SAM MUKHERJEE MAAI LEARNING LOG

Research Question: 

How can Virtual Reality design in combination with biometric data be implemented into mindfulness- based experiences to provide tailored narratives unique to the user?

WHAT

My research area interlinks Virtual Reality design with Mental Health. I believe there are opportunities to challenge the homogenous nature of mindfulness applications by implementing VR technology into platforms that provide experiences curated specifically towards each user’s needs. Furthermore, research connecting VR experiences to biometric data has been proven highly effective; “monitoring…a user’s heart rate, pulse, stress levels, even mood, and then feeding [it] back…[allows for] ultra-immersive, uniquely tailored experiences (Rewind 2021; Rubio-Tamayo, Gértrudix & García 2017). Therefore, I aim for my intervention to take the form of a biometrically- driven, narrative VR experience within the meditation-mindfulness industry.  

WHY

Globally, one in six people face at least one mental health issue (Polaris Market Research 2021); in the UK, one in four people report struggling each year (MIND 2020). Mindfulness application downloads have consequently surged; over 2500 new apps launched in the market since 2015 (Singh 2020), the industry giants witnessing over 65 million downloads across 180 countries (Polaris Market Research 2021). Moreover, the VR- based meditation-mindfulness market is forecasted to value at 3.9 billion USD by 2023 (Sawant 2019; Singh 2020). My research is positioned in line with this prediction, however, I believe the one-meditation-fits-all nature of these applications is outdated, and the market needs to shift its focus to human- centered interaction design that takes into account the needs of each end- user. The significance of my research lies in using technology as a tool that brings people a step closer to taking control of their mental health. 

HOW

Timescale: 05/2021 – 07/2021

A range of sources are used to aid my project, including but not limited to; the understanding and critical interrogation of published academic journals and scientific research within VR use for mental health, interviews with relevant experts and stakeholders in the field, working with VR design companies to create an initial intervention, as well as collaborating with interdisciplinary creative practitioners who use biometric data for their projects. 

Timescale: 07/2021 – 08/2021

Development of my intervention leads to an initial research outcome in the form of a VR game experience which a sample size of n=50 will be used to test, using CSM rental VR headsets and booked rooms. Alternate interventional methods will then be adapted and thus lead to a second round of testing with the same participants. 

Timescale: 08/2021 – 09/2021

 Final round of testing my intervention commences with my finalised version, this time in a “real- world” scenario with external stakeholders at a location off campus, the results of which are compared and reflected against existing secondary research. 

Timescale: 09/2021 – 10/2021

Conclusions from my project are derived and evaluated, further exploration with stakeholders leads to alternate considerations for informed research within the field. 

WHAT IF 

The measure of success from my research would be indicated in the responses from my targeted intervention participants, alongside a clear progression in the effectiveness of my adapted interventions over the 3 sessions. Prospectively, my research could help create a platform where users gain control over their mental health by creating a routine specifically tailored for their contextual needs, rather than being limited by the options already provided. Following the course, I want to further collaborate with my stakeholders on how my research can be used as a creative tool to help practitioners working within VR design to develop social and experiential platforms. 

WORKS CITED

Mind UK. 2021. How common are mental health problems?. [online] 

Polaris Market Research. 2021. Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market Size Worth $4,206.1 Million By 

2027 | CAGR: 41.01%. [online] 

Rewind, 2021. Biometrics Level Up VR And Provide The Next Leap Forward In Human/Computer 

Interaction. [online] Medium. 

Rubio-Tamayo, J., Gertrudix Barrio, M. and García García, F., 2017. Immersive Environments and 

Virtual Reality: Systematic Review and Advances in Communication, Interaction and Simulation. 

Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 1(4), p.21.

Sawant, A., 2019. Virtual Reality in Therapy Market 2019 Global Trends, Size, Segments, Competitors  

Strategy, Regional Study and Industry Profit Growth by Forecast to 2023 | ABNewswire. [online] 

Singh, P., 2020. Unhooking the Drama: Meditation App Statistics To Know in 2020. [online] Appinventiv.

