WEBVTT

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Hi everyone. My name is Sark, I am a PhD student 
from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Today,

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I present “Puffy: A Step-by-step Guide 
to Craft Bio-inspired Artifacts with

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Interactive Materiality ". This is a 
joint work I did together with Bart,

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Pengcheng, Miguel, Yaliang, and Stephen.

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A rising number of HCI scholars have begun to 
use materiality as a starting point for exploring

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interaction designs. Notable examples here include 
Wibeg’s materiality of interaction, Vallgårda's

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computational composites, material-centered 
or material-driven designs. They have started

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to call this the next wave of HCI, by combining 
miniaturized technologies with advanced materials.

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As a consequence, many were inspired to create 
instances featuring in shape-changing quality,

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Interactive materiality, Expressivity and so on.
To involve others in this emerging field,

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some have also developed tools to support 
concept ideation and prototyping. In particular,

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Kama proposed a card set that collects 
diagrams of how organisms change their shapes,

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allowing designers to explore suitable 
shape-changing mechanisms from nature.

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Prior work has also explored materiality in other 
contexts, for example, changing behavior in the

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public, investigating lived experiences and 
emotions or using smart garment as second skin.

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However, it seems few studies address 
the process and rationale of how their

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shape-changing concepts were ideated and 
concretized; and how the materiality is

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mapped and correlated with user interactions.
In other words, how are certain qualities

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of shape changes, such as subtlety, 
ambiguity, and temporality, transformed

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into the materiality of interaction?
To address that, we present a mixed

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materiality approach by which we yielded 
Puffy, a cilia-mimetic interactive

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artifact that responds to human proximity and 
expresses “emotions” through shape changes.

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Depending on external surroundings, Puffy reveals 
three kinds of human-alike characteristics (Calm,

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Alerted, and Relaxed) through the 
changes of shapes and texture.

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The conceptualization of Puffy followed 
a bio-inspired strategy. We looked at

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bio-inspirations that contain dynamic 
behavior. Instead of focusing on a

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biological or mechanical perspective, 
we as interaction designers, focused on

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how the shape changes affect the aesthetic 
qualities of the creature. In other words,

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we were not simply replicating the 
shape-changing mechanism, but rather

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the experiences evoked by the movement and 
somaesthetics derived from the selected natural element.

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Overall, our design process consists of 
three key activities (analysis, synthesis,

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and detailing) divided into 13 steps recursively 
interweaved throughout the design journey.

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Now, let’s begin with the 1st step. We first 
explored inspirations from nature such as animals

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and plants. We found that the shape transitions 
of pufferfishes had some attractive attributes.

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First, the shape change communicates tension 
as the fish expands or squeezes; second the

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growth and angle change of spikes emphasizes 
its emotion like being alerted or relaxed;

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third the underlying relationship between these

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changes and the pufferfish’s intention 
and its surroundings such as the predators.

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Step 2, analogue material sensation. we 
explored analogue materials that matched

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the interesting attributes of shape transitions 
gathered from the prior analysis. We obtained

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an embodied understanding of the selected 
behavior through first-hand explorations,

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emphasizing the visual and sensory feelings.
Step 3, material samples, we synthesized the

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materials we explored on a sketch board. Among 
these explorations, some focused on manipulating

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material qualities, while some consisted of 
combining multiple materials to allow for

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expansion. We found that our transition 
could be best expressed through a hairy

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fabric combined with a shape-changing mechanism.
Step 4 Transition samples. We then synthesized

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our explorations by texture and behavior 
movements, including, Non-linear deflation;

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Movement and expansion; Straight 
spikes to flat; We specifically

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focused on (the) subtlety and temporality of 
the shape changes. For example, we noticed

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that the deflation was gradual and sluggish, 
while the inflation was abrupt and linear.

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Step 5 Quick-and-dirty mimicking. We used a 
setup consisting of a texture of interest

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and a balloon placed underneath it. We mimicked 
the interactions with the previously synthesized

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materials and transitions as well as and the 
underlying pufferfish-predator relationship.

