Designing technologies to support everyday mindfulness beyond meditation for mental well-being
Jingjin Li · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · 2022
Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help individuals increase their awareness of the present moment non-judgmentally, thereby supporting mental well-being. While numerous mindfulness technologies and resources are available for teaching novices to do meditation, there is little research on supporting people to apply the awareness they have learned in mindfulness meditation to their daily activities. Taking a research-though-design approach, my dissertation work will explore the design of mindfulness technologies that go beyond supporting meditation. I aim to combine semi-structured interviews and co-design workshops with mindfulness practitioners to understand the characteristics of daily mindfulness experiences and the design space of technologies to support this practice. I also plan to apply an autobiographical design approach to obtain a nuanced understanding of the lived experience of embedded mindfulness in daily life. This dissertation work has the potential to inform the design of mindfulness technology to be better situated in one’s daily activities and support meaningful mindfulness journeys.