The Australasian Journal of Information Systems
Document Type
Selected papers from the OZCHI conference
Abstract
This paper proposes a mechanism to design Tangible User Interface (TUI) based on Alexander’s (1964) design approach i.e. achieving fitness between the form and its context. Adapted to the design of TUIs, the fitness-of-use mechanism now takes into consideration the potential conflicts between the hardware of the artifact (electro-mechanical components) and the form of the user’s control (Physical-ergonomics). The design problem is a search for an effortless co-existence (fitness-of-use) between these two aspects. Tangible interface design differs from traditional graphical interface design as unsolved conflicts between hardware and ergonomics can deeply affect the desired interaction. Here we propose a mechanism (in the form of eight questions) that support the design by defining the boundaries of the task, orienting the hardware (electro-mechanics) and ergonomics of the design space for various sub-tasks and finally fitting the different components of the hardware and physical-ergonomics of the artefact to provide a component level fitness which will delineate the final tangible interfaces. We further evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach by quantitative user evaluation
Recommended Citation
(2004)
"A Design Approach for Tangible User Interfaces,"
The Australasian Journal of Information Systems: Vol. 11:
No.
2, Article 13.
DOI: 10.3127/ajis.v11i2.123
Available at:
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ajis/vol11/iss2/13