MindfulHU

DESCRIPTION

Digital technologies providing stress reduction solutions for mindfulness

I designed and developed an interactive device. Moreover, I designed a mobile app from scratch.

MY ROLE

UX Research

Interaction Design

Interface/Visual Design

Develop

Overview

My journey in MindfulHU consists of two parts: working on my master thesis and working as UX & Interaction designer. Thus, I will separate them as "Thesis" and "MindfulHU" in the following description.

Thesis - Mission

To explore interaction design for mindful breathing support

HU project, my thesis is a continuous work of it.

Thesis - Process

1. Research

State-of-art research

2. Define

User scenario
Interaction pattern

3&4. Design & Prototype

Designed and developed the physical device

5. Test

User study

Thesis - Result

Team & Collaboration

Individual project
Regularly reported to my supervisor and asked for her feedback

Outcome

The physical device HU II utilises real-time respiration data to provide visual and auditory biofeedback.

MindfulHU - Mission

To design digital solutions for stress reduction solutions

MindfulHU - Process

1&2. Research & Define

User journey
Personas
Scenarios
Use cases

3. Design

Interaction design of the physical device
Interaction and interface design for the moble app

4. Prototype

Prototypes of the app

5&6. Deliver & Test

Communicate with the development team
User study

MindfulHU - Result

Team & Collaboration

Team of 6
with Product Owner, CTO, Mechanical Engineer, and Developers
Directly report to the product owner
Regular meeting with the whole team

Outcome

The design of the physical device and the mobile app.

Note: Due to the confidentiality agreement, no more information about MindfulHU can be shared. Thus the following sections will only focus on the thesis project.

Background

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an effective method of stress treatment and prevention. One of the interactive systems aiming at supporting MBSR is HU. However, HU does not support a direct interaction, because it estimates respiration rate by running algorithms to process heart rate.

As a continuous work, the thesis project is focusing on designing a new physical device HU II to improve HU.

Note: Due to the confidentiality agreement, photos of the device can not be shared. In the following sections, only the procedure and simplified diagrams will be presented, as presented in the Thesis.

Procedure

State-of-art research
- Respiration monitoring
- Respiration representation
- Interaction patterns
Design & Prototype
- Defined the usage scenario
- Designed the respiration monitoring and representation
User study (diagram below)
- Tested the device
- Interviewed with the participants

Guidance mode and mirror mode

User study procedure

Result & Learning

Result

A physical device HU II was designed and developed to support mindful breathing.

Learning

Storytelling: users build their conceptual model based on their perception, either about a given story, or the story they made for the product.
The importance of the balance between adequate guidance and information overload when designing multi-modal experience.
Difference between "envision" and "experience": users might have opposite ideas before and after the trail.