What is a Mindful Technology?

Listening to music? Meditating? Both.

Research labs and industry have started look at technologies to help mediate the stimuli competing for our attention and causing stress in our lives [Moraveji]. With the world of social media, mobile phones, we are continuously bombarded by technologies that we need to process, but our brains may not be wired to handle it [Carr].

Even in the industrial era, Nietzsche noticed “[...] our writing takes part in the forming of our thoughts”. He elaborated that he wrote more forcefully when he used his typewriter. Persuasive technologies offer an explanation as to how technologies shape people, behavior and environment [Fogg]. Many in persuasive technology use techniques from behavioral science and psychology to help individuals achieve goals, e.g. taking the stairs instead of the elevator [Rogers]. Human-Computer Interaction studies technology usage usually by observing changes in behavior, efficiency, productivity and attention, but does not often look at attitudinal or intentional change. The Quantified Self movement is looking at how to create tools to gain knowledge through self-tracking, oftentimes leading to self-reflection. I am proposing we begin to look at a new class of technologies that lie in each of these fields. Mindful technologies focus on engagement with one’s mental and emotional state as a medium for behavior change and well-being . This focus on technology-mediated reflection is contrasted by many health technologies that are reactive in nature: technologies that prescribe behavior change.

An inspiration for this area comes from the field of Mindfulness. This developing scientific process has dramatic effects on an individual’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being [Grossman]. In fact, researchers experimentally compared mindfulness based therapy against morphine injection and found patients perceived 40%  less pain with the mindfulness-based approach. With roots in Buddhist mindfulness meditation, mindfulness practices can take any number of forms (e.g. breathing, yoga, walking). Different schools of mindfulness have different definitions, a common definition is: the development of an awareness of awareness and paying attention on intention with an open, non-judgmental attitude [Shapiro].

We are beginning to see technologies that encourage practices of mindfulness such as DayTender and Three Good Things. These mindful technologies guide users to focus on their current intentionality and enable non-judgmental self-reflection of their accomplishments and feelings. The underlying design principles are similar to those from mindfulness, in order to create lasting positive effects on health and well-being. These systems do not persuade a user to accomplish system-created goals, but are open to self-reflection on behaviors, accomplishments, and intentions.

I want to present heuristics to begin a dialogue on the evaluation of mindful technologies:

Engaging: How does this system shift an individual’s attention to focus on their present behavior and activity? Mindfulness based meditations present many mediums to focus on oneself through breathing, walking or yoga that engage one in a physical focus. Another fruitful avenue is the design of video games that present many heuristics in scaffolding learning and presenting challenges that may be a model for how to create engaging systems.
Purposeful: How does this system help an individual focus or better define on their own intentions? Researchers have seen a difference in the decision making process of mindfulness practitioners, resulting in behaviors that oftentimes make them happier and healthier than non practitioners. Can we change the stated purpose of an activity and expect to see behavior or intentional change? Eric Hekler and I have a submission at Medicine 2.0 2011 that looks at the issue of designing frames of reference for physically active video games.
Self-reflective: How does this system feedback non-judgmental information or feedback to guide an individual? Informatics systems such as Last.fm or pedometers allow drill-down into song playback behaviors. these tools raise awareness of behaviors and feedback the data in interesting ways as opposed to presenting goals for what someone should do. Sean Munson has a great discussion on self-reflective interfaces in mindful technologies.

The idea behind this transparent research blog is to present early form ideas and to listen to the community of mindfulness experts and designers for sticky ideas and help shape this field.

References
Moraveji, et al. Calming Technology. Web, 2010. CHI 2011.
Carr. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. 2010
Fogg, et al. Persuasive Technology. 2002.
Grossman, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits. A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, July 2004.
Rogers, et al. Ambient Influence: Can Twinkly Lights Lure and Abstract Representations Trigger Behavioral Change?. Ubicomp 2010.
Shapiro, et al. Mechanisms of Mindfulness. Journal of Clinical Psychology.