In recent years there has been growing concern about a gap between HCI research and industrial practitioners. We review methods proposed in HCI for enhancing communication between researchers and designers, and propose previsualization animation, borrowed from the movie industry, as an additional means to support this communication. The potential benefit is investigated through a process of designing and producing an animated film for a design research project at a furniture company and gathering initial user feedback. We argue that a technique that accounts for interaction dynamics and provisionality and that supports brevity and mobility can communicate design research in an inspirational manner to practitioners. However we also identified a remaining difference in the two groups' expectations about the animation, with researchers wanting it to be more research-like and practitioners wanting it to be more production-oriented.

Liveness, as discussed in HCI and in media studies, focuses on an intriguing and beloved experiential quality that can influence new forms of video applications. We suggest a shift from accounts of liveness in "events" to liveness in ambient media for home décor by designing a system called TransLive that exploits the "magic" of mediatizing the "now" at a distant and cherished place. We present an interview study including four families, who experienced the system for two weeks each in a concept apartment setting. It shows how immediacy and unpredictability provide compelling experiences. Authenticity and engagement, which are previously considered as inherent qualities in live media, instead occur in the context of use. Finally, the experience of transcendence triggered by slow and continuous video streams open up a new design space of liveness. Thus, not only do we take inspiration from liveness theory, but we also need to redefine it.

In order to invent and investigate new approaches for the use of enjoying live video, we suggest a combination of emerging mobile webcasting with artistic ambient video, which would enable a form of user generated broadcasts from individually selected cherished places for home decoration. Drawing on the approach of Research through Design we present a study of people who have occasional access to highly appreciated geographical locations, a design instantiation and prototype called LiveNature, as well as a system implementation. We present the result of a technical evaluation, which was conducted during two weeks of deployment. It shows that mobile webcasting provide continuous and stable streams of such a quality that it can be presented for home decoration, and that the video can be combined with real time sensor data to generate aesthetically interesting hybrid media. We also learned that the use of mobile webcasting for home decoration raises new challenges in order to provide unobtrusive and glance based interaction.

We inquire into ways of understanding plant interaction through a triangulation of four approaches: a multispecies ethnography of people's ordinary practices and doings in relation to sakura trees during their short blossoming season; readings of theoretical works on human-plant relations and plants' urge to spread; a systematic review of how plants are involved in computing and computer systems; and finally a review study on how cherry blossoms are used in design and architecture. We bring these together and propose to discuss the involvement of florae in computer systems and design items through the lens of understanding plant interaction as temporally extended dissemination and agency to spread. The design intent within Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) has been to develop systems where non-human species are seen as "users". If such an approach is applied to plants, then we need to frame research in a direction that aims to give us an understanding of what these sorts of users are doing. Since the most successful forms of dissemination are hedonic, we argue that researchers should focus more specifically on system design that supports aesthetic interaction, rather than supporting abstract contemplation, as has been common within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

With the advent of wearable devices equipped with publicly visible screens, we argue for the need to apply fashion thinking in designing their visual expression. The screen provides endless variations of visual expression, beyond traditional clothing. The topic motivates us to investigate the potential of assembling “fashion thinking” with services generation, to create new forms of use that wearers will adore, as they do with clothes. Disregarding fashion thinking in wearable design might lead to user dissatisfaction and missed opportunities. In an explorative design study we triangulate three methods i.e. a small study on the use of smart watches in dressing practices; an invention and design of a service called “Watch for Figuracy”, with a watch face contextually dependent on the wearer’s dressed ensemble, and finally an initial user feedback study. Altogether they indicate the potential of fashion wearable hybrids and shortcomings in utilizing color theory for matching the watch face to the outfit.