Towards an Initial Understanding of the Design of Playful Water Experiences Through Flotation.

The ACM Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY)

Maria F. Montoya, Rakesh Patibanda, Christal Clashing, Sarah Jane Pell, and Florian 'Floyd' Mueller

Extended Abstract

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are increasingly captivated by water interactions and hence explored interactive devices to support aquatic activities in different settings (e.g., mixed realities in water parks). However, our understanding of the user experience in interacting with water and technology is still underdeveloped. To begin closing this gap, we explore flotation tanks as a water setting for playful interactive experiences. The goal of the associated somaesthetic design approach was to sensitize the body of the designer (the first author) by engaging with her experiences interacting with water and create meaningful interactions. This preliminary work presents four different user experiences that can facilitate play through a defamiliarization analysis of water interaction with the body mediated by technology. We offer HCI insights for design researchers interested in creating playful experiences in water settings, while also providing industry with initial strategies on how to enrich flotation tank sessions.

Maria F. Montoya, Rakesh Patibanda, Christal Clashing, Sarah Jane Pell, and Florian 'Floyd' Mueller. 2022. Towards an Initial Understanding of the Design of Playful Water Experiences Through Flotation. In Extended Abstracts of the 2022 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 120–126. https://doi.org/10.1145/3505270.3558324 doi.org/10.1145/3505270.3558324.

CHI PLAY is the international and interdisciplinary conference (by ACM SIGCHI) for researchers and professionals across all areas of play, games and human-computer interaction (HCI). We call this area “player-computer interaction.” CHI PLAY ’23, November 2-5, 2022 Bremen, Germany

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