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The article highlights gender codes in design, particularly in web design, by means of current examples. Different aspects of gender-specific design are looked at in detail and their inherent problems discussed: on the one hand the development of a special solution (gender-specific for women), on the other hand, web design with reduced functionality and simplification of information (i.e. image representation) which sometimes even leads to a negation of technology. The article illustrates that gender codes and stereotypical role models can be embodied on different design levels of web design (use and artefact): in structure/navigation, in creative elements by the use of shape, colour and imagery and on a textual level. These design decisions have an impact on the power of users to act, their individual gender identity and the structural gender identity/social perception of gender. The article demonstrates that gender codes in current web design are very present and aims to sensitize the topic.
This chapter describes a new concept and experiences of a distributed interdisciplinary learning program for students across continents. The aim is to provide students with a truly Global Intercultural Project Experience (GIPE) by working together with peers from around the world and solving real-life client’s problems. We have received seed-funding for four annual projects to engage students from Germany (Europe), Namibia (Africa), Indonesia (Asia), and Peru (South America). In 2020 and 2021, 28 and 44 students from four continents engaged in a one-semester distributed interdisciplinary project for a Namibian and Indonesian client, respectively. Despite Covid-19 they successfully completed the project expressing deep appreciation for the learning opportunities overcoming challenges of working across widespread time zones, cultures, changing requirements, and various technical difficulties. Considering the vast learning benefits, we suggest incorporating such projects in all tertiary education curricula across the globe, while streamlining organizational efforts based on lessons learned.
Nicht nur in der Gestaltung digitaler Medien spielt die Kategorie Geschlecht eine tragende Rolle, sondern auch in der Konzeption, Herstellung sowie Nutzung von Webangeboten. Problematisch daran ist, dass die weibliche Perspektive in Bezug auf Interessen, Bedürfnisse und Anwendbarkeit häufig wenig oder stereotyp berücksichtigt wird, die Nutzung digitaler Medien jedoch Verhaltensweisen, Werte und Normen von Nutzer_innen erheblich – und sehr einseitig – prägt. Design stellt hierbei einen zentralen Faktor dar: Es steuert, ermöglicht oder verhindert das Nutzer_innenverhalten und deutet und wertet Inhalte durch die Art der jeweiligen Darstellung. Die Auswirkung von Design im Entwicklungsprozess von digitalen Artefakten ist sehr vielschichtig und in ihrer gesamten Tragweite weit unterschätzt. Der Beitrag sensibilisiert hinsichtlich Gendercodes in Designstrategien, Methoden aus dem Entwicklungsprozess (Persona-Entwicklung) und einzelner Gestaltungselemente (Farbe, Typografie).
In this paper we present the co-design and implementation of an extended reality escape room with 26 primary school students. The aim of our study was to explore the co-design process with students and to co-create a playable escape room, providing an asymmetric immersive experience in which players collaborate. We realised the complexity of designing such an escape room with primary students. We share our experiences and learnings in regard to required capacities and skills of co-designers, and adjustment of complexity and timing to players. We also maintain that the integration of extended reality technologies into escape rooms requires further research to realise asymmetric co-located collaboration.
Indigenous people across the globe have all too often been marginalised and not been considered in decisions that directly concern their life. We maintain the significance of incorporating indigenous perspectives in society to create a global dialogue through direct participation. In this light we propose a situated action in which our co-author from the Ju/’hoansi tribe, one of the San ethnicity in Southern Africa, digitally records semi-structured conversations with members of other indigenous communities at the conference and public spaces in Sibu. Then participants are engaged into a participatory exploration of processing the audio files into sound installations and soundscapes which “amplify indigenous voices“. We anticipate that the products can be reused for further initiatives in the different countries, raising awareness and calling for action on matters of concern for indigenous people.
