Design and Physicality – Towards an Understanding of Physicality in Design and Use

We live in an increasingly digital world, yet our bodies and minds are naturally designed to interact with the physical. When designing purely physical artefacts we do not necessarily have to understand what it is about their physicality that makes them work – they simply have it. However, as we design hybrid physical/digital products we now have to understand what we lose or confuse by the added digitality; and so need to understand physicality more clearly than before. The Design for Physicality (DEPtH) project set out to develop new insights into our relationship with the physical.

Keywords: physicality; design process; prototyping

Additional Reading

DIX, A., et al., 2004. Human Computer Interaction, 3rd ed. London: Pearson Prentice-Hall.

MOGGRIDGE, B., 2007. Designing Interactions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

NORMAN, D., 2002. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books.

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Alan Dix 27/11/2017