Origami Desk: integrating technological innovation and human-centric design

• Authors: Wendy Ju;Leonardo Bonanni;Richard Fletcher;Rebecca Hurwitz;Tilke Judd;Rehmi Post;Matthew Reynolds;Jennifer Yoon
• Venue: DIS '02 Proceedings of the 4th conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques
• Year: 2002

In this paper, we present a case study of an interaction design exhibit, Origami Desk. This system integrates multi-modal interaction technologies and techniques in new ways to instruct users in folding origami paper into boxes and cranes. Origami Desk uses projected video clips to show users how folds should be made, projected animations to directly map instructions onto the users' paper, electric field sensing to detect touch inputs on the desk surface, and swept-frequency sensors to detect the papers folds. More importantly, the Origami Desk project incorporated numerous aspects of design---hardware design, installation design, interface design, graphic design, sensor design, software design, content design---into an interactive experience aimed at making the user forget about the technology altogether. This foray into teaching users physical and spatial activities led us to rethink the physical layout of the computer, and to invent inputs that were more spatial and implicitly, rather than verbal or graphical and explicit. The multidisciplinary process, human-centric design considerations and technical implementation details described in this case study may greatly inform future interactive environment applications where physical and digital worlds must be integrated to assist users in creative spatial tasks. In addition, the experience of deploying the exhibit into actual public spaces led us to examine issues of design for assembly and on-going maintenance in the context of interactive environments.