Katherine Isbister

Wildfire preparedness is a deeply social challenge that depends on shared understanding, coordinated action, and community-level decision-making. Serious games have emerged as promising tools for supporting preparedness learning, yet their evaluation often relies on individual outcomes or surveys, leaving interactional learning processes underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing how players from wildfire-affected communities collaboratively constructed preparedness knowledge while playing Firesafe Friends, a two-player serious game. Using a Discourse Acts approach, we analyzed dialogue from onsite and remote sessions (n = 20) and triangulated the findings with pre/post surveys and observational notes. Our analysis reveals distinct phases of collaborative learning – orientation, strategy formation, collaboration, and reflection – marked by shifts in cognitive, social, and integrated discourse acts. Budget constraints prompted negotiation, contested upgrades supported collective reasoning, and reflective dialogue helped players connect in-game decisions to real-world preparedness. We contribute (1) an empirical analysis of discourse as a mechanism for resilience learning, (2) a discourse-centered triangulated evaluation method, and (3) design implications for resilience games that scaffold negotiation and reflection to strengthen community preparedness.

Youth are increasingly turning to social virtual reality for connection. Yet, while the embodied and social nature of these spaces may offer new opportunities for emotional expression and regulation, little is known about how youth leverage these capabilities in practice. To design VR interventions that better support youth, we collected and analyzed 64 surveys and 21 go-along interviews with youth in VRChat. Our findings suggest that youth engage with their emotions in social VR using multiple strategies in both adaptive and maladaptive ways, primarily distraction and venting. Youth noticed how practicing emotion regulation in VRChat translated to their daily lives and were curious to learn more about how to emotionally regulate themselves and help others. We generated four design opportunities: realistic practice of underdeveloped emotion regulation strategies, increased access to community support and resources, motivation through identity exploration and acceptance, and IRL transferability and integration.

Emotion regulation skills are crucial for wellbeing, yet mastering them is not trivial. Because of wearability, private passthrough display, and ability to keep users connected to their surroundings, Augmented Reality (AR) technologies have potential for supporting on-the-spot emotion regulation. We designed TouchEmotion, an AR design exemplar consisting of three prototypes aimed to support metaphorical emotional trajectories for regulating anxiety, anger, and boredom. We employed Snap Spectacles to design interactive animations and touchpad interactions, which we examined through an exploratory study with 18 participants. Findings indicate potential of AR technologies and in particular of metaphorical emotional trajectories coupled with touch-based interactions for on-the-spot regulation of three discrete negative emotions. We advanced a design space for on-the-spot emotion regulation technologies, and proposed five design implications: nature-inspired slow transitions, frictions to support frustration tolerance, layered randomness to support surprise, and finger-worn devices integrated with AR technologies for increased acceptance in public contexts.

Technologically supported tools and solutions are essential for mitigating risks and adapting to the impacts of climate change, particularly in vulnerable communities. However, the "last-mile" challenges — challenges to effectively delivering and adopting these solutions at the community level — often prevent implementation and exacerbate building climate resilience at the community level. This workshop focuses on exploring these challenges from a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) perspective, highlighting how user- and community-centered design, participatory approaches, and technological interventions can support the accessibility, usability, participation, and impact of climate resilience tools. The goal of the workshop is to bring people together to discuss, share, and compare different approaches and strategies, challenges, and design considerations and concerns.