Abstract
In contemporary family life shaped by digital media, face-to-face communication between parents and children is increasingly limited. Traditional companion-style games often fail to support both emotional bonding and collaborative interaction. Grounded in embodied cognition theory, this study introduces a motion-based parent–child game with a “lighting–collection” mechanism and role-based task division. The system promotes non-verbal coordination and physical cooperation in a non-competitive setting. A mixed-method study involving eight families with children aged 6–9 evaluated its impact through behavioural observation, task performance, and emotional feedback. Results show that embodied interaction provides a novel channel for engagement beyond verbal exchange, while non-verbal collaboration increases positive interaction and closeness. Findings also reveal that task interdependence adapts to diverse family dynamics and fosters new cooperation patterns. This study proposes a behavioural collaboration–emotional activation framework, offering practical design strategies for interactive systems aimed at enriching parent–child relationships in domestic contexts.
Keywords
Embodied interaction; Parent–child collaboration; Motion-based game design; Emotional engagement
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.463
Citation
Zeng, Y., Xue, M., Wang, Z.,and Zhang, J.(2025) Embodied Collaboration Game Design: Exploring Parent-Child Emotional Bonding Through Motion-Based Interaction, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.463
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 3 - Design, Art & Technology
Embodied Collaboration Game Design: Exploring Parent-Child Emotional Bonding Through Motion-Based Interaction
In contemporary family life shaped by digital media, face-to-face communication between parents and children is increasingly limited. Traditional companion-style games often fail to support both emotional bonding and collaborative interaction. Grounded in embodied cognition theory, this study introduces a motion-based parent–child game with a “lighting–collection” mechanism and role-based task division. The system promotes non-verbal coordination and physical cooperation in a non-competitive setting. A mixed-method study involving eight families with children aged 6–9 evaluated its impact through behavioural observation, task performance, and emotional feedback. Results show that embodied interaction provides a novel channel for engagement beyond verbal exchange, while non-verbal collaboration increases positive interaction and closeness. Findings also reveal that task interdependence adapts to diverse family dynamics and fosters new cooperation patterns. This study proposes a behavioural collaboration–emotional activation framework, offering practical design strategies for interactive systems aimed at enriching parent–child relationships in domestic contexts.