Designing a tangible tabletop installation and enacting a socioenactive experience with TangiTime

Contemporary computational technology (tangible and ubiquitous) are still challenging the mainstream systems design methods, demanding new ways of considering the interaction design and its evaluation. In this work, we draw on concepts of enactivism and enactive systems to investigate interaction and experience in the context of the ubiquity of computational systems. Our study is illustrated with the design and usage experience of TangiTime: a tangible tabletop system proposed for an educational exhibit. TangiTime was designed to enable a socioenactive experience of interaction with the concept of “deep time.” In this paper, we present the TangiTime design process, the artifacts designed and implemented, in its conceptual, interactional, and architectural aspects. Besides that, we present and discuss results of an exploratory study within an exhibition context, to observe how socioenactive aspects of the experience potentially emerge from the interaction. Overall, the paper contributes with elements of design that should be considered when designing a socioenactive experience in environments constituted by contemporary computational technology.