Stone Age Trail – UX, embodiment och naturupplevelser

My work

Concept development, embodied interaction design, storyboard, prototyping, user testing.

Customer

Masteruppsats/Naturvårdsverket

Links

Read published report

Background and purpose

Stone Age Trail was a master's project in collaboration with Tyresta National Park. The aim was to create an interactive system that enhances the nature experience rather than replaces it. Traditional guided tours and signs have limited appeal, while the park wanted to attract younger visitors. Our task was to explore how embodied interaction and technology as experience can be used to create a digital experience that works in nature, on nature's terms.

Project goals:

Design an interactive system that is part of a physical activity
Create a gaming experience that encourages exploration of the place
Use technology with low abstraction - clear, concrete and tactile
Design for meaning, embodiment, and experience.

Concept

The result was Stone Age Trail - a mobile-based outdoor game where two players each receive a handheld device and a barcode scanner. Along a marked trail in the forest, physical information signs displayed Stone Age tools.

Players would:

Explore the forest to find information signs
Scan barcodes to unlock characters, tools, and video clips
Collect resources and use the tools in a final collaborative activity

The design combined:

Physical signs in the forest
Handheld devices with maps and visual cues
A final game requiring movement, collaboration and timing

Embodied design

As in later projects, we worked with embodied interaction - letting the body, place and tools guide how the interaction works and feels.

Focus was on:

Making the technology a natural part of the activity
Allowing the experience to be shaped by movement in terrain
Using physical objects (signs, forest, distances, body orientation)
Creating a sense of 'Stone Age immersion' by collecting tools and working together

The system should feel like a tool for activity - not a screen to stare at.

Design process

Contextual inquiries

We conducted interviews with visitors and staff. This provided two key insights:

People want meaningful activities, not just facts
Technology must be discreet and compatible with the nature experience

Sketches and storyboards

Early sketches considered interaction in the terrain, how players move, find signs, and collaborate. Storyboards were used to:

Sense bodily flows
Explore the story and motives behind the activity
Explore how the technology would blend into nature

Rapid prototypes

We tested RFID, data gloves and gyro controllers before settling on barcode scanners and handheld devices - low abstraction, clear bodily engagement.

Functional prototype

The final prototype consisted of

Handheld devices with map, tools, and video clips
A number of physical signs in the forest
A final game where players ran between three locations to collect resources

Testing and Exploration

Three tests were conducted: one outdoors with two users, one indoors, and a cognitive walkthrough.

Experiences during testing:

Users understood the interaction quickly
They sometimes ignored videos - the activity was more important than the information
The search for signs provided strong spatial presence and playfulness
The final game created intense collaboration - users formulated strategies in real time

An unexpected finding: competition

In the first test, players began competing to find signs first - even though the game was designed for collaboration. This showed how players bring their own motivations into the activity.

Image - Collecting Tools

The Stone Age Trail has a number of physical information signs placed along the trail in the forest. Some signs are visible while others are hidden to encourage exploration. The signs contain information and also feature a barcode the visitor can scan to access more information on their handheld device.

Users receive information both on physical boards and on the handheld device. A board is shown on the top left, and screens from the handheld device appear on the right. Some boards display only the tools they represent.

Image - Example from the Game

Each information sign along the trail gives the visitor a chance to collect the tools shown. Information is also provided in video sequences with animations and music.

The user interface includes, for example, a map and collected tools.

Image - Example from the End of the Game

Once players have collected the tools they want, they play a final game where the tools are used to catch fish, hunt, and keep the fire alive to cook a stew. Players must run between three locations to collect as many fish, pigs, and logs as possible and bring them to a cooking pot.

Players must run between four different locations about three metres apart. Both handheld devices show the fire and the amount of food in the pot, and players need to collaborate to keep it going and cook.

Results and Learnings

The system became part of the activity

It enhanced rather than disrupted the nature experience.

Embodied interaction works excellently outdoors

Technology becomes one with movement when it has low abstraction.

The place guides behaviour

The forest, distances, and terrain shaped the experience as much as the technology.

Users find their own ways to play

Competition, collaboration, and improvisation arose naturally.

Summary

Stone Age Trail demonstrated that digital technology can enhance meaningful nature activities without taking over the experience. Through embodied design principles - movement, bodily engagement, spatial orientation, and low abstraction - a game was created where people experienced, explored, and collaborated in the heart of nature.

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