Implementing widgets using sifteo cubes for visual modelling on tangible user interfaces

Tangible user interfaces (TUI) have shown advantages for social and contextual interactions (e.g. collaboration). In this paper, we introduce active and reconfigurable tangibles that enhance the use of a TUI. We propose to design and implement different generic widgets, using Sifteo Cubes, based on a formal widget model. As a scenario, we used a BPMN2 collaborative business modelling task and put a focus on some widgets dedicated to this specific exercise. The use of Sifteo Cubes has been evaluated using this scenario by several participants in three case studies. The paper reports the results of these studies using a working prototype of the concepts presented in this paper.