The Method Cards for Movement-based Interaction Design (MeCaMInD) project explores how we can make a navigable and actionable method card toolbox in the fields of interaction design and sport & movement. MeCaMInD also focuses on disseminating the insights of the toolbox to students and design professionals across disciplines, as well as providing a greater understanding of how to create and enhance a movement-based creative design environment.
MeCaMInD is a project funded by the EU through the Erasmus+ strategic partnership program, based on a collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark (with the Department of Sports Sciences and Clinical Biomechanics as project lead), Aalto University, Malmö University, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, the University of Twente, and Uppsala University.
Besides the six main partners, we have several associated partners in the sports industry, health domains, and educational and public fields. The partners will develop and test Method Cards for Movement-based Interaction Design.
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When we develop new practices, artefacts, and interaction designs for sports and physical activity, it is essential to involve movement in the design process. Involving movement, we believe, will lead to more sustainable movement technologies and sports concepts so that, in turn, people gain health and well-being.
MeCaMInD supports solving the challenge of engaging designers, engineers, and students with movement in their design practice and for human movement students to gain confidence in using movement as their first choice in design. The confidence in using the methods will make the students ambassadors and role models for a movement centred approach designing for well-being and a healthy lifestyle.
MeCaMInD further brings together design methods in a way that opens up a larger design space for the development of novel products and movement practices. As all interactions are embodied, it will have a potential long-term impact on society beyond the fields of interaction design and sports & movement.
To support these challenges, we have built an interdisciplinary network across Europe striving to apply appropriate movement-based design methods. We heartily invite others that find movement-based methods inspiring and useful to contribute.
In the MeCaMInD project, we develop the so-called "design method cards" that make the design process easier to manage and include motion in the design of sport, movement, and technology.
An effective way of making design and research methods accessible for students and professionals are "method card boxes" offered as web services. The cards will provide a user-friendly approach to guide design activities. The cards will contain a brief description of each method's goal, procedure, use contexts, and constraints.
We will disseminate the methods and guidelines through the production of video, pictures, and graphics to support the text descriptions. Organising the methods and tying them into the principles of embodied design, a toolbox framework, and route maps we will develop and integrate.
The method cards we offer will be available in a method card toolbox and through a web service. To plan activities like design workshops and events using the movement-based methods, we will offer sorting functions including by timespan of performing the activities, embodied focus of the method, number of participants, and preparation efforts. Further, we will develop a gameboard as a planning tool for organising movement-based methods for use in events such as a movement design workshop.
In the MeCaMInD project, we develop "design method cards" to make the design process easier for including motion in sports, movement, and technology. Video, pictures, and graphics further support the cards.
We differentiate between four types of cards:
- Embodied Creative Mood cards promote a friendly and creative embodied environment through warmups, icebreakers, and team-building activities.
- Method cards describe specific ways to facilitate movement in the development of creative movement technology and design of new movement practices.
- Reflection cards engage considerations on different sports lenses, training research knowledge, and movement practices.
- Inspiration cards modify activities using the other cards. These cards encapsulate different movement, play, and sports disciplines, moods, and values, as well as technology for measuring and motivating movement.