Tokens: Generic or Personal? Basic design decisions for tangible objects

Abstract

One of the key concepts of Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs), as described in Tangible Bits (Ishii & Ullmer 1997), is the linkage of digital information with physical objects. Following the “token and constraints” approach by (Ullmer et al. 2005) we refer to these objects as tokens. The way users interact with the underlying system through tokens plays a decisive role in the design of TUIs and needs to be defined early in the design process. However, in this position paper we do not elaborate on tangible objects as containers for digital information, enabling user interaction and manipulation. We concentrate on one essential question arising during the design of tokens: What kind of tokens to choose and design - generic or personal tokens? In this regard, we distinct between individual, personalized artifacts and neutral objects and show the varying personal relations of users to tokens. We illustrate our statements with two interfaces (ColorTable and kommTUi), both with different complexities and requirements.