MovIntPlayLab

A design & research program focused on Embodied Interaction, Technology, and Play design. We design movement-based experiences for play, physical activity, and training supported by technology.

This program is part of the Interactive Systems Group (DEI) lab , in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Essential aspects

Holistic design perspective & key design resources

We design experiences, not just technology. Sure, we design technology as part of that, but the technology is just one design material we work with. We consider as design materials the following:

Activity-centered design

We design interactive experiences targeting the activity behind those experiences. We design keeping an eye on the overarching activity but focusing primarily on essential actions at the core of those activities. Inspired by game design, we call them embodied core mechanics, with “embodied” highlighting the physical, social, and spatial aspects of those essential actions.

Participatory design

We design with:

Embodied Design Methods (EDM) & Play(fulness)

Embodied design methods are those that employ the body, in static and in motion; and the body and sensory experience to understand situations and to ideate. We use the body in interaction with other bodies and with other elements or design resources, including the space, and tech and non-tech elements.

The embodied design methods we employ typically have a strong play and playful flavor. Play and playfulness help us to open our minds, and trigger curiosity, exploration and subversion. It supports meaning-making, and learning, as well as individual and collaborative ideation and creation.

In MovIntPlayLab, we employ and create such methods to:

Example experiences we co-design

Technology we work with

We have worked with very diverse technology, from mobile technology to robots. Often we use technology that senses movement, and biofeedback, and actuates on the sensing body through haptics, visuals and audio feedback.

Lately, our focus is on wearable technology, i.e. technology you wear on your body, like a watch, belt, necklace, or scarf. We are also working with extended reality (VR, AR…)

People

The team behind this programme involves PhD, graduate and undergraduate students; as well as collaborators in UC3M and abroad. This team is highly multidisciplinary, involving expertise in areas such as Computer Science, Design, Physical Therapy, Pedagogy, Medicine, Arts, and Dance.

Elena Márquez Segura (pronouns: she/her, ORCiD 0000-0002-3124-2286). Principal Investigator leading this programme, is a Beatriz Galindo Distinguished Researcher and Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Elena has a multidisciplinary background, with a B.Sc. and M.Sc in Telecommunication Engineering (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros, Universidad de Sevilla); Master’s studies in Interactive Systems Engineering (KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm); and a Ph. Lic. and PhD in Human-Computer Interaction (Stockholm University, Stockholm; and Uppsala University, Uppsala, respectively).

You can read more about Elena’s work in Google Scholar

You can also follow Elena in Twitter: @in_spiral and Linkedin

PhD Students

José M. Vega-Cebrián (pronouns: they/them, ORCiD 0000-0002-2013-2954) is a movement and computing researcher-designer and a PhD student in Computer Science and Technology. They are currently researching and developing Playful Wearables and Augmented Technologies for Body Experiences, Rehabilitation and Physical Training.

Their previous academic degrees are a Master’s in Interactive Telecommunications (ITP) from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications and Electronic Systems from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de México. They were a Creative Coding teacher in CENTRO de Diseño, Cine y Televisión (México) and a Computer Science teacher in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program in Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de México.

Alumni

Laia Turmo Vidal (ORCiD 0000-0002-1769-0138)

Julián Sainz Martínez

Alejandro Molina Benito

Lab technicians

Javier García Hernández

Collaborators

Ana Tajadura Jiménez (ORCiD 0000-0003-3166-3512), an Associate Professor at UC3M and Honorary Research Associate at the University College London Interaction Centre (UCLIC). She leads the i_mBODY lab, in which research focuses on understanding how sensory-based interaction technologies could be used to alter people’s perceptions of their own body, their emotional state and their motor behaviour patterns. Her research is empirical and multidisciplinary, combining perspectives of psychoacoustics, neuroscience and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Annika Waern (ORCiD 0000-0003-1998-1964), Full professor in the Department of Informatics and Media, at Uppsala University. Annika is a ‘Research through Design’ academic with a background in computer science and Human-Computer Interaction, who has been researching play and games for about fifteen years. Recently, Annika has been involved with studying technology-supported physical training and hybrid play design for children, adults and families. Annika is a DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association) distinguished scholar and a HEVGA (Higher Education Video Game Alliance) fellow.

Katherine Isbister (ORCiD 0000-0003-2459-4045), full professor in the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Department of Computational Media, where she directs the Social Emotional Technology Lab, and the Center for Computational Experience. She has a Research through Design practice at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and Games/Play, focused on interactive experiences that heighten social and emotional connections and well-being.

Andrés Maldonado Morillo (ORCiD 0000-0002-3703-5667), Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at University Hospital of Getafe

Lara Cristóbal Velasco (ORCiD 0000-0001-7328-4890), Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at University Hospital of Getafe

Tomas Bonino (ORCiD 0009-0005-4437-9774). Physiotherapist, movement coach, entrepreneur.

