Bodystorming with Hawkins’s block: Toward a new methodology for mobile media design

Inspired by the intuitive prototyping method employed by Palm Pilot founder Jeff Hawkins, this formative field study recreates and reimagines his generative techniques as a new methodology that could be useful for mobile media designers. Viewed theoretically through an activity theory lens, this approach also integrates bodystorming ideals as a way to externalize and embody user perspectives about the potential of place-based media, in situ, using a proposed National Park Service app, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, as an example. Such data gathering, especially early in the design process, could help user-centered projects gather otherwise inaccessible feedback, leading to better designs, through tailored content and interfaces, particularly at the dynamic intersections of digital and physical space.