Prototyping sonic interaction for walking

Abstract

Sounds play a substantial role in the experience of movement activities such as walking. Drawing on the movement inducing effects of sound, sonic interaction opens up numerous possibilities to modify the walker's movements and experience. We argue that designing sonic interaction for movement activities demands an experiential awareness of the interplay of sound, body movement and use situation, and, propose a prototyping method to understand possibilities and challenges related to the design of mobile sonic interaction. In this paper, we present a rapid prototyping system that enables non-expert users to design sonic interaction for walking and to experience their design in the real-world context. We discuss the way this prototyping system allows designers to experience how their design ideas unfold in mobile use and affect the walking.