We created two input physicalizations exploring conference sustainability during a full-day workshop. During the remainder of the conference, these physicalizations enabled participants to respond to questions about their modes of transport to TEI’24, and their motivations and barriers for attending conferences.
The Travel Patterns physicalization consisted of 30 strings attached to a wooden board. Each string supported multiple responses, with participants placing tokens to indicate their main modes of travel (plane, train, car, bus, bike, ferry) to the conference, represented through differently shaped and coloured tokens.
A visualization of the data collected through the Travel Patterns physicalization.
A summary of all collected data on travel modes.
The Conference Intentions physicalization consisted of eight containers for token-based responses (using alder cones), and two containers for qualitative input. Participants responded to two questions: “Why do you go to conferences?” and “What stops you from going to conferences?”
A visualization of the data collected through the Conference Intentions physicalization.Overview
- Conference: TEI 2025
- Type: Pictorial
- Goal: Foster dialogue about conference sustainability through data physicalization.
People
Sarah Hayes
Martin Lindrup
Kim Sauvé
Denise Heffernan
Nathalie Bressa
Rosa van Koningsbruggen
Lisa Zimmermann
Samuel Huron
Links
Abstract
Against the backdrop of a growing concern with environmental sustainability across HCI research and design, TEI'24 was the first version of the conference to include a sustainability chair. In conjunction with this increasing interest in sustainability, we organised a Studio at TEI'24 to engage the community in a conversation about the sustainability of conferences by using data physicalizations to mediate this discussion. In a one-day Studio, the organisers and attendees constructed two large-scale input physicalizations that were deployed at the conference venue to collect data around conference sustainability from TEI attendees. In this pictorial, we present the outcomes of this Studio, including the two input physicalizations and the collected data. We offer a description of the strategies we employed to design in a more sustainable way, as well as reflections on input physicalizations and the opportunities and challenges they present for facilitating data-driven dialogue.