Laia Turmo Vidal

Laia Turmo Vidal is a Digital Futures Postdoctoral Fellow at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Her current project, Connecting Bodies: Designing Shape-changing Wearables to Improve Remote Body-based Communication, explores how wearable technologies can foster somatic connections between remote individuals through tactile and haptic feedback. This work addresses the limitations of video-mediated communication in contexts requiring physical interaction, such as remote physiotherapy or long-distance relationships.

Laia holds a PhD and MSc in Human-Computer Interaction from Uppsala University (Sweden) and a BDes in Multimedia Technologies from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain). She has held research positions at institutions including the i_mBODY Lab at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), UCL Interaction Center (UK), and UC Santa Cruz (USA). Her research focuses on multisensory technologies, wearable devices, and design methods that enhance physical, emotional, and social experiences in health and wellbeing domains.

Her work emphasizes cooperative design approaches and the role of ambiguity in supporting diverse bodily experiences. Key themes include body perception transformation, intercorporeal biofeedback, and the ethical implications of wearable technologies. She co-designs methods like Movits (minimalist embodied sketching tools) and MeCaMInD (movement-based design cards) to advance interactive technology development.

Laia’s research bridges HCI with artistic practices, exploring how sensory data and materiality can create novel human-environment interactions. Her recent studies investigate sonification for body awareness, feminist approaches to bodily sensing, and sustainable design for water sports. She collaborates closely with Kristina Höök (KTH) and Georgios Andrikopoulos (KTH) on advancing interaction design methodologies.