Opening the design space for wearables to support physical activity that consider body perception

What is it about?

Negative or disturbed body perceptions are often interwoven with people's physical inactivity. While wearable technologies can support body perception changes (what we call "body transformation"), the design space of body transformation wearables supporting physical activity remains narrow. To expand this design space, we conducted a co-design workshop with users. We explored/reflected on bodily sensations at three moments of movement execution (before/during/after) and used different sensitizing tools. Conceptual tools were used to evoke/reflect/capture past lived experiences, while tangible tools were used as ideation probes for sensory bodystorming. Two design concepts emerged, reflecting diverging approaches to body transformation wearables: one focused on reminders and movement correction; the other on sensory augmentation and facilitation. We reflect on how each facilitates useful representations of body sensations during movement, and present methodological recommendations for designing technology for sensory augmentation in this area. Finally, we propose a preliminary prototype based on our design concepts and discuss future steps.

Featured Image

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Physical inactivity is a serious worldwide problem. Current mainstream wearable design approaches focus on monitoring amount of physical activity performed and setting goals to increase motivation for physical activity. An alternative complementary approach involves tapping into negative body-perceptions which link to low physical activity. With this aim, a recent research line builds on neuroscience research showing that body perception can be changed through the senses, and investigates the potential of using sensory feedback to alter body-perceptions, and in turn emotional state, in the context of facilitating physical activity. This work explores the question of how to design sensory feedback and technologies to "hack our brains" and support changes in body-perceptions and in turn physical activity.