There is more in a single touch: mapping the continuous to the discrete

In this paper, we present the Sensible Alternative, a concept that enables smart-phone users to navigate between applications by accessing action-possibility-depending and personalized-associated applications. A single added touch-sensitive spot on the back-side of the smart-phone provides an alternative layer of interaction between human and machine, on top of hierarchical system architectures. We designed and prototyped this interaction layer that exploits the advantage of the continuous and the discrete powers of man and machine. In our case study, we explore several consequences of a phenomenological approach for designing complex systems, products and related services. Here we present the research-through-design case and our reflections based on qualitative expert confrontations on the heuristics and experience of the use case, the Sensible Alternative. With this work we hope to inspire design thinking to shift from hierarchical, procedural and structured design mechanisms to embodied mechanisms when addressing complexity.