Modern “always-on” work cultures increasingly blur the boundaries between professional and personal life, making psychological detachment and recovery difficult. While many current digital wellbeing tools rely on notifications, scheduling, or focus modes, emerging interactive systems can go further by physically mediating transitions between work and leisure. Such Embodied Work-Life Balance Interfaces combine technologies such as physiological sensing, artificial intelligence, wearables, shape-changing furniture, and spatial or environmental cues to respond to users’ bodily and contextual states. These systems create new opportunities for supporting healthier work practices, but also raise distinctive challenges: when should an embodied intervention occur, how strongly should it act on or through the body, how can users retain autonomy and bodily agency, and how should such systems account for differences in culture, profession, accessibility, and organizational context? This Dagstuhl Seminar wants to bring together experts from HCI, physiological computing, AI, interaction design, and relevant industry sectors to define this emerging research area, map its design space, establish shared evaluation methods, and articulate ethical boundaries. By developing actionable principles for responsible design and deployment, the seminar aims to advance embodied interfaces that support detachment, recovery, and smooth re-engagement while promoting sustainable and humane work-life balance.

Creative Commons BY 4.0

Nadia Berthouze, Per Ola Kristensson, Zhuying Li, and Florian 'Floyd' Mueller

This seminar qualifies for Dagstuhl's LZI Junior Researchers program. Schloss Dagstuhl wishes to enable the participation of junior scientists with a specialisation fitting for this Dagstuhl Seminar, even if they are not on the radar of the organizers. Applications by outstanding junior scientists are possible until December 4, 2026