Tangible user interface laboratory: Teaching tangible interaction design in practice

Tangible interaction is an emerging field of human–computer interaction that links the digital and the physical worlds by embedding computation in physical artifacts and environments. This paper shares our experience teaching tangible interaction over the past 4 years in an interdisciplinary, project-based laboratory course at Tufts University. Although the course is offered through the Computer Science Department, it reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the field, merging product engineering practices with a design studio approach. With a diverse mix of students, this approach has fostered creativity and hands-on learning. Throughout the course students have created innovative interfaces that not only capture fundamental concepts of tangible interaction but also contribute novel techniques for supporting collaborative design.We discuss examples of student-created interfaces and illustrate the relationship between the methods employed in the course and the artifacts created.We also share our recommendations for implementing such a course in institutions with constraints similar to ours including a limited budget and minimal laboratory space.