As interactive systems increasingly extend into the physical world, designers need accessible ways to prototype interfaces that can change both shape and stiffness. In this paper, we investigate how simple, widely available materials—beads and string—can be used to construct shape- and stiffness-changing interfaces without specialized machinery. We introduce a set of reusable structural mechanisms that enable sturdy, wearable, and load-bearing structures from bead-based assemblies, each supporting a distinct mode of deformation and stiffness change, such as transforming from a flexible sheet into a jammed cuboid, a stiff tube, or a bistable curvature cell. To facilitate the creation of these structures, we provide an interactive design tool that guides craftspeople designing and fabricating their own MetaBead interfaces. We demonstrate the possibilities of MetaBeads through four application prototypes across wearable devices, educational tools, and adaptive furniture. Together, this work offers an accessible approach to prototyping shape- and stiffness-changing interfaces with everyday materials.
Publication
Yujia Liu, Yuyu Lin, Xie He, Victoria Sun, Trevor Jones, Alexandra Ion. 2026. MetaBeads: Enabling Shape- and Stiffness-Changing Interfaces through Beaded Metamaterials. In Proceedings of UIST ’26. Detroit, MI, USA. November 2-5, 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3830398.3830618