“I had super-powers when eBike riding” Towards Understanding the Design of Integrated Exertion

Abstract

The intersection of the physically active human body and technology to support it is in the limelight in HCI. Prior work mostly supports exertion by offering sensed digital information about the exertion activity. We focus on supporting exertion during the activity through sensing and actuation, facilitating the exerting body and the bike to act on and react to each other in what we called ‘integrated exertion’. We draw on our experiences of designing and studying “Ava, the eBike”, an augmented eBike that draws from the exerting user’s bodily posture to actuate. As a result, we offer four design themes for designers to analyze integrated exertion experiences: Interacting with Ava, Experiencing Ava, Reduced Body Control Over Ava and Ava's Technology. And also, seven practical tactics to support designers in exploring integrated exertion. Our work on integrated exertion contributes to engaging in new ways with the physically active human body.