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Meals are a central (and messy) part of family life. Previous design framings for mealtime technologies have focused on supporting dietary needs or social and celebratory interactions at the dinner table; however, family meals involve the coordination of many activities and complicated family dynamics. In this paper, we report on findings from interviews and design sessions with 18 families from the Midwestern United States (including both partners/parents and children) to uncover important family differences and tensions that arise around domestic meal experiences. Drawing on feminist theory, we unpack the work of feeding a family as a form of care, drawing attention to the social and emotional complexity of family meals. Critically situating our data within current design narratives, we propose the sensitizing concepts of generative and systemic discontents as a productive way towards troubling the design space of family-food interaction to contend with the struggles that are a part of everyday family meal experiences. 

Research on aging technologies typically has explored health condition management and physical activity, while other aspects of active aging (e.g., psychological and social well-being) receive less attention. To better support active aging, we focus on the context of tracking technologies because half of the U.S. aging population engaged in keeping records of health and non-health information using manual and digital mediums. We interviewed 18 older adults to investigate their holistic tracking practices. We found participants were motivated to manage their everyday life tasks, preserve sentimental values, generate knowledge for broader audiences, and support relationships and caregiving. These motivations can help older adults age actively by supporting multi-dimensions of well-being besides physical health. Reflecting on findings, we discuss design considerations for tracking technologies to support active aging by expanding the current focus on supporting physical health to broader psychological and social well-being. 

Families can facilitate beneficial discussions on healthy eating, and in so doing provide important support for each other's health habits. However, distance, e.g., an adult child moving away, makes this interchange more challenging. In this paper, we introduce Cooking Stories, a research tool designed to investigate how the sharing of cooking experiences between remote families can be supported by HCI researchers. We conducted an IRB approved interview study with five participants between the ages of 20-67. Preliminary findings indicated that Cooking Stories addressed sharing barriers that study participants had experienced in previous systems. Based upon our participants’ engagement with the Cooking Stories prototype, we identified three themes: focusing on cooking experiences, incorporating cooking processes, and emphasizing familial community. We discuss the potential for these themes to be expounded upon by future work, in order to better support the sharing of full cooking experiences between distanced family members.