Chronic stress is widespread, yet digital stress-management tools can paradoxically worsen it through screen fatigue and technology-induced anxiety. This study explores a low-tech, non-digital alternative. We conducted ceramic-making workshops with 20 participants experiencing stress, who crafted WarmStones, personalized handheld ceramic objects for haptic comfort and self-soothing. After four weeks of daily use, we conducted artifact analysis and interviews, revealing a design space of shapes, textures, and interaction patterns that support stress regulation. We discuss how everyday ceramic objects can become tactile comfort tools, and offer design implications for texture-rich, personalized objects that foster moment-to-moment calm.

Chronic stress and anxiety severely affect breast cancer survivors’ (BCSs) mental health and well-being. Peer support has been shown to enhance psychological empowerment, while biofeedback offers a promising approach to improve physiological relaxation through self-regulation. However, few studies explored combining both for BCSs. We conducted a formative study with clinicians and BCSs to identify requirements and preferences for VR biofeedback. Informed by the findings, we proposed a VR-based dyadic biofeedback system, Cobreath, which integrates breathing and heart rate variability (HRV) feedback into a calming virtual environment, allowing two users to practice breathing-focused relaxation simultaneously. Through a clinical user study with ten clinicians and a between-subjects study with 32 BCSs, we demonstrated that Cobreath’s dyadic mode improved biofeedback effectiveness and provided a better user experience compared to the individual mode. We further discuss insights and design considerations for developing dyadic VR-biofeedback applications to support the mental well-being of BCSs and potential applications.

To overcome the lack of deep personalization in standard biofeedback methods, we introduce ASafePlace, a system utilizing an AI-powered, art-therapy-inspired exercise called The Safe Place, to create a personalized VR biofeedback experience. In our system, users sketch a personal sanctuary from memory, which is then transformed into a customized 360° virtual environment with personalized audio guidance for relaxation training. A study with 52 participants showed this approach effectively reduced anxiety and increased user presence, while the integration of art-therapy-inspired activity and biofeedback produced strong improvements in physiological relaxation, measured by heart rate variability and respiration rate. Qualitative results showed how participants’ sense of familiarity and presence was enhanced by the symbolic elements and natural sanctuaries created from their autobiographical memories. Our findings demonstrate that art-therapy-inspired activity is a powerful tool for creating highly effective and individualized relaxation experiences, naturally connecting the virtual environment to a user’s core memories and emotions.

Zoos play a crucial role in public education and wildlife engagement, yet traditional visits often lack interactive elements that foster meaningful connections between visitors and animals. In this paper, we introduce ZooWear, a head-mounted wearable featuring cartoon-style animal ears that provides haptic feedback patterns simulating an animal’s reactions to other species in the food chain. With ZooWear, we focused on examining its effectiveness in affording perspective-taking during human-animal encounters, promoting embodied knowledge retention, and enriching the zoo experiences. We first conducted a between-subject experiment in lab-based virtual zoo visits to evaluate its effectiveness in creating effective learning experiences and enhancing connections to wildlife. This was followed by a real-world zoo experiment, which showed that ZooWear promoted nature connectedness and enabled more emotionally and socially engaging experiences. Our findings highlight the potential of integrating perspective-taking into zoo experiences through animal-inspired wearables, embodied sensory feedback, and narrative-driven experiences.

College students are known to face many stressors, making them one of the most vulnerable groups to mental disorders. To tackle such an issue, this paper presents a design study that investigated data-enabled analogue journaling (DEAJ) to help college students improve their mental wellness through paper-based self-reflection aided by automatic self-tracking. Specifically, based on several design iterations we developed a DEAJ tool, called EmoVis, which could generate a printed visualisation based on daily physiological data and event tags to support doodling or structured writing in analogue journaling for everyday stress management. We conducted a six-day mixed methods field study with 32 college students to evaluate the effectiveness and user experience of EmoVis. Results suggested that EmoVis can significantly improve the engagement and need for self-reflection due to context-based reflection and data-enabled exploratory journaling. Furthermore, the doodling canvas was experienced as a joyful tool for mindfulness and creative DEAJ, while reflecting with a writing template was perceived as efficient. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of DEAJ approaches for daily stress coping in students’ college life.

Running is a highly popular form of exercise, while incorrect running posture over an extended period can lead to severe knee injuries. Smart textiles have recently demonstrated significant potential for continuous motion monitoring. This study involved the design and development of a smart legging with a resistive textile sensor network to monitor lower body motion. The study consists of three main parts. Firstly, we tested textile sensors in terms of linearity and robustness to determine the basic sensor unit that can monitor the characteristics of running postures. Next, optimal sensor placement was determined through comparison experiments, and a sensor network was proposed. Finally, based on the LSTM model with data gathered from 6 participants, we developed the smart legging system that is capable of identifying three types of improper running postures and normal postures with 99.1% accuracy. The evaluation revealed that the smart legging system had the potential to help users adjust their running postures to prevent knee injury through continuous monitoring and multi-modal feedback.

