Prasanth Veerina, Cayla Pettinato, and Onkur Sen

Virtual group meditation increases personal enjoyment, consistency, and importance

Stressor

I’m doing something

wrong!

The Value of Group Practice“People have a lot of ideas

about what meditation is or isn’t. They feel more

reassured when they hear others talking about it, and it helps to normalize what

students are going through.”

Robert Cusick, CCT Course Instructor

“Being in a group setting is really supportive. When my

classmates share their experience, it gives me something to compare

mine against.”

Claire, MBSR Course Student

HMW

SBTM

Join one 5-10 minute meditation session each day

Prototype 1 (post it)

A User’s Story

Trial Design

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Pre-survey Breathing Stress-relief Body scan Walking Loving-kindness + Post-survey

8 users, age range: 18-22

Attitude Towards Meditation

Check the box for each day of the trial that you meditated:

# Answer %

1 Wednesday (breathing) 50%

2 Thursday (stress-releasing) 75%

3 Friday (body scan) 63%

4 Saturday (walking) 38%

5 Sunday (loving-kindness) 63%

Pre: 100% meditate less than once a month Post: 100% meditated 2/5 days and 50% meditated 3/5 days

Guided meditations

Reflection Board

Seeing other

people

Simple

Commit to time

Lack of meditation

options

Need better reminder

Design

Lack of reflection options

What Users Liked

What Users Didn’t Like

Seeing others = “One day I was busy working and I was going to skip the meditation, but then I saw that 5 or 6 other people were

planning to meditate with me at that time and I didn’t want to let them down. I felt that if they could do it, I could too!”

“I liked seeing other people, especially if they were people I knew. I felt like we were sharing something in common in the

midst of our busy lives.”

Drawing = “I liked being able to see the pictures that everyone else drew at the ends of sessions. It made me feel better knowing that

my experiences aligned with others.”

vs.

“It was cool to have an opportunity for reflection right after exiting meditation, but sometimes it felt a little forced. I didn't

really like having to think of something to draw myself.”

“This is the first time that I have meditated consistently. It is very relaxing. I now bring the simple focus on my breath into other stressful situations to relax.”

User Opinions

Users benefit from group practice even without physical proximity

Users benefit from structure but need flexibility to establish long-term habits

Conclusive NOIs

Next Steps

● More options/user customization (times, reminders, meditations, reflection)

● Do not disturb mode

● Workplace integration?