Designing to support reasoned imagination through embodied metaphor

Copyright 2009 ACM. Supporting users' reasoned imagination in sense making during interaction with tangible and embedded computation involves supporting the application of their existing mental schemata in understanding new forms of interaction. Recent studies that include an embodied metaphor in the interaction model, which relates action-based inputs to digital outputs, have provided evidence that this approach is beneficial. Yet the design of such systems has been difficult and full of setbacks. Wide spread adoption of this approach requires a better understanding of how to design such embodied metaphor-based interactional models. We analyze three recent design-based research studies in which we have been involved in order to derive design knowledge that may inform others. Following a case study methodology we identify kernels or points in the design process where discontinuities between predicted and actual interaction highlight important design knowledge