What a Life!

Building a Framework for Constructive Assemblies

 
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“How do you design a great constructive assembly?”

Project Overview

There are many great examples of constructive assemblies. These are tangible user interfaces (TUIs) that involve the interconnection of modular physical, interactive units to formulate larger constructions that are automatically or manually put-together. However, in looking to literature for how best to design one myself, I found there was a lack theory on the topic. This project addressed this gap and presents a framework that offers key thoughts and principles that can serve as a guide for consciously designing constructive assemblies to realize a desired user-experience. 

Approach

We consulted 8 experts in the field of TUIs to conduct an expert study and elicit key thoughts and design cornerstones for constructive assemblies. Sets of questions were prepared in advance that touched upon different themes related to their prior works.  Their responses were then transcribed and sectioned into quotes. Qualitative analysis in the form of affinity diagramming was used to generate insights.

Results

The main contributions of this work were as follows:

  • A discussion of the benefits and risks of a constructive assembly approach to TUI design

  • A lifecycle model that outlines different phases that constructive assemblies can transition between, and how these phases are interconnected

  • An outline of central design themes for constructive assemblies and a discussion of parameters that can be manipulated to achieve a desired balance of these qualities

  • Three case studies based on examples from literature and our own design example, which demonstrate how these principles can be applied to elicit critical design thinking and discussion and can be used to shape future design iterations.

Paper presentation of What a Life!. TEI 2017. Yokohama, Japan.

PUblication

J. Leong, F. Perteneder, H. Jetter, and M. Haller. What a Life! Building a Framework for Constructive Assemblies In Proc. TEI'17, ACM, Yokohama, Japan, 2017, pp. 57-66. [TEI 2017 Best Paper]

ThemeS

Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs), Constructive Assemblies, Design Theory and Frameworks

Skills & Technologies

Expert Interviews, Affinity Diagramming, Literature Review, Computer Vision, Depth-Sensing Camera (RealSense)