Most research on tangible user interfaces for architectural design is undertaken from a technology perspective. While many studies focus on the development of new interactive systems employing tangible user interfaces for designers, there is a lack of study about the impact of tangible user interface on designers’ perception. Moreover, most studies emphasize advantages of tangible user interfaces about modeling aspects, especially in terms of how tangible user interfaces can help designers to manipulate their modeling. However, recent advanced designs require parametric design with algorithmic process, and there is a lack of study on tangible user interfaces for algorithmic process. In this research I studied the effects of tangible user interfaces on parametric design supporting an algorithmic process in terms of learnability and design exploration. To highlight the expected effects of tangible user interfaces in learning environment, I compared designers using a tangible user interface on a tabletop system with cubes to designers using a graphical user interface on a desktop computer with a mouse and keyboard. The results clearly show that the use of tangible user interfaces influences on the ability of designers to learn parametric design. Specifically, the designers using tangible user interfaces engaged in more design exploration and discovered unexpected features. This research contributes to the understanding of how TUIs impact spatial composition. This type of tangible interaction has a wide range of applications in many other learning environments beyond architectural field.