PROPOSED READING LIST

Gómez, I., Flujas-Contreras, J., Ruiz-Castañeda, D. and Castilla, D., 2018. A Virtual Reality–Based 

Psychological Treatment in Long-Term Hospitalization: A Case Study. Clinical Case Studies, 

18(1), pp.3-17.

Navarro-Haro, M., López-del-Hoyo, Y., Campos, D., Linehan, M., Hoffman, H., García-Palacios, A., 

Modrego-Alarcón, M., Borao, L. and García-Campayo, J., 2017. Meditation experts try Virtual 

Reality Mindfulness: A pilot study evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of Virtual Reality to 

facilitate mindfulness practice in people attending a Mindfulness conference. PLOS ONE, 12(11), 

p.e0187777.

Navarro-Haro, M., Modrego-Alarcón, M., Hoffman, H., López-Montoyo, A., Navarro-Gil, M., 

Montero-Marin, J., García-Palacios, A., Borao, L. and García-Campayo, J., 2019. Evaluation of a 

Mindfulness-Based Intervention With and Without Virtual Reality Dialectical Behavior Therapy® 

Mindfulness Skills Training for the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Primary Care: A 

Pilot Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 10.

Oracle. 2021. Can Virtual Experiences Replace Reality? The future role for humans in delivering 

customer experience. [online] 

Polaris Market Research. 2021. Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market Size Worth $4,206.1 Million By 

2027 | CAGR: 41.01%. [online] 

Rewind, 2021. Biometrics Level Up VR And Provide The Next Leap Forward In Human/Computer 

Interaction. [online] Medium. 

Rogers, S., 2021. VR Meditation: The Path To Next-Gen Health & Happiness. [online] Forbes.

Rubio-Tamayo, J., Gertrudix Barrio, M. and García García, F., 2017. Immersive Environments and Virtual 

Reality: Systematic Review and Advances in Communication, Interaction and Simulation. 

Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 1(4), p.21.

Sawant, A., 2019. Virtual Reality in Therapy Market 2019 Global Trends, Size, Segments, Competitors  

Strategy, Regional Study and Industry Profit Growth by Forecast to 2023 | ABNewswire. [online] 

Seabrook, E., Kelly, R., Foley, F., Theiler, S., Thomas, N., Wadley, G. and Nedeljkovic, M., 2020. 

Understanding How Virtual Reality Can Support Mindfulness Practice: Mixed Methods Study. 

Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(3), p.e16106.

Singh, P., 2020. Unhooking the Drama: Meditation App Statistics To Know in 2020. [online] Appinventiv.

Tarrant, J., Viczko, J. and Cope, H., 2018. Virtual Reality for Anxiety Reduction Demonstrated by 

Quantitative EEG: A Pilot Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 9.

When first introduced to the brief for this project, I knew I wanted it to have links to my final showcase project at the end of the year, and use this time as a trial and error period for testing out interventions within my field. I particularly wanted to explore within the area of Neuroaesthetics and Film, in specific the way audiences respond to Cinematic Virtual reality and question the natural correlation of aesthetic preferences when one is confronted with technological change to traditional art. A major question I had at the beginning was whether audiences now would consume and perceive virtual reality art in the same way audiences in the 1920s responded to their first experiences with cinema back then. I also wanted to explore the ways in which Virtual Reality could be introduced to the “mainstream”, rather than stay within the “experimental” sector, through brand experiences and marketing activations that could use the technology for disruptive new ways to get young (18-25) consumers interested in their brand. 

In doing my research I identified several companies already at the forefront of hosting VR- based experiential events, such as Google, Samsung, Whole Foods and Netflix. However, I also found the experiences to be quite similar in nature – the user gets put into a room filled with branding/or the process through which a product is made. It seemed more brand- oriented than user- focused, which to me seemed quite alienating – whereas the use of cinematic virtual reality would help the audience feel more immersed.

I decided to look at the area of mental wellness, and general wellbeing/meditation apps, as they’ve become increasingly popular especially over the pandemic and have been a huge asset to me personally, however I do find a lot of them to be quite homogenous in their approaches and try a “one meditation fits all” approach. This led me to wonder if perhaps a personalised app would be more fitting for the contemporary user- after all we have things like apple watches and fitbits that monitor our individual physical health, why shouldn’t we have access to something that monitors our mental health too?

