Beyond representation: towards an action-centric perspective on tangible interaction. 

J. Tholander and M. Jonsson (2008)

In this article the authors reflect on the importance of changing the ways in which engineers and developers think about interaction design. The article emphasizes the need for a paradigm shift from the more conventional "data-centric" approach to the concept of "action-centric" interface. By "data-centric" approach they refer to the idea in which most of the personal computing had been designed in the last 30 years. The user uses a keyboard and a mouse only. The keyboard is an input device that mianly lets the user to enter characters and numbers, in other words, data. The computer monitor shows information in form of text and pictures, which is also data. But an action-centric approach proposes a deeper and more complete way to interact with a computational system: by doing, in other words by using our whole body as well as other physical objects.

The authoers describe an experiment in which a boy interacts with a computer using physical objects. These objects are commonly called "phicons", a combination between the terms physical and icon. Just like computer users usually interact and manipulate icons in a graphical user interface (GUI), in this experiment the user manipulates physical objects in order to determina different parameters as functions, positions, etc. The authors explain that tangible computing represents a resource for action, which offers almost unlimited ways for interaction. They also comment about the importance for interacting by action as a more natural way for allowing humans, which are physical creatures, to use their bodies in order to interact with the digital world.

Finally, the authors reflect about the importance of tangible computing for providing context and allowing a more social way of using computers. For instance, using physical objects for interacting with computers allows different users to collaborate with each other and plan coordinated actions which can improve the way in which a group of users can use one single compter simultaneously.