I began thinking about interfaces through objects. Returning to a screen after studying their cultural significance, it becomes difficult to see a button as a neutral surface: it can seem soft or rigid, a transition can convey continuity or rupture, and a hierarchy can invite touch or distance.
My interest in this question comes from material culture. Everyday objects reveal values, constraints and ways of life. When a product becomes an interface, that capacity does not disappear: it moves to another channel.
Material becomes behaviour
On a screen, texture is not just a matter of grain or shadow. It depends on how the system responds: how long it takes, what gives way, what remains and how it acknowledges a person’s intent.
Designing that haptic–optical dimension means coordinating form and time. An animation only makes sense when it reveals a relationship, confirms an action or helps build a mental model.
More than appearance
The opportunity for HCI is to study which material qualities can be brought into digital systems without clumsily imitating the physical world. We do not need plastic buttons. We need interfaces whose behaviour can be understood and remembered.
This is the direction I want to develop: researching how perceived materiality affects trust, orientation and decision-making in complex digital products.
See materiality applied in Buy&Sell