TANGAEON: Tangible interaction to support people in a mindfulness practice
Authors:Vianello A., Chittaro L., Matassa A.
Published in:International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 35, no. 12, 2019, pp. 1086-1101.
Abstract:Recently, Tangible and Embodied Interaction (TEI) approaches to support people in mindfulness
practices have been proposed in the literature, but they have scarcely explored the use of real
natural elements in the interaction. In this paper, we first present TANGAEON, a TEI system that
augments the AEON mindfulness mobile app with an interactive, water-filled glass container.
Second, we evaluate TANGAEON by contrasting it with two traditional mindfulness techniques
and with AEON. TANGAEON obtained better results in terms of achieved mindfulness, perceived
level of difficulty, and degree of pleasantness than the two traditional techniques. Moreover,
considering all techniques, participants achieved the highest level of mindfulness with
TANGAEON, and rated it as the most pleasant and preferred approach to practice. These results
suggest that the use of TEI based on a natural element can offer a novel and effective way to help
people approach and practice mindfulness, and to augment existing mindfulness apps.
