Co-designing Magic Machines for Everyday Mindfulness with Practitioners

Jingjin Li; Nayeon Kwon; Huong Pham; Ryun Shim; Gilly Leshed

doi:10.1145/3563657.3595976

Co-designing Magic Machines for Everyday Mindfulness with Practitioners

Jingjin Li, Nayeon Kwon, Huong Pham, Ryun Shim, Gilly Leshed

Conference on Designing Interactive Systems July 10, 2023 DOI: 10.1145/3563657.3595976 (opens in new tab)

Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract

Characteristics	Qualitative study Peer reviewed
Sample size	30
Population	Mindfulness practitioners with varying levels of experience
Topics	Meditation
Key findings	Participants conceptualized six categories of designs to support everyday mindfulness: everyday objects, physical spaces, wearables, metaphorical art, companions, and toys.

Abstract

Many digital technologies have been invented to support mindfulness, the practice of bringing attention to the present moment without judgment. While most technologies focus on mindfulness meditation training for novices, in this paper, we explore designing technology to support everyday mindfulness activities for people with varying levels of experience. Through 9 magic machine workshops, 30 mindfulness practitioners explored and reflected on their personal experiences of everyday mindfulness, and generated designs that support their daily practice. Our findings identified six categories of designs conceptualized by our participants: everyday objects, physical spaces, wearables, metaphorical art, companions, and toys. We further analyze the practitioners’ thought processes and considerations for designs that support everyday mindfulness, such as eliciting and regulating emotion and associating mindfulness with routine daily activities. Finally, we discuss the implications of designing individualized mindfulness products and the potential of using co-design magic machine workshops to explore a practical design space.

Comparable studies

Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.

Study	Year	Design	Participants
The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan...	2017	Qualitative study with mixed-methods
The Effects of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on Nurse Stress and Burnout Nurses in a hospital system	2004	Implementation study with mixed methods
An exploratory mixed methods study of the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness -based cognitive therapy for patients with active depression and anxiety in primary care Primary care patients with recurrent depression or recurrent depression and anxiety	2006	Exploratory mixed methods study	n = 13
A qualitative study of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy for depression Participants in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in a mental-health context	2001	Qualitative study	n = 7
Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report Meditators	2013	Qualitative study using grounded theory methodology

Citations in the library

Cited by 2

Cites 17

and 12 more in the library