In both remote and physical work environments, it is commonplace for help-seeking messages to be rejected by other colleagues. This paper investigates how signifying co-workers’ stress status would influence the social diction and empathy of help-seekers in the context of rejection. 36 participants were recruited to perform help-seeking tasks with virtual co-workers via a professional mobile messaging application (Trillian). Their device was tailored with a vibrotactile mechanism (TacStatus), which could signify different emotional states of the co-workers: no-cue, relaxed, normal, and stressful. Independent sample Friedman nonparametric tests were conducted to analyze the social diction and empathy of the participants in their messages for help-seeking and responses to the co-workers’ rejection. This study revealed that stress cues have observable impacts on the social diction and empathy of help-seekers. Stressful and relaxed cues were found to evidently shape the social diction of help-seekers. When faced with a relaxed co-worker, the help-seeker felt disappointed and unaccepted after being rejected. By contrast, when confronted with a stressful cue, help-seekers tended to exhibit relatively more positive emotions after been rejected. This study attempts to reveal the mechanism through which stress cues influence professional messaging interactions and collaboration. The findings could provide implications for the design of socio-emotional cues in the context of messaging.

Slow breathing guiding applications increasingly emerge, showing promise for helping knowledge workers to better cope with workaday stress. However, standard breathing guidance is non-interactive, with rigid paces. Despite their effects being proved, they could cause respiratory fatigue, or lack of training motivation, especially for novice users. To explore new design possibilities, we investigate using heart rate variability (HRV) data to mediate breathing guidance, which results in two HRV-enhanced guidance modes: (i) responsive breathing guidance and (ii) adaptive breathing guidance. These guidance modes are implemented on a soft haptic interface named “ViBreathe”. We conducted a user test (N = 24), and a one-week field deployment (N = 4) with knowledge workers, to understand the user experience of our design. The HRV-enhanced modes were generally experienced to reduce tiresome and improve engagement and comfort. And Vibreathe showed great potential for seamlessly weaving slow breathing practice into work routines. We thereby summarize related design insights and opportunities.

This research was motivated by a desire to help office workers change their sedentary behavior because a prolonged sedentary posture increases the risks of developing musculoskeletal injuries and chronic diseases, thus threatening their physical and psychological well-being. Regular breaks involving low-effort physical activities are effective in reducing the adverse impacts of inactive behaviors. In this article, we present the design of a posture-based interactive system called HealthSit, which was developed to promote a short lower-back stretching exercise during work breaks. Through a within-subject study involving 30 office workers, the effectiveness of HealthSit in facilitating the stretching exercise was examined by making comparisons between an interaction-aided, a guided, and a self-directed exercise mode. We also used HealthSit as a research probe to investigate the interactivity of the system in enhancing user experience and the psychological benefits of the fitness breaks. Compared with the other two modes, the interaction-aided exercise mode significantly improved the quality of the stretching exercise and enhanced motivation and emotional state. These results confirm the effectiveness of HealthSit in supporting fitness breaks as a new workplace technology. Based on our study, a set of design implications have been derived for technology-assisted fitness work breaks.

This paper presents BioFidget, a biofeedback system that integrates physiological sensing and display into a smart fidget spinner for respiration training. We present a simple yet novel hardware design that transforms a fidget spinner into 1) a nonintrusive heart rate variability (HRV) sensor, 2) an electromechanical respiration sensor, and 3) an information display. The combination of these features enables users to engage in respiration training through designed tangible and embodied interactions, without requiring them to wear additional physiological sensors. The results of this empirical user study prove that the respiration training method reduces stress, and the proposed system meets the requirements of sensing validity and engagement with 32 participants in a practical setting.

Unwind is a musical biofeedback interface which combines nature sounds and sedative music into a form of New-Age music for relaxation exercises. The nature sounds respond to the user’s physiological data, functioning as an informative layer for biofeedback display. The sedative music aims to induce calmness and evoke positive emotions. UnWind incorporates the benefits of biofeedback and sedative music to facilitate deep breathing, moderate arousal, and promote mental relaxation. We evaluated Unwind in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with music and biofeedback as independent factors. Forty young adults performed the relaxation exercise under one of the following conditions after experiencing a stressful task: Nature sounds only (NS), Nature sounds with music (NM), and Auditory biofeedback with nature sounds (NSBFB), and UnWind musical biofeedback (NMBFB). The results revealed a significant interaction effect between music and biofeedback on the improvement of heart rate variability. The combination of music and nature sounds also showed benefits in lowering arousal and reducing self-report anxiety. We conclude with a discussion of UnWind for biofeedback and the wider potential of blending nature sounds with music as a musical interface.

