Designing for Mindful Moment: Fostering Well-being through Interaction Design

In today's fast-paced world, where technology often drives our daily lives, the need for mindfulness and well-being has never been more important. This thesis explores how interaction design can create moments of awareness that can support well-being. It is guided by three main research questions: How can a designer design for, with, and through mindfulness? How can interaction design cultivate mindfulness and create spaces for awareness? What is the intersection between mindfulness, technology, and the role of the designer? These questions explore mindfulness not just as a personal practice but also as a more conscious way of thinking about design. The key project in this thesis is The Walking Muse, an interactive design inspired by walking meditation. The project uses music and biofeedback to interact with people's walking pace, inviting them to bring awareness to their bodily movements and bring body and mind together, to evoke mindfulness through embodiment. It leverages predictive processing theories which suggest that the brain works by constantly predicting sensory input and updating its model when predictions are wrong to engage the synchronisation of the mind and body. This work is an example and experiment for designing for mindfulness (creating mindful experiences), with mindfulness (using mindfulness practices during the design process), and through mindfulness (embracing mindfulness as a design philosophy). It explores how interaction design can contribute to a more consciously designed world and a more conscious way of living.