Paulo Bala
@iti.larsys.pt
ITI/LARSyS
Scopus Publications
- Social Anxiety in VR-CBT: Insights for College Students
Élton Camacho, Pedros Campos, Paulo Bala
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2026 - “It’s Often Feeling Nothing..”: Evaluating LLMs for Mental Health Literacy Interventions with College Students
José Pedro Vieira Sousa, Pedro Campos, Paulo Bala
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2026 - Football Games as Proxsituated Visualizations in eXtended Reality
Paulo Bala, David Olim, Miguel Ribeiro, Baltasar Sousa, Pedro Campos, et al.
Academic Mindtrek 2025 Proceedings of the 28th International Academic Mindtrek Conference, 2025 - Speculating Migrant Possible Worlds through Magic Machines
Valentina Nisi, Paulo Bala, Vanessa Cesário, Shuhao Ma, Nuno Jardim Nunes
Proceedings of the ACM on Human Computer Interaction, 2025
Migration and technology studies increasingly recognize the importance of incorporating migrant perspectives in design processes. Speculative design methods have emerged as powerful tools for imagining alternative futures, particularly when working with marginalized communities. However, there remains a gap in understanding how to effectively engage long-term settled migrants in participatory design processes that honor their experiences and imaginative capacities. Here we show how integrating feminist care principles with speculative design methods can create more inclusive and empathetic approaches to technology design with migrant communities. Through workshops applying the ''magic machines'' methodology, we demonstrate how participatory speculation enables migrants to articulate their experiences, anxieties, and hopes for technological futures. Our findings reveal the importance of considering diasporic minds and cross-border connectivity in future technologies. This work provides immediate opportunities for researchers and designers to develop more inclusive approaches to speculative design while challenging dominant narratives about technological futures in migrant communities. - Visualizing the Ledger: Teaching Blockchain as Design Material
Paulo Bala, Sabrina Scuri, Catia Prandi, Nuno Jardim Nunes, Valentina Nisi
Chitaly 2025 Proceedings of the 16th Biannual Conference of the Italian Sigchi Chapter, 2025 - En-join: Speculative LLM Play for Energy Community Engagement and Sustainability Awareness
Luiz Sachser, Andrés Isaza-Giraldo, Anna Jiskrová, Vanessa Cesário, Pedro F. Campos, et al.
DIS 2025 Companion Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference Designing for A Sustainable Ocean, 2025 - Designing for Community Care: Reimagining Support for Equity & Well-being in Academia
Beatriz Severes, Ana O Henriques, Rory Stuart Clark, Paulo Bala, Anna R. L. Carter, et al.
DIS 2025 Companion Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference Designing for A Sustainable Ocean, 2025 - Mystiria: An Intergenerational Game for Climate Literacy and Collaborative Action
Joana Spínola, Pedro Campos, Lígia Gonçalves, Mara Dionísio, Paulo Bala
Proceedings 24th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference Idc 2025, 2025 - Combining Interactive Narratives and Augmented Reality to Promote Engagement between Children and Nature
Luís Francisco Fernandes, Paulo Bala, Sandra Câmara Olim, Pedro F. Campos, Mara Dionisio
Proceedings 24th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference Idc 2025, 2025 - Evaluating Mystiria: Insights from a Pilot Study on Intergenerational Collaborative Gameplay for Climate Change Awareness
Joana Spínola, Lígia Gonçalves, Pedro Campos, Mara Dionísio, Paulo Bala
Proceedings 24th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference Idc 2025, 2025 - DreamScape: Fostering Financial Cognition through a Serious Game
Ana Santos, Constança Freitas, Paulo Bala, Pedro F. Campos, Mara Dionisio
C and C 2025 Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, 2025 - Making Sense of Our Data: Exploring Well-Being Self-Tracking Through Creative Collaboration
Beatriz Severes, Paulo Bala, Patricia Piedade, Eduardo Gomes, Augusto Esteves, et al.
