Making sense with things in participatory design

How do we make sense with things? Participatory design (PD) often uses concrete material objects to support embodied sensemaking in workshops. Both cognitive science and PD research usually understand such things to be external representations: information containers. Building on embodied sensemaking theory and reflecting on case studies from our lab, I propose three more basic, nonrepresentational ways for things to support sensemaking, on which representation builds: things (a) scaffold sensorimotor couplings, (b) anchor mutual attunement, and (c) provide lifeworld context. The resulting framework may inform design of PD tools that support participants in richer forms of embodied sensemaking.