Summary:
As a field, haptics encompasses a wide and diverse array of technologies, modalities, and applications, which makes it challenging to understand, classify, and compare comprehensively. In this paper, we introduce Haptree: a design space framework developed based on a review of existing literature and building on top of existing taxonomies. Unlike other haptic frameworks that focus on specific aspect of haptics, Haptree is intended to show the big picture of haptic experiences, connecting together aspects of haptic experience that used to be isolated in other frameworks. Haptree maps haptic experiences in five different stages, from hardware characteristics to end-user applications. It provides practical guidelines for designing new haptic experiences by referencing existing approaches and use cases, or pointing to a current gap in the literature. Furthermore, Haptree is intended to be a community-driven tool, designed for iterative refinement and contribution by the haptic research community. Finally, we outline future steps, including validating and enhancing Haptree through community engagement and empirical studies.