The Design of Organic User Interfaces: Shape, Sketching and Hypercontext

Abstract

With the emergence of flexible display technologies, it will be necessary for interface designers to move beyond flat interfaces and to contextualize interaction in an object’s physical shape. Grounded in early explorations of organic user interfaces (OUIs), this paper examines the evolving relationship between industrial and interaction designs and examines how not only what we design is changing, but how we design too. First, we discuss how (and why) to better support the design of OUIs: how supporting sketching, a fundamental activity of many design fields, is increasingly critical and why a ‘hypercontextualized’approachtotheirdesigncanreducethedrawbacksmetwheneverydayobjects become interactive. Finally, underlying both these points is the maturation of technology to that of a computational material; when interactive hardware is seamlessly melded into an object’s shape, the ‘computer’disappears and is better seen as a basic design material that, incidentally, happens to have interactive behavior. STUDY HIGHLIGHTS • The art of user interface design is on the cusp of a revolutionary change. • Flexible display materials dramatically alter how computer interfaces can be designed. • Technology is moving towards that of a computational material.