Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: 7470b3fed4520aee32680f1026e68eb550e985b1ddea63426e6ed1851c85b9b3

# Bodystorming

Small groups physically enact a service touchpoint or user scenario using improvised props and roles. Participants test assumptions and identify real-world breakdowns by acting out interactions in real time.

**Time:** 50 minutes. UWT suggested 50-minute workshop format to cover role setup, staging, enactment, sharing, and debrief; source describes multi-level practices without fixed timers.
**People:** 4 to 24. Subgroups of 3 to 5 people working in parallel (up to 5 groups total). For counts like 6 or 7, form two groups of 3 or 3 and 4.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Test how a service or workflow functions in physical space by improvising concrete interactions with roles and props.
**Use it when:** Use when a team is stuck in abstract debates around a table about how a physical user experience or service delivery workflow will operate.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the project requires quantitative analysis, back-end code verification with no human interface, or when physical space is unavailable.

## Materials and tools

- 1 roll of painter tape per group
- Assorted everyday props per group (empty cardboard boxes, scrap cardboard sheets, chairs, cups, markers)
- 1 notebook and pen per group for the observer
- Digital whiteboard platform, video call software, and simple shape tokens created on the canvas (for remote or hybrid formats)
- 1 mobile device with camera connected to the hybrid call (for hybrid format)

## Before participants arrive

1. Clear open floor space so each small group has at least 3 meters by 3 meters of movement area.
2. Place painter tape, cardboard sheets, boxes, cups, notebooks, and markers on a central supply table.
3. Ensure existing room chairs and light tables can be moved freely as props.

## Say this to open

We are stepping away from the table to test our scenario physically. In your groups, you will define your scenario, map your physical space, and assign roles to enact the interaction. Improvise what happens step by step using physical props. When you hit a snag, stay in character and play through what the user actually encounters.

## How to run it

### 1. Define scenario and assign roles (8 minutes)

Form groups of 3 to 5 people (up to 5 groups total). Each group selects a specific user interaction to test. Assign one primary user, one observer with a notebook and pen, and supporting roles to the remaining members. Supporting members can play other people or physical objects like a ticket kiosk, smartphone, or service counter.

### 2. Stage the physical space (7 minutes)

Groups use painter tape on the floor, chairs, tables, and cardboard scraps to map out their physical stage. Mark boundaries, counters, entryways, or touchpoints needed for the scene.

### 3. Enact and iterate (15 minutes)

Groups act out the scenario in real time. Participants apply 'Yes, and...' rules to keep action moving forward. The observer writes down friction points, awkward pauses, spatial constraints, and unstated assumptions. If an interaction fails or feels unrealistic, the group resets and acts out an alternative response immediately.

### 4. Consolidate observations (5 minutes)

Stop physical action. Each group gathers with their observer. Review the observer notes and select the single biggest spatial breakdown and one practical design fix identified during the enactment.

### 5. Whole-room share and debrief (15 minutes)

Each group presents their chosen breakdown and fix, capped at 90 seconds per group (up to 7.5 minutes total across up to 5 groups). The facilitator then leads a whole-room debrief using the provided questions for the remaining 7.5 minutes.


## Debrief questions

- What assumptions became obviously false as soon as you tried to move through the space?
- Where did the user face friction, delays, or physical confusion that never surfaced during verbal discussion?
- What change to the physical layout, script, or interface resolved that friction most quickly?

**Finished output:** A list of documented usability flaws, spatial bottlenecks, and verified interaction changes recorded in observer notebooks.

## Remote

Bodystorming fundamentally relies on physical co-presence. When running for a fully remote team, use a Desktop Walkthrough alternative: In Step 1 (8 min), form breakout groups of 3 to 5 in video rooms. The facilitator provides or groups choose a user scenario. Groups assign a user persona, an observer, and system touchpoints. In Step 2 (7 min), groups sketch a simple floorplan on a shared digital whiteboard and create basic colored sticky notes or circular shape tokens to represent actors and props. In Step 3 (15 min), members improvise the interaction by taking turns moving their tokens across the canvas while speaking dialogue and environmental prompts in character, while the observer logs friction in a shared document. In Step 4 (5 min), groups consolidate top findings. In Step 5 (15 min), return to the main video room for 90-second group screen-share readouts and the shared debrief.

## Hybrid

Divide participants into location-based groups: in-person participants form physical staging groups in the room, while remote participants form a virtual breakout group using a digital Desktop Walkthrough canvas. In Step 5, all participants rejoin the main hybrid meeting. Remote groups screen-share their digital canvas. In-person groups broadcast their setup using a mobile device camera pointed at their physical stage or describe their physical layout in detail. Each group shares for 90 seconds through the main room audio feed so all attendees participate fairly.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants may choose roles that do not require standing, walking, or physical exertion, such as playing a seated customer, a stationary kiosk voice, or serving as the dedicated observer.
- Anyone may opt out of acting entirely and serve as the quiet documenter without disclosure or explanation.

## If the session gets stuck

**Participants sit around and discuss the scenario verbally instead of acting it out.**

Step in and prompt physical movement immediately: 'Show me where the customer is standing right now. Grab a chair to represent the counter and stand behind it.'

**One actor dominates and blocks other people's ideas with critical arguments.**

Remind the group to use the improv rule: 'Instead of debating whether it works, act out the suggestion for two minutes and observe what happens.'


## Terms used here

- Bodystorming: Brainstorming through physical role-play and spatial enactment rather than verbal discussion.
- Yes, and...: An improvisation rule where participants accept an offered premise and build on it rather than rejecting it.
- Desktop Walkthrough: A small-scale remote simulation where participants move digital shapes or desk tokens across a shared map to test a workflow.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Gamestorming (gamestorming.com/bodystorming). Gamestorming notes that the term 'bodystorming' was coined by Colin Burns at CHI 1994 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Retained the three-phase mechanic from Gamestorming (observe/frame, improvise/act with props and roles, reflect). UWT standardized group format to flexible subgroups of 3 to 5 people across 4 to 24 participants, calibrated Step 5 timing so group reports fit strictly within the debrief window, clarified the Desktop Walkthrough remote adaptation with digital tokens, and added explicit camera and verbal demonstration instructions for hybrid setups.

[Gamestorming](https://gamestorming.com/bodystorming)

[Gamestorming](https://gamestorming.com/bodystorming/)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/bodystorming/