Yinying Miao

CRAFTING DATA INTERACTIONS TO UNDERSTAND USERS AND SUPPORT INTERACTIONS

Hi, I am Yinying Miao

I am an exploratory HCI / Design Researcher, who focuses on translating data into creative and interactive means for users to understand and interact with. I approach this vision by working on Human-Computer Interaction, tangible/hybrid user interfaces, and physical computing. I build and evaluate data-driven research artifacts through hands-on making, user-centered research, and technological realizations.

I am a recent MSc graduate in Industrial Design from Eindhoven University of Technology, where I was supervised by Dr. Steven Houben and Dr. Hans Brombacher. During my MSc studies, I focused on investigating the design space of data physicalization through contextual case studies, theoretical explorations, and novel interaction mechanism developments. By proposing new interaction techniques and exploring design spaces, my goal is to enable deeper conceptual and theoretical understanding of how we interaction with data.

I am currently seeking PhD positions in Europe/US in the field of HCI or related areas.

PhysLens

MSc Graduation Project
Work-in-Progress published at ACM DIS’25

A Tangible Vocabulary of Data Physicalization

Pictorial in-submission
E-magazine article selected in 4TU DU’24

PhySo

Work-in-Progress in-submission
E-magazine article selected in 4TU DU’23

AIlingo

Work-in-Progress published at ACM Chinese CHI’24

OfficeSphere

E-magazine article selected in 4TU DU’24

SiTable

BSc Graduation Project

PUBLICATIONS

Conference Papers:

Yinying Miao, Hans Brombacher, and Steven Houben. 2025. PhysLens: Enrich Data Physicalization through a Lens of Details. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25 Companion), July 5–9, 2025, Funchal, Portugal. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715668.3736358

Tianqin Lu, Sahil Bhatnagar, Nick van Geenen, Yinying Miao, Zitian Zhang, Aaqib Saeed, and Jun Hu. 2025. AIlingo: Contextual Language Learning with Artificial Intelligence in Real-World Contexts. In Proceedings of the Twelfth International Symposium of Chinese CHI (CHCHI ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 765–773. https://doi.org/10.1145/3758871.3758962

Manuscripts:

Yinying Miao, Hans Brombacher, and Steven Houben. 2026. Review-through-Making: Developing a Tangible Vocabulary of Data Physicalization. (In Submission). 18 pages.

Yinying Miao, Hans Brombacher, and Steven Houben. 2026. PhySo: A Data Physicalization of Office Noise. (In Submission).

PRESS COVERAGE

2024 | 4TU Design United E-Magazine | PhyDa: Exploring the Data Mapping Methods in Data Physicalization. https://www.4tu.nl/du/projects/PhyDa/

2024 | 4TU Design United E-Magazine | OfficeSphere: An Input Data Physicalization Tool to Reflect on Your Office Environment. https://www.4tu.nl/du/projects/OfficeSphere-An-Input-Data-Physicalization-Tool-to-Reflect-on-Your-Office-Environment/

2023 | 4TU Design United E-Magazine | UN_OSO. https://www.4tu.nl/du/projects/un-oso/