I also found loads of research that suggested that VR is a super great and super effective tool for anxiety reduction, which you can have a read of by clicking here.

Thus my research question arose: How can cinematic virtual reality technology be implemented into mindfulness practice- based applications in order to provide a tailored experience that is unique to the individual? 

After getting feedback from Sasha on my initial presentations, I think I might have been too attached to the idea of ‘cinematic’ virtual reality, rather than exploring VR design through a human- centric lens, just because of my academic background so far and the space that I felt comfortable navigating in. Moving forwards, I think I need to approach the topic with a more user-design geared attitude. I also received the feedback that working with an existing stakeholder in the market such as Headspace, the leading meditation app, may not be a new intervention, but rather just building on a concept that is already tried and tested.

I then decided to combine VR tech with biometric data such as heart rate, as I figured it may be an asset to users with technology like smartwatches, where their body could “tell” them which path in the narrative to choose next, similar to a “choose your own adventure” novel, but a meditation app that could help and track users meditation preferences. I also did a lot of research into VR, heart- rate variability and biofeedback- this was a particularly good study I found- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02172/full.

Therefore I also adjusted my research question to: How can virtual reality technology combined with biometric data be implemented into  mindfulness- based experiences to provide tailored narratives that are unique to the user?

(Note: it’s a bit wordy and definitely needs to be cut down.)

I also had a look at apps that combined mind and body – a common one I found was in Menstrual Cycle tracker apps for women, in which inputting your physical symptoms (eg. cramps, headache, flow, etc.) in conjunction with your emotional symptoms (mood, attentiveness etc.) could result in a good hypothesis on your next cycle, and the consistency of data input into the system could potentially create accurate predictions for each day of your cycle.

POST – PITCH FEEDBACK:

The feedback I received post- pitch was generally positive (the lady from the BBC said I did well, yay!) which I was happy about, though the most important discussions that did arise were;

A) Differentiating between mental health, mental wellbeing, and meditation platforms – I need to choose a specific stream to narrow my focus into as it would be much more feasible to carry out my intervention.

B) Accessibility to equipment during COVID (update: UAL does offer Oculus VR headsets for rental)

C) The fact that I am not a VR game designer and should engage with stakeholders within VR design, but specifically for VR Meditation (most of the ones I had brought up as examples were based in the USA).

Going forward, I definitely need to adapt my project in order to not only create an intervention that makes a change within the wellness industry, but also look at the feasibility of my project.

I also had a look at the Project 6 brief; the content of the first 3 parts of the proposal I’ve pretty much got down pat but it’s the bit of the What If that asks “What are the positive implications and potential if you achieve this mastery? How will this position you (and your stakeholders) at the end of the Course?” that I do feel like I’m stuck on. I know this is a fun project I’m passionate about, but I seem to get a bit of impostor syndrome when it comes to that last part and not really feel like I’m doing anything new (even though the research I’ve done suggests that I am).

I think I really should invest more time into the ‘What If’ of the project going forwards and ask myself why I’m doing it in the first place, and also who it’s really going to help.

Bibliography:

Gómez, I., Flujas-Contreras, J., Ruiz-Castañeda, D. and Castilla, D., 2018. A Virtual Reality–Based Psychological Treatment in Long-Term Hospitalization: A Case Study. Clinical Case Studies, 18(1), pp.3-17.

Gilliland, N., 2019. 14 examples of augmented reality brand experiences | Econsultancy. [online] Econsultancy. 

Mbryonic. 2019. 10 Best Uses Of Virtual Reality VR Marketing – Mbryonic. [online] 

Navarro-Haro, M., López-del-Hoyo, Y., Campos, D., Linehan, M., Hoffman, H., García-Palacios, A., Modrego-Alarcón, M., Borao, L. and García-Campayo, J., 2017. Meditation experts try Virtual Reality Mindfulness: A pilot study evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of Virtual Reality to facilitate mindfulness practice in people attending a Mindfulness conference. PLOS ONE, 12(11), p.e0187777.

