Reflections on the NatureCHI Workshop Series

Abstract

Being in nature is often regarded to be calming, relaxing and purifying. While technology has the potential to support engagement with nature, developing systems that provide support in an unobtrusive manner holds many challenges for interaction design. In this article, the authors describe their reflections around the NatureCHI workshop series. The aim with the workshops has been to help foster a research community interested in the design of Unobtrusive User Experiences with Technology in Nature. The first of two workshops ran as part of CHI 2016 in San Jose, California, while the second workshop took place alongside MobileHCI 2017 in Vienna, Austria. With 25 papers presented in total, the workshops demonstrate a rising interest in the areas where nature and interactive technologies meet.

Understanding visitor interaction with a projection augmented relief model display: insights from an in-the-wild study in the English Lake District

“…There is a growing body of research activity focussing on the potential of digital interactive technologies to support people's engagement with natural places in an unobtrusive manner [3,29] and to facilitate outdoor recreation [30] and play [31]. One of the seminal research projects to focus on the use of digital technology to facilitate engagement with nature was the ambient wood project [32].…”