This work presents Magnetform, a shape-change display toolkit designed to enable exploration of movement in soft materials. The toolkit allows designers with no technical knowledge to leverage their material expertise to experiment with shape-change. We present the toolkit design, and case studies with two design studios who used the toolkit for 15-days each. Through the presentation of their process, we reflect on two main themes: empowering designers to participate in shape-change exploration; and the developing practice of designing objects which integrate motion. We situate this work as part of the growing efforts in the TEI community to involve designers in the evolution of shape-changing interfaces, and demonstrate how material-oriented designers could contribute to this field in which materiality plays a major role in.

What is it?


One of the challenges faced by healthy older adults is experiencing feelings of not “being-seen”: set aside and unacknowledged. Companion robots, commonly designed with zoomorphic or humanoid appearance show success among clinical older adults, but healthy older adults find them degrading and don’t accept companionship as a valid function. We present a novel non-humanoid robot, designed to overcome the low acceptance of companion robots. The robot’s design represents its primary function, a cognitive word game. Social interaction is conveyed as a secondary function, using non-verbal gestures, inspired by dancers’ movement. 39 healthy older adults interacted with the prototype in 3 conditions: Companion-Function; Game-Function; or No-Function. Results show the non-verbal gestures successfully evoked feelings of “being-seen”, and acceptance levels were influenced by the function, with game significantly higher than companion. We conclude that the high acceptance and rich social interaction of non-humanoid robots are a promising direction for this unique population..