Embodying Relationships
Designing TUIs for Co-Located Human–Human Dynamics
This CHI 2026 workshop explores the opportunity to leverage tangible and embodied interaction, grounded in psychological theories to support human–human dynamics in co-located settings.
Building on TUI research in collaboration and learning, this workshop extends the focus to relationship dynamics, exploring how TUIs can scaffold human relationships beyond the task at hand.
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Through hands-on activities, participants will work with physical materials to rapidly prototype and reflect on tangible interaction concepts across diverse relational contexts.
For example:
A tangible designed to raise parents' reflective functioning during collaborative activity with their child.
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What's reflective functioning?
Reflective Functioning is the parents' capacity to understand one’s own and child's behavior in terms of underlying mental states and intentions.
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Slade, A. (2005). Parental reflective functioning: An introduction. Attachment & human development, 7(3), 269-281.
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Call for Participation
To take part in the workshop, please fill out a short Google Form and upload a single PDF (up to 500 words). In your submission, we ask you to briefly describe:
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Your motivation for joining the workshop
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How your interests connect to , TUIs, human–human interaction, relationships, or co-located dynamics
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Optionally: a short reference to any related research, design work, teaching, or practice you’ve done that may be relevant to the workshop themes
This does not need to be a formal position paper. We welcome exploratory ideas, early-stage interests, reflections from practice, or ongoing work.​​
Submissions will be reviewed for relevance and diversity of perspectives rather than maturity of ideas. If you are interested but not sure if your topic is relevant, do not hesitate to email us with an informal inquiry.​
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Submission deadline: February 12th, 2026
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Notification of acceptance: February 25th, 2026
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Workshop at CHI 2026: April 16th, 14:15-15:45
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See workshop proposal here
For any questions, feel free to reach out to: ofir.sadka@milab.runi.ac.il
Workshop Goals
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Through hands-on activities:
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Explore the opportunities and challenges of TUI’s for supporting co-located relational human–human dynamics
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Explore how tangible and embodied interaction can externalize and scaffold psychological relational processes (e.g. trust, perspective-taking, intimacy)
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Build a shared design space and community around TUIs for co-located relationships
Who Should Participate
We welcome participants from:
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HCI, Interaction Design, and TUI research
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CSCW, social computing, and embodied interaction
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Psychology, communication, and design research
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Practitioners exploring relational or collaborative systems
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No prior experience with tangible interfaces is required :)
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What should you expect
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Active, hands-on making throughout the workshop: this is not a sit-and-listen session​
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Guided hands-on design that connects theory to material form, using dyadic contexts and relationship theories as explicit design guidance.​
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Working with curated low-fi tangible artifacts to explore how physical affordances become shared relational resources (no prior fabrication skills required)​
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Capturing your prototype and using SORA to visualize interaction behaviors within a social interaction.​
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Informal sharing and reflection grounded in what you built and experienced
Organisers
Ofir Sadka
Faculty of Data and Decisions Science
Technion
Israel
Iddo Wald
Digital Media Lab
University of Bremen
Germany
Andrey Grishko
Sammy Ofer School of Communications
Reichman University
Israel
Ken Nagasaki
University of Chicago
USA
Julia Dominiak
Lodz University of Technology; Vienna University of Technology
Poland; Austria
Tanja Doring
Institute of Psychology and Ergonomics
Technische Universität Berlin
Germany
Oren Zuckerman
Sammy Ofer School of Communications
Reichman University
Israel
“Creant el demà junts.”
“Creating Tomorrow Together.”
