Enlightened Yoga

Abstract

Designing technology to support instructed physical training is challenging, due to how instructions rely on complex interactional and situational social processes. To support in-the-moment instruction, we engaged in a co-creative Research through Design process with a Yoga instructor. Together, we designed and deployed Enlightened Yoga: a training class featuring wearable projecting lights that augment the instructor's and trainee's movements, and highlight the orientation and positioning of key body parts. We present insights from the design process and a study of the class. We show how the wearable lights enabled a new shared frame of reference between instructor and trainees, that became instructable through the way participants could reference and orient themselves to it. This allowed the instructor to extend his instructional strategies, and enabled trainees to better act upon cues. We discuss how this was made possible by jointly designing the technology, its coupling with the body, instructions and exercises.