Mindfulness Feedback Interface(MFI) Design

Abstract

In stressful and competitive modern life people eagerly seek for ways to reduce stress enhance their self-awareness and pursuit of health and happiness “Mindfulness training” as one of promising solutions for stress management and clinical treatment mindfulness exercises are now increasing important and becoming the focus of research and development for this end With the end to enhance the learning effect of mindfulness training in portable device this research collaborated with clinical psychologists of mindfulness training to develop a feedback system which provides a timely and accurate learning feedback that help users of self-learning of smartphones and wearable devices Based on the literature review we found that the effect of mindfulness training could be reflected in the changes of user's physiological and psychological state Besides with the development of smartphones and wearable devices users nowadays are ready for a professional health management device portable at any time and everywhere in order to track their mindfulness training in the daily life To this end this research aims to develop the Mindfulness training feedback system (Aka Mindfulness Feedback Interface MFI) on smartphones to help users better self-training and self-regulation with immediate and useful feedback then better improve the mindfulness training effect The functionalities of MFI system include Mindfulness training biological (EEG and HRV) and psychological (Self-report and questionnaire) feedback training tracking and medical advices Based literature review we design and develop first prototype (MFI 1 0) with which we gathered suggestions from experts in relevant fields (mindfulness training experts biofeedback technology developers application developer and interface designers) Based on their suggestions we developed an upgraded 2nd prototype (MFI 2 0) which can be tested on a smartphone We invited six users to test this prototype for ensuring the usability desirability and feasibility of the system and design issues for better future development The development of MFI in this research has several contributions as follows First MFI proposed a comprehensive model for a mindfulness training feedback system that includes biological and psychological feedback operate in a smartphone and assist the user do the mindfulness training in their daily life Second the proposed MFI provides an interactive management system that allows researchers to develop and modify mindfulness courses and to track the user's training effectiveness Third we benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration with experts from clinical psychology biofeedback technology and interface design that contribute a comprehensive system design Finally we conclude a better model of mindfulness training feedback system with user experience from user testing of usability desirability and feasibility of the system

Date of Award	2017 Aug 2
Original language	English
Supervisor	Shyh-Nan Liou (Supervisor)