We have learned to trust the number more than the feeling.
When data becomes more reliable than feeling
The MuC theme Transforming Interactions asks how digital technologies shape individual and societal change. The background to our workshop is a societal unease:
These figures are not merely medical statistics — they point to a cultural condition: a logic of optimisation. The constant pressure to perform, to quantify and to improve shapes work, everyday life and self-image — and contributes to exhaustion and overload.
Self-tracking is a symptom and amplifier of this logic — not its sole cause. It translates even sleep, recovery and well-being into metrics and shifts attention from inner sensing to measurable values — displacing exactly that intuitive, bodily knowledge the workshop is concerned with. The real design flaw: the technology undermines the very capacity it promises to support.
In short
- Decisions are increasingly data-driven — intuitive, bodily knowledge is treated as unreliable.
- Self-tracking measures the self and displaces the sense for inner states.
- What is lost is tacit knowledge: embodied knowledge that cannot be captured in numbers.
The scenario
Anna wakes up and does not feel rested. Her smartwatch reports excellent values — yet her body says something else. Two sources, two readings of the same morning:
The watch says
98 % recovery
rested · ready · on track
The Whispering Interface signals
a soft, slow glow
Accompanied by a barely perceptible vibration — no alarm and no measurement, just a quiet cue to pause for a moment and sense.
Whether Anna goes through her schedule as planned or takes the day more slowly and attends to herself remains her decision. The interface does not make it for her — it only makes the question itself possible again: not how do I perform today, but what do I actually need?
An interface that reflects instead of measuring
A speculative proposalNot a product, but a fictional artefact — a tool for thinking about a possible future and asking questions. expand_more
The Whispering Interface is not a real product, but a speculative proposal (Dunne & Raby 2013) — a fictional artefact set in a possible future in which connectedness and intuition matter more than efficiency and control. Speculative design does not offer a finished solution; it makes a conceivable future imaginable in order to raise questions and spark discussion: what if we grounded decisions in our intuition again rather than in measured values? What would technology look like that acts as a resonance space rather than an optimisation tool (Rosa 2022)?
The resonant stoneAt its centre is a stone that eludes measurement and carries knowledge. expand_more
In this future, a resonant stone stands at the centre, worn close to the body. Stones are ancient, unhurried and resist quantification; across cultures they carry knowledge and memory. Part of this fiction is a deliberately poetic notion: it is not the person who seeks the interface — the stone meets the person when they are inwardly ready for it.
Ceremonial makingEach stone is personally mounted — light and vibration hidden, no piece like another. expand_more
The interface comes into being in ceremonial workshops: people personalise their stone and give it an individual mounting — as a necklace, bracelet or set into clothing — in which the technology for light and vibration lies hidden, the very thing that makes the stone an interface in the first place. No piece is like another; out of this act of making grows a personal relationship.
The concept was presented as a provocation at ACM DIS 2026; this workshop is its participatory continuation. Read the full paper ↗
light_modeLight
Coloured, pulsing light reflects an inner state — in intensity, rhythm and colour, without ever fixing a meaning. It sits at the edge of attention: noticed, not read.
vibrationVibration
In moments of dissonance, a physically perceptible signal — no diagnosis, no judgement, just an invitation to pause and sense what is already there.
What it deliberately does not do
The Whispering Interface is conceived as a transitional technology. Its deepest function is to make itself superfluous: once it has taught people to act from their own intuition again, it has fulfilled its purpose — and may disappear.
More questions than answers
The Whispering Interface is a provocation, not a finished product — and it raises tensions that it deliberately leaves unresolved. These are precisely the material the workshop reflects on together.
Autonomy & responsibilityCan an interface mirror us without secretly steering us? expand_more
The interface gives no instructions, it only mirrors — responsibility stays with the person. Yet even making inner dissonance visible can become a quiet expectation, and thus a subtle form of steering. And who actually defines what “inner coherence” is? An interface that could not be switched off would contradict the autonomy it promises.
Trust & manipulationWhat if trust, of all things, becomes the point of attack? expand_more
Precisely because the concept stores nothing and connects to nothing, it lives on deep trust. The same quality makes it vulnerable: a version that secretly recorded emotional states would be a particularly effective instrument of manipulation — because it operates below conscious control.
Well-being beyond optimisationCan well-being be optimised — or does it only begin when we stop? expand_more
The interface treats no symptoms. It reaches deeper by refusing the logic of optimisation itself: there is no metric to improve. What if well-being is not a parameter to be optimised, but a quality that arises when optimising stops?
Societal transformationWhat would it do to a society that builds on intuition rather than efficiency? expand_more
If people acted according to inner coherence rather than efficiency, this could destabilise existing economic logics — readable as utopian potential as much as risk. The interface points to a paradigm beyond classical interaction: technology that does not seek to measure and steer the relationship between humans and the world, but deliberately holds back.
What it’s about
The conceptual and methodological anchors the workshop works with — briefly outlined:
- Speculative DesignDunne & Raby
- Fictional artefacts that make possible futures conceivable and open them to discussion.
- Intuition & Tacit KnowledgePolanyi
- Embodied, implicit knowledge that eludes quantification.
- ResonanceRosa
- A relationship to the world that cannot be forced — it can only emerge.
- Calm TechnologyWeiser & Brown
- Technology at the edge of attention: informing without overwhelming.
- Silence as a way of knowingMthoko et al. 2025
- Non-verbal, reflective pausing as a form of knowledge in its own right.
- Joy of PauseWorkshop principle
- Designing for the pause — the inversion of the HCI principle “Joy of Use”.
How we work
15 Min.
Introduction & speculative scenario
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15 Min.
Introduction & speculative scenario
The organisers introduce the project, its theoretical foundations and the speculative future of the artefact, and situate speculative design as a critical practice in relation to the theme Transforming Interactions.
15 Min.
Contributions from participants
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15 Min.
Contributions from participants
Those who submitted a position paper, sketch or visual essay bring in their perspective as a short impulse. This creates a shared starting point and makes the diversity of backgrounds visible.
15 Min.
Intuitive choice of the stone
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15 Min.
Intuitive choice of the stone
Each person intuitively chooses a stone from a curated collection of natural and semi-precious stones — guided by feeling, not by appearance.
45 Min.
Design phase
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45 Min.
Design phase
With materials provided (wire, fabric, natural materials, pens), each person creates a personal mounting for the stone — echoing the ceremonial act of the concept. The focus is on the process of pausing, not the aesthetic result; conversation is welcome, silence just as much.
15 Min.
Break
35 Min.
Guided reflection in small groups
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35 Min.
Guided reflection in small groups
In small groups of about five people — the artefact in hand — participants first share their own experiences: where do intuition and self-measurement appear in their everyday lives? Only then does a guiding question turn attention to a concrete situation in which they acted against their gut feeling — and what would have been different had they followed their intuition. The small, familiar setting creates space for personal, open accounts.
45 Min.
Joint discussion in the plenary
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45 Min.
Joint discussion in the plenary
In the full group, the small groups bring their insights together. From the individual stories, shared patterns and tensions become visible — the step from personal experience to a shared question. Here the experiences connect with the conference theme Transforming Interactions.
30 Min.
Lessons Learned & Joy of Pause
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30 Min.
Lessons Learned & Joy of Pause
To close, participants — once more in small groups — translate the insights into something concrete: they transfer the principle of pausing, the core gesture of the Whispering Interface, to existing or future devices and services and sketch short design principles, which they present in the closing round. The finale is the principle Joy of Pause: the conscious value of pausing.
Who the workshop is for
The workshop is aimed at researchers, designers and practitioners from HCI, interaction design and adjacent fields — both people experienced in the field and those wishing to explore the topic anew. 15–20 participants.
The tactile choice of the stone and flexible ways of making accommodate different abilities. Participation is voluntary; breaks or stepping back are possible at any time. Photos and videos only with explicit consent.
Who runs the workshop
Contact person
Lisa Narewski
Westfälische Hochschule · Department of Computer Science and Communication, Gelsenkirchen
Research associate and master’s student in Media Informatics. Research interests: human-computer interaction and speculative design — how design critically interrogates social and technical structures.
LinkedIn ↗Organiser
Prof. Katja Becker
Westfälische Hochschule · Department of Computer Science and Communication, Gelsenkirchen
Professor of Media and Interface Design at the Westfälische Hochschule since 2017. Research interests: participatory, inclusive design, social innovation and the translation of complex technologies into accessible, user-centred solutions. Extensive experience with participatory teaching formats and innovative workshop concepts.
LinkedIn ↗Thanks to Robin Arndt, Harriha Krishnamoorthy and Christian Fuchs for their contributions to developing the concept The Whispering Interface.
Submit a contribution
We invite researchers, designers and practitioners to take part in the workshop The Whispering Interface at Mensch und Computer 2026. Following the theme Transforming Interactions, we ask together: what happens when the relationship between humans and technology shifts — from optimisation to resonance, from datafication to embodied self-encounter?
Open workshop: Registration is open to all — a submission is optional, but welcome and helps us compose the group.
What we’re looking for
Submission
Questions? lisa.narewski@w-hs.de
At least one author of an accepted submission takes part in the workshop and registers for at least one conference day. Selection is based on fit, quality and the potential for a productive discussion.
Deadlines at a glance
16 July 2026
Submission deadline (AoE)
23 July 2026
Notification to authors
30 July 2026
Camera-ready — only for publication in the workshop proceedings (GI Digital Library)
30 August 2026
Workshop day · Sunday, MuC 2026 in Duisburg
AoE = Anywhere on Earth: submission until 23:59 in the latest time zone. The dates are provisional and may still change slightly.
Questions?
For questions about the workshop or your submission, write directly to Lisa Narewski (main contact): lisa.narewski@w-hs.de.
Embedded in Mensch und Computer 2026
Mensch und Computer is the annual conference of the German Informatics Society (GI) in the field of human-computer interaction. The 2026 edition takes place from 30 August to 2 September 2026 at the University of Duisburg-Essen — under the theme Transforming Interactions. Our workshop is part of the Sunday programme that opens the conference.