Navarro-Haro, M., Modrego-Alarcón, M., Hoffman, H., López-Montoyo, A., Navarro-Gil, M., Montero-Marin, J., García-Palacios, A., Borao, L. and García-Campayo, J., 2019. Evaluation of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention With and Without Virtual Reality Dialectical Behavior Therapy® Mindfulness Skills Training for the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Primary Care: A Pilot Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 10.

Oculus. 2021. Guided Meditation VR on Gear VR. [online] 

Oracle. 2021. Can Virtual Experiences Replace Reality? The future role for humans in delivering customer experience. [online] 

Ori, M., 2019. Social VR Brings Life To CRM In Enterprise | ARPost. [online] ARPost. 

Rogers, S., 2021. VR Meditation: The Path To Next-Gen Health & Happiness. [online] Forbes.

Seabrook, E., Kelly, R., Foley, F., Theiler, S., Thomas, N., Wadley, G. and Nedeljkovic, M., 2020. Understanding How Virtual Reality Can Support Mindfulness Practice: Mixed Methods Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(3), p.e16106.

Sundstrom, O., 2021. Virtual Reality Marketing Activation Explained. [online] National Event Pros. 

Tarrant, J., Viczko, J. and Cope, H., 2018. Virtual Reality for Anxiety Reduction Demonstrated by Quantitative EEG: A Pilot Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 9.

19/02/2020

Upon hearing the brief for the uncertainties project, I immediately created a mind- map of the concepts in my personal life I found to be uncertain. I decided to look at spirituality as a factor in my self identity, as it was a concept that I had always had my doubts about, simply because I didn’t understand concepts such as where religion and faith stood in my identity. In my box, I chose to put idols/figurines of Indian, Egyptian and Norse gods, tarot and oracle cards, semi precious stones thought to possess power, and my lucky socks. Though each of these items serve a purpose of faith, I have always been uncertain about the idea of giving a physical object a metaphysical or transcendent value beyond human control. However, over lockdown I have noticed recurring articles and studies about the value of faith and religion in helping people all over the world cope with their identity (Sherwood 2020, Tearfund 2020, BBC News 2020). These articles also often mentioned that the government’s policies on places of worship and a lack of support had led to the closure of many of the organisations that were keeping the faith of people alive for months during the pandemic. These articles made me question the role of spirituality in 21st century society, as well as how practices that were continued in a certain way for generations had to be changed dramatically due to the pandemic, and whether that affected the way people believed in a higher power.

20/02/2020

In my own journey with these objects and elements of ‘unknown’, I had never really grown up in an environment that put religion at the forefront of society- and I let it be known to my parents quite young that I wasn’t greatly affected by the concept of spirituality either. However, as I have grown older, the concept of being spiritually devoted has been an alluring area of exploration for me, especially the way in which religion actually forms a part of one’s social identity. It’s an uncertainty I have within myself as well as with the world around me, in terms of why so many people choose to put their faith into a “higher power” and why I don’t believe in it. I have always loved collecting artifacts such as figurines and masks with symbolic spiritual origins, though it’s always been for the way they present as collectible pieces of art. However, in reflecting on the amount of objects I had put in my box, it led to the question – is there a part of me that unconsciously believes in the power of these objects having an impact on my life?

22/02/2020

In an article by The Conversation, spirituality is seen as a buzzword- entirely different to being religious. In fact, more millennials in the West identify as spiritual rather than religious, “critics have suggested it is a byproduct of the self-obsessed culture of today, evidence of a narcissism epidemic” (Watts 2017). This was a learning moment for me, as I had always associated being spiritual as being tied with the values of religion to an extent. “When people call themselves spiritual they are basically signaling three things… that they believe there is more to the world than meets the eye…. that they try to attend to their inner life — to their mental and emotional states — in the hopes of gaining a certain kind of self-knowledge… [and] being compassionate, empathetic and open-hearted” (Watts 2017). This made me question what lived spirituality meant, or how spirituality played a role in everyday life. I frequently meditate in the morning through simple 10- minute breathing exercises, does incorporating that into my daily life make me spiritual? In further exploring this question, I want to be able to use the uncertain elements as an intervention in my daily life, and see if I can experiment with myself and understand some of the processes behind incorporating a practice that is unknown to myself.

