Talking about tactile experiences

TLDR

Designing tactile interfaces is hindered by the absence of a shared vocabulary for describing haptic experiences. The study investigates how participants describe tactile experiences with 16 Hz and 250 Hz stimuli, develops 14 experiential categories linked to neurophysiology, and explores design implications. Fourteen participants underwent explicitation interviews to capture detailed diachronic and synchronic descriptions, from which the authors derived the 14 categories. The analysis revealed distinct verbalizations for the two stimuli, highlighting mechanoreceptor‑specific perceptual differences.

Abstract

A common problem with designing and developing applications with tactile interfaces is the lack of a vocabulary that allows one to describe or communicate about haptics. Here we present the findings from a study exploring participants' verbalizations of their tactile experiences across two modulated tactile stimuli (16Hz and 250Hz) related to two important mechanoreceptors in the human hand. The study, with 14 participants, applied the explicitation interview technique to capture detailed descriptions of the diachronic and synchronic structure of tactile experiences. We propose 14 categories for a human-experiential vocabulary based on the categorization of the findings and tie them back to neurophysiological and psychophysical data on the human hand. We finally discuss design opportunities created through this experiential understanding in relation to the two mechanoreceptors.