Designing Feedback for Haptic and Shape Changing Interfaces with Feelix

Force feedback and shape change introduce unique qualities in interaction design that can be favorable for the design of more intelligent physical user interfaces and robotics, as communication revolves to a large extent around body language and gestures. Research in HCI and industry has a strong focus on voice interfaces, while modalities as force feedback seem to receive most interest in contexts where inherent haptic feedback is absent, such as VR and robotics. There is a dearth of design tools and support to explore the haptic design space given the challenges associated with the haptic modality. The haptic authoring tool Feelix aims to address some of these challenges that the designers are facing to make these modalities more accessible as a design material in HCI. Attendees will learn about possibilities and challenges associated with the design of force feedback and shape change for custom user interfaces and engage in hands-on exploration with different methods and techniques to develop haptic experiences for deformable interfaces with Feelix.