I work in Sustainable HCI: I design playful, tangible interactions that support meaningful and joyful transitions toward sustainable lifestyles. Lecturer and researcher at ERAM (University of Girona) and the Playful Living Lab.
The practice sits between design, research and technology. I build things — installations, probes, tangible toolkits, web apps, interactive experiences — and use them as instruments to ask how interactive technology could make sustainable ways of living desirable rather than merely virtuous.
I prototype across the full stack: from physical computing with sensors and microcontrollers to UI design and full-stack web development. This lets me move fluidly between tangible and digital, building meaningful and joyful interactions.
At the Playful Living Lab I work with co-design methods that bring together residents, students, institutions and companies. We ideate and prototype with the community, from bottom up, to solve real problems. We seek joy and surprise in these communities to use in designing experiences.
My primary research line. I study how interactive technology can support meaningful and joyful transitions toward sustainable lifestyles — and I am currently mapping the field itself through a systematic mapping review of Sustainable HCI, opened up to the feedback of the CHI community.
Beyond this primary research line, I also participate in other research at the Playful Living Lab.
Designing for curiosity, humour and voluntary engagement — using play as a serious research method rather than a reward layer bolted onto behaviour change.
Technology for forests, trails and other more-than-human settings: what would it mean for a device to help you enjoy a forest rather than measure it?
Probes, toolkits and public installations that let neighbours, students and institutions design together on equal footing — often off the screen and in the wild.
Research through design, mostly built with my hands and with other people.
2024A playful installation designed to support forest-based interactions, studied in the wild. It turns the data and traces of a forest expedition into something visitors can touch, hear and walk through — a dashboard rearranged into a room.
2023A set of hybrid probing tools that let forest goers document, reflect on and co-design nature-related technology experiences from within the wilderness itself — moving co-design out of the studio and into the field.
2023"El Modern" is an interactive projected mural that uses capacitive touch technology to dynamically engage visitors with the center's history and daily life. Users can interact with a chronological timeline to discover detailed information about specific years, or navigate a digital floor plan to explore different levels and rooms. Additionally, this immersive installation allows people to easily browse the latest news and upcoming activities happening at the center.
2025An interactive display for collective public pixel art, used as a research-through-design vehicle to study the frictions that emerge in playful public expression systems — and how to navigate unwanted behaviour without killing the play.
ERAM is a university school of the arts affiliated with the University of Girona, focused on audiovisual media, performing arts and design. I teach in the design and technology area, where studio work and research feed each other. I also serve as Head of Studies in Audiovisual and Interactive Creation.
From interface fundamentals to designing behaviour, time and feedback in systems people actually live with.
Sensors, actuators and microcontrollers as expressive material: making objects that sense and respond, creating tangible experiences.
Full-stack development for research prototypes: UI design, frontend frameworks, backend systems and databases to build working interactive experiences.
Supervising students who want to do research and build some interactive artifact.
Peer-reviewed work at CHI, DIS and TEI. Full list on Google Scholar and ORCID.
J. Márquez Puig, D. Fernández Galeote, A. Bardera, J. Hamari, F. Altarriba Bertran
CHI '26 — ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Sustainable HCIA. Alum i Relats, J. Márquez Puig, F. Altarriba Bertran
CHI '26 — ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Human-sea emotional connectionsF. Altarriba Bertran, J. Márquez Puig, et al.
CHI '25 — ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Human–nature interactionF. Altarriba Bertran, J. Márquez Puig, J. Corominas
TEI '25 — ACM Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction
Playful public systemsF. Altarriba Bertran, J. Márquez Puig
HTTF '24 - Halfway to the Future Symposium
Playful sustainabilityF. Altarriba Bertran, J. Márquez Puig, et al.
DIS '23 — ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference
Co-design