Making sense of body and space through full-body interaction design: a case study

Abstract

Research based on the embodied cognition framework proposes the use of physicality and spatiality to promote learning. Nevertheless, methods to include children in the design of Full-Body Interaction Learning Environments often neglect to properly integrate the notion of body and space. In this paper, we describe a participatory design process in which we focused on how children can be encouraged to pay attention to their own body, to proxemics and to embodied constraints of the environment. We explored how this awareness may inform children's design choices for a Full-Body Interaction Learning Environment for public spaces. Our findings indicate that our approach promoted children's awareness towards bodily and spatial aspects of their proposals. Our work contributes to the reflection upon the use of bodystorming and theater-based techniques in two contexts: (1) in a simulated environment of the experience and (2) in physical spaces in situ.