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Technology-supported movement learning has received increased attention in HCI. Previous design research has mostly focused on individual experiences, even though the social and situated context is essential to movement learning practices. Based on the experiences from two design projects in the fitness domain featuring open-ended biofeedback artefacts, we propose Intercorporeal Biofeedback as a strong concept to support the design and use of biofeedback in such practices. We ground the concept in situated movement learning theory, phenomenology of social cognition, and HCI work on biofeedback. We articulate four key characteristics of intercorporeal biofeedback: it provides participants with a shared frame of reference, upon which they engage in fluid meaning allocation and use it to guide attention and action, becoming an interactional resource. Intercorporeal biofeedback can serve to guide future design work for situated, social movement practices.

The paramount measure of success for a machine learning model has historically been predictive power and accuracy, but even a gold-standard accuracy benchmark fails when it inappropriately misrepresents a disabled or minority body. In this work, we reframe the role of machine learning as a provocation through a case study of participatory work co-creating exergames by employing machine learning and its training as a source of play and motivation rather than an accurate diagnostic tool for children with and without Sensory Based Motor Disorder. We created a design probe, Cirkus, that supports nearly any aminal locomotion exergame while collecting movement data for training a bespoke machine learning model. During 5 participatory workshops with a total of 30 children using Cirkus, we co-created a catalog of 17 exergames and a resulting machine-learning model. We discuss the potential implications of reframing machine learning’s role in Assistive Technology for values other than accuracy, share the challenges of using “messy” movement data from children with disabilities in an everchanging co-creation context for training machine learning, and present broader implications of using machine learning in therapy games.

Body maps are a popular tool in body-centric design, facilitating a sensitization and expression of felt sensations and emotions. Yet, they also bring forth assumptions about the body and our somatic experience. Based on an open and exploratory design ideation inquiry, we have started to explore how body maps could be advanced so as to cater to a plurality of bodies and aspects that shape somatic experiences. We present an annotated portfolio featuring six design themes (temporality, sociality, representativeness, granularity, context, focus). These themes help us examine implicit assumptions of current body maps, and offer possible alternatives for what future body maps could become. We contribute our themes, inspirational design ideas and practical design techniques to help craft novel body maps. Our contributions can serve as inspiration to others, towards advancing body maps as a research tool for body-centric interaction design.

Instructional videos for physical training have gained popularity in recent years among sport and ftness practitioners, due to the proliferation of afordable and ubiquitous forms of online training. Yet, learning movement this way poses challenges: lack of feedback and personalised instructions, and having to rely on personal imitation capacity to learn movements. We address some of these challenges by exploring visual cues’ potential to help people imitate movements from instructional videos. With a Research through Design approach, focused on strength training, we augmented an instructional video with diferent sets of visual cues: directional cues, body highlights, and metaphorical visualizations. We tested each set with ten practitioners over three recorded sessions, with follow-up interviews. Through thematic analysis, we derived insights on the efect of each set of cues for supporting movement learning. Finally, we generated design takeaways to inform future HCI work on visual cues for instructional training videos.

Technology-supported movement learning has emerged as an area with ample possibilities within Human Computer Interaction and Interaction Design, as interactive technology can help people to develop and improve sensorimotor competencies. To date, design research has largely focused on technology development and on supporting individual learning experiences. However, it has engaged less with the social and situated contexts of movement learning. This dissertation proposes an interaction design approach that focuses on such contexts: designing for intercorporeality. This approach aims at enhancing how people teach and learn movement by designing and using biofeedback technologies.

Designing for intercorporeality is theoretically grounded in phenomenology and situated perspectives on movement learning. Focused on the fitness domain, it is empirically grounded in analytical studies of social fitness practices and in three design projects in the contexts of yoga, circus training and strength training. Following a research through design methodology, the projects center on developing a particular form of biofeedback artefacts, the Training Technology Probes (TTPs), that extend people’s appreciation of their own and the others’ movement. The projects also center on designing the use of the TTPs as interactional resources that enhance the teachers’ and students’ ability to articulate, communicate, understand and act on movement knowledge.