Alfredo Miralles. Cultural manager, teacher and artist. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Publications

2024

José Manuel Vega-Cebrián, Laia Turmo Vidal, Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, Tomás Bonino Covas, and Elena Márquez Segura. 2024. Movits: a Minimalist Toolkit for Embodied Sketching. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’24), July 1–5, 2024, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 16 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3660706 (Download paper, download the source code)

Laia Turmo Vidal, José Manuel Vega-Cebrián, María Concepción Valdez Gastelum, Elena Márquez Segura, Judith Ley-Flores, Joaquín Roberto Díaz Durán, and Ana Tajadura-Jiménez. 2024. Body Sensations as Design Material: An Approach to Design Sensory Technology for Altering Body Perception. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’24), July 1–5, 2024, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 17 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3660701

Elena Márquez Segura, José Manuel Vega-Cebrián, Andrés A. Maldonado Morillo, Lara Cristóbal Velasco, and Andrea Bellucci. 2024. Embodied Hybrid Bodystorming to Design an XR Suture Training Experience. In Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’24), February 11–14, 2024, Cork, Ireland. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 12 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3623509.3633362 (Download paper, Download slideshow)

José Manuel Vega-Cebrián, Elena Márquez Segura, and Ana Tajadura-Jiménez. 2024. Towards a Minimalist Embodied Sketching Toolkit for Wearable Design for Motor Learning. In Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’24), February 11–14, 2024, Cork, Ireland. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3623509.3635253 (Download paper)

Laia Turmo Vidal, Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, José Manuel Vega-Cebrián, Judith Ley-Flores, Joaquín Roberto Díaz Durán, and Elena Márquez Segura. 2024. Body Transformation: An Experiential Quality of Sensory Feedback Wearables for Altering Body Perception. In Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’24), February 11–14, 2024, Cork, Ireland. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 17 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3623509.3633373

2023

Jared Duval, Laia Turmo Vidal, Elena Márquez Segura, Yinchu Li, and Annika Waern. 2023. Reimagining Machine Learning’s Role in Assistive Technology by Co-Designing Exergames with Children Using a Participatory Machine Learning Design Probe. In Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ‘23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 33, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1145/3597638.3608421

Robby van Delden, Dennis Reidsma, Dees Postma, Joris Weijdom, Elena Márquez Segura, Laia Turmo Vidal, José Manuel Vega-Cebrián, Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, Annika Waern, Solip Park, Perttu Hämäläinen, José Maria Font, Mats Johnsson, Lærke Schjødt Rasmussen, and Lars Elbæk. 2023. Technology, Movement, and Play Is Hampering and Boosting Interactive Play. In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY Companion ‘23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 231–234. https://doi.org/10.1145/3573382.3616050

Marie-Monique Schaper, Elena Márquez Segura, Laura Malinverni, and Narcis Pares. 2023. Think-4-EmCoDe framework: Highlighting key qualities in embodied co-design techniques for children. Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud. 177, C (Sep 2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103065

José Manuel Vega-Cebrián, Elena Márquez Segura, Laia Turmo Vidal, Omar Valdiviezo-Hernández, Annika Waern, Robby Van Delden, Joris Weijdom, Lars Elbæk, Rasmus Vestergaard Andersen, Søren Stigkær Lekbo, and Ana Tajadura-Jiménez. 2023. Design Resources in Movement-based Design Methods: a Practice-based Characterization. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ‘23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 871–888. https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596036 (Download paper, download slideshow, watch the presentation, watch the teaser video)

Laia Turmo Vidal, Elena Márquez Segura, and Annika Waern. 2023. Intercorporeal Biofeedback for Movement Learning. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 30, 3, Article 43 (June 2023), 40 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3582428

Raquel B Robinson, Karin Johansson, James Collin Fey, Elena Márquez Segura, Jon Back, Annika Waern, Sarah Lynne Bowman, and Katherine Isbister. 2023. Edu-larp @ CHI. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ‘23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 346, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3573819

2022

Solip Park, Perttu Hämäläinen, Annakaisa Kultima, Laia Turmo Vidal, Elena Márquez Segura, and Dennis Reidsma. 2022. Move to Design: Tactics and Challenges of Playful Movement-based Interaction Designers’ Experiences during the Covid-19 Pandemic. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG ‘22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 8, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3555858.3555925

Janne Mascha Beuthel, Marie-Monique Schaper, Martina Schuß, Elena Márquez Segura, Claudia Núñez-Pacheco, and Andreas Riener. 2022. Exploring and Materialising Bodily Experiences of Security through Lenses of Feminist HCI practices. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2022 Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference (NordiCHI ‘22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 5, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3547522.3547696

Ana Tajadura-Jimenez, Judith Ley-Flores, Omar Valdiviezo, Aneesha Singh, Milagrosa Sanchez-Martin, Joaquin Diaz Duran, and Elena Márquez Segura. 2022. Exploring the Design Space for Body Transformation Wearables to Support Physical Activity through Sensitizing and Bodystorming. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO ‘22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 23, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1145/3537972.3538001

James Fey, Ella Dagan, Elena Márquez Segura, and Katherine Isbister. 2022. Anywear Academy: A Larp-based Camp to Inspire Computational Interest in Middle School Girls. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ‘22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1192–1208. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533532 (Watch the presentation, watch the teaser video)

Funding

Several projects and initiatives are currently funding this program.

The program is mainly funded by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid) under the Multiannual Agreement with UC3M in the line of “Research Funds for Beatriz Galindo Fellowships” (MovIntPlayLab-CM-UC3M) and in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation)”.

Other synergistic projects also support this program. Currently: the Erasmus+ MeCaMInD project: The Method Cards for Movement-based Interaction Design (2020-1-DK01- KA203-075164), focused on studying and creating movement-based methods and tools to support technology design targeting the moving body.