In a world dominated by flat screens, frictionless swipes, immersive visuals, and spatial audio, the physicality of experience--especially touch--has been left behind, reduced to a secondary sense. Yet touch remains incredibly efficient: it demands far less "brain power" than vision, and creates fast, intuitive, and trustworthy feedback loops.

But the future doesn't just look different--it will feel different. By blending traditional design craft with iterative, technology-driven workflows, and reintroducing rich sensory feedback through haptics, force feedback, advanced materials, and novel interaction models, we can create user experiences that are emotionally resonant, reduce cognitive distraction, and inspire confidence in critical moments.

This talk draws on hands-on work designing immersive physical experiences, from simulating the feeling of oars moving through water to developing a haptic language for a surgical controller that alerts surgeons to potential harm.

It explores how designers can craft feeling-first interactions that keep users in flow—and help prevent harm.

The audience will learn. . .

1. How touch is the future of trust: As technology becomes more invisible, abstract, and autonomous, designers can restore physical intuition and tangible feedback to human-machine interactions.

2. How to develop criteria for tactile feedback: Great tactile experiences balance actionability and sensory density. Designers must develop clear criteria to ensure the interaction drives confident behavior at the same time avoiding overwhelming or distracting the user.

3. How craft and technology will converge to shape human-centered futures: Rich tactile experiences in the future will come from blending traditional craftsmanship (modeling by hand, sculpting feel) with technology-infused workflows (haptics prototyping, force-feedback modeling). The next era of design will be a seamless remix of digital and analog, centered around human sensory intelligence.