interactive. media. research.

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.

News & Events

• Prof. Borchers won the Special Edition Faculty Science Slam (video) at the 20th anniversary of RWTH's Science Night (Nov 8, 2024).
• Prof. Borchers gave an invited talk about 3D printing at the Erholungsgesellschaft 1837 Society (Oct 30, 2024).
• 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

Previous Semesters

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