Designing reality-based interfaces for experiential bio-design

Reality-based interfaces (RBIs) such as tabletop and tangible user interfaces draw upon ideas from embodied cognition to offer a more natural, intuitive, and accessible form of interaction that reduces the mental effort required to learn and operate computational systems. However, to date, little research has been devoted to investigating the strengths and limitations of applying reality-based interaction for promoting learning of complex scientific concepts at the college level. We propose that RBIs offer unique opportunities for enhancing college-level science education. This paper presents three main contributions: (1) design considerations and participatory design process for enhancing college-level science education through reality-based interaction, (2) reflections on the design, implementation, and validation of two case studies-RBIs for learning synthetic biology, and (3) discussion of opportunities and challenges for advancing learning of college-level sciences through next-generation interfaces.