In-Situ Seeding: Entangling Place & Technology through Sensory Data Dialogues
Interactive technology design is situated within environmental and sociocultural context. This pictorial develops an In-Situ Seeding method for engaging with site-specific sensory experiences. This method stems from a previous TEI Studio, where we utilized Sensory Portfolios, digital sensors, and other materials to make sense of interaction in place. We present an annotated collection of our Studio experiences and autobiographical retrospective reflections. These Seeds supported in-situ sensory explorations and examination of entanglements between documentation, data, location, history, and human and more-than-human agents. We contribute to literature around (1) walk-and-talk sensory explorations, (2) situated entanglements with technological artifacts, and (3) relationships between human and non-human agents in shared locations and over varied timescales. Our reflections point towards continued development for In-Situ Seeding as a method and suggest its further use and guidance to support future sensory explorers.
Queer/Crip Body Mapping: Expressing Dynamic Bodily Experiences with Data
Drawing on queer and disability theories alongside tangible body mapping techniques, we explore alternative ways of mapping embodied experiences and expressing affective sensations. Our collaborative autoethnographic approach incorporates sensors to trace our somatic experiences over time, pairing visualizations of contextual biodata with personal reflections in written or spoken form. We unpack how these alternative approaches to body mapping support reflecting on, communicating, and deepening understanding of embodied experiences by foregrounding temporal and situated aspects. We offer expanded body mapping methods by sharing a plurality of experiences that embrace queer and crip ways of knowing, foregrounding alternate temporal and spatial representations.
Sensory Data Dialogues: A Somaesthetic Exploration of Bordeaux through Five Senses
The design of interactive systems and digital artefacts often makes use of digital or analog sensory data as a way to “capture” human senses and sensory experiences. Yet, designing for and with sensory data is complex because of our unique, embodied ways of making sense of our somatosensory experiences. Sensory data does not have one prescribed meaning for everyone. We propose a one-day Studio at TEI to start a dialogue about work with sensory data and its representation of human sensory experience. Specifically, we propose a guided walk and series of sensory explorations in Bordeaux to contemplate the interplay between first-person somatosensory experiences and streams of site-specific data from various sensors. By walking and noticing together, this Studio invites participants to engage in a process of creative reflection on their felt experiences, their connection to their surroundings, and their stance within or outside the design community.
Beyond Meditation: Understanding Everyday Mindfulness Practices and Technology Use Among Experienced Practitioners
Mindfulness, a practice of bringing attention to the present non-judgmentally, has many mental and physical well-being benefits, especially when practiced consistently. Many technologies, such as mobile apps, live streams, virtual reality environments, and wearables, have been invented to support solo or group mindfulness practice. In this paper, we present findings from an interview study with 20 experienced mindfulness practitioners about their everyday mindfulness practices and technology use. Participants identify the benefits and challenges of developing long-term commitment to mindfulness practice. They employ various strategies, such as brief mindfulness exercises, social accountability, and guidance from teachers, to sustain their practice. While conflicted about technology, they adopt and appropriate a range of technologies in their practice for reminders, emotion tracking, connecting with others, and attending online sessions. They also carefully consider when to use technology, when and how to limit its use, and ways to incorporate technology as an object for mindfulness. Based on our findings, we discuss expanding the definition of mindfulness and the tension between supporting short- and long-term mindfulness practice. We also propose a set of design recommendations to support everyday mindfulness, including through the lens of metaphor, reappropriating non-mindfulness technology, and bringing community support into personal practice.
