The reason I'm researching Tangible User Interface

Today I want to share with you guys why I am researching Tangible User Interfaces (TUI).

This is the theme of my Master's Degree research at UFSC. So, I chose to  research TUI for some reason. Yes, and for a good one: I really love it. I mean, TUI is about take the interaction out from the screens and bring it to the real world. And there is more: TUI is about understand the whole human cognition (thoughts, emotions, body, senses, the interaction with the enviroment and other people, etc) to design better, what is just great for me, a psychologist.

I discovered TUI in 2012, when I made a trip to Joinville, SC. I went to visit the Whirpool Usability LAB. They were researching about how to do better appliances to kitchen, and all the research is human-centered. Really interesting! 

And they told me about TUI. They told me how, in the future, almost all the appliances will be TUI or TUI-GUI mixed. And even more: the car dashboards also, and a lot of other products.

Less GUI, more and more TUI in cars

"To make TUI it is necessary invent many design theories and methods which just don't exist today". This phrase never left my mind.

And that is why now I am doing academic research on TUI. 

My ambition now is very clear: create the perfect integration between Behavioral Psychology and Design, and thereby create better TUI interactions.