Puffy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Craft Bio-Inspired Artifacts with Interactive Materiality
Authors: Xing, Sark Pangrui; Van Dijk, Bart; An, Pengcheng; Bruns, Miguel; Chuang, Yaliang; Wang, Stephen Jia
Year: 2023
Venue: Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ‘23). Conference paper, not a journal article.
Citation: Xing, Sark Pangrui; Van Dijk, Bart; An, Pengcheng; Bruns, Miguel; Chuang, Yaliang; Wang, Stephen Jia. 2023. Puffy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Craft Bio-Inspired Artifacts with Interactive Materiality. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ‘23). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3569009.3572800
PDF: tei23-33-puffy.pdf
Related work: Puffy project page
Keywords: interactive materiality; materiality of interaction; shape-changing artifact; haptic interaction design; computational aesthetics; crafting; pictorial; bio-inspired artifact; cilia-mimetic surface
Abstract
Original abstract, as published.
A rising number of HCI scholars have begun to use materiality as a starting point for exploring the design’s potential and restrictions. Despite the theoretical flourishing, the practical design process and instruction for beginner practitioners are still in scarcity. We leveraged the pictorial format to illustrate our crafting process of Puffy, a bio-inspired artifact that features a cilia-mimetic surface expressing anthropomorphic qualities through shape changes. Our approach consists of three key activities (i.e., analysis, synthesis, and detailing) interlaced recursively throughout the journey. Using this approach, we analyzed different input sources, synthesized peers’ critiques and self-reflection, and detailed the designed experience with iterative prototypes. Building on a reflective analysis of our approach, we concluded with a set of practical implications and design recommendations to inform other practitioners to initiate their investigations in interactive materiality.
Site-compiled notes
The following sections are site-compiled notes. They are not the paper’s own text.
Research questions (site-compiled)
- How are qualities of organic shape change, such as subtlety, ambiguity, and temporality, transformed into the materiality of a shape-changing artifact?
- How will that materiality react to a person once materials and transitions have been synthesized?
Contributions (site-compiled)
- A concrete interactive-materiality case: Puffy, a bio-inspired artifact whose cilia-mimetic surface expresses anthropomorphic qualities through shape changes.
- An illustrated step-by-step account of analysis, synthesis, and detailing, offered as practical guidance for designing interactions that involve temporality, interactive materiality, and computational aesthetics.
Methods (site-compiled)
- The pictorial follows biomimicry-alike inspiration and interactive materiality. Analysis, synthesis, and detailing are interlaced recursively rather than applied as one pass.
- The authors work from first-hand material exploration, quick prototypes, computational mechanisms, and a design critique, then reflect on that process.
Applicable scenarios (site-compiled)
- Practitioners who want a worked example before starting their own investigation of interactive materiality.
- The paper’s closing discussion suggests fabric-wrapped, screenless devices where a changing surface might carry mood or intention. That suggestion is not a measured deployment.
Limitations (site-compiled)
- The inspiration is more object-like than the finished surface, which the authors treat as a limit on the kinds of interaction the artifact affords.
- The process favors hands-on evaluation of material quality over a biological or mechanical copy of the animal, and it keeps the setup easy to change.
- These notes only restate the published abstract and the paper’s own framing. They are not the paper, and the full text is not on this page.