C and C 2025 Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, 2025 - Exploring the Impact of Transmedia Storytelling on Financial Literacy: A Pilot Evaluation with Young Adults
Constança Freitas, Ana Santos, Pedro F. Campos, Paulo Bala, Mara Dionisio
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2025 - Meta-evaluating the Effects of Social Preferences on NPC-evaluators in an Energy Community Game
Andrés Isaza-Giraldo, Paulo Bala, Anna Jiskrová, Luiz Sachser, Pedro Campos, et al.
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2025 - Interactive Digital Storytelling Navigating the Inherent Currents of the Diasporic Mind
Valentina Nisi, Paulo Bala, Miguel Pessoa, Stuart James, Nuno Nunes
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2025 - Being Water: Collaborating with an LLM in an Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) as Speculative Aesthetics
Rafaela Nunes, Terhi Marttila, Andrés Isaza-Giraldo, Paulo Bala, Pedro F. Campos
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2025 - Where’s the Finance?: A Transmedia Storytelling Experience to Engage Young Adults in Financial Educational Content
Constança Freitas, Ana Santos, Paulo Bala, Pedro F. Campos, Mara Dionísio
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2025 - College Tales: Pilot Study on Large Language Models Generated Narratives for Mental Health Literacy
José Pedro Vieira Sousa, Pedro Campos, Paulo Bala
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2024 - FitFest: Designing a Narrative-driven Exergame to Engage Active Seniors in Physical Activity
Eva Freitas, Hildegardo Noronha, Cíntia França, Élvio Gouveia, Paulo Bala, et al.
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2024 - CBT-Darts: Identifying Cognitive Distortions in an Immersive VR Game
Élton Camacho, Pedro Campos, Paulo Bala
Imx 2024 Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences, 2024 - Financial DreamScape: Puzzle Narrative Games for Financial Education
Ana Santos, Constança Freitas, Paulo Bala, Pedro Campos, Mara Dionisio
Imx 2024 Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences, 2024 - Prompt-Gaming: A Pilot Study on LLM-Evaluating Agent in a Meaningful Energy Game
Andrés Isaza-Giraldo, Paulo Bala, Pedro F. Campos, Lucas Pereira
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2024 - Stories as Boundary Objects: Digital Storytelling with Migrant Communities for Heritage Discourses
Paulo Bala, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Jardim Nunes
Proceedings of the ACM on Human Computer Interaction, 2024 - "Connected to the people": Social Inclusion & Cohesion in Action through a Cultural Heritage Digital Tool
Valentina Nisi, Paulo Bala, Vanessa Cesário, Stuart James, Alessio Del Bue, et al.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human Computer Interaction, 2023 - Towards Critical Heritage in the wild: Analysing Discomfort through Collaborative Autoethnography
Paulo Bala, Pedro Sanches, Vanessa Cesário, Sarah Leão, Catarina Rodrigues, et al.
