Exploring the role of bodily engagement in designing for transitions in Interaction Design in the…

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Exploring the role of bodily engagement in designing for transitions in Interaction Design in the context of chat and phone calls.

Week 1

The scope of my thesis project is to explore one of the experiential qualities of interaction design: Fluency in the context of chat and phone calls through bodily engagement, i.e., Fluency in interactions (in the use of digital artefacts) with respect to chat and phone calls when users are engaged in bodily intensive activities.

Fluency is the degree of gracefulness with which the user deals with multiple demands for her attention and action 
— Jonas Løwgren — Fluency as an Experiential Quality in Augmented Spaces

When involved in an activity such as walking or riding a bike or playing a sport, an incoming call or chat message has a disruptive effect on the activity. The receiver of the call or message has one of the 2 options:

1. They may chose to disengage from the activity and attend to the phone call/message, or
2. They may to continue to engage in their current activity leaving the calls and chat unattended to, to be attended to at a later point of time.

Is it possible to continue engaging in an activity and also send across a modicum of communication in response to the incoming call or message to ensure no disruption in the activity?

Process

1. Identify one or more activities that are bodily intensive and the user does not have access to their mobile phones as they are engaged in an activity and cannot access it.
2. Design a prototype that can tested out to users in each of the selected activities: This prototype would help understand, speculate and record what a user’s possible and meaningful “actions” would be, in response to the incoming calls or chat message and what new interaction possibilities can be thought of, keeping “fluency in interactions” as a goal.

What would be natural & graceful ways to bring fluency in those interactions?

What would be the role of body that is already engaged in an activity in responding to a phone call and chat ?

Some of the activities that I have chosen are: Walking, Climbing stairs, riding a bike, playing a sport, commute in public transport.

Next steps: To create a proof of concept.