Weekly Progress and Highlights

Question to consider before class

<aside> ❓

**What is one thing you want to learn about Tangible Interaction?

• Seamless Integration**

I’m really interested in exploring tangible interaction and how it seamlessly integrates physical objects with digital systems, allowing for more natural and fluid interactions that help create a unique experience. I think this is such an exciting and complex area to dive into because it involves so many different aspects to consider, like having the right tech knowledge, exploring and choosing the right materials, and designing an intuitive setup that grabs attention and encourages continuous interaction.

</aside>

Class notes & Key learnings

Week 1 Slides

[https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cDeUsVPSm75lPyLD8KjVe147r5XRGUu12Z0rFiaFtZU/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cDeUsVPSm75lPyLD8KjVe147r5XRGUu12Z0rFiaFtZU/preview?usp=sharing)

Understanding “Information tech”

• IT is essentially sight and sound
  • what about smell taste and touch?
• Ocularcentrism: a lot of stuff is learnt through sight and a lot of priority is given to sight
  • Consider the questions:
    • why do we always prioritise sight?
    • when does it become not reliable?
    • These five senses are in fact just protons hitting skin, why do we think so highly of the five senses?
• IT is heading to virtuality
  • seamless integration of virtuality into the physical world
• HOWEVER, we want to pull it towards reality
  • which aligns with tangible interaction

Understanding “Interaction”

• Information is abstract, how it is presented affects how it is processed.
• In philosophy, concepts of “mind” and “matter” are often separated, with Information being referred to as the more superior “mind” YET the application of abacus demonstrated that “mind” and “matter” in fact cannot truly be separated.
• “Bits” smallest unit of digital matter VS “Atoms” smallest unit of physical matter
  • how does these relate to the experience of using the calculator?
    • consider bits = computation, atom = action, computation + action = interaction
  • in this case of using the calculator, the calculator itself can be referred to as the “black box” (which is something that’s only concern with execution)
    • therefore the role of designers would then concern more of the aspects of affordances, signifiers, feedback and mapping (the location of things with relation to each other)
  • The gulfs of execution and evaluation that’s created by the “black boxes” are then to be bridged by the designers. We can see the word “interaction” as these gulfs to bridge.

Understanding “Tangible”

• Interaction with screen often involves very minimal interactions or movements, usually sufficient with just using our hands.
• Model-View-Controller: framework to separate concerns of a software
  • Model: the “black box”, usually receives info and render the View
  • View: provides people feedback in terms of the senses (usually sight & sound)
  • Controller: the place that receives the action

• The gap between Model and View: the size of display is limited; the View is always one-dimension missing