From Imagination to Innovation: Using Participatory Design Fiction to Envision the Future of Accessible Gaming Wearables for Players with Upper Limb Motor Disabilities
The interest in enhancing video game interactions through wearable technology has grown, yet accessible gaming with wearables remains underexplored. This study employs participatory design fiction, enabling disabled gamers to envision a future with tailored gaming wearables while critiquing technology. We conducted a two-phase study. Phase one involved in-depth interviews with upper limb motor disability participants; we developed a fictitious gaming wearable by analyzing the data using reflexive thematic analysis. A smaller group iterated on the wearable in phase two to ideate on ideal futures with accessible gaming wearables. Using data and dialogic/performance analysis, we crafted a design fiction diegetic prototype as a tech review video. This research highlights disabled gamers' unique needs and experiences around gaming wearables. It offers an innovative diegetic prototype for accessible gaming tech. Our methodological contribution merges narrative inquiry and dialogic/performance analysis in participatory design fiction research, providing a valuable approach for future studies.
“NEXT!”: An Interactive Exploration of Familial Duty and Personal Desires through Computer Vision-Powered Gameplay
‘NEXT!’ is an interactive installation and video game inspired by the personal ancestry of one of our team members. The game explores themes of family obligations, filial piety, and the sacrifices made for love within the context of traditional Chinese culture. Utilizing computer vision and original audiovisual media, ’NEXT!’ guides players through an emotional journey based on real-life experiences. This paper details the game’s concept, interactive and technological innovations, and research findings. Through user testing and iterative design, we examine the alignment between the impact of the game mechanics on the perceived user experience and the designed narrative arc, transitioning from anxiety and duty to fun and emotional confrontation. The game effectively combines various design elements while addressing important cultural themes.
vARitouch: Back of the Finger Device for Adding Variable Compliance to Rigid Objects
We present vARitouch, a back-of-the-finger wearable that can modify the perceived tactile material properties of the uninstrumented world around us: vARitouch can modulate the perceived softness of a rigid object through a vibrotactile compliance illusion. As vARitouch does not cover the fingertip, all-natural tactile properties are preserved. We provide three contributions: (1) We demonstrate the feasibility of the concept through a psychophysics study, showing that virtual compliance can be continuously modulated, and perceived softness can be increased by approximately 30 Shore A levels. (2) A qualitative study indicates the desirability of such a device, showing that a back-of-the-finger haptic device has many attractive qualities. (3) To implement vARitouch, we identify a novel way to measure pressure from the back of the finger by repurposing a pulse oximetry sensor. Based on these contributions, we present the finalized vARitouch system, accompanied by a series of application scenarios.
Tactile Narratives: Augmenting Body Maps through Textured Fabric in Soma Design
In Human-Computer Interaction, body maps are a standard tool to understand an individual's bodily phenomenon. Body maps often use abstract drawings and text annotations on an outline of a body. However, little research has explored alternate ways we can collect similar data. In this pictorial, we present tactile body maps, which use an array of textured fabric circles attached to a felt-shaped body instead of a more traditional approach to drawing body maps. We first present an illustration of how researchers can use tactile body maps and show an example of the type of data collected in the method. We then tested the augmented body map method alongside drawing body maps and verbal-only body descriptions with eight participants to explore the benefits and disadvantages of each technique. Through the data, we present a set of considerations that a researcher can use to decide which way would be most appropriate for their soma design process.
“Why are there so many steps?”: Improving Access to Blind and Low Vision Music Learning through Personal Adaptations and Future Design Ideas
Music can be a catalyst for self-development, creative expression, and community building for blind or low vision (BLV) individuals. However, BLV music learners face complex obstacles in learning music. They are highly reliant on their learning environment and music teachers for accommodations and flexibility. Prior research identified the challenges faced by BLV musicians. Yet, limited research has addressed these challenges through the development of technology. Drawing upon the experience and suggestions of 40 BLV professional musicians, amateur musicians and music teachers (including sighted teachers with experience teaching blind students), we identified five themes: (1) Key Challenges of BLV Music Learning, (2) Personal Adaptations to Overcome Music Learning Challenges, (3) Perspectives on Current and Future Assistive Technologies, (4) Contention Between Braille Music and Auditory Learning, and (5) Role of Human Support for Music Learning. Together, these findings outline a path to make music learning more accessible to BLV people. To this end, we describe opportunities for enhanced audio cues for musical communication, recommend integrating vibrotactile feedback to aid music reading and design technology that supports independence and interdependence in music learning.
