The Role of Touch in Design: A Shift Towards Interaction

At the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, visitors were invited to engage with exhibits through touch. The summer 2021 exhibition Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial showcased interactive works like The Mediated Matter Group's Totems (2019), featuring textures crafted through computational fabrication. This marked a departure from the common 'look-but-don’t-touch' approach in design spaces.

Touch in design is not new, but formal exhibitions have limited its presence. Helen Carnell, a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, notes that many conservators resist interactive components due to damage concerns. "Touch changes an object’s life cycle," she explains. "But it changes its meaning too."

Exhibitions traditionally focus on visual elements—objects displayed on pedestals, separated from viewers by glass barriers. This visual emphasis alienates those with visual impairments and others seeking sensory engagement. In contrast, interactive design exhibitions aim to break down these barriers, making sensory inclusion a core aspect of their mission.

The Sense Me exhibition (2022) at the Design Museum Holon in Israel exemplified this shift. Designers created tactile pieces for all visitors, including the visually impaired. Notable exhibits included Yael Reboh’s Through Your Eyes, a topographic reinterpretation of graphic design, and Ido Bruno’s Echo, which transformed sound into touchable glass patterns. Co-curator Racheli David emphasized, "Tactility is as much about invitation as it is about material. To create a truly inclusive experience, design must feel open."

Materials play a crucial role in tactile engagement. Silicone, wood, and unglazed ceramics invite touch with varied textures and temperatures. In contrast, polished metal or lacquered surfaces often signal fragility. Designers must balance aesthetic appeal with the durability of surfaces subjected to repeated handling.

Accessibility advocates highlight successful precedents in museum practices. The Tactile Gallery at the Museo Tiflológico in Madrid has allowed visitors to explore sculptures through touch since 1992. Here, artists create works designed to withstand handling, often using durable materials like resin or bronze. This gallery challenges the notion that object fragility justifies excluding touch.

The broader cultural movement towards inclusivity drives this tactile design trend. In architecture and urban planning, universal design principles emphasize multi-sensory experiences—ramps instead of steps, textured pathways for navigation, and vibratory alerts for the hearing impaired. While design exhibitions have been slower to adopt these principles, they are beginning to catch up.

As institutions embrace tactility, they must avoid tokenism. A single touchable exhibit or a designated 'interactive corner' risks reinforcing exclusion elsewhere. Rachael Jones, a design writer and critic, argues that effective tactile exhibitions must integrate sensory engagement throughout. "Interaction isn’t a feature," she states in her 2023 essay 'Design to Hold'. "It’s a philosophy."

Commercial design has also taken notice. Google's Project Jacquard (2015–2019) introduced touch-responsive textiles into jackets, allowing wearers to control devices through gestures. Although short-lived, this project influenced subsequent wearable designs. Similarly, London-based studio Bare Conductive has developed electrically conductive paint, enabling any surface to become touch-sensitive.

The intersection of interaction and technology raises important questions about tactile experiences. Is a surface that responds to touch inherently tactile, or must it provide physical feedback? Carnell offers a distinction: "Digital touch appeals to the brain, where physical tactility connects to the body."

As design institutions adopt tactile elements, the future of this approach remains uncertain. Barriers such as insurance policies, material limitations, and historical preservation concerns persist. Nonetheless, exhibitions like Sense Me and spaces like the Tactile Gallery indicate progress. The challenge now is how far institutions will redefine design as a shared, multi-sensory experience rather than a purely visual one.