Squidy: a Zoomable Design Environment for Natural User Interfaces

Today?s interaction between humans and computers does not significantly differ from the interaction that was provided through the early ?personal computers? in the 1980s. Hence, keyboard and mouse are still predominant in standard computer products regarding the consumer market. Nevertheless, the popular gaming console Wii manufactured by Nintendo has proven the feasibility of new input device technologies employing full body interaction, which furthermore were exceedingly accepted by known gamers as well as casual users all over the world. This example shows the favor for new interaction techniques that feature a high usability as they are easy to use, easy to remember, and last but not less important - enjoyable. Interaction designers, however, are not well supported to implement such remarkable interaction. Squidy attempts to support interaction designers in the creation of more natural interaction techniques by providing an easy-to-use design environment based on visual programming and dataflow programming.