Wearable Identities: Understanding Wearables’ Potential for Supporting the Expression of Queer Identities
Queer identity research largely overlooks wearable technology. Most work exploring sociocultural considerations of wearable technology determines what is “socially acceptable” based on privileged bodies, excluding queer perspectives. We address this by establishing the foundations of a knowledge base for wearables that support queer expression. We conducted a two-phase qualitative study exploring queer expressive practices and wearable technologies through 16 semi-structured interviews and 15 body mapping workshops with the queer community. We observed themes framing the queer community’s understanding of queer expression, wearable technology, and wearable technology for queer users. Providing design considerations and discussions on the potential of our methods, our work enables the creation of wearable technologies that offer meaningful user experiences for the queer community. CAUTION: This paper discusses topics that could trigger those with histories of homophobia, transphobia, gender dysphoria, racism or eating disorders. Please use caution when engaging with this work.
Adaptive Soft Switches: Co-Designing Fabric Adaptive Switches with Occupational Therapists for Children and Adolescents with Acquired Brain Injury
Acquired brain injuries have many complexities, largely affecting motor and cognitive functioning. Occupational therapists often use switches attached to electronics that activate the devices to give people with disabilities the ability to interact with toys and electronics. However, current switches on the market are expensive, break easily and are unable to customize. We ran two co-design workshops and follow-up interviews with 14 occupational therapists specializing in students with acquired brain injuries. In phase one, the occupation therapists built three soft switches and brainstormed iterations. In phase two, we gained valuable insights into the iterations from occupational therapists. This paper contributes to Human-Computer Interaction as a case study, designs guidelines to support co-design with occupational therapists, and discusses the potential of adaptive soft switches. This work contributes to the growing literature around supporting occupational therapists as makers and how researchers can support them during the co-design process.
Computationally Augmenting Traditional Embroidery Practices: an Autobiographical Design Process with First-Person Patient Experience for Amblyopia Follow Up Treatment Activity
Amblyopia is a common neurodevelopmental condition affecting people's vision and quality of life. Follow up treatment plays an essential role in improving amblyopia, and experts have proposed embroidery as a potential activity many times. The low compliance of amblyopia patients is one of the impediments. However, there are currently no targeted embroidery activities designed for patients. Designing embroidery activities to meet the needs of amblyopia patients in human-computer interaction and increasing patient compliance has become a design challenge in the current research field. In this research, we present an autobiographical design process to explore the augmentation of traditional embroidery activities with computationally generated patterns based on the stitching preferences of the user. We propose two design considerations for future research: Design with technology to assist traditional handcrafting and personalized design for long-term follow-up treatment through lived experience.
Body Maps: A Generative Tool for Soma-based Design
Body maps are visual documents, where somatic experiences can be drawn onto a graphical representation of an outline of the human body. They hold the ability to capture complex and non-explicit emotions and somatic felt sensations, elaborating narratives that cannot be simply spoken. We present an illustrative example of “how-to” complete a body map, together with four case studies that provide examples of using body maps in design research. We identify five uses of body maps as generative tools for soma-based design, ranging from sampling bodily experience, heightening bodily self-awareness, understanding changing bodily experience over time, identifying patterns of bodily experience, and transferring somatic experiential qualities into physical designs. The different requirements for scaffolding the use of body maps in user-centred design versus first-person autobiographical design research are discussed. We provide this pictorial as a resource for designers and researchers who wish to integrate body maps into their practice.