This paper presents a field study on using peer-based cooperative fitness tracking (PCFT) to promote workplace fitness. The social bonding achieved through a collective fitness goal and the sharing of fitness data between two co-workers has been explored as a motivational factor that can encourage physical activity. The study involved 10 dyads of co-workers in two groups (a distributed vs. a co-located group) based on their proximity at work. The effectiveness of the proposed PCFT was examined by comparing fitness data over a period of three weeks: the baseline week, the PCFT intervention week, and the post-intervention week. The proximity effects on PCFT were investigated by comparing the fitness data, goal commitment, and interview results between the two groups. The quantitative results showed that the physical activity of participants in the co-located group improved significantly after the PCFT intervention. The qualitative results suggested that PCFT may improve the awareness of being physically active, stimulate exchange of knowledge to support active lifestyles and facilitate including fitness breaks in the daily work routine. Based on these findings, we discuss design implications for the future development of the PCFT-based applications and their potential contribution to increased office vitality.

Light is a common ambient medium to express additional information in a peripheral and calm way, but it is also an environmental stimulant to create atmosphere, evoke moods, and provide immersive experiences. Through the design of the DeLight system, we aim to establish a biofeedback-driven lighting environment that informs users about their stress level for intervention and assists them in biofeedback relaxation training. In this study, DeLight is interfaced with a heart rate variability biofeedback system with two modes for different purposes: stress intervention and relaxation assistance. We evaluated the prototype of DeLight in two user studies. The results of the first study show that DeLight has the potential for stress intervention; the HRV biofeedback through the changes of ambient light could improve a user’s awareness of stress and trigger behavioral conditioning, such as deep breathing. The results of the second study confirm that DeLight has potential as a new biofeedback interface for relaxation assistance; biofeedback through an immersive lighting environment can support physiological regulation as effectively as graphic biofeedback; it offers enhanced relaxation effects regarding both subjective experience and physiological arousal. These findings suggest that the biofeedback-driven ambient light can perform as persuasive technology in the domain of health self-management. The combination of decorative and informative aspects enables the lighting interface to offer the users a comfortable and relaxing condition for biofeedback-assisted relaxation training.

In today;s highly competitive environment, chronic stress is one of the main reasons for a health problem. To address this, biofeedback techniques have been used to assist in relaxation training and stress management. In this paper, we present "StressTree," a metaphorical visualization of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback system. StressTree aims to present HRV data in a more evocative, meaningful way in the context of stress management. The HRV biofeedback system consists of a heartbeat data acquisition unit, a data analysis unit, and a visualization unit. The feedback from interviews in the evaluation shows that StressTree could display different growth pattern during a stressful work or a relaxation training. The participants suggested that the biofeedback interaction through StressTree is explicit and engaging, and brings them a strong motivation to regulate their breathing pattern for a "healthy-looking" tree.

Calm technology has been stressed in designing the interaction with information, especially in ubiquitous computing, peripheral interaction and ambient display. Inspired by the research on calm technology and model-based sonification, we aim to build a model of nature soundscape for supporting calm information display. A three-layer structure is proposed for construction of the nature soundscape. The structure includes seven acoustic parameters. By setting each of seven acoustic parameters into three levels, seven groups of soundscape samples were created and evaluated in an experiment with 20 participants. Each participant was exposed to 21 soundscape samples to assess each sample regarding seven perceptual attributes through a rating scale. Based on the results, a perceptual model is proposed to link the acoustic parameters of individual nature sounds and the perceptual attributes of the nature soundscape. The developed model offers the designers and practitioners a new tool to utilize nature sounds in the design of the auditory display which could support the calm technology.

Heart Calligraphy is a biofeedback installation that creates abstract portraits of participants with their heartbeat data using a pen plotter. The real-time heart rate is mapped to the basic parameters of the pen's behaviors, namely speed, position, pressure and pen-down time. Due to the natural variability in heart rate, every portrait becomes personal and unique graphic, which reflects the natural biorhythm inside human body. The installation explores the role of the body as a channel through which physiology manifests itself in a form of beauty.

In this paper we describe the concept, design and implementation of LivingSurface, an interactive wall-like surface as a shape-changing display of biofeedback. The surface changes its shape responding to an individual's physiological data, reflecting the internal bodily processes. The surface design basically consists of two layers: the pattern layer (front layer) and the actuating layer (back layer). The first is a complex paper-based structure with repetitive incisions created by laser cutting. The actuating layer serves as a medium transforming the force from servomotors, vibration motors or fans into an action on the pattern layer. The cutout patterns are stimulated to vibrate, swing, bulge, or rotate which is used to display physiological information in dynamic physical form. This work has been exhibited on Milan Design Week 2015; we collected and analyzed the feedback from the visitors during the exhibition and discuss the possibilities of the proposed surfaces as a shape-changing interface of biofeedback or an ambient display of information.