Projects

The EnCoDe Research Lab focuses on research areas, such as human-computer interaction, natural user interfaces, augmented reality, and child-computer interaction. Here is a list of our current projects.

Current Projects

Children’s Learning Enhanced with AR and Individualized Responses (CLEARIR) (NSF #2551482)

Children are increasingly using AR headsets, especially for education, as these devices have the potential to increase children’s learning, engagement, and motivation. However, despite this promise, little research has examined how AR headset systems can be designed to adaptively support children’s learning by providing real-time personalized feedback. There is a clear need to better understand how children’s expectations and interaction behaviors shape their experiences with AR headsets in educational contexts, and how to determine children’s reflective thinking and attention states while interacting with AR headset systems to provide personalized learning. This project addresses these concerns by investigating how AR headsets can be optimized as an adaptive learning system for children in intermediate elementary (ages 8 to 13) to enhance learning in a way that is personalized, intuitive, and effective. This project will result in AR headset learning experiences that are specifically designed for children, which will increase their learning for a range of subjects (e.g., science, mathematics) and equip young learners with essential critical thinking, spatial reasoning, and technological skills.

Children’s Virtual-Object Interaction in AR

Children are increasingly interacting with augmented reality (AR) (smartphones, tablets, headsets). We are interested in how to design AR experiences that match children’s mental models and expectations, such as examining how to create child-centered virtual-object interactions.

Example Publications:

  1. Delgado, A., Jibon, M., Shah, H., Rahman, F., Kurnikova, A., Woodward, J. 2026. “If you are a Star Wars fan, use the force”: Exploring Children’s Virtual-Object Interaction Preferences in AR Headsets. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’26). [Pdf]
Augmented Reality for Situational Awareness / Task Performance 

Augmented reality (AR) headsets allow a user to see and interact with virtual objects (i.e., holograms) projected onto a view of the real world. We are examining how visual information should be presented in AR headsets to aid in situational awareness and task performance for both adults and children.

Example Publications:

  1. Woodward, J., Ruiz, J. 2023. Designing Textual Information in AR Headsets to Aid in Adults’ and Children’s task Performance. In Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’23), Chicago, IL, June 2023, 13 pages. [Pdf]
  2. Woodward, J., Smith, J., Wang, I., Cuenca, S., Ruiz, J. 2020. Examining the Presentation of Information in Augmented Reality Headsets for Situational Awareness. Proceedings of the International Conference on Advance Visual Interfaces (AVI ‘20), Ischia Island, Italy, September 2020, Article No. 57. [Pdf]
Co-Design with Children 

We are exploring how children think about and understand technology through getting design input directly from children. Our overall goal is to design technology that is tailored towards children to optimize their interactions, and to gain knowledge on how children conceptualize and interact with different technologies. So far we have examined how children perceive and conceptualize intelligent user interfaces and AR headsets. 

Example Publications:

  1. Quander, K., Milky, T.R., Aponte, N., Caceres Carrascal, N., Woodward, J. 2024. “Are you smart?”: Children’s Understanding of “Smart” Technologies. Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’24).
  2. Woodward, J., Alemu, F., Lopez Adames, N.E., Anthony, L., Yip, J., Ruiz, J. 2022. “It Would Be Cool to Get Stampeded by Dinosaurs”: Analyzing Children’s Conceptual Model of AR Headsets Through Co-Design. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI ‘22), New Orleans, LA, May 2022, 13 pages. [Pdf]
  3. Woodward, J., McFadden, Z., Shiver, N., Ben-hayon, A., Yip, J., Anthony, L. 2018. Using Co-Design to Examine How Children Conceptualize Intelligent Interfaces. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI’2018), Montreal, Canada, 21 April 2018, Paper No. 575. [Pdf]