The importance of including the haptics factor in interaction design

One aspect of interaction design is communication of information through the use of a screen. Another aspect, the physical or haptic interaction with the device itself, is another important issue, especially to reduce errors when the device is used in critical situations. Ostfold university college has cooperated with the Institute for Energy Technology in Halden and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in Kjeller, and several student groups have been given the opportunity to work on research data and in collaboration with researchers from these two institutions within their final year studies. The focus of the projects has been realistic; emphasizing the importance of minimizing operating errors to ensure safe operation in critical situations, where the ability to give correct feedback through haptic interaction is as important as the correct understanding of visual communication. The cases are demonstrating the user centered approach to problem solving used by industrial designers and the analogy between the design- and the resarch process, especially focusing on the use of physical designs to test and review and thereby exploring form as an interaction parameter.