Mapping and Rehearsing Embodied Screen-Space Interaction: The Script-Stage- System Behavior Method

Many interactive experiences connect screen-based decisions with bodily action, spatial conditions, and responsive system behavior. Early representations often separate these elements, leaving their relationships unspecified until implementation. This paper presents Script-Stage-System Behavior, a front-end mapping-and-rehearsal method for embodied screen-space interaction. Script describes how the interaction unfolds from the user's perspective. Stage records the spatial, material, perceptual, and social conditions shaping the action. System Behavior specifies inputs, rules, states, feedback, limits, and controls. Designers map consequential interaction moments, rehearse them through functional or Wizard-of-Oz prototypes, record breakdowns, and revise the affected relationships. Developed through reflective analysis of eight undergraduate studio projects within a Research through Design process, the method was refined around interaction-loop continuity, contextual fit, medium choice, bounded and contestable system behavior, and explicit simulation. The contribution is a method and design rationale for making relationships among bodies, screens, environments, and system response available for critique before full implementation.