The Office Jungle: Exploring Unusual Ways of Working through Bodily Experimentations

Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

2023

Walking meetings are a promising way to reduce unhealthy sedentary behavior at the office. Some aspects of walking meetings are however hard to assess using traditional research approaches that do not account well for the embodied experience of walking meetings. We conducted a series of 16 bodystorming sessions, featuring unusual walking meeting situations to engage participants (N=45) in a reflective experience. After each bodystorming, participants completed three tasks: a body map, an empathy map, and a rating of workload using the NASA-TLX scale. These embodied explorations provide insights on key themes related to walking meetings: material and tools, physical and mental demand, connection with the environment, social dynamics, and privacy. We discuss the role of technology and opportunities for technology-mediated walking meetings. We draw implications for the design of walking meeting technologies or services to account for embodied experiences, and the individual, social, and environmental factors at play.

Section: Bodystorming As An Embodied Ideation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Privacy Concernsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Embodied Experience of Walking Meetings through Bodystorming – Implications for Design

Jacob

Damen

Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

2023

“…Reflecting on the boundaries of what is acceptable or not, and challenging the status quo of office work, is a key part of more speculative or critical designs addressing sedentary behavior at work [9,24,34]. Some examples question sitting time, such as the 'Irritating chair' [36], whose sharp spikes rise after a prolonged period of sitting, or the office chair Ivy that represents employees' sitting time through growing ivy strands, eventually rooting them to their seats [24].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The bossy Office Agents [34] compete to bring the employee to work in the healthier possible manner. The Office Jungle [9] used bodily experimentations to bring 'wildness' to the office. These types of interventions might not find a place in the everyday work context but are used to question what kind of interactions and design processes can be used towards new designs for workplaces that integrate physical activity with work.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Movement to Digital Tasks at the Office: Designing an Acceptably Active Interface Interaction for Sending Emails

Keller

Heuvel

Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

2023

Self Cite

While working on a computer typically involves sitting for prolonged periods of time, sedentary work routines are associated with numerous health issues. To address this societal concern, existing solutions trigger physical activity as a break from work, rather than a part of it. In this research, we explore a vision for physically active ways of working, by transforming mundane digital tasks into physically active ones. As a research artifact and design exemplar, we present A2-I2, an innovative tangible system for sending emails. After loading their email onto a physical "letter" token, office workers must walk to a physical mailbox located in the office space. Understanding what design qualities influence the experience and acceptability of such systems is a necessary step toward the design of acceptably active interface interactions. We report on a preliminary user test with 8 participants. With this project, we aim to inspire future tangible and embodied systems addressing the timely issue of sedentary behavior at work.

“…Literature ofers a myriad of recommendations to improve ofce workers' health and vitality. Sedentary behavior and sitting time [6,32] are often emphasized as a main concerns, leading to various design interventions both traditional [7,10] and speculative [8,9]. The efects of several characteristics of the physical work environment (e.g., noise, air quality, temperature, light) on the users is also widely acknowledged, on both the well-being and productivity aspects [1,27,33,38].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habilyzer: Empowering Office Workers to Investigate their Working Habits using an Open-Ended Sensor Kit

Bussel

Heuvel

CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts

2022

Self Cite

Ofce work presents health and wellbeing challenges, triggered by unhealthy working habits or environmental factors. While technologies for vitality in the ofce context gain popularity, they are often solution-focused and fall short in acknowledging personal needs. Building on approaches from personal informatics, we see value in opening up the design space of tracking and sensing technologies for ofce workers. We designed and deployed an open-ended sensor kit and conducted two complementary studies to investigate the value of empowering ofce workers to investigate their own working habits. Findings show that Habilyzer triggers curiosity about working habits, and wireless sensors contribute to inquire into those habits, possibly supported by additional tools. We contribute new insights into how an open-ended sensor kit can be designed to support self-tracking practices and underlying refections in the underexplored context of ofce work. It is an alternative approach to workplace vitality, moving from solution-oriented technologies to inquiry-enabling tools.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial International 4.0 License.