VisGroup @ CHI 2026
The VisGroup says ¡hola! at the Catalonian edition of CHI this year.
PhD Fellow Roxanne Ziman headed to sunny Barcelona to participate in, among several other paper sessions and activities, a meet-up (a new interactive networking format at CHI this year) and a workshop related to engagement in HCI. Along with Laura Garrison, she was one of the co-organizers of Knots & Flows: An Engagement Meet-Up, and facilitated active discussions about what engagement means across different areas of HCI research and practice. (There was a heated debate amongst Roxy’s group about the merits and perils of Duolingo…still a well-intentioned language-learning friend, or an HCI engagement wolf in green-owl’s clothing?)
A few of the same organizers held a workshop the following day on Engagement in Digital Health Interventions, which raised provocative questions about how technology design might influence, for better or worse, short- and long-term user engagement for positive health interventions.
The last conference day was no less exciting than the first for Visualization research and international collaborations! Hot off the CHI press, a fresh perspective from Laura Garrison, along with co-authors Shay Saharan (U. of Toronto), Ibrahim Al-Hazwani (U. of Zurich), and Miriah Meyer (Linköping U.), discussed how we can critically reflect on normative values in visualization [1]. Shay gave an excellent presentation of these ideas Friday morning.
And, of course, the conference trip wouldn’t be complete without taking in the city sights.
As always, we come away from these very full, enriching conferences revived with new learnings, much to chew on, and sparks of new ideas. And the best part is (re)connecting with friends old and new.
‘Til next time, CHI. ¡Adios!