Rob Tannen and Bressler Group unveiled their concept for the FieldCREW tablet -- a data gathering system for design researchers -- via Tannen's excellent Designing for Humans blog last October. The project was notable for evoking memories of the Tricorder and the Speak & Spell, but also for provoking some thoughtful discussion about the physical manifestations of all this mostly-digital User Interface theory that gets bandied about.

Tannen has just taken another step, with an excellent and lengthy set of articles on Ergonomics for Interaction Designers. Published as a three-part series, the first post starts by pointing out the increasingly physical nature of the IxD field, especially as gestural and haptic interfaces are coaxing users to interact with their information in ways other than typing, pointing and clicking. The Driving Factors section alone makes the read worthwhile -- here are the first two items: 1. The rapid proliferation of touch screen and other gestural interfaces which combine "direct" physical control with digital interface design. If you want to design for a finger, you have to know how a finger works.

2. The growth of ubiquitous computing leading to an increased range of scale and form factor in devices that contain interfaces, from traditional computers and laptops, to kiosks, tablets, phones, interactive video walls, electronic ink and consumer appliances (to name a few). As a result, people are interacting with interfaces in range of positions and contexts that go beyond simply standing or sitting in front of a screen. So beyond fingertips, knowing how people can reasonably user their bodies to hold, view, reach and interact is valuable.

Anyone tasked with designing any sort of touchscreen or physical motion-based UI would do well to give it a look. (Note to fans of the FieldCREW tablet -- the version 2.0 concept was just unveiled last week).