In Search of Metaphors for Tangible User Interfaces

Tangible interfaces as a new medium
新的可觸知介面

Seen as a new medium, tangible user interfaces are still in their infancy both technologically and concerning our understanding of their media-specific properties.
認識一個新媒體，使用者對於可觸知使用者介面和我們所知道的特殊媒體還停留在嬰兒時期。

How does one explore the potentials of a new technology? One way is to start building example applications. A lot can be learned from building demonstration systems, but there is a danger of focusing too much on what is technologically possible, and losing sight of the new design space opened up by the technology.
如何探索一個新媒體的潛力？一種方式開始建立應用範例。很多是可以從建立示範系統學習的，但這是危險因太集中注意科技的可能性而忽略新的設計空間。

Fitzmaurice et al. [3] list twelve dimensions concerning TUIs. These include “spatially aware?, “Input & Output”, and “Communication”, All twelve axes are about choices of technology from a technical point of view. They say little about how users structure their interactive experiences with TUIs.
Fitzmaurice et al. [3] list twelve dimensions concerning TUIs.這些包括＂空間的察覺？＂＂輸入和輸出＂和＂溝通＂，這十二個軸像都是從技術觀點去選擇。他們說一點有關於使用者如何建構他們和TUI交換經驗。


Bauhaus as Inspiration
包浩斯的靈感

Another way of exploring the design space of a new medium is to try to identify its dimensions and basic elements from the user’s point of view. This approach was first followed in the visual arts by modernist painters like Kandinsky, Klee, and Mondrian. To use Kandinsky as an example, he identified form and color as the two dimensions of the plane, and then went on to identify the elementary form and color elements from which a “composition” could be made.
探索一個新媒體設計空間的另一種方法是試著證實它來自於使用者角度的維度和基本元素。這種方法在視覺藝術的代表像康丁斯基、克利和蒙得里安。以康丁斯基為例，他以形式和顏色作為程度的二個維度，然後證明「構成」可能被做的基本的形式和色彩。

Kandinsky saw abstract paintings like his “13 Rectangles” (Figure 3) largely as explorations of the design space of form and color.
看了像康丁斯基的＂13個長方體＂抽像畫主要是探究形式和色彩的設計空間。

Itten, Kandinsky’s colleague at the Bauhaus School of Design and Architecture, based his art classes on a similar search for the properties of materials [5]. By systematically exploring different materials, the students learned to see the design spaces that emerged, and new products were born.
伊登，康丁斯基同事於包浩斯設計和建築學中的建築學派學校，基於他的藝術課程中尋找相似性質的材料。透過有組織性的探究不同的材料，學生學會看出顯現的設計空間，並且生產出新產品。

International Style and Functionalism resulted from this “modern” approach to arts and craft at the Bauhaus in the 20s. Itten’s pedagogy still influences art and design schools worldwide.
國際樣式和機能主義起因于這種「現代藝術」到20世紀的包浩斯的藝術與工藝。伊登的教育學仍然影響全世界的藝術和設計學校。

One drawback with the modernists’ approach to media exploration is the total lack of an empirical grounding concerning choice of dimensions and elements.
現代主義講的媒體探究有個缺點就是缺少一個經驗者有關於維度和元素的選擇。


Design strategy
設計策略

Inspired by the Bauhaus approach, we see the exploration of the design space of a new technology as involving three steps:
由包浩斯所啟發的方法，我們知道一種新技術做為設計空間的三個步驟。

1. Finding the dimensions and elements of the technology (medium). This can be done as a formal exercise, but should be grounded in empirical studies of how users structure their experiences with the technology.
發現媒體技術的維度和元素。這可以是完成了正式的練習，但應該著重於如何在經驗主義研究中用技術建構他們的經驗。

2. Building simple demonstrators illustrating the dimensions and elements. Kandinsky did this on the canvas by making abstract paintings.
建立簡單的維度與元表論證說明。康丁斯基透過在帆布上繪抽象畫做到了。

3. Finding metaphors that fit the new class of applications. This search can be formal, inspired by usability tests, or inspired by other media and cultural phenomena.
發現適合應用新的類別譬喻。這次的搜尋可以是正式的，透過可用的測驗得到靈感，或者介由別的媒體和文化現象得到靈感。

We hope this search for metaphors guided by a focus on elements will lead to powerful new ontologies for interaction.
我們希望這次譬喻式引導的搜尋將引導出互動中強而有力的新的本體論。