Our group, headed by Prof. Dr. Jan Borchers, works in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Grounded in Computer Science, we develop and study new interaction theories, techniques, and systems in areas like personal digital fabrication and personal design, mobile, wearable, and shape-changing user interfaces, soft robotics, interactive textiles, handheld augmented reality, interaction with AI, deceptive design, and visual coding environments. Our goal is to make the Brave New World of interactive technologies useful by making it usable. Since starting in October 2003, we have become one of Germany's best-published research groups at CHI, the premier international academic conference in the field.
We're part of the Computer Science Department and the HCI Center at RWTH Aachen University, Germany's top-ranked University of Technology and one of Germany's Excellence Universities. Our group is an Endowed Chair of the German B-IT Foundation.
Our CHI'24 Contributions
We regularly present our work at ACM CHI, the world's premier conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Here's what we shared there this year:
Fighting Malicious Designs:
Towards Visual Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns
Short Paper by Schäfer et al., CHI '24
Mappings in the Home:
Selecting Home Appliances in 3D Space
Late-Breaking Work by Nowak et al., CHI '24
How’s Your Sewing?
Investigating Metrics to Automatically Assess Sewing Expertise
Late-Breaking Work by Lahaye et al., CHI '24
Mobilizing Research and Regulatory Action on Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design Practices
Workshop by Gray et al., CHI '24
News & Events
- We have moved! New address: Im Süsterfeld 9, Aachen, just a few minutes from our old place. We are here for 1–2 years while our CS building is being renovated. (Aug 2, 2024)
- Our Full Paper Embrogami: Shape-Changing Textiles with Machine Embroidery in collaboration with Jürgen Steimle's lab was accepted to ACM UIST'24. (Jun 30, 2024)
- Our Full Paper Growing Up With Dark Patterns: How Children Perceive Malicious User Interface Designs was accepted to NordiCHI'24. (Jun 18, 2024)
- Our paper Access Your Data... If You Can: An Analysis of Dark Patterns Against the Right of Access on Popular Websites in collaboration with Ulrike Meyer's lab was accepted to APF'24.
- At this year's Girls' Day, twelve children visited our Fab Lab Aachen. (Apr 25, 2024)
- Our Late-Breaking Work Mappings in the Home: Selecting Home Appliances in 3D Space was accepted at ACM CHI'24—congratulations Oliver Nowak, Lennart Becker, and Sebastian Pettirsch! (Feb 29, 2024)
- Our Late-Breaking Work How’s Your Sewing? Investigating Metrics to Automatically Assess Sewing Expertise was accepted at ACM CHI'24—congratulations Marcel Lahaye, Ricarda Rahm, Judith Ernstberger, and Andreas Dymek! (Feb 29, 2024)
- Our Short Paper Fighting Malicious Designs: Towards Visual Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns in UI design was accepted at ACM CHI'24—congratulations René Schäfer, Paul Preuschoff, René Röpke, and Sarah Sahabi! (Jan 19, 2024)
- Earlier news & events...
Usability for Everybody in 18 Minutes
Teaching Winter 2024/25
Designing Interactive Systems 1
iOS Application Development
FLApp
FLApp, our mobile Future Lab Aachen App for iOS and Android, is the city's official science-focused walking tour through Aachen's inner city. But instead of historical facts, you'll learn about the latest discoveries and inventions made by engineers and scientists at each location, with some locations using Augmented Reality.
Interested in HCI?
- Jan's Top Ten list of HCI books
- What makes a good PhD student? (Jan, Jan 25, 2006)
- HCI Journals and their Impact Factors (Jan, Jan 30, 2006)
- Other HCI- and Media Computing-related groups at RWTH Aachen University
- Join our low-traffic HCI Announcements list to be informed about HCI-related events at our chair, at RWTH Aachen University and in the area.
Media Computing Group / Lehrstuhl Medieninformatik und Mensch–Computer–Interaktion (Informatik 10) • Prof. Dr. Jan Borchers • RWTH Aachen University • Im Süsterfeld 9 • 2nd floor • Room 2.86 • 52072 Aachen • Germany • +49 (0)241 80-21051 • Contact & Directions • Imprint