MA 2008 / Tangible User Interfaces / Research & Dissertation
'Computers are increasingly leaving the desktop - they now are embedded into our environment and into everday objects..'
During the research module I developed an interest for physical computing, especially how interfaces are becoming more intuitive. Mark Weiser's vision of Ubiquitous Computing is turning gradually into reality with the idea of so-called 'tangible user interfaces' (TUIs). Unlike graphical user interfaces (GUIs), these groundbreaking interfaces are detached from the traditional screen and keyboard. Today we already find such tangible interaction design in areas such as museum installations, entertainment devices or toys.
While researching this field I discovered various fascinating projects especially at > MIT's research group 'Tangible Bits' led by Hiroshi Ishii. He set the foundation for the the field of TUIs with his paper 'Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces This and other related fields between People, Bits and Atoms' in which he describes his vision of physical objects being embodied with digital information.
This and other related fields (such as Affective Computing) show the exciting future of how people will be interacting with computers and with each other. The knowledge I gained from various academic papers I then applied during my group's final project (> Presense), especially the importance of an iterative and user-centred design process.
After completing my final project I also based my MA dissertation on TUIs, analyzing whether Donald Norman's design criteria is still applicable to them like to GUIs. The usability expert and author of the acclaimed book "The Design of Everyday Things" defines several factors such as affordance and visibility that products/interfaces must offer in order for them to be 'usable'. But how does the idea of the invisible computer work with his usability theory?
I try to analyze this with my dissertation titled 'As we move from traditional (GUIs) to novel interfaces (e.g. TUIs), is Donald Norman's design criteria still relevant?'.
ABSTRACT
During the last three decades the Graphical User Interface (GUI) has become the successful standard interface. The trend however shows computers moving away from the typical keyboard, mouse and screen configuration to a more omnipresent phenomenon. Ubiquitous Computing, envisioned by Mark Weiser in the early 90s, is about equipping everyday objects with computational data. Unlike the traditional PC, the computer hides in the background and offers unobtrusive support to its users. Various novel interfaces such as Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) share the same idea and are the matter of current research projects and studies. As a result the “interface” is becoming more and more unidentifiable for users, meaning that its design has to be carried out thoughtfully and user-centred. While the traditional GUI concept takes Donald Norman’s design principles into account (‘What you see is what you get’), upcoming interfaces like TUIs need to be examined because of their unique characteristics.