Date: Thursday, December 11th, 2025, 14:30h-15:30h UTC+2 (CEST)
Speaker: Elena Márquez Segura, UC3M, Spain
Title: Embodied Sketching as Inquiry: Research through Design for Multi-sensory, Movement-Based, Collocated Interaction
Abstract:
In Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), interactive systems increasingly reach beyond screens, engaging bodies, movement, and social presence as core materials of design. This seminar introduces Research through Design (RtD) and embodied design methods as productive approaches for investigating and designing future technologies in general, and in particular those that particularly relate to the body, e.g. multi sensory, and movement-based technologies, and immersive technologies.
Drawing from my work at the intersection of HCI, Interaction Design (IxD), Games and Play Design, and several performative and movement-based practices, I will illustrate how designing with—and not merely for—the body can surface tacit knowledge, reveal novel interaction possibilities, and generate theoretically grounded design insights.
A particular embodied design approach will be at focus: embodied sketching, a structured yet improvisational method for designing rich embodied interactive experiences. I will unpack three complementary modes of embodied sketching: sensitizing practices that attune designers to bodily perception and experiential qualities; bodystorming a physical implementation of the classical brainstorming for idea generation using collaborative enactment and iteration of design concepts through physical and social improvisation; and participatory embodied sketching approaches that engage stakeholders directly in embodied exploration of design prototypes.
Through examples spanning social wearables, social robots, and immersive experiences, I will show how these approaches and techniques can be operationalized in practice, how they support computational design practice, and how they open new pathways for conceptualizing and prototyping multisensory and movement-based collocated social experiences.
Biography:
Elena Márquez Segura is a scholar in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design (IxD) whose research examines how interactive technologies can support, choreograph, mediate, and enrich movement-based collocated social experiences. Her work bridges HCI, IxD, and Games and Play Design, drawing deeply on embodied, performative, and movement-based practices. She is recognized for advancing Research through Design (RtD) as a mode of inquiry and for developing embodied design methods that foreground the body as a primary site of knowledge production and creative exploration. Elena’s research spans domains including wearable technologies, social robots, immersive experiences, and play-oriented systems that foster rich physical and social experiences. Her projects and publications highlight the value of designing with the body to surface tacit experiential insights, generate new interaction vocabularies, and reimagine how computation can support and shape shared physical experiences. She has collaborated with interdisciplinary teams across engineering, design, social sciences, education and pedagogy, dance, and the performing arts, and her work has been featured in leading HCI and design venues worldwide.
You can read more about Elena’s publications in GoogleScholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=es&user=EginuQIAAAAJ, and ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elena-Marquez-Segura-2. You can also follow Elena in Twitter: @in_spiral ( https://twitter.com/in_spiral ) and Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-marquez-segura/
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If you are interested in giving a talk please write an email to: lab.imbody@gmail.com.