ACM Interactions

VOLUME XXXI.6 November - December 2024

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WELCOME
- Global, Green, and Generative Design
  
  Mikael Wiberg, Elizabeth F. Churchill
  
  Greetings, Interactions readers! Welcome to the last issue of the magazine for 2024. It's hard to believe the year has already come to an end. As we wrap up 2024 and focus on New Year's Eve, our resolutions for 2025, and what comes next, we should also reflect on…
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What are you reading?
- What Are You Reading?
  
  Louise Barkhuus
  
  During a sunny fall afternoon, I found myself with a small break between a meeting and picking up my child. What do you do with half an hour of unscheduled time? I went to the local library to browse the shelves of new and noteworthy books. The topic of…
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Blog@IX
- Breaking Barriers in Immersive Stories: Empathy, Representation, and Access
  
  Tyechia L. Thompson, Eric Lyon, Wallace Lages
  
  Stories are ubiquitous, transcending traditional media and books, permeating our self-talk and scientific publications. Immersive technologies are no exception. Storytellers and artists are using spatial audio, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) more frequently to create and share narratives about the past, the present, and the future. What…
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Exhibit X
- Nordic Perspectives on Algorithmic Systems Card Box
  
  Pedro Ferreira, Michael Hockenhull, Mace Ojala, Rebeca Blanco Cardozo, Matti Nelimarkka, Airi Lampinen
  
  The Nordic Perspectives on Algorithmic Systems Card Box started with a question. How can critical engagement with algorithmic systems be imagined elsewhere, outside the sociocultural context of the U.S.? Studies on the impact of algorithmic systems have flourished over the past decade, raising global awareness and concern. But they…
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Columns
- Cutting Through the Code: Will AI Bring Efficiency or Reinforce Complexity?
  
  Jonathan Bean
  
  A lot of work is, at best, drudgery. In my world, I can't say I look forward to grading multiple-choice tests or keeping up to date with the latest accounting and approval procedures. These are repetitive but necessary tasks that AI promises to do for us accurately and efficiently.…
- Is It Normal for a Design Project to Go off the Rails?
  
  Jon Kolko
  
  I've been working with a young designer, who is in the early stages of his career. We've been collaborating on a complex software design project, which includes new capabilities, legacy systems, multiple stakeholders, and many business units. It's progressing exactly as you might imagine: very slowly. The other day…
- Defining Green UX
  
  Melissa Gregg
  
  How do technology users learn about the sustainability credentials of software and hardware products? Is there a role for designers to communicate the environmental factors involved in building and using a product to those buying it? In this column, I'll consider a handful of individuals and organizations trying to…
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Forums
- Historical Friction: Pacing Ourselves in HCI
  
  Michaelanne Thomas, David Ribes, Andrea Grover, Megh Marathe, Alexandra Teixeira Riggs, Firaz Peer, Pooja Upadhyay
  
  In the fall of 2023, a group of researchers gathered at a CSCW workshop as part of a broader movement to systematically introduce historicist perspectives to CSCW and HCI. While historical work has always been part of the field—often present in community-engaged research, case studies, and mining past designs…
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Features
- Adventures in AI Wonderland: How Children Are Shaping the Future of AI
  
  Eliza Kosoy, Emily Rose Reagan, Soojin Jeong
  
  It is nearly impossible to navigate the modern world without being bombarded with artificial intelligence. It has become pervasive in our culture with a reach that crosses cultures and generations. My 89-year-old grandmother, who emigrated from the Soviet Union, called me recently and asked where she could get "an…
- Design Solutions for Breastfeeding Devices for Infants with Disabilities
  
  Juan Li, Hemin Du, Junfeng Wang
  
  Breast milk is the most natural source of nutrition for infants, and breastfeeding plays a vital role in the physiological and psychological health of mothers and infants. Smooth breastfeeding is a key factor in establishing a positive emotional bond between mothers and infants. Desley Hegney et al. [1] reported…
- Scent and Space: Navigating Smell Interactions in Public, Private, and Virtual Spaces
  
  Anna Carter, Ceylan Beşevli, Christopher Dawes, Marianna Obrist
  
  On one cold spring morning, as I walked down Oxford Street in London on my way to the office, there was so much sensory experience to absorb, such as the chilly tactile sensation of a spring morning and the glaring sunshine. The city was bustling into wakefulness with shops…
- Risk or Chance? Large Language Models and Reproducibility in HCI Research
  
  Thomas Kosch, Sebastian Feger
  
  Large language models (LLMs) affect and transform most areas of daily life, from education and gaming to creativity and work. Exemplary LLMs are Llama, Alpaca, and GPT-4, with the latter being made accessible to the general public through OpenAI's ChatGPT. Consequently, ChatGPT reached 1 million users within five days…
- The Usability Revolution: Forging a User-Friendly Utopia, One Click at a Time
  
  Elizabeth Rosenzweig, AJ Davis, Zhengjie Liu
  
  Every citizen on our planet deserves the right to usable products and services. It is time we reframe our work and look at a bigger global picture [1]. We envisioned a world where the average citizen shares our zeal, passion, and steadfast belief in user-centered design. Naive perhaps, but…
- Why the HCI Community Should Care About AR Journalism
  
  Victoria McArthur
  
  On June 23, 2018, 25-year-old assistant soccer coach Ekkapol Chantawong led 12 team members, ages 11 to 16, on an exploration of the Tham Luang Cave in Thailand. Soon after the team entered the cave, heavy rainfall flooded a significant portion of the 6.2-mile system, trapping them inside. Nine…
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Cover story
- Beyond ‘Slumming It’—AI and the Real Lives of Global South Communities
  
  Matt Jones, Dani Kalarikalayil Raju, Jen Pearson, Thomas Reitmaier, Simon Robinson, Arka Majhi
  
  Biases in AI datasets are well known, and their impacts in terms of misrepresenting gender and ethnicity are regularly surfacing in generative AI (GenAI) services. Many of us have seen examples of these—some of them absurd, some comical, and others completely inappropriate. A notorious example is the image Midjourney…
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Calendar
- Calendar
  
  INTR Staff
  
  November ICMI '24: 26th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (San José, Costa Rica) November 4–8, 2024 https://icmi.acm.org/2024/ PUSH UX '24 (Munich, Germany) November 7–8, 2024 https://push-conference.com CSCW '24: 27th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (San José, Costa Rica) November 9–13, 2024 https://cscw.acm.org/2024/ SXC '24:…
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Exit
- How Tall Can Wood Be?
  
  Juan José Ugarte
  
  Contributor: Juan José Ugarte Curators: Renato Verdugo and Scott Minneman In our previous issue, we explored how Giuseppe Penone's sculptures reframe our perception of trees. In this issue, we turn our attention to the architectural uses of wood—a material that humans have utilized for construction for nearly half a…
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Voices
- The IX Questionnaire: Jeni Paay
  
  Jeni Paay
  
  This is the second installment of the IX Questionnaire series, where we ask ACM SIG volunteers about their volunteer roles and contributions. Jeni Paay is vice president of SIGCHI Chapters globally and vice president of the SIGCHI Melbourne chapter. What are you working on right now? I am involved…
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