UX, embodiment och träffsäkerhet i pingis

My work

Bodily concept exploration, storyboard, physical/digital prototyping. Prototype built using Playstation Eye and OpenCV in Visual Studio.

Customer

eget projekt

Links

Video of the prototype View scenario (pdf)

Background and purpose

This project began as a way to explore bodily interaction, spatiality, and accuracy in a physical-digital game inspired by the PingPongPlus (MIT) project, but with a different technical solution. I wanted to investigate how the player can use the whole body - not just arms and eyes - to find timing, direction, and meaning in the task.

The aim was to:

Explore how digital target areas on a table tennis table can create new types of hitting challenges
Investigate bodily meaning - why someone would want to play this and what feels rewarding
Test whether a projected, spatial system can create a sense of physical presence and playfulness
Learn through embodied prototyping: understanding the concept by enacting and testing, not just analysing
Learn how designing digital technology in forms other than the traditional keyboard-and-screen setup can work

The project was carried out over a short period and served as an experiment in combining physical accuracy with digital feedback.

Video of the prototype

Here is a video of the interactive table tennis table in use.

Concept

The concept was a simple projected table tennis game where the player was given projected speed lines to alter the experience and had to hit the ball towards visual target areas on the table. These targets changed location depending on hits, creating a hybrid of digital response and physical action. The idea was to create:

A game where the body controls digital technology through movement and direction
A spatial system where feedback exists in the space, not on a screen
An experience that encourages movement and trains accuracy in a meaningful and playful way

The storyboard - exploring meaning, spatiality, and bodily experience

The most important method at the start of the project became the storyboard. It was not used for UI flows, but to sense the 'bodily meaning' of the concept. Through storyboards I explored:

Why someone would want to play the game - e.g., training elements like edge shots and precision
What type of physical experience the game should provide
How space and body together create playability

In practice, the storyboard became a way to 'feel into' the user benefit and the sense of play before the technology was in place. It also provided clear guidance on how the prototype needed to be built to achieve the right physical conditions.

The Prototype and Testing

The prototype consisted of a standard table tennis table with projected targets. The system provided visual feedback when the ball hit the surface, allowing the game to work in its basic idea. During testing, an unexpected effect emerged:

Users began playing in ways other than planned

They blew on the ball to control it
They nudged the ball instead of playing traditional table tennis
They invented small improvised games to 'hit' the target areas

This happened because the table was too small for the game to work at full speed. Precision became too difficult, causing the body to find new, imaginative ways to create meaning. This was an important insight: if an embodied system is too difficult, the player creates their own rules through the body.

Image from the project - Storyboard

Storyboards were created to better understand the project's meaning.

From one of the storyboards created to better understand the project's meaning.

Image from the project - Speed Lines

Speed lines were projected under the ball to explore if and how they affected the game's meaning

Image from the project - Improvised Games

In more advanced gameplay moments, such as when Pong was projected onto the table and controlled via the ball's speed lines, it could become too difficult. Then players began inventing their own games.

Players began blowing on the ball instead of using the racket.

Results and Learnings

The storyboard provided important initial understanding

It showed why the game was interesting, how it could feel, and what kind of physical meaning it created.

The body always finds a way to play

When the system is difficult, improvised behaviours emerge - which is useful to observe in embodied UX. Bodily UX involves designing for systems that occupy space, as well as designing based on players' bodies and prior knowledge.

Space is a crucial design parameter

The size of the table controlled the entire experience and showed how constraints quickly change the sense of play.

Embodied prototypes are as much about movement as technology

It's about shaping space, rhythm, hitting surfaces, and meaning - not just logic and rules.

Summary

This project became a quick but valuable experiment in how body, space, and digital feedback can interact in a small game. The storyboard made it possible to sense the user benefits and bodily experience before a more functional prototype was created. The prototype showed how people create meaning through play. Together, they provided a clear insight into how embodied UX can take shape, even in small and early projects.

This case is a part of my embodied-UX-experiment series. →