The purpose of this paper, as the title suggests, is to provide a preliminary framework for classifying tangible user interfaces (TUIs). It would be useful for the purposes of this review to define and explain what a tangible user interface is and what it has to do with storytelling and narratives.

Unfortunately, the authors of the paper do not do that, so I cannot do it either. In reading the paper, one feels like he has inadvertently stumbled into a technical discussion at a conference that is full of jargon and shared meanings, none of which are capable of being explained by those discussing them.

The authors attempt to provide a classification of TUIs from the user’s perspective. It is unclear why the user’s perspective is superior to other perspectives, such as a technological or conceptual perspective. But this is what the authors have chosen, so they go with it. The classification is provided with more unexplained jargon, and the authors assert that this classification is the conclusion of the paper.

This paper would be of interest to anyone who is deeply involved in tangible user interfaces, is familiar with the range of technologies employed in TUIs, and is looking for a way to organize their thoughts about them. For others, it will just be confusing. To be fair, the paper is a proceedings paper; however, it feels like it came out of a series of technical meetings and only those who were in those meetings would be able to make any sense of it.