Breathing Scarf: Using a First-Person Research Method to Design a Wearable for Emotional Regulation
The cognitive complexities of emotions and individualized coping strategies make it a difficult space for design. Collecting first-person data can provide nuanced understanding of the lived experience of emotional life, to better inform the design of wearable technologies for emotional self-regulation. We present a preliminary study of our first-person phenomenological approach to autobiographical design. The methodology is unique for the intertwining of emotional activities and mindfulness exercises, as a strategy for controlling emotional repercussions. Self-observation and documentation included journaling and sketching using the Inside-Out Probe workbook, followed by material prototyping and testing in-the-wild. The Breathing Scarf prototype embodies the design considerations. In designing for one to support personalized self-regulation strategies, key considerations include designing for personal comfort, ownership, and individual-over-social meaning-making. Of equal importance in the design research process are the well-being of the designer/researcher, the ability to self-regulate emotions, and the ethics of care and emotion work.
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Co-designing a Technology Probe with Experienced Designers
Technology probes are low-fidelity devices that can be used to understand research participants’ lived experiences, but they are not usually subject to iterative design. There are opportunities in human-computer interaction to develop technology probes through co-design, by including diverse perspectives during probe development. To explore this opportunity, five design researchers with different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds engaged with a technology probe to support daily reflections, discussed new directions in a co-design workshop and developed narratives to negotiate possibilities of the probe. This paper presents observations described by each of the researchers using the probe, and insights from the process we followed. We discuss how the designers’ postitionalities are reflected in the processes, and how they brought value by shaping narratives of the different roles a technology probe might take. We also discuss how we may use co-design of technology probes as a generative method, highlight the importance of open-endedness in the process, and reflect on lessons learned.
A Comparison Design Study of Feedback Modalities to Support Deep Breathing Whilst Performing Work Tasks
An established way for people to learn coping strategies to deal with everyday stress is mindfulness meditation. Current technologies that incorporate the teachings of mindfulness meditation often use realtime, corrective feedback models to help people understand when they are in a mindfulness state. Interactive soundscapes modulated by electroencephalogram (EEG) data offer promising opportunities to support attentional focus and meta-awareness during meditation. However, existing research often relies on quantitative survey data and ignores collecting first-person perspectives of the moment-by-moment, lived experience during the practice. The thesis explores the following research questions: • What descriptive models of first-person experience of sitting and walking meditation are useful for technology design? • How can interactive soundscapes using EEG data foster a quality of experience that supports attentional focus and meta-awareness? • What design guidelines are useful to design interactive soundscapes that effectively support the practice of mindfulness in sitting and walking meditation? Following a somatic experience design research process, two case studies explored the design of prototype technologies for a sitting breathing exercise and a slow walking exercise for mindfulness meditation. The interactive prototypes apply a strategy of gently guiding and supporting the user’s in-the-moment experience of practising meditation through a repetitive rhythmic soundscape that responds to the user’s brainwave activity collected from the Muse EEG Headset.
Understanding the First Person Experience of Walking Mindfulness Meditation Facilitated by EEG Modulated Interactive Soundscape
Walking meditation is a form of mindfulness training, where the act of walking provides a rhythmic meter for attentional focus. Whilst digital technologies to support sitting meditation and walking practices exist, less explored is the first person in-the-moment experience of technology-mediated walking meditation. We present a study of group walking meditation, with and without an interactive rhythmic soundscape modulated by one practitioner’s brainwave data. Six workshops were conducted with novice and advanced practitioners, involving a guided walking meditation with body scan, writing and drawing exercises and a group interview. The analysis yielded themes of shifting state, attention, self-regulation strategy, and immersion and reflection, and insights into how practitioners use sound to synchronize both walking and breathing. We contribute a method for eliciting, and a novel description of, the first person experience of walking meditation, as resources for the design of interactive technologies to support mindfulness practices of walking meditation.
