisions, and the involvement of all team members is needed to achieve a user interface for a system that carefully considers all aspects, ranging from user needs to technical requirements. The difficulty is getting all team members involved in the early stages of design and communicating design ideas and decisions in a way that all team members can understand them and use them in an appropriate way in later stages of the process. This chapter describes the COMuICSer storyboarding technique, which presents the scenario of use of a future system in a way that is understandable for each team member, regardless of their background. Based on an observational study in which multidisciplinary teams collaboratively created storyboards during a co-located session, we present recommendations for the facilitation of co-located collaborative storyboarding sessions for multidisciplinary teams and digital tool support for this type of group work.

Intense and frequent motor training is essential in persons with neurological disorders as there are MS and stroke. Technology-based rehabilitation has been proven to be beneficial for specific patient groups, as it shows to be effective on muscle strength and active range of motion of the upper limbs. Personalized training in technology-supported rehabilitation setups using motivational techniques such as serious games have the potential to make repetitive training efforts more endurable. Most neurological rehabilitation approaches suffer from a strict separation between training scenarios and activities in daily living, but have difficulties to bridge the gap between exercising on a functional level and performing on the level of activities in daily living. To improve the integration of motor skill training in a daily living context we propose an approach and proof-of-concept implementation of the training device ReHappy, a tangible character that engages patient in performing additional training that complements the daily activities.

Generic multi-button controllers are the most common input devices used for video games. In contrast, dedicated game controllers and gestural interactions increase immersion and playability. Room-sized gaming has opened up possibilities to further enhance the immersive experience, and provides players with opportunities to use full-body movements as input. We present a purpose-centric approach to appropriating everyday objects as physical game controllers, for immersive room-sized gaming. Virtual manipulations supported by such physical controllers mimic real-world function and usage. Doing so opens up new possibilities for interactions that flow seamlessly from the physical into the virtual world. As a proof-of-concept, we present a 'Tower Defence' styled game, that uses four everyday household objects as game controllers, each of which serves as a weapon to defend the base of the players from enemy bots. Players can use 1) a mop (or a broom) to sweep away enemy bots directionally; 2) a fan to scatter them away; 3) a vacuum cleaner to suck them; 4) a mouse trap to destroy them. Each controller is tracked using a motion capture system. A physics engine is integrated in the game, and ensures virtual objects act as though they are manipulated by the actual physical controller, thus providing players with a highly-immersive gaming experience.

In this paper, we set out to find what encompasses an appropriate visual language for information presented on near-eye out-of-focus displays. These displays are positioned in a user's peripheral view, very near to the user's eyes, for example on the inside of the temples of a pair of glasses. We explored the usable display area, the role of spatial and retinal variables, and the influence of motion and interaction for such a language. Our findings show that a usable visual language can be accomplished by limiting the possible shapes and by making clever use of orientation and meaningful motion. We found that especially motion is very important to improve perception and comprehension of what is being displayed on near-eye out-of-focus displays, and that perception is further improved if direct interaction with the content is allowed.

We have developed an approach that presents patients with an intelligible, user-friendly yet correct visualisation to check progress and verify adherence to the prescribed physical exercise program. Integrated in a comprehensive, mobile self-monitoring app, this patient-centric approach facilitates keeping patients motivated and engaged while rehabilitating remotely.