ObjCube: Using Object-Oriented Metaphor to Review Interaction between Physical Objects

Designing metaphors in interaction design is to make users understand a system quickly based on their experiences. Object-oriented design principle is a programming style with objects, instead of data, as its metaphor. Originated from the physical world, object-oriented principle has developed into more complex form after these years of hard working by engineers in the digital space. Besides, on physical objects, more and more designers seek and apply fabulous metaphors to the attached digital information. However, concerning the foundation of interaction, in this research we tried to take the object-oriented principles as metaphor for designing interaction between physical objects. In addition to the physical properties of tangible things, digital properties are taken into account to adapt metaphor in virtual space. Presenting by physical computing, we introduce three basic concepts in object-oriented language, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism, to the interaction of physical objects. To help us understand and think the possibility of redesigning the interaction of these digitally enabled physical objects, we demonstrate ObjCube as an example of this paradigm.