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Understanding and Designing for the First-Person Experience of Walking and Sitting Mindfulness Meditation Facilitated by EEG Modulated Interactive Soundscapes
An established way for people to learn coping strategies to deal with everyday stress is mindfulness meditation. Current technologies that incorporate the teachings of mindfulness meditation often use realtime, corrective feedback models to help people understand when they are in a mindfulness state. Interactive soundscapes modulated by electroencephalogram (EEG) data offer promising opportunities to support attentional focus and meta-awareness during meditation. However, existing research often relies on quantitative survey data and ignores collecting first-person perspectives of the moment-by-moment, lived experience during the practice. The thesis explores the following research questions: • What descriptive models of first-person experience of sitting and walking meditation are useful for technology design? • How can interactive soundscapes using EEG data foster a quality of experience that supports attentional focus and meta-awareness? • What design guidelines are useful to design interactive soundscapes that effectively support the practice of mindfulness in sitting and walking meditation? Following a somatic experience design research process, two case studies explored the design of prototype technologies for a sitting breathing exercise and a slow walking exercise for mindfulness meditation. The interactive prototypes apply a strategy of gently guiding and supporting the user’s in-the-moment experience of practising meditation through a repetitive rhythmic soundscape that responds to the user’s brainwave activity collected from the Muse EEG Headset. The sitting meditation prototype was developed using iterative design method with 20 participants and concluded with a month-long study where 6 participants practiced meditation at home. The walking meditation case study consisted of 6 workshops to iteratively design the experience with 6 to 10 participants in each workshop. Key contributions from the research include two design case studies and interactive soundscape prototypes to support sitting and walking meditation, a descriptive model for sitting and walking meditation, design guidelines for interactive soundscapes to support mindfulness meditation, and a research toolkit for collecting first-person data of mind-body-based lived experiences.
Mediscape: Preliminary Design Guidelines for Interactive Rhythmic Soundscapes for Entraining Novice Mindfulness Meditators
Mindfulness meditation is a beneficial approach to managing stress; however, establishing a practice can be difficult for novice meditators. Interactive soundscapes using brainwave data offer new avenues, yet how to design such novel interfaces is underexplored. We present Mediscape, an interactive ocean soundscape modulated by brainwave data to teach awareness of breathing to novices. Through an exploratory study with 20 participants, we collected interview and questionnaire data on their experience with Mediscape and impact on their stress and wellbeing. Findings revealed the complex nature of the meditation experience for novices, analysed as key themes of shifting state, attention, self-regulation strategy, and immersion. Preliminary design guidelines are proposed to assist designers in creating interactive soundscapes for breath-awareness meditation, through consideration of how sound can be used for rhythmic entrainment of breathing, information on the state of meditation, and the creation of immersive environments.
An Interactive Soundscape to Assist Group Walking Mindfulness Meditation
Developing interactive soundscapes for walking meditation has the potential to bring new opportunities of research in human-computer interaction and design. In this paper, we present our case study Sound of Mind, an interactive ambient soundscape that is transformed by one of the participant’s brainwave data in a group walking meditation practice.
Sounds of Infinity: Playful Illusions with Performative Interaction
Sounds of Infinity is an interactive, low-resolution lighting display that portrays a magnified variation of the infinity mirror. Developed for an outdoor light and music festival, the installation provides a retro-futuristic experience for audiences and explores how playful interactions might impact the behaviour of people in public spaces. Using multiple layers of LED lights, the concept enhances the infinity mirror illusion with a variety of audio-to-visual effects to create a tunnel of interactive light visuals. Due to its intuitive design with sound input, Sounds of Infinity also allows for open exploration of the body to produce sound through voice and movements. It illustrates the timeless quality of light and sound to promote social harmony, connecting and engaging people in collaborative, fun and expressive play.
Reconnecting the Body and the Mind: Technology to Support Mindfulness for Stress
Mindfulness meditation has the potential to help practitioners cope with their stress. Currently, projects often use corrective feedback models to help people understand when they are out of a mindfulness state. My dissertation uses research by design to build a technology intervention for mindfulness meditation that adopts a strategy of gently guiding and supporting the user's in-the-moment experience of practising meditation through a natural soundscape that responds to the user's brainwave activity collected from the Muse EEG Headset.
