Mindful by Design: Exploring Informal Mindfulness Support in Technology
2023-2024 Personal Project (Still on-going)
While informal mindfulness practices naturally integrate present-moment awareness into daily activities, conventional digital mindfulness tools paradoxically intensify smartphone engagement and potentially undermine mindful states. This tension necessitates alternative approaches that balance technological support with mindfulness in everyday contexts. Through research-through-design and participatory design with ten experienced mindfulness practioners, we drew design insights on how everyday devices could be redesigned to support informal mindfulness practices. One selected concept was further developed through a co-creation process and applied into the participant’s mindfulness practices for a month. From the study findings, we identified four design insights for technologies supporting informal mindfulness, including 1) Tangible User Interfaces without Screens, 2) Visible yet Subtle Time Progress, 3) Adaptive System without Abrupt Ending, 4) Aesthetically-Pleasing Artifacts.
Skillset:
Arduino; Circuit design & sodering;
Modeling (Rhino, Solidworks);
Wood work; Sewing;
Phase One: Research through design
RtD final artifacts: a cup warmer with thermochromic patterns and a book light with programmable LED transitions.
Each of the final prototype integrates practical functionality with mindfulness support: the cup warmer combines heating capability with thermochromic pigment patterns, while the book light provides illumination with programmable LED color transitions. This pairing creates an intentional contrast between analog (thermochromic) and digital (LED) approaches to displaying temporal progression.
Phase TWO: Participatory design workshop
Drawing from established co-design methodologies, we developed a set of technology cards to facilitate the design of interactive artifacts.
part of the workshop creations
To have broader design insights of the abstract, personal, and embodied mindfulness experience, we conducted four co-design workshops with ten experienced mindfulness practitioners during August to
October 2024. The workshops aimed to elicit participants’ personal experiences with informal mindfulness activities, investigate design space, and discuss design considerations.
October 2024. The workshops aimed to elicit participants’ personal experiences with informal mindfulness activities, investigate design space, and discuss design considerations.
Phase THREE: Co-creation and prototyping
The workshop findings highlighted the personal nature of mindfulness practices, suggesting the need for deeper exploration through hands-on prototyping. We continued our study with Luna (P1, pseudonym), who showed strong interest in developing her temporal-focused concept. This prototype co-creation phase revealed nuanced design considerations that were not apparent during workshop discussions. After engaged with the prototype in her daily mindfulness practice, Luna provided insights into tangible mindfulness support that would have been difficult to capture through traditional research methods.
Phase FOUR: Deployment and feedback
After completion of the prototype, Chronobloom was deployed in Luna’s home environment for one month. This deployment phase allowed Luna to integrate the device into her daily life, providing an opportunity to evaluate how the design supported her mindfulness routines in an authentic context.