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Abstract:

The haptic aesthetic is a critical aspect of almost every object and environment. Design of objects needs a strong working relationship between the visual semantic with the haptic feedback. Some products have developed over time toward a more subtlety of pressure touch (cutaneous) such as a key click from the electric typewriter maturing to the laptop keyboard. Other products work with humans moving through the world with clumsy determined gusto involving muscular skeletal (kinesthetic) movements such as a punching down a waste can pedal or striking through institutional door lever. Understanding the how users move and haptically engage products plays a key role user empathy. As humans we are often lumbering through our world yanking and slapping as we go, yet we take pleasure from the subtle textures and yielding pressures of tactile experiences. Both of these involve cognition through cutaneous and kinesthetic. Engaging students in the haptic builds depth to their human centred design thinking and gives way to their product semantics. This paper presents the question: What value does human centred design need to place on the haptic?

Keywords:

Haptic, cutaneous, kinesthetic, touch, hand tool