support evaluation of current training
exercises and improve the design of
future ones.
HIGHLIGHTED CHALLENGE:
INEXPEDIENT MOVEMENTS
Despite the aforementioned
opportunities that introducing
interactive technology in training
exercises offers, designers should be
aware of the challenges that emerge.
Designing interactive sports-training
games is a complex task, as the goal of
the game is not winning, but rather to
strengthen a certain skill. Designers
need to consider this, as players will
aim to win. This challenge appeared
in our work with Pass and Turn,
where the game motivated players
to perform inexpedient movements.
Since players immerse themselves in
the competition, and primarily focus
on how to beat their peers, they may
end up ignoring the training aspects.
In our case, players looked down to
focus on handling the ball in order to
get a better score, instead of looking
up, as desired in a soccer match. The
challenge of balancing game elements
and sport expediency makes the design
of interactive sports-training games
complex, as it is hard to foresee how
players will approach the game and
how their actions will relate to the
targeted sport. A way of addressing
this challenge is to create games in
collaboration with coaches and reward
the optimal movements of the sport. In
our case, Look Ahead rewards players
who can survey the field while handling
the ball, as they get the opportunity to
predict and anticipate the next move,
and this helped players improve their
movements in general.
CONCLUSION
Our work with a public interactive
soccer-training system highlights
the opportunities of introducing
technology to sports to support the
training experience. This work can be
expanded to other sports and other
training aspects, such as perception
and decision-making, which are
important but difficult to train.
Technology affords exploration of
training these aspects in new ways,
unavailable in traditional training.
We believe the field of interactive
sports-training games holds much
potential for interaction designers,
opening up new opportunities to apply
their digital design knowledge to the
world of sports. In return, athletes
and coaches can provide insights on
the potential, power, and prowess of
the active human body, expanding our
understanding of bodily interactions.
Endnotes
1. Jensen, M.M., Grønbaek, K., Thomassen,
N., Andersen, J., and Nielsen, J. Interactive
football-training based on rebounders
with hit position sensing and audio-visual
feedback. Intern. J. Computer Science in
Sport 13, 1 (2014), 57–68.
2. Footbonaut. Borussia Dortmund training
facility. 2012; https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Wh AyX81zP2M
3. Jensen, M.M., Rasmussen, M.K., and
Grønbaek, K. Design sensitivities for
interactive sport-training games. Proc. DIS
2014. ACM Press, 2014, 685–694.
4. Jensen, M.M., Rasmussen, M.K., and
Grønbaek, K. Exploring opponent formats.
Proc. Entertainment Computing – ICEC
2013. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013,
48–60.
Mads Møller Jensen is a Ph.D. student
in the Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction
Group at Aarhus University, and a visiting
researcher at the Exertion Games Lab at
RMIT University. His research focuses on
the intersection between human-computer
interaction, ubiquitous computing, and sports,
explored through prototypes and inspired
by games.
→ mmjensen@cs.au.dk
Majken K. Rasmussen is a research
assistant in the Ubiquitous Computing and
Interaction Group at Aarhus Univeristy, with
a background in design and architecture from
the Aarhus School of Architecture. Her main
research area is interaction design, focusing
on designing interactions and experiences for
different contexts.
→ mkirkegaard@cs.au.dk
Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller is director of
the Exertion Games Lab at RMI T University.
Previously, he was a Fulbright Scholar at
Stanford University and has worked at the
MI T Media Lab, Microsoft Research, Media
Lab Europe, FXPal, Xerox Parc, University of
Melbourne, and CSIRO.
→ floyd@exertiongameslab.org
Kaj Grønbaek is a full professor in computer
science at Aarhus University and lab manager
at the Alexandra Institute, Denmark. His
research area is ubiquitous computing and
interaction. He has conducted projects
integrating architectural design and computer
science for more than 12 years in his Lab for
Interactive Spaces.
→ kgronbak@cs.au.dk
DOI: 10.1145/2724582 © 2015 ACM 1072-5520/15/03 $15.00
Look Ahead. One vs. One.