The Perceptions Of Interactive Objects
Imagine a future in which material objects display their own autonomous behaviour and interact with people. What would you be your reaction to such hybrid digital-material objects? Would the materiality or digital behaviour be more important for you?
To answer these questions we run a large controlled between-subjects experiment involving 586 volunteers of different ages and with different backgrounds.
The objects had very simple behaviours: when picked up, and for as long as they were handled, they emitted light or emitted sound or vibrated. A control group of objects did not have any behaviour.
The participants interacted with 36 objects that differ for only one component among: shape (cube or sphere), size (small or large), material (fabric or plastic), and behaviour (emitting light, emitting sound, vibrating, or quiescent).
The objects were concealed in boxes: participants opened the box, picked up the object inside; this in turn started to display its behaviour (if it had one). Participants handled an object at the time.
The objects had very simple behaviours: when picked up, and for as long as they were handled, they emitted light or emitted sound or vibrated. A control group of objects did not have any behaviour.
The participants interacted with 36 objects that differ for only one component among: shape (cube or sphere), size (small or large), material (fabric or plastic), and behaviour (emitting light, emitting sound, vibrating, or quiescent).
The objects were concealed in boxes: participants opened the box, picked up the object inside; this in turn started to display its behaviour (if it had one). Participants handled an object at the time.
Findings:
In a first study, we explored how participants would describe their experience with these hybrid objects. After manipulating the objects, participants said which was their favourite and why; they also said which one was the least liked and why. We collected 350 narratives and extracted 7 dimensions: pleasant, comfortable, playful, relaxing, interesting, special, and surprising.
In a second study, we looked at which of the material or digital properties had an impact on the perception of these hybrid objects. We used the 7 dimensions defined in the first study as metrics for comparison.
The findings clearly show participant preferred objects that display a behaviour over objects that do nothing; vibration is the most preferred behaviour; the fabric is preferred to the plastic while the size has no effect.
Impact:
These findings are relevant for the design of hybrid objects as it opens up a design space that goes beyond the current practice of 3D printing and looks toward the crafting of objects that embed technology in a non-obvious way and that can be surprising and engaging.
Project dates
2014-2015
2014-2015
Publications
Soranzo, A., Petrelli, D., Ciolfi, L. and Reidy, J. (2018). On the Perceptual Aesthetics of Interactive Objects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. (In Press) [Article] Full-text availability may be restricted.
Petrelli, D., Soranzo, A., Ciolfi, L., and Reidy, J. (2016). Exploring the aesthetics of tangible interaction : experiments on the perception of hybrid objects. In: TEI '16, February 14-17, 2016, Eindhoven, Netherlands. ACM.
Research by
Daniela Petrelli
Alessandro Soranzo
Luigina Ciolfi
Partners & Stakeholders
Funders
Sheffield Hallam University via Strategic Investment Fund
Funders
Sheffield Hallam University via Strategic Investment Fund
