An ongoing workshop series on research through design
Research through Design (RtD) is an established form of research in Human-Computer Interaction that involves producing, documenting, analyzing, and reflecting on tangible objects of design as a way of generating knowledge. Since 2016, the objects of design workshop series provides a venue at CHI for RtD practitioners to present and discuss tangible objects of design in a hands-on manner, similar to a design studio, with the intention of expanding forms and practices of RtD and its relationship to broader HCI methods.
This years’ workshop aims to gather design researchers to interact, expand, and reflect on the material design outcomes of RtD through a temporal lens. Our goal is to explore and reflect on the temporal dimensions of Research through Design (RtD), including how time impacts the creation, use, and evolution of design artifacts. Reporting on RtD processes and design objects often lacks temporal attunement, obscuring entangled knowledges, and obfuscating ethical issues and future effects, while long-term deployments of design objects are impractical within the logics of academic funding and career cycles. We seek diverse contributions from design researchers with experience or interest in the temporal aspects of RtD. Relevant topics include long-term deployments, self-use studies, probes, exhibitions, and public engagement. Before this background, we invite design researchers to discuss and reflect on the temporal aspects of research products, and ask:
This workshop will also enable attendees to initiate long-term deployments, to involve fellow participants in other unusual deployments, and to report on these findings in time for a proposed 2026 objects of design workshop, which will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the objects of design workshop series.
This in-person workshop fosters tangible, hands-on experience with the objects of design under consideration. Participants are invited to submit a position paper in SIGCHI Extended Abstract format (1-4 pages), including visual content, describing their object of design with a focus on temporal aspects. We encourage participants to use the workshop to deploy long-term engagements with their objects of design with fellow participants.
Participants will be selected based on the fit of their position paper to the call for participation. At least one author from each accepted submission must attend the workshop. All participants are required to register for both the workshop and at least one day of the CHI 2025 conference.
Accepted position papers will be published on the workshop website www.thingsofdesign.info. The organizers will also explore the possibilities of a special issue of a journal, such as TOCHI, based on the workshop goals and themes, with the aim to report on the workshop and long-term deployments with the 10th anniversary of the objects of design workshop series in 2026.
Submit via the link below by Feburary 17. Authors will be notified by March 17.
Submit Position Paper