This PhD study emphasizes on the creation of Common Interactive Objects (CIOs) to open up for the discussions about the characteristics of such interactive objects. Additionally, this PhD also includes explorations within sophisticated interactive systems’ intelligibility – one of the systems is a Google Home.

I will explore intelligibility from two angles; firstly, physical motion and possibly other modalities; secondly, control and shareability using a Tangible User Interface (TUI) interaction technique – which I call physical intelligibility. The aim is to identify which impact physical intelligibility has on the interactions between people using common interactive objects. This is partially done by prototyping physical objects and extending available products’ capabilities in terms of intelligibility, control, and shareability. The other part consists of participants evaluating the prototypes by testing them and followed by interviewing the participants about their experiences.

Identifying CIOs and their characteristics through the exploration of available products or possibly designing novel interactive objects, will be an important part of the PhD study. The involvement of participants in the study will help identify not only the characteristics of CIOs, it will further elicit the role of the context in which the CIOs reside and which impact the social structure has on the CIOs.