Assistant Professor of Practice in Emerging Media Arts Anna Henson has co-authored "Exploring Hybrid Virtual-Physical Homes," which received honorable mention at the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) Conference.
DIS is the premier international and interdisciplinary conference encompassing all issues related to the design and deployment of interactive systems where designers, artists, theorists, social scientists, user experience researchers, systems engineers and many more come together to debate and shape the future of interaction systems research, design and practice.
"I am thrilled that our paper was recognized by ACM DIS 2020 with an Honorable Mention,” Henson said. “I am grateful to have been a part of this project, working with a team of extraordinary researchers and designers. We conducted this research at Carnegie Mellon University, through the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, pre-pandemic. The topic of living ‘virtually’ in our homes, connecting with each other through digital means, has taken on new meaning and urgency now. I look forward to continuing research and design engaging these ideas, identifying methods for meaningful and embodied communication across distance, for the betterment of our digital interactions during this challenging time and beyond."
Henson and her co-authors explored the idea of a hybrid virtual-physical home that uses virtual space to supplement an existing physical home. A user study revealed the expectations and needs these groups have for virtual home spaces, including security, familiarity, and community.
They prototyped and playtested three virtual rooms and identified design features that supported feelings of home.
They also presented challenges to designing home-like VR environments that can shape future research in this area. As virtual reality grows increasingly accessible, these findings will inform the design of virtual spaces.
To read the paper, visit https://go.unl.edu/tefw.
Henson is an artist and researcher working in embodied and social interaction design for spatial computing and immersive experiences. She creates and prototypes interactions, environments, and user journeys which center participant agency, new narratives, and unite our digital and physical worlds. Henson’s creative research focuses on XR, embodied pedagogical methods for teaching design and technology, and new forms of live and virtual performance.