Horn, M.S. (2013). The role of cultural forms in tangible interaction design. In Proc. of TEI'13, ACM Press

This paper suggests an approach to interaction design that builds on the concept of cultural forms. Specifically, I propose that designers can shape objects and situations to intentionally evoke cultural forms thereby cueing users' existing cognitive, physical, and emotional resources. The emphasis is less about improving the usability of an interface and more about improving the overall social experience that people around an interactive artifact. My use of the term cultural form is derived from sociocultural activity theory and the work of Geoffrey Saxe in particular. Saxe's research describes a process through which individuals appropriate cultural forms and restructure them over time to serve new functions in light of shifting goals and expectations. I describe cultural forms in more detail and then illustrate their use in design with three examples. Author