Opening the digital box for design work: supporting performative interactions, using inspirational materials and configuring of place

We started the work reported on here with the ambition to create inspirational learning environments for design and architecture students in the spirit of Weiser’s vision of taking the computer “out of the box” and making computational resources augment a design studio environment ubiquitously. Computing environments are becoming populated by a rich and diverse set of devices and networks, many of them integrated with the physical landscape of space and artefacts. Early attempts to take the desktop metaphor of graphical interface design back to the real desktops and whiteboards by exploring new semantics of interaction was pioneered by Weiser’s group, as well as by Buxton and others (Weiser 1993; Fitzmaurice 1995; Rekimoto 1997). The idea to have a new and more complex set of physical handles to digital media promised a richer interaction between people and technology, and, in line with Engelbart’s pioneering work on direct manipulation for graphical user interfaces (Engelbart 1962), a new set of generic interface building blocks would open up a new realm for design of interaction technologies.