The language of motion: a taxonomy for interface

This project presents a taxonomic tool for designing with motion. Paul Klee dedicated his life to the study and teaching of motion. "I should like to create an order from feeling and, going still further, from motion."[1] The natural state of interaction with digitized information includes motion. Our human brains have evolved physiological systems and organic structures that respond instinctively, tuned to organic motion. This human bias toward organic, natural motion presents opportunities for the use of motion in interfaces. Using motion in computing devices inspired by the natural world will create deeper, more emotionally engaging experiences. This study focuses on understanding the basic elements of motion in order to use it as a component in the design of digital interfaces. It presents a taxonomy of motion with the goal of describing fundamental qualities of motion used in the 2-dimensional, framed space of a screen: screen position, direction, principles, attributes and the resulting behaviors that can be created using them. The documentation presented defines a language for motion in interface. The taxonomy was built on discrete gestural motion videos taken from nature. The video segments are limited to short motions that show a complete but definable idea. The videos tend to be a few seconds in length though a few of them take several seconds to complete their motion idea.