Using and Facilitating Social Videogames as Warm-Ups for Embodied Design

This paper examines whether off-the-shelf social videogames can serve as effective warm-ups for embodied design, a creative practice that relies on bodily movement and physical experience. The authors test four adapted commercial games, Just Dance, BUTTON, 1-2 Switch's Copy-Dance, and Johann Sebastian Joust, as playful, group-based preparation for design work. Their central thesis is that such games can foster creativity and readiness for body-based ideation, and that a single introductory facilitation session may be enough for external instructors to use the resulting toolbox.

The strongest evidence comes from a study with 22 participants using pre- and post-tests. Post-test responses showed greater verbal elaboration, with 20.12% more words and 46.66% more sentences on a domain-specific question. Domain-general creativity scores rose to an average aggregated score of 7.91, a 20.76% increase, with originality showing the largest gain at 25%. Participants also reported greater readiness for body-based creativity, although their self-perceived creative skills did not change.

The findings on facilitation are more cautious. Two further studies found that facilitators without prior training struggled to run the method, whereas a session led by a facilitator with toolbox experience and careful planning ran smoothly. The authors therefore present the approach as promising but not yet established, and they call for larger and repeated validation before broader claims can be made. The work is situated within research on embodied design, bodystorming, and games used for creativity and group collaboration.