Beyond Words: What Gestures Reveal About Users with Dane DeSutter and Stephanie Scopelitis

What if researchers could learn as much from what people do with their hands as from what they say? Lou talks with Dane DeSutter and Stephanie Scopelitis, authors of the forthcoming Body Talk: Using Gestures to Rethink Human-Centered Products, about the overlooked role gestures play in research, communication, and design.

Drawing on backgrounds spanning learning science, dance, music, and product research, Dane and Stephanie explain how gestures can reveal mental models, clarify ideas that are difficult to put into words, and give researchers new opportunities to dig deeper. Rather than relying on intuition alone, they argue that researchers can learn to observe gestures systematically—and use their own gestures intentionally to support richer interactions.

Through examples involving everything from justice to data integration, they show how paying closer attention to the body can uncover insights that words alone might miss—and ultimately help designers create products that make more sense to the people using them.

 

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• Why gestures offer a window into how people think
• How gestures can reveal mental models that words may not capture
• How researchers can observe gestures more systematically
• Why context and culture matter when interpreting gestures
• How gestures can help researchers ask better follow-up questions
• How understanding embodied behavior can lead to better product design

 

Quick Reference Guide:

0:11 - Meet Dane DeSutter and Stephanie Scopelitis and get an overview of their book, Body Talk

3:25 - Gestures in the UX world

6:53 - The ah-ha moment that made Dane take a closer look at gestures

9:15 - The influence of dance on Stephanie’s work

11:33 - Sign language vs gestures

13:19 - Gestures in the podcast studio

15:11 - We are all students of body language

19:03 - 15% off on Rosenfeld Media book preorders

20:26 - An example from teaching 

24:49 - An example from product design and development 

26:54 - Using gestures to reveal mental models and deepen understanding 

30:42 - Offering and interpreting gestures

33:39 - Dane & Stephanie’s gifts for listeners

37:10 - Why you should try the Rosenverse

 

Resources and Links from Today's Episode:

Body Talk: Using Gestures to Rethink Human-Centered Products by Dane DeSutter and Stephanie Scopelitis https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/body-talk/

The Supplement to the Italian Dictionary by Bruno Munari
https://corraini.com/products/supplemento-al-dizionario-italiano

Solitary Confinement: Social Death and Its Afterlives by Lisa Guenther https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt4cggj8

The Inside-Out Center https://insideoutcenter.org/

The Rosenverse https://rosenverse.rosenfeldmedia.com/

 

Quotes:

“A big part of how [engineers] interact with one another is in gesture.” —Dane 

“The body [is] a bridge. It’s a bridge between the person and the experience, a bridge between the past and the future.” — Dane 

“We use our bodies to communicate, to think through things, to shape our interactions all the time.” — Stephanie 

“This is a way to see into the mind.” — Dane 

“If you can understand how people think, you can design for them, you can create products that make sense to them.” — Dane 

“Looking at gestures as a window into the mind… that’s where the richness comes from.” — Stephanie