Designing for Haptic and Embodied Interaction with Feelix

Force feedback and shape change provide unique interaction qualities that can be favourable for the design of more intelligent physical user interfaces, as communication revolves to a large extent around body language and gestures. Currently, there is a dearth of design tools which are needed to accelerate exploration of the design space of haptic and shape change in user interfaces, given the challenges associated with the haptic modality and the expertise that is required for the development of such interfaces. Design tools have the potential to improve the accessibility of these modalities as design material within HCI and facilitate exploration of the design space. In this studio, we will use the design tool Feelix to explore possibilities and opportunities for force feedback and shape change in actuated interfaces.