Everyone spends some time waiting every day. HCI research has developed tools for boosting productivity while waiting. However, little is known about how people naturally spend their waiting time. We conducted an experience sampling study with 21 working adults who used a mobile app to report their daily waiting time activities over two weeks. The aim of this study is to understand the activities people do while waiting and the effect of situational factors. We found that participants spent about 60% of their waiting time on leisure activities, 20% on productive activities, and 20% on maintenance activities. These choices are sensitive to situational factors, including accessible device, location, and certain routines of the day. Our study complements previous ones by demonstrating that people purpose waiting time for various goals beyond productivity and to maintain work-life balance. Our findings shed light on future empirical research and system design for time management.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642608
We design and evaluate Mindful Scroll, a mobile application for mindfulness that encourages a slow and deliberate approach to colouring. The app renders an infinite scroll of generated geometric tilings that reveal pseudo-random colour palettes and fill effects when coloured using a finger or pen. A five-day study (N=28) evaluated the efficacy of the app in reducing anxiety and enhancing mindfulness. The results indicate that the app is capable of promoting a greater sense of mindfulness over time and produced similar results across several measures compared to traditional structured colouring and existing mindfulness-based mobile applications. All participants expressed a desire to use the app again, with a majority stating they felt more mindful after the study.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642729
Sticking to daily plans is essential for achieving life goals but challenging in reality. This study presents a self-voice alarm as a novel daily goal reminder. Based on the strong literature on the psychological effects of self-voice, we developed a voice alarm system that reminds users of daily tasks to support their consistent task completion. Over the course of 14 days, participants (N = 63) were asked to complete daily vocabulary tasks when reminded by an alarm (i.e., self-voice vs. other-voice vs. beep sound alarm). The self-voice alarm elicited higher alertness and uncomfortable feelings while fostering more days of task completion and repetition compared to the beep sound alarm. Both self-voice and other-voice alarms increased users’ perceived usefulness of the alarm system. Leveraging both quantitative and qualitative approaches, we provide a practical guideline for designing voice alarm systems that will foster users’ behavioral changes to achieve daily goals.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641932
The need for frequent and brief practice in deep breathing presents challenges in maintaining motivation and consistency. While persuasive technologies have been shown to improve engagement in therapeutic exercises, there is a lack of insight into specific motivational strategies for such intermittent activities. We investigate how idle games can incentivize behaviors like deep breathing and identify specific mechanics for fostering an optimal practice cycle. We illustrate this approach in a game called \textit{BreathPurr-suade}. After validating the physiological efficacy of the embedded breathing guide, our four-week study revealed idle games are more effective in maintaining deep breathing adherence than a standard breathing guide. Our work highlights the capacity of idle games to foster deep breathing, revealing their efficacy in subtle persuasive game designs that encourage intermittent therapeutic practices.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642430
Gamification and virtual reality (VR) are increasingly being explored for their potential to enhance mindful practices and well-being. We further explore the potential of gamification and VR for breath awareness and mindfulness, and contribute Stairway to Heaven, a VR artifact that combines gamification with respiratory sensor biofeedback to cultivate mindful awareness of breathing. In our mixed-method study with 21 participants, we evaluated the usability and effectiveness of our artifact in promoting breathing frequencies between 4 and 10 breaths per minute (BPM). We integrate breath-driven teleportation as a virtual locomotion technique (VLT) using respiratory biofeedback to gamify progression through a virtual wilderness. Additionally, we supplement our design with a mindfulness audio guide. The results of our user study showcase the potential of combining actionable gamification and VR, guided mindfulness, and breath-driven VLT to foster slow breathing self-regulation successfully.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641986