Sounds in the Moment: Designing an Interactive EEG Nature Soundscape for Novice Mindfulness Meditators
With the rise of mindfulness in contemporary western society as a positive way to cope with stress and improve health and wellbeing, researchers are investigating the application of interactive soundscapes to enrich and support the experience of mindfulness meditation. Instead of using commonly applied corrective feedback models, containing sounds with negative connotations, our interaction concept adopted a strategy of gently guiding and supporting the user's in-the-moment experience of practising meditation through a nature soundscape responsive to their brainwave activity recorded with a Muse EEG headset. In this paper we describe the detailed design of our prototype. We explain how we refined the interaction concept, and discuss some of the key design decisions and modifications that took place during an iterative design process, informed by user evaluations with novice meditators.
From Information to Reflection-Design Strategies for Personal Informatics
Personal informatics systems, particularly activity trackers, often provide quantified feedback on movement and physical activities. However, current design solutions fail to provide opportunities for reflection on collected data and do not cultivate a holistic picture of one's health. Through literature research we found four actionable design strategies to address reflective design in personal informatics. A review of thirteen commercial activity trackers highlighted that visualization and enabling data sharing on social networks are the most common strategies used to elicit reflection in current products whereas other strategies such as effective playback of data or including journaling features are largely ignored. We conclude that the current industry trends do not adequately address reflective design and do not appreciate the growing interest amongst users in learning about health.
Visualizing the Meditating Mind: The Aesthetics of Brainwave Data
Meditation is an ancient Eastern practice, which is receiving renewed popularity as a secular approach to health and well-being. Recent advances in commercial EEG sensor technology provide opportunities for visualising biological brainwave data by artists and designers, outside the fields of neuroscience and psychiatry. We chart the creative development of an aesthetic visualisation, Narcissus Brainwave that aims to provide insight into the shifting states of mind during the practice of meditation, informed by a series of user studies with meditators and non-meditators. Interestingly, assumptions we made from the interpretation of brainwave sensor data about when a meditative state was achieved did not always resonate with how meditators understood the quality of their inner meditation experience. This may be due in part to the limitations of a single electrode EEG device. Issues also arose related to personal preferences and cultural conventions for interpreting the meaning of the Buddhist-inspired visual symbols representing our model of meditation. Our study has revealed some of the challenges of visualising the meditating mind and creating meaningful aesthetic visualisations with commercial devices.
EEG and Sonic Platforms to Enhance Mindfulness Meditation
This paper explores interactive applications that encourage mindfulness through sensors and novel input technology. Research in psychology and neuroscience demonstrating the benefits of mindfulness is initiating a new movement in interactive design. As cutting edge technologies become more accessible they are being employed to research and explore the practice of mindfulness. We examine three interactive installation artworks that promote mindfulness. In order to contextualize the interactive artworks discussed we first examine the historical background of the Electroencephalogram (EEG). We then discuss the physiological processes of meditation and the history behind the clinical practice of mindfulness. We show how artists and designers employ EEG sensors, to record the electrical activity of the brain to visualize mindfulness meditation practices. Lastly, we conclude the paper by discussing the future of the three artworks.
Not all Feedback Modalities are Created Equal: Designing Mindful Artifacts to Decrease Stress and Increase Focus
Mindful breathing exercises have been proven to reduce stress and increase focus. While technologies are increasingly being used to support mindfulness practices, there has been little research that has evaluated how different modalities can affect everyday awareness. I utilized a research through design methodology to develop three different artifacts that use different feedback modalities to alert participants when their breathing pattern shifts from optimal diaphragm breathing to chest breathing. Using a mixed-methods study, I analyzed how different feedback modalities influence diaphragm breathing, and the corresponding impact on stress reduction, focus and productivity for students in everyday work activities. My findings show that when participants were able to achieve optimal diaphragm breathing patterns their stress decreased and their focus increased, especially if they participated in a regular body-based practice. I utilized my results to evaluate the five design guidelines that were applied in the development of the three different artifacts.
