Making sense: interactive sculptures as tangible design material

ABSTRACT

The field of tangible interaction shows an increasing focus on embodiment; how the body has a central role in how we as human beings experience, understand, and interact with the world we live in. In this paper we present a design exercise that has a strong focus on the body and how interaction is experienced. The exercise utilizes the designer's own bodily experiences in the design of new tangible interfaces. The design exercise was done with a group of design students. We asked them to design interactive sculptures to convey the interaction qualities they had extracted from video material. The interactive sculptures served as a physical reflective tool that allowed the students to test and experience the qualities of interaction they wanted to bring into a new design, before they moved on to designing the actual product. We conclude that interactive sculptures serve as a rich design material that provide the students with relevant insights and a richer vocabulary concerning interaction qualities from a bodily perspective.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.0 GENERAL

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

Keywords:
design methods, human actions, perceptual-motor skills, tangible interaction