Here are some pictures and videos about the Usable Witchery Workshop by Yaniv Steiner. In those days we learned a few magic tricks and a bit of robotics. They seem unusual topics to be merged, yet they do match as the two sides of the same coin.

Magic
Magic has been used as a passepartout to describe the concept of interface and how designers should design it. Such as a skilled magician knows how to entertain the viewer, by understanding his need of being surprised to enjoy the performance, a thoughtful interaction designer should understand the user’s needs in order to provide a more natural and efficient interface.
In both cases the trick is simple: the magician/designer has to see from the viewer/user’s eyes.

Robotics
If magic was our theorical framework, robotics has been our playground. We built an animatronic hand based on tanntraad’s instructable (link) and then learnt how to animate it grace to wiring.
Truly, this has been our first attempt in creating a piece of humanized technology. We tried to replicate the natural movements of a real hand so as to demonstrate the linkage between artificial and natural, two basic elements in interaction design.

More pictures can be found in the usable witchery flickr pool.

Thanks to Yaniv Steiner , Philip Tabor, Gillian Crampton Smith and all workshop teams!
Thanks to Tailsnap, Quirky Berry and Teddy.see for the photos.

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