Signifiers in Textile-Specific Interaction Design

This pictorial explores textile-specific interaction and various signifiers to communicate them. In a textile workshop, nine designers created 50 samples of potential interfaces, based on everyday actions people perform with textiles and with a specific focus on signifiers. The samples were analysed and categorized as annotated portfolios, which revealed three categories of signifiers relevant to textile-specific interaction design: Visual signifiers, Textile signifiers, and Staging signifiers. The pictorial offers more details on each category and further discusses the Staging category. Following the annotations, a subset of the textile samples from the workshop was further explored in an exploration session to gain insights into users' perceptions and interpretations of signifiers and interactions. The paper concludes with a high-level reflection on the use of signifiers in textile-specific interaction design, as well as considerations for future designers of smart textile interfaces.