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2023 - Inclusive Digital Storytelling: Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to Re-centre Stories from the Margins
Valentina Nisi, Stuart James, Paulo Bala, Alessio Del Bue, Nuno Jardim Nunes
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2023 - Writing with (Digital) Scissors: Designing a Text Editing Tool for Assisted Storytelling Using Crowd-Generated Content
Paulo Bala, Stuart James, Alessio Del Bue, Valentina Nisi
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2022 - Square peg, round hole: A case study on using Visual Question & Answering in Games
Paulo Bala, Valentina Nisi, Mara Dionisio, Nuno Jardim Nunes, Stuart James
Chi Play 2021 Extended Abstracts of the 2021 Annual Symposium on Computer Human Interaction in Play, 2021 - Dynamic field of view restriction in 360? video: Aligning optical flow and visual slam to mitigate vims
Paulo Bala, Ian Oakley, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Jardim Nunes
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2021 - Amnesia in the Atlantic: An AI Driven Serious Game on Marine Biodiversity
Mara Dionísio, Valentina Nisi, Jin Xin, Paulo Bala, Stuart James, et al.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2021 - Staying on Track: A Comparative Study on the Use of Optical Flow in 360° Video to Mitigate VIMS
Paulo Bala, Ian Oakley, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
Imx 2020 Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences, 2020 - Tale of T(r)ails: The Design of an AR Comic Book for an Animal Welfare Transmedia
Mara Dionisio, Paulo Bala, Sarah Oliveira, Valentina Nisi
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2020 - Tell a Tail 360$$^{\circ }$$ : Immersive Storytelling on Animal Welfare
Paulo Bala, Mara Dionisio, Tânia Andrade, Valentina Nisi
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2020 - Tell a Tail: Leveraging XR for a Transmedia on Animal Welfare
Paulo Bala, Mara Dionisio, Sarah Oliveira, Tânia Andrade, Valentina Nisi
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2020 - VR open scores: Scores as inspiration for VR scenarios
Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, 2020 - "When the elephant trumps": A comparative study on spatial audio for orientation in 360◦ videos
Paulo Bala, Raul Masu, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2019 - Visually Induced Motion Sickness in 360° Videos: Comparing and Combining Visual Optimization Techniques
Paulo Bala, Dina Dionisio, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
Adjunct Proceedings 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Ismar Adjunct 2018, 2018 - Cue control: Interactive sound spatialization for 360° videos
Paulo Bala, Raul Masu, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2018 - Step by step: Evaluating navigation styles in mixed reality entertainment experience
Mara Dionísio, Paulo Bala, Valentina Nisi, Ian Oakley, Nuno Nunes
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2018 - Fragments of laura: Incorporating mobile virtual reality in location aware mobile storytelling experiences
Mara Dionisio, Paulo Bala, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2017 - Evaluating the influence of location and medium applied to mobile VR storytelling
Paulo Bala, Mara Dionísio, Rui Trindade, Sandra Olim, Valentina Nisi, et al.
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2017 - DreamScope: Evaluating interactive 360° virtual reality in a physical narrative art installation
Valentina Nisi, Mara Dionísio, Paulo Bala, Tom Gross, Nuno J. Nunes
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2017 - Evaluating User Experience in 360º Storytelling Through Analytics
Paulo Bala, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2017 - IVRUX: A tool for analyzing immersive narratives in virtual reality
Paulo Bala, Mara Dionisio, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2016 - Transmedia storytelling for exposing natural capital and promoting ecotourism
Mara Dionisio, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes, Paulo Bala
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics, 2016 - DreamScope catcher: A Touch sensitive interface to catch dreams
Mara Dionisio, Paulo Bala, Rui Trindade, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes, et al.
Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces ITS 2015, 2015 - Lucid peninsula: DreamScope: An interactive physical installation
Mara Dionisio, Paulo Bala, Rui Trindade, Valentina Nisi, Julian Hanna, et al.
C and C 2015 Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Sigchi Conference on Creativity and Cognition, 2015 - Keyewai: Looking at cooperation in a holographic projection screen
Paulo Bala, Lucilia Noóbrega, Guilherme Neves, Lai's Lopes, Joana Morna, et al.
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2015
RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
- " It's Often Feeling Nothing...": Evaluating LLMs for Mental Health Literacy Interventions with College
JPV Sousa, P Campos, P Bala
Interactive Storytelling: 18th International Conference on Interactive … , 2025
2025 - “It’s Often Feeling Nothing...”: Evaluating LLMs for Mental Health Literacy Interventions with College Students
JP Vieira Sousa, P Campos, P Bala
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 206-225 , 2025
2025 - Social Anxiety in VR-CBT: Insights for College Students
É Camacho, P Campos, P Bala
International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance, 465-470 , 2025
2025 - Speculating Migrant Possible Worlds through Magic Machines
V Nisi, P Bala, V Cesário, S Ma, NJ Nunes
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 9 (7), 1-31 , 2025
2025
Citations: 2 - Football Games as Proxsituated Visualizations in eXtended Reality
P Bala, D Olim, M Ribeiro, B Sousa, P Campos, M Dionisio
Proceedings of the 28th International Academic Mindtrek Conference, 176-185 , 2025
2025 - Visualizing the Ledger: Teaching Blockchain as Design Material
P Bala, S Scuri, C Prandi, NJ Nunes, V Nisi
Proceedings of the 16th Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter, 1-14 , 2025
2025 - Designing for Community Care: Reimagining Support for Equity & Well-being in Academia
B Severes, AO Henriques, RS Clark, P Bala, ARL Carter, RM Williams, ...
