Design for all and Museology Workshop University of Art and Design, Helsinki – Media Lab The University of the Arts Department of Art Education & Art Therapy Slavko Milekic, M.D., Ph.D. Multimodality & Accessibility in Digital Design

Touch, the oldest of all senses, is the foundation of our existence. “Not only our geometry and our physics, but our whole conception of what exists outside us, is based upon the sense of touch.” Bertrand Russell

1 a : capable of being perceived especially by the sense of touch : PALPABLE b : substantially real : MATERIAL 2 : capable of being precisely identified or realized by the mind Merriam-Webster Dictionary, on-line version

synonyms: tangible => PERCEPTIBLE

synonyms: tangible => PERCEPTIBLE which in turn, has the following synonyms: SENSIBLE, PALPABLE, TANGIBLE, APPRECIABLE, PONDERABLE

basic assumption: association of virtual and abstract information with multimodal sensory experiences creates a new layer of knowledge and action spaces that are more natural and efficient for humans

basic assumption: association of virtual and abstract information with multimodal sensory experiences creates a new layer of knowledge and action spaces that are more natural and efficient for humans these in-between domains, where interactions with virtual data produce tangible sensations, I dubbed tangialities.

in the context of tangialities, cognitive enhancements are the consequence of changing the nature of the task most often a change is in shift from relying on formal, abstract operations as a means of gaining knowledge, to direct manipulation of data (properties) with instantaneously observable results.

are the dimensions of the smaller cube exactly the half of the larger one?

direct manipulation => tangiality domain separation of the hand and the eye……

Barriers success of "drag-and-drop" and "point-and-click" interface failure to realize that change or addition of another interaction device calls for redesign of the GUI unlearning established (imposed) conventions

Why tangialities increases ease of use; use of body (biological) knowledge allows grasping and manipulation of complex concepts without the need for explicit formalization; reduces cognitive load; reduces the strain of one sense (vision) - single sense fatigue add another dimension to meta data – “how does it feel” (being able to feel the texture of paintings and other, otherwise “untouchable” objects)

Towards tangialities Currently, there are two trends in building tangialities: making data (that is, data manipulations) more object like and thus make their properties available to the senses; and making objects with desired physical (manipulable) properties serve as data representations/containers (example "sensetable")