Escape rooms have gained popularity across the globe, be it for entertainment, team building, or learning purposes. Solving puzzles has intrigued humanity since ancient times and playing games together facilitated intercultural encounters, encouraging mutual learning. This situated action builds on the idea of a mobile escape room within a suitcase, which when traveling shares previous encounters and collects new puzzles, thereby ever evolving. A suitcase will arrive in Sibu, Malaysia, with augmented reality stickers that entail puzzles created in Namibia. Visitors need to solve the puzzles to open the suitcase, which contains treats from Namibia, as well as materials to create new puzzles. Visitors participate in creating their own cultural puzzles, upload them to the augmented reality application, and thereby contribute to a new multicultural escape suitcase. The puzzles can also be played back at home, and the suitcase will continue evolving as it travels.
The concept of “Internationalisation at Home“ has gained momentum with the increasing digitalization of education and limitations on mobility. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is an innovative, cost-effective instructional method that promotes intercul-tural learning through online collaboration between faculty and students from different countries or locations. The benefits of using COIL courses have been widely recognized, with learners developing intercultural competencies, digital skills, international education experi-ence, and global awareness.
However, multicultural communication in project environments can be complex and demand awareness of cultural variations . The creation and development of effective cross-cultural collectivism, trust, communication, and empathy in leadership is an important ingredient for remote project collaborations success. This is an area that has been least explored in re-search on communication in virtual teams.
The GIPE projects are mainly carried out as so-called Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) events. However, to gain a “real world“ experience abroad in an intercultural team, students from all partner universities can participate in the Spring School being held for two weeks in Germany and the Germany students present and hand-over the results in the country of the partner university. The main objective of this research was to examine the experiences of students participating in the GIPE project and to evaluate the effectiveness of the project in enhancing intercultural competencies and fostering collaboration among stu-dents from different continents. This paper will also explore the implications of the GIPE project for Education 2.0 considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the future of education delivery and administration transformation.
As AI systems increasingly mediate how knowledge is accessed, interpreted, and acted upon, interaction design is shifting toward frictionless, anticipatory experiences. This paper argues that the removal of friction carries epistemic and ethical costs, creating an epistemic anti-pattern that undermines users’ responsibility in the act of knowing. Drawing on a speculative design project presented as a short film, it explores a near-future scenario in which AI-mediated brain–computer interfaces deliver knowledge instantaneously, outsourcing learning, judgment, and decision-making. Rather than predicting technological futures, the scenario serves as a critical lens for examining current design values, power structures, and assumptions in contemporary AI systems. It highlights how seamless interaction redistributes agency, authority, and responsibility in the act of knowing, and how creativity, critical reflection, and deliberation risk being reframed as inefficiencies. The paper calls for reorienting interaction design beyond usability metrics toward the epistemic consequences of frictionless AI.
This paper outlines the process by which LoRA models were trained to produce AI-generated images that convincingly represent under-represented groups. Working with the OvaHimba, an indigenous community from Namibia, the process of training image datasets is demonstrated and the results of image generation are analysed. It was found that this is a complex endeavour and that several aspects need to be considered: technical, creative, content and ethical. This paper shares experiences and lessons learned that are relevant to image generation for marginalised groups in regard to implicit assumptions perpetuated in current (Western) image generators.
Decisions are increasingly data-driven, while intuitive, embodied forms of knowledge are dismissed as unreliable. Self-tracking technologies normalize this shift, systematically redirecting attention from inner sensations toward measurable parameters. We argue that this constitutes a fundamental design problem: contemporary interfaces erode the very capacities they claim to support. This paper presents a speculative counterproposal: The Whispering Interface, a fictional artifact that does not measure, evaluate, or optimize, but mirrors inner states through subtle signals – light and vibration – and invites pause. Grounded in speculative design following Dunne and Raby [4], the concept explores what it means to conceive of technology as a space for self-encounter rather than an optimization tool. A scenario illustrates its mode of operation, while the discussion reflects on tensions between autonomy, trust, well-being, and societal transformation. In the spirit of the conference theme Beyond Interaction, this paper asks what design beyond conventional interaction paradigms might mean.
