2MOVE
Matter of Movement at the Office and Outdoor for Virtuous Explorations and Experiences. This project explores designerly and participatory ways to positively influence physical activity and wellbeing in the workspace, capitalizing on state of the art technologies.
Low levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour are one of the major societal challenges today, due to its negative impact on health. Health problems related to physical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death in the world and a major underlying causes of many sick leaves.
A large proportion of sedentary activities today take place at work, where many of the employees currently work sitting in front of computer screen for a major part of the day or in sedentary meetings. We intend to build on the project team's combined experience when designing, developing and exploring technologies and methods to enable physical activity as an integrated part in work-tasks, and also to aim for an increased motivation to be physical active.
Hallal et al., (2012) argue for a translation of knowledge into action, and they have found that people living in the 21st century are experiencing societal trends of decreasing levels of physical activity and that approaches to date have not been able to change this situation. They state, “The traditional public health approach based on evidence and exhortation has – to some extent – been unsuccessful so far. With few exceptions, health professionals have been unable to mobilize governments and populations to take physical inactivity sufficiently seriously as a public health issue.” (Hallal et al., 2012, p.254).
Method: We will capitalize on project members experience on interaction design, embodied interaction, design choreography, movement acumen design approach (percipience, insightfulness, and sensitivity in, for, and through movement).
The project will make use of theories, methods and notions such as gamification, physical activity, physical literacy and movement Acumen design as a mean to develop technologies enhancing motivation to be physical active during office work settings.
Experience from a previous study will be included as the bases for the development of a system supporting walking meetings - A system supporting walking meeting – walk the talk (supported through the project “Med rörelse i tankarna”)
References: Hallal, P. C., Andersen, L. B., Bull, F. C., Guthold, R., Haskell, W., & Ekelund, U. (2012). Global physical activity levels: surveillance progress, pitfalls, and prospects. The Lancet , 380 (9838), 247-257.
KTH, Department of Media Technology and Interaction Design: Helena Tobiasson, Jan Gulliksen
Interactive Institute, Swedish ICT: Fredrik Nilbrink Nigel Papworth, Ambra Trotto, Jeroen Peeters.