This is a preprint of a theoretical framework paper introducing the Embodied Interaction Legibility Framework (ELF), an analytical framework for studying how movement, timing, and gesture produce or fail to produce legibility in human-technology interaction. The framework integrates three analytical traditions: perceptual animacy research, which examines how movement patterns trigger attributions of intention and agency in observers; classical gesture theory from the Natyashastra tradition of Indian performance practice, which provides a formal account of how structured bodily movement produces meaning before language does; and ethnomethodological conversation analysis, which offers fine-grained methods for studying how coordination and meaning emerge through the sequential and embodied organisation of real interaction. The paper develops the framework across three analytical scales, movement and gesture at the level of the body, timing and sequence at the level of the turn, and coordination and repair at the level of the interaction and discusses applications in human-robot interaction, conversational AI, and embodied interface design. The framework is produced and developed at Beyond Interaction Studio, Bengaluru, India. This preprint is distributed under CC BY 4.0. Feedback and correspondence are welcome.
Bhavana Rao Inaganti (Fri,) studied this question.