Designing for Bodily Play Experiences Based on Danish Linguistic Connotations of "Playing a Game"

Designing for bodily play in HCI is increasingly gaining attraction, including research on the experiential dynamics leading to that. Within this research, however, there has been little investigation into the differences between bodily playing and bodily gaming and associated implications for design. This paper investigates such differences and proposes an understanding derived from the Danish linguistic connotations of the four different combinations of bodily "playing/gaming" a "play/game". We exemplify these through four different examples and extract four strategies for designers to implement in their future bodily designs. With our work, we hope we are able to expand the range of diverse bodily play and game experiences within HCI.