Tangible Products, Tom Djajadiningrat

In this paper Djajadiningrat et al. describe a different approach to interaction design, how they have come to see both appearance and action as carriers of meaning, and how they see usability and aesthetics as inextricably linked. They believe that the real usability challenge lies in communicating what the result of an action will be. It does not suffice to make controls differentiated in appearance and action; the crux of the problem lies in creating meaningful appearance and action. The two ways of solving this problem are

i) Semantic Approach: The functionality of a new product is compared with an existing concept or product with which the user is familiar.
ii) Direct Approach: Meaning is created in the interaction. Affordences only have relevance in relation to what we can perceive and what we can do with our bodies.

There are 3 factors which the authors think play a role in aesthetics of interaction

i) The interaction pattern that spins out between the user and the product.
ii) The richness of motor actions.
iii) Freedom of interaction.

The (w)holy trinity of interaction is respect for all of man's skills, cognitive, perceptual-motor and emotional skills.

In the next section, the authors show us product design examples that focus on making existing functionality accessible in an alternate manner.

In conclusion reiterate that meaningful couplings with formgiving and functions depend on making use of the rich appearance, action potential and inherent feedback of physical objects. Fitting interactive physical objects into man's perceptual and motor capabilities may ultimately provide not only a route to improved usability, but also to an aesthetically rewarding experience.