Field Guide: Making Lived Uncertainty Interpretable in Women’s Return-to-Play

Authors

Rhiannon Sian Owen (Bangor University), Jonathan C Roberts (Bangor University)

Keywords

Uncertainty visualisation, Narrative visualisation, Lived uncertainty, Women’s football, Return-to-play, Design study

Abstract

Women returning to grassroots football after motherhood navigate uncertainty not only about physical readiness, but also confidence, time, childcare, belonging, and whether participation can be sus- tained as circumstances change. We investigate how visualisation can represent this form of lived uncertainty without reducing per- sonal experiences to probabilistic estimates or prescribing a norma- tive pathway. Guided by the Empathy-Driven Visualisation Frame- work (EDVF) and Five Design Sheets (FDS), we followed an itera- tive, human-centred design process grounded in direct engagement with a grassroots women’s football community. This process in- formed the development of Field Guide, a narrative visualisation representing return through revisitable participation states, multi- ple trajectories, shared experiences, and thematic exploration. We conducted an online participant study with 39 mothers involved in grassroots football, and identified five interacting dimensions of lived uncertainty. Preliminary evaluation of Field Guide indicated perceived value in encountering other mothers’ experiences, partic- ularly through validation, normalisation, and reflection. Rather than predicting readiness or defining a successful return, Field Guide explores how narrative visualisation can make multiple possible fu- tures visible while preserving the personal and socially situated na- ture of uncertainty. We contribute a characterisation of lived uncer- tainty in return-to-play, an account of its representation through an iterative narrative visualisation design, and design considerations for making lived uncertainty more interpretable, integrable, and ac- cessible within sensitive, human-centred contexts.