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Step 6, Interaction mapping. While mimicking, 
we also seek answers for how can the

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materiality react to the user with the synthesized 
materials and transitions? From our exploration,

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we mapped the interaction as follows, an 
approaching hands (just like predators) might

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make the material become alerted, whereas when 
the hand leaves, the materials feel relaxed.

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Step 7, materiality experience setup. 
We advanced the setup by integrating

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a six degree of freedom platform with pumps 
to manipulate the balloon. Then, we explored

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and examined different combinations 
of material and transition techniques.

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Step 8, computational mechanisms exploration. 
To better manipulate the materiality,

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we used a binary switch to turn on and off a 
pump for inflation. Then we integrated Arduino,

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so we could send serial commands to 
make it sort of computational, lastly,

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we customized the container with silicone and 
integrated capacitive sensors to detect human

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behavior for example, when a hand’s approaching.
Step 9, affirming the artifact. So, how does it

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feel? We intend to collect materiality experiences 
not only from our own but also from the others. In

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step 10 Design critique, we organized a workshop 
and asked participants to leverage their modality

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of touch and bodily movements to interact with 
the artifact. They experienced and wrote down

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their thoughts about the behavior of the artifact.
Step 11, We used Affinity Diagramming to analyze

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the collected remarks and questions. We learned 
that the fabric’s visual expression conflicted

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with its touching. Specifically, the furry 
and soft property gives viewers a sense of

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inviting and touching. However, the sturdy 
silicone material gives an opposite feeling

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when petting it. For example, one said” it may 
bite me!” the other said “I wanna touch it!”

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So, in step 12 we aimed to bring these 
two conflicting aspects (the material

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invitingness and the aggressive 
behavior) towards each other,

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to further align the physical 
form with temporal form.

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So, our final step, fine-tuning the artifact, 
we adjusted the actuators with slower and more

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fluent movements. We also purposely rotated the 
artifact to have the texture side facing the user.

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So, in this presentation we showed a 
mixed materiality approach for designers

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to leverage bio-inspirations. We hereby 
summarize a few design implications to

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inform other taking a similar approach.
The first implication is to leverage

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open-endedness in the early stage to 
enable designers develop a sufficient

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feel for the crafting materials at hand. 
During explorations, designers shouldn’t

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pursue the 'perfect' design samples but feel 
comfortable with the unfinished state of the

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samples. They should also avoid concerning 
the technical and engineering feasibility.

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The second one is to enable multi-modal 
appreciation and documentation throughout

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the exploration. Using video clips, photos, 
or sketching could help designers review how

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their decisions were made and benefit 
communication during post analysis.

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The third one is to emphasize the hedonic and 
experiential aspects in the exploration. It could

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complement the design approaches that purely 
focus on the pragmatic aspects of design. It

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can also shift designers from a problem-solving 
mindset to a curiosity-driven mindset and help

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them get immersed in playful, embodied, 
and purposeless experimentations with

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computational and analog materials at hand.
Lastly, we would like to emphasize the need

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for high degree of durability with hot-swap 
functionalit. For example, on the right-hand side,

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the “blackdoor” portal is designed to replace 
the consumables. And on the left-hand side,

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the use of a nested structure allows us 
to swap materials and components easily.

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We also suggest an approach of hacking prototypes 
from everyday life and gradually shifting to the

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fabrication of customized materials. For 
details, please refer to our pictorial.

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In summary, we present a concrete case of 
designing a shape-changing artifact using

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the materiality approach. Our approach consists 
of three key activities (analysis, synthesis,

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and detailing) interlaced recursively 
along the design process. We contribute

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a step-by-step guide of our embodied design 
process, implications and suggestions to

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inform other designers taking actions.

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If you have any questions, feel free to reach out via e-mail and don't forget to check 
out our pictorial. En joy and thanks for watching!