UCLIC Seminar: The Materiality of Interaction

Speaker: Mikael Wiberg, Umeå University, Sweden
UCL Contact: Aneesha Singh (Visitors from outside UCL please email in advance).
Date/Time: 22 Nov 17, 15:00 - 16:00
Venue: Room 405, 66-72 Gower Street

Abstract

Smart watches, smart cars, the Internet of things, 3D printing: all signal a trend toward combining digital and analog materials in design. Interaction with these new hybrid forms is increasingly mediated through physical materials, and therefore interaction design is increasingly a material concern. In this seminar Mikael Wiberg takes a point of departure in his forthcoming book "The Materiality of Interaction - Notes on the Materials of Interaction Design" (MITPress, 2018) in which he describes the shift in interaction design toward material interactions. He argues that the "material turn" in human-computer interaction has moved beyond a representation-driven paradigm, and he proposes "material-centered interaction design" as a new approach to interaction design and its materials. He calls for interaction design to abandon its narrow focus on what the computer can do and embrace a broader view of interaction design as a practice of imagining and designing interaction through material manifestations. A material-centered approach to interaction design enables a fundamental design method for working across digital, physical, and even immaterial materials in interaction design projects.In this seminar Wiberg looks at the history of material configurations in computing and traces the shift from metaphors in the design of graphical user interfaces to materiality in tangible user interfaces. He examines interaction through a material lens; suggests a new method and foundation for interaction design that accepts the digital as a design material and focuses on interaction itself as the form being designed; considers design across substrates; introduces the idea of "interactive compositions"; and argues that the focus on materiality transcends any distinction between the physical and digital.

Mikael Wiberg

Mikael Wiberg, is a full professor in informatics at Umeå university, Sweden. Prior to this position he has held positions as Research Director for Umea Institute of Design and Chaired Professor in Human-Computer Interaction at Uppsala university, Sweden. He is editor for the Architecture & Interaction forum for ACM Interactions, and his research interests includes a focus on interaction design at the scale of architecture, an interest in the materiality of interaction, and an interest in concept-driven design methods. Today he will give the seminar "The Materiality of Interaction - Notes on the Materials of Interaction Design" which is also the title of his forthcoming book (MIT Press, Jan 2018).