Towards a new set of ideals: consequences of the practice turn in tangible interaction

The practice-oriented turn in social sciences has implied a series of fundamental consequences and design challenges for HCI in general, and particularly in tangible interaction research. This could be interpreted as a move away from scientific ideals based on a modernist tradition, reflected in four contemporary themes in tangible interaction research. The first theme concerns a shift from an information centric to an action centric perspective on interaction. The second concerns a broadened focus from studying properties of the system, to instead aim at supporting qualities of the activity of using a system. The third concerns the general shift towards supporting sharable use, rather than primarily individual use settings. The last theme concerns the shift towards multiple and subjective interpretation of how to use new technological artefacts. We discuss how these themes are grounded in theoretical as well as more concrete technical developments in the area of tangible computing.

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