The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective. We have discovered many opportunities for original explorations, studies and design projects.
At the beginning of 2007, as we started to run the Touch course, we decided to document some of the stronger patterns and themes that have emerged in the project. The themes are written as briefs in order to share them with with industry, researchers, designers, other practitioners and students. They assume a certain amount of knowledge about the technology and previous ubiquitous or tangible computing practice, and have been written with designers in mind.
The briefs range from very broad to very specific, and are not designed to cover the entire field of NFC interactions. There is no brief specifically dealing with privacy or trust for instance, which are clearly central issues for RFID. Instead, issues like privacy and trust are implicit in many of the briefs like the Graphic language for RFID and Fields and seams.
We will be publishing all of the briefs in detail and they will eventually be linked to from this post. New themes may also emerge, and we’ll publish them here. We’d be very happy for feedback and for people to take on the briefs and extend them. We’d be particularly interested in existing projects that deal with any of these areas.
A graphic language for RFID
RFID is being used for an increasing number of interactions with everyday infrastructures. How do we visualise these RFID-based interactions?
NFC and access control
Considering the issue of access control as a whole, what kinds of interactions are needed to make access transparent and humane?
Touch as an interaction medium
If we are using our mobile phones to interact with the physical world via NFC, what kinds of new interaction methods emerge on mobile devices?
The universal controller
If mobile devices start to do a lot more than voice calling and text messaging should the form factor change along with the function?
Design for all with NFC
How might NFC be used to create new interfaces that are appropriate for the widest range of users?
RFID and the everyday
In what ways will RFID be integrated into everyday things, places and behaviour?
Interfacing the ‘internet of things
Do NFC devices have a role to play as an interface for the internet of things?
Touch as culture
What are the social and cultural meanings of touch, and how do they vary according to context?
Fields and seams
How can we use the increasingly radio-saturated landscape for creative or functional purposes?
Playful RFID
How can we use the material and interaction features of RFID to make games, toys or playful products?
Connected products
What are the opportunities for integrating services, infrastructure, community and online brands into cheap, ubiquitous objects?
Interactions of transactions
With the nature of transactions changing as NFC phones replace cash, cards and tickets how should transactions be designed to take advantage of these opportunities?
Local applications and services
What applications and services can be usefully tied to specific places or situations?
Alternative RFID infrastructures
How can RFID infrastructures be designed to support private, bottom-up, ad-hoc and people-to-people interactions?
Related things:
- Touch design briefs for this spring All of the Touch design briefs we have been using this spring in the Touch course are now online, have a look. The Touch course has also just finished, there will be case studies......
- Universal design with NFC This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be......
- NFC access control This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID and NFC can be used to provide access to places in the same way as traditional keys or......
- Interactions of transactions This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It is likely that NFC has a role to play in the future of our interactions with infrastructures like......
- A PhD in Touch Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and logistics. This cheap and potentially ubiquitous technology is likely to influence the......
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[...] is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is [...]
[...] is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is [...]
[...] is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is [...]
[...] is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is [...]
[...] is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is [...]
[...] is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is [...]
[...] of the Touch design briefs we have been using this spring in the Touch course are now online, have a [...]
[...] is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID [...]