Evaluating Mindfulness Meditation Apps
Claudia Daudén Roquet, Corina Sas
April 20, 2018 DOI: 10.1145/3170427.3188616 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Auto-ethnographic and expert evaluation |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 16 |
| Population | 16 most popular iPhone mindfulness apps in the UK |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Mindfulness meditation Applied psychology Psychotherapist Medical education Innovative human-technology interaction |
| Citations | 84 |
| Key findings | Popular iPhone mindfulness apps focus on guided meditation but lack support for monitoring intrinsic meditation processes and measuring training effectiveness. |
Abstract
indfulness meditation has significant benefits for health and well-being but requires training. A wealth of mindfulness meditation apps have been developed in the last years. However, there has been liMassachusetts Institute of Technologyed academic work evaluating these technologies. This paper reports an auto-ethnographic and expert evaluation study of 16 most popular iPhone mindfulness apps in the UK. Findings indicate that these apps focus mostly on guided meditation, with liMassachusetts Institute of Technologyed support for monitoring intrinsic meditation processes and measuring the effectiveness of the training. We propose a more nuanced discourse around such apps concluding with implications for design; including new tools for supporting intrinsic meditation processes and bodily kinetic aspects fostering mindfulness, together with the call for developing guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness of such applications.