Companion Publication of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems … , 2025
2025
Citations: 2 - En-join: Speculative LLM Play for Energy Community Engagement and Sustainability Awareness
L Sachser, A Isaza-Giraldo, A Jiskrová, V Cesário, PF Campos, L Pereira, ...
Companion Publication of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems … , 2025
2025
Citations: 1 - DreamScape: Fostering Financial Cognition through a Serious Game
A Santos, C Freitas, P Bala, PF Campos, M Dionisio
Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, 487-490 , 2025
2025 - Mystiria: An Intergenerational Game for Climate Literacy and Collaborative Action
J Spínola, P Campos, L Gonçalves, M Dionísio, P Bala
Proceedings of the 24th Interaction Design and Children, 766-770 , 2025
2025
Citations: 1 - Making Sense of Our Data: Exploring Well-Being Self-Tracking Through Creative Collaboration
B Severes, P Bala, P Piedade, E Gomes, A Esteves, M Barreto
Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, 182-197 , 2025
2025
Citations: 1 - Combining Interactive Narratives and Augmented Reality to Promote Engagement between Children and Nature
LF Fernandes, P Bala, SC Olim, PF Campos, M Dionisio
Proceedings of the 24th Interaction Design and Children, 858-862 , 2025
2025
Citations: 1 - Evaluating Mystiria: Insights from a Pilot Study on Intergenerational Collaborative Gameplay for Climate Change Awareness
J Spínola, L Gonçalves, P Campos, M Dionísio, P Bala
Proceedings of the 24th Interaction Design and Children, 889-894 , 2025
2025
Citations: 1 - Exploring the Impact of Transmedia Storytelling on Financial Literacy: A Pilot Evaluation with Young Adults
C Freitas, A Santos, PF Campos, P Bala, M Dionisio
Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors … , 2025
2025
Citations: 1 - Meta-evaluating the Effects of Social Preferences on NPC-evaluators in an Energy Community Game
A Isaza-Giraldo, P Bala, A Jiskrová, L Sachser, P Campos, L Pereira
Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors … , 2025
2025
Citations: 3 - Meta-Evaluating Local LLMs: Rethinking Performance Metrics for Serious Games
A Isaza-Giraldo, P Bala, L Pereira
arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.12333 , 2025
2025 - Being Water : Collaborating with an LLM in an Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) as Speculative Aesthetics
R Nunes, T Marttila, A Isaza-Giraldo, P Bala, PF Campos
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 257-266 , 2024
2024 - Where’s the Finance?: A Transmedia Storytelling Experience to Engage Young Adults in Financial Educational Content
C Freitas, A Santos, P Bala, PF Campos, M Dionísio
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 32-46 , 2024
2024
Citations: 5 - Interactive Digital Storytelling Navigating the Inherent Currents of the Diasporic Mind
V Nisi, P Bala, M Pessoa, S James, N Nunes
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 69-89 , 2024
2024
Citations: 2 - FitFest: Designing a narrative-driven exergame to engage active seniors in physical activity
E Freitas, H Noronha, C França, É Gouveia, P Bala, P Campos, ...