23/02/2021

After my presentation, I had received the feedback that my idea of looking into religion was too broad, and I needed to choose one of the elements in order to gain a focused starting point from which academic research could be conducted. It was also brought to my attention that often time religion and academia don’t tend to go hand in hand, and hence it was necessary that I choose a component where I could justify my rationale of uncertainty through a research lens. I decided on choosing the idea of giving statues/idols metaphysical power, as I wanted to be able to explore this through a socio-anthropological lens and see if it helped to make the uncertainty in this belief within myself more clear.

Bibliography:

BBC News. 2020. Covid-19: Religious groups in England criticise lockdown worship ban. [online]

Sherwood, H., 2020. Keeping the faith: religion in the UK amid coronavirus. [online] The Guardian.

Tearfund. 2020. Many Brits look to faith during lockdown – Tearfund. [online]

Watts, G., 2017. What does it mean to be spiritual? [online] The Conversation

Project A – Myth, Narrative, Belief

Group 4 (Tangerine Team) Sam, Lidia, Kanya, Jin, Yiyi, Dandi, Xunyao 

The Myth (summarised): 

There once was a boy named Richard, who loved playing football with his friends. On his 15th birthday, his parents gave him a new smartphone. He was so excited to finally find out what his friends were up to that he started downloading every app he could think of straight away, even missing football practice for the first time. As the day went on, Richard found his favourite app- Instagram. He missed dinner, but he was too focused on pets, jets, and celebs- people his age with millions of followers to entertain as though they don’t have school or homework. Days go on, and Richard’s twelve followers make him feel defeated- why isn’t his life perfect? He misses more and more football practises in the pursuit of followers, but he can’t seem to understand why he can’t have the life everyone else seems to have. Then one day, as he scrolls, he sees familiar faces on the screen- it’s his football team and they’ve just won a match! Without him. Richard wishes he was in the photo too, he wishes he had played the match, and he misses his friends. As though by magic, someone rings the doorbell. “It’s the boys!” his mum shouts. Richard rushes to the door, they’re all standing there with a big trophy in hand. “Where have you been?! Let’s go celebrate!” He looks down at his phone, ready to make a choice, he leaves the phone at home as he shuts the door. His friends hug him tight, and say “happy to have you back!”

Collaborative process: 

In starting our collaborative process, we decided to create a shared Google document in which we would brainstorm and explore myths from different parts of the world. As each of us had a different heritage and cultural background, we wanted to be able to use a myth with a message that was universally applicable, as well as being contextually adaptable to our project. Some of our key factors in deciding the myth were the applicability of the story across our target demographic, the relevance of the message to today’s sociocultural world and the ability of our demographic in identifying similarities between the key message of the original myth and our adapted one. With our story, we wanted to be able to highlight the effect on men’s mental health as a result of social media, but also how easy it is for teenagers to be sucked into the false realities presented on social platforms. However, it was also important for us not to make social media the villain (but rather the dependency on it as a bad thing), as we had to consider the immense benefits of online platforms. We decided on Sleeping Beauty as our story, from which our adapted version would reflect on our dependence on social media, when the addiction makes us “asleep” to the real world.

Our group was then split into two subgroups; Lidia, Kanya and Sam to be the research and narrative team, and Jin, Dandi, Yiyi and Xunyao to be the design and testing team. We also decided to establish deadlines for each aspect of the process, as we felt that they would help us stay on track of where we were in the process. This was a really good opportunity to learn about each others’ strengths and areas of improvement as a group, and allowed us to work together while having more creative independence within our subgroups. 

We decided to present our final product as a video recording of Richard (our protagonist)’s social media account, as we felt that our target demographic (13-25) would be able to identify with his use of social media apps in contrast to their own. This was an initial decision by the design team, which was then shared with the narrative team for an executive decision on our final product. 

In testing our video, we decided to use a survey/questionnaire type testing mechanism, as we thought it would be the most effective. Some of our survey questions were:

• Does this story resemble any other fairy tale/story/myth to you?

• What do you think is the moral value of the story?
• Is the format of the story suitable to narrate our message? (Yes/No)
• What can be improved from this output?
• What do you think this video would be great for? (e.g. school material, educative campaign, etc.)

Our results showed that while most people were able to understand the story and see similarities, some people thought that our video may have been too quickly paced and weