2. research
a. materiality
Materiality of information can take many forms and meanings in the context of HCI. For some, it means determining how the physical components of a digital device affect its functioning, through affordances and material properties. For others, the ways that different materials are given forms takes precedence, through crafting and design practices that skillfully exploit the potentials of different materials. For still others, the core issue in materiality of computation devices is the material/immaterial nature of computation and information itself. My work has focused specifically on the aesthetics of these different materials, and the social meanings that arise from the combination of those aesthetics with the functional capabilities of tangible interfaces. This has included investigating how materials in digital artifacts behave as a medium, and how the medium-specificity hypothesis, taken from art theory, can help to illuminate common threads through these different perspectives. It has also meant engaging HCI as an applied art, and examining how style, as a specific and useful means of organization in the arts, both applied and fine, can be useful in framing and evaluating creative decisions regarding the use of materials. Finally, this has also included investigations into the ways that formal qualities repeat themselves through different types of designs, and how that lineage of design can be further investigated through closer scrutiny of skeuomorphs in interactions both tangible and otherwise.
Design materials: Arduino, sensor array, liquid latex slip mold, and liquid latex
b. publications (selected)
refereed journal articles
- [J.1] Gross, S., Bardzell, J., and Bardzell, S. (2013). Structure, forms, and stuff: The materiality and medium of interaction. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (Theme issue: Material Interactions).
refereed conference publications
- [C.9]Gray, C. M., Toombs, A., & Gross, S. (2014). Flow of Competency in UX Design Practice. In CHI’15: Proc. SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’15). ACM: New York.[Awarded Best of CHI Honorable Mention]
- [C.8] Gross, S., Bardzell, J., and Bardzell, S. (2014). Skeu the evolution: Skeuomorphs, style, and the material of tangible interactions. Proc. of Tangible and Embodied Interaction (TEI’14). ACM: New York. [Received Best Paper Nomination]
- [C.7] Nemer, D., Gross, S., True, N. (2013) Materializing digital inequalities: the digital artifacts of the marginalized in Brazil. Proc. of Information and Communications Technologies and Development (ICTD’13). ACM: New York.
- [C.6] Gross, S., (2013) Glitch please: datamoshing as a medium-specific application of digital material. Proc. Of Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces (DPPI’13). ACM: New York.
- [C.5] Gross, S., Bardzell, J., and Bardzell, S. (2013). Touch style: Creativity in tangible experience design. Proc. of Creativity and Cognition (C&C’13). ACM: New York.
- [C.4] Gross, S., Pace, T., Bardzell, J., and Bardzell, S. (2013). Machinima production tools: A vernacular history of a creative medium. Proc. of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’2013). ACM: New York.
- [C.3] Pace, T., Toombs, A., Gross, S., Pattin, T., Bardzell, J., and Bardzell, S. (2013). A tribute to mad skills: Expert amateur visuality and World of Warcraft machinima. Proc. of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’2013). ACM: New York.
- [C.2] Gross, S., Hakken, D., True, N. (2012) Studying social relations in MMOG play: an illustration of using ethnography to frame “Big Data.” Proc. of Computer Games: AI, Animation, Mobile, Interactive Multimedia, Educational & Serious Games (CGAMES’12). IEEE: Washington DC.
- [C.1] Bardzell, S., Gross, S., Wain, J., Toombs, A., and Bardzell, J. (2011). The significant screwdriver: Care, domestic masculinity, and interaction design. Proc. of BCS HCI2011.