Addressing IoT: Towards Material-Centered Interaction Design

The Karakuri IoT toolkit: a collaborative solution for ideating and prototyping IoT opportunities

“…After each workshop, the three researchers held a debriefing session to reflect on the aspects observed about the toolkit and the method. Then, the PhD student (senior interaction designer) analysed the empirical material attending to aspects of material interactions and the skill of material sensitivity (Wiberg, 2018), combined with the five qualities -perception, conception, externalisation, knowingthrough-action and mediation-of instruments of inquiry (Dalsgaard, 2017).…”

“…This role of making is akin to the concept of transinstrumentality (Dalsgaard, 2017), where designers work on the problem space without a clear goal in mind, trusting the use of their instruments to make new understandings during this process (Dalsgaard, 2017). In the context of IoT, this view on transintrumentality can be augmented with a material interactions perspective, which considers such material interactions to be a craft-based approach that combines "intellectually exploring and imaging computing in material form", where participants create new conceptualisations with the materials provided (Wiberg, 2018). In this regard, Wiberg (2018) defines material sensitivity as the skill "to carefully consider how different materials could be brought together in the design of an interactive system".…”

“…The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technological paradigm that enables the Industry 5.0 transformation (Akundi et al, 2022) and draws upon the capability of physical elements to compute and communicate within networks (Wiberg, 2018). This capability demands new methods to address interactions between digital and physical materials, as well as methods that support people's needs (Wiberg, 2018). However, as a multifaceted technology, IoT is a challenging concept for people outside the IoT field to grasp (Gianni et al, 2018).…”

“…To lower the entrance threshold, there has been an ongoing creation of IoT support tools, including analogue tools like card decks, with at least fifty-two toolkits documented (Roumelioti, 2022). However, there is still a gap in ideation tools with IoT (Peters et al, 2020); from a methods and theory perspective, a knowledge foundation is lacking when it comes to designing across the analogue and digital aspects of IoT systems (Wiberg, 2018) and there are few methods and materials for scaffolding the transition from idea generation to proof of concept (Roumelioti, 2022, chap. 2).…”

Experiencing Materialized Reading: Individuals’ Encounters with Books

“…In regards to the design of interactive artifacts, design materials can be understood in various ways; material things, such as leather [43] or concrete [45], immaterial things, such as light [50] or radio [5], as well as digital materials, such as code [20], play a crucial role, as they only together result in interactive things. Consequently, Interaction Design may be understood as the practice of imagining and designing interaction through material manifestations [48]. Doing so requires material sensitivity, "i.e.…”