Designing for intercorporeality presents three defining characteristics. First, a set of aesthetic ideals on what designs should incorporate to enhance teaching and learning. These relate to enhancing people’s movement appreciation and supporting them in building relevant meaning and action to address the practice’s movements. Second, it presents design knowledge in the form of a strong concept: intercorporeal biofeedback. The concept captures interactive use patterns between people and technology, illustrating how the aesthetic ideals can be incorporated in the designs. The third characteristic concerns the designs’ effects on people’s experience, which show how the design approach enhances how people teach and learn movement.

Through articulating designing for intercorporeality, this dissertation broadens and deepens design research in the area of technology-supported movement learning in Human Computer Interaction and Interaction Design. It contributes design knowledge on how to design interactive technologies that can meaningfully cater and add to the social and situated contexts of movement learning.  

The design space of social exergames remains narrow despite the many benefits of playing and exercising together. Towards opening this design space, we followed a Research through Design (RtD) approach focused on exergames that can be fun and immersive social training experiences. Through embodied sketching activities with designers and 10 pairs of players, we explored future games for the ExerCube, an immersive exergame platform. Our work contributes with forms of intermediate-level knowledge: a design space model (the Immersive Social Fitness—ImSoFit—Games model); and a novel design vocabulary including new bodily orientations in co-located physical interaction. We illustrate their use and value scrutinizing three of our games and applying three analytical lenses to 1) understand how design choices impact how players move together; 2) evaluate design expectations and analyze players’ behavior in relation to design choices; and 3) potentially extend the design space of immersive co-located social fitness games. 

During the rapid and forced move to online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic, university courses that never would have been considered suitable for online teaching under normal circumstances, were moved online. While challenging, this also opened opportunities for developing innovative strategies for teaching and learning. We report on the experiences of moving online a course in embodied interaction, which due to its focus on situated and embodied design faced extensive challenges in moving online. We highlight in particular the way in which the course brought forward innovative methods for bodystorming and user-assisted trialling. This paper has been written jointly by students and teachers from the course.

Warm-up games are widespread practices in multiple activities across domains, yet little scholarly work can be found about their role in physical training. Here, we study potential goals and benefits of warm-up games, and explore opportunities for technology inclusion through investigating a collection of warm-up games gathered: online, from a survey of online warm-up games curated, described, and used by Physical Education teachers; and in person, from an ongoing design research work as part of a technology-supported circus training course. Further, in the context of the latter, we conducted explorative design interventions, augmenting a range of the warm-up games with wearable technology. Our work surfaces major goals and benefits of warm-up games, which can be broadly classified as preparing participants physically, socially, and mentally. We also show how the inclusion of open-ended technology can support these goals and discuss broader opportunities for technology inclusion in warm-up games.

In this workshop, we will explore the emergent methodological space of social media based HCI design and research. We will gather scholars and practitioners from different areas within HCI to discuss how social media platforms might support their practice. Through short presentations, open discussions, and design-led activities, we will examine the affordances of existing social media platforms and speculate future developments in this methodological space. The outcome of the workshop will be an interactive data visualization of existing social media platforms, their main characteristics, and their affordances for HCI design and research. Overall, we will begin to characterize the methodological space of social media based HCI design and research, setting the foundation for future developments in this space.

Negative body perceptions are a major predictor of physical inactivity, a serious health concern. Sensory feedback can be used to alter such body perceptions; movement sonification, in particular, has been suggested to affect body perception and levels of physical activity (PA) in inactive people. We investigated how metaphorical sounds impact body perception and PA. We report two qualitative studies centered on performing different strengthening/flexibility exercises using SoniBand, a wearable that augments movement through different sounds. The first study involved physically active participants and served to obtain a nuanced understanding of the sonifications’ impact. The second, in the home of physically inactive participants, served to identify which effects could support PA adherence. Our findings show that movement sonification based on metaphors led to changes in body perception (e.g., feeling strong) and PA (e.g., repetitions) in both populations, but effects could differ according to the existing PA-level. We discuss principles for metaphor-based sonification design to foster PA.