Proceedings of the 27th International Academic Mindtrek Conference, 301-305 , 2024
2024
Citations: 3
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
- Transmedia storytelling for exposing natural capital and promoting ecotourism
M Dionisio, V Nisi, N Nunes, P Bala
International conference on interactive digital storytelling, 351-362 , 2016
2016
Citations: 44 - "When the Elephant Trumps": A Comparative Study on Spatial Audio for Orientation in 360◦ Videos
P Bala, R Masu, V Nisi, N Nunes
2019
Citations: 38 - Prompt-gaming: A pilot study on llm-evaluating agent in a meaningful energy game
A Isaza-Giraldo, P Bala, PF Campos, L Pereira
Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing … , 2024
2024
Citations: 31 - Towards critical heritage in the wild: Analysing discomfort through collaborative autoethnography
P Bala, P Sanches, V Cesário, S Leão, C Rodrigues, NJ Nunes, V Nisi
Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems … , 2023
2023
Citations: 28 - Stories as Boundary Objects: Digital Storytelling with Migrant Communities for Heritage Discourses
P Bala, V Nisi, NJ Nunes
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction , 2024
2024
Citations: 26 - Visually induced motion sickness in 360 videos: comparing and combining visual optimization techniques.
P Bala, D Dionísio, V Nisi, N Nunes
IEEE International Symposium for Mixed and Augmented Reality 2018 , 2018
2018
Citations: 26 - Dynamic field of view restriction in 360 video: Aligning optical flow and visual slam to mitigate vims
P Bala, I Oakley, V Nisi, NJ Nunes
Proceedings of the 2021 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems … , 2021
2021
Citations: 23 - IVRUX: A tool for analyzing immersive narratives in virtual reality
P Bala, M Dionisio, V Nisi, N Nunes
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 3-11 , 2016
2016
Citations: 23 - "Connected to the people": Social Inclusion & Cohesion in Action through a Cultural Heritage Digital Tool
V Nisi, P Bala, V Cesário, S James, A Del Bue, NJ Nunes
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 7 (CSCW2), 1-37 , 2023
2023
Citations: 22 - Uncovering gig worker-centered design opportunities in food delivery work
S Ma, P Bala, V Nisi, J Zimmerman, NJ Nunes
Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 688-701 , 2023
2023
Citations: 22 - Inclusive digital storytelling: artificial intelligence and augmented reality to re-centre stories from the margins
V Nisi, S James, P Bala, A Del Bue, NJ Nunes
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 117-137 , 2023
2023
Citations: 19 - Fragments of laura: incorporating mobile virtual reality in location aware mobile storytelling experiences
M Dionisio, P Bala, V Nisi, N Nunes
16th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, 165 , 2017
2017
Citations: 17 - VR open scores: scores as inspiration for VR scenarios
RGM Masu, P Bala, MA Ahmad, NN Correia, V Nisi, N Nunes, T Romão
Birmingham City University , 2020
2020
Citations: 16 - Cue control: Interactive sound spatialization for 360 videos
P Bala, R Masu, V Nisi, N Nunes
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 333-337 , 2018
2018
Citations: 16 - Evaluating user experience in 360º storytelling through analytics
P Bala, V Nisi, N Nunes
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 270-273 , 2017
2017
Citations: 12 - “Before gentrification, we claim for habitation” Eliciting Values and Assets through Cultural Heritage Storytelling
V Nisi, P Bala, H Bostock, V Cesário, NJ Nunes
Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 2423-2436 , 2023
2023
Citations: 11 - Keyewai: Looking at cooperation in a holographic projection screen
P Bala, L Noóbrega, G Neves, L Lopes, J Morna, J Camacho, C Freitas
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human … , 2015
2015
Citations: 11 - College tales: pilot study on large language models generated narratives for mental health literacy
JP Vieira Sousa, P Campos, P Bala
Proceedings of the 27th International Academic Mindtrek Conference, 270-275 , 2024
2024
Citations: 10 - Writing with (digital) scissors: Designing a text editing tool for assisted storytelling using crowd-generated content
P Bala, S James, A Del Bue, V Nisi
International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 139-158 , 2022
2022
Citations: 9 - Staying on track: a comparative study on the use of optical flow in 360 video to mitigate vims
P Bala, I Oakley, V Nisi, N Nunes
Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media … , 2020
2020
Citations: 9
