SuspenderMender - Designing for a Shared Management of Anxiety in Higher Education Context Through a Pair of Wearables Simulating Physical Touch

TY - GEN

T1 - SuspenderMender - Designing for a Shared Management of Anxiety in Higher Education Context Through a Pair of Wearables Simulating Physical Touch

AU - Ølgaard Jensen, Frederik

AU - Dalsgaard Pedersen, Sigurd

AU - Pakanen, Minna

N1 - Conference code: 18

PY - 2024/2/11

Y1 - 2024/2/11

N2 - Anxiety among university students has increased in recent years due to stressful factors of studies coupled with tightened individual performance requirements stemming both inside and outside the student. While prior anxiety treatment wearables have focused on aiding self-management through an automated tangible therapeutic response to the biometrics reading, this pictorial presents the design, development, and evaluation of the SuspenderMender, shared management enabling pair of wearables (i.e., a T-shirt and suspenders). Inspired by prior research suggestions on the power of physical contact and social support in anxiety management, the SuspenderMender allows transferring a touch through wearables. A Wizard of Oz pair evaluation with ten university students suggests that the concept idea is relevant and the simulated physical touch felt comforting, almost like a real hug. However, participants raised issues with the inequality of the interaction between the two wearables. Based on our findings, we suggest design considerations for future wearables for the shared management of anxiety.

AB - Anxiety among university students has increased in recent years due to stressful factors of studies coupled with tightened individual performance requirements stemming both inside and outside the student. While prior anxiety treatment wearables have focused on aiding self-management through an automated tangible therapeutic response to the biometrics reading, this pictorial presents the design, development, and evaluation of the SuspenderMender, shared management enabling pair of wearables (i.e., a T-shirt and suspenders). Inspired by prior research suggestions on the power of physical contact and social support in anxiety management, the SuspenderMender allows transferring a touch through wearables. A Wizard of Oz pair evaluation with ten university students suggests that the concept idea is relevant and the simulated physical touch felt comforting, almost like a real hug. However, participants raised issues with the inequality of the interaction between the two wearables. Based on our findings, we suggest design considerations for future wearables for the shared management of anxiety.

KW - Wearables

KW - Anxiety

KW - Shared management

KW - Subtle interaction

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85185224313&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3623509.3633393

DO - 10.1145/3623509.3633393

M3 - Article in proceedings

SP - 1

EP - 15

BT - TEI 2024 - Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

CY - New York

T2 - TEI'24 Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

Y2 - 11 February 2024 through 14 February 2024

ER -