Leonor Portugal da Fonseca

Breaking is a physically demanding street dance, which is highly creative and historically rooted in urban culture. Studies about Breaking are scant, and the role of technology in the modality, e.g., smartphones, while potentially relevant according to a previous technology review, is still unknown. This study is a first step into understanding the role of technology in Breaking. Drawing on observations of 35 training sessions and 15 interviews with Non-Professional to Olympic-level Breakers, we found that smartphones act as digital scaffolds for Breaking. Smartphone use supports training structure, movement arsenal management, performance improvement and creativity, and peer feedback and community engagement. Our contribution is two-fold: we first contribute a detailed understanding of how smartphones mediate Breaking, a form of appropriating the smartphone which has not been previously described; then, we outline design opportunities for future systems aimed at Breaking and other modalities, which are non-hierarchical, heavily rooted in culture, and turn to peer-to-peer expertise exchange to develop complex physical practices.

Rhythmic Gymnastics is an Olympic sport that demands an exceptional level of expertise. From early age, athletes relentlessly practise exercises until they can flawlessly perform them before an audience and a panel of judges. Technology can potentially support rhythmic gymnasts’ training by monitoring gymnasts’ exercises and providing feedback on their execution. However, the limited understanding of the training nuances in Rhythmic Gymnastics restricts the development of technologies to support training. Drawing on the observation of training sessions and on interviews with athletes and coaches, this paper uncovers how coaches personalise feedback timing, type, form, format, and quantity, to adapt it to the gymnasts’ skill level and type of exercise. Taking stock of our findings, we draw out five implications that can inform the design of systems to support feedback in Rhythmic Gymnastics training.

This paper reports on the design of an application to support the learning and practice of pirouettes in Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG). It describes the preparation, application, and results of a co-design activity with PICTIVE carried out with seven RG competition-level gymnasts aged 10-17 years old. A low-tech design toolkit tailored to the context of RG was developed and served as the basis for the seven PICTIVE co-design sessions and helped facilitate exchange between the designers and the future users of the mobile application. While gymnasts used the materials from the toolkit, they also contributed their own design elements. PICTIVE was effective to co-design the mobile application and identify its various components, from the features of the application to the graphical user interface elements of the screens and their flow of interaction. This work contributes a mobile application, TurningPoint, and a toolkit to those designing for RG and sports technology.

Telerehabilitation is increasingly important to maintain and increase access to rehabilitation for everyone everywhere. However, adherence to rehabilitation plans is still a challenge, so it is essential to investigate ways to make telerehabilitation systems effective and more engaging. Following a human-centred design approach, this paper contributes to addressing this problem by (re)designing and evaluating a telerehabilitation application and by designing a gamification strategy. The telerehabilitation application that resulted from this process was evaluated by 47 participants, who were divided into two groups, one control and another with participants referred by rehabilitation clinics. We evaluated 13 tasks, most of which participants were able to complete in a straightforward manner, with few to no errors. The application obtained an average score of 87.1 on the System Usability Scale and 9.1 on the Net Promoter Score questionnaires. Results indicate that the participants referred by the clinics struggle with a larger number of tasks, and that, different groups experience different errors, which indicates that, if we are to be inclusive, it is important to test also with outpatients. The gamification strategy has not been fully investigated, however results indicate that the inclusion of a tutorial is beneficial to its understanding and that gamification theme is of interest to both groups.