Hacking Alternatives in 21st Century: Designing a Bio-Responsive Virtual Environment for Stress Reduction
In this paper we present the initial exploratory design of SOLAR, an immersive virtual environment (VE) that assists novice users to learn the stress reducing practice of mindfulness meditation. The VE is generated by the user’s brain activity and respiratory rate. In addition, we provide an overview of previous work, outlining the elements we find effective and the gaps for each presented design. This is followed by a description of the design principles. Finally, we present the participatory design, design evaluation and iteration, followed by possible applications for the final design and future steps.
Moment by Moment: Creating Movement Sketches with Camera Stillframes
While mobile authoring applications are proliferating, choreographic tools that support the generation and transformation of user-created movement `samples' are less readily available. iDanceForms is a novel mobile choreographic application that generates unique movement choices through a camera stillframing technique to provoke movement catalysts. In keeping with the principles of whole body interaction (and principles of `defamiliarization'), the design of iDanceForms supports opportunities for surprise, unexpected movement choices and meaning-making. This paper presents data collected from an observational study of choreographers using iDanceForms. In the study we found that choreographers appropriated the intended functionality of iDanceForms to create highly individualized and unexpected movement sequences. They found inspiration in exploring unexpected framing of form and content, which resulted in creative explorations that produced unique movement possibilities provided by the system. Drawing from our observations we discuss possible roles that sensor-enabled mobile devices could play in movement generation through personal meaning-making, creative choreographic strategies and discovery, and in provoking whole body interaction through principles of `defamiliarization' in the context of HCI.
Developing Design Considerations for Mobile and Wearable Technology m-Health Applications that Can Support Recovery in Mental Health Disorders
In this paper we explore the benefits of incorporating m-Health technology into the occupational therapists' established recovery processes. Treating mental disorders has become a client-oriented, goal-setting practice in which therapists work with their clients to set, monitor and support goals that reinforce client self-monitoring and self-assessment in combination with recovery-based therapeutic techniques. While m-Health technologies are beginning to help shape the therapist-client recovery process, little research has been done to develop explicit design considerations for such technologies, particularly in the area of mental health. Our contribution to m-Health research is the articulation of technology design consideration for both design process and design principles. Based on semi-structured interview data gathered from six occupational therapists, we sought to understand where the gaps lay in therapist-client interaction and communication, particularly in the everyday activities of the client that exist outside of a therapy session. This data helped us to understand opportunities for technological support for recovery. Our data helped us to discover and outline the challenges occupational therapists experience when supporting their clients with mental disorders through the recovery process. Our analysis of therapist-client design opportunities can provide insight to assist with the development of more effective m-Health technologies for people with mental disorders.
Simply Spinning: Extending Current Design Frameworks for Kinesthetic Empathy
We describe design considerations in Serpentine Dance, Refocused (SDR), an interactive movement installation that pays homage to Loïe Fuller's mesmerizing creations of light and motion. Our design goals were inspired by kinesthetic empathy research. Fuller created the Serpentine Dance (1891) at a time when many artists turned to abstraction as a way for audiences to engage with the essence of motion rather than narrative plots. We sought to heighten the feeling of kinesthetic empathy through creating an interactive environment where audience members could physically engage and reflect on the sensation of spinning, a prominent action in the Serpentine Dance. Through our analysis of SDR we found that our design intentions relating to kinesthetic empathy were not addressed by current design frameworks for kinesthetic interactions. Based on kinesthetic empathy research, we restructure and extend these frameworks into an evaluative and generative framework for interactive systems. We propose that kinesthetic empathy is the center of all movement interactions. This broader definition of kinesthetic empathy can be used to evaluate and generate a wide variety of movement interactions. We discuss the design of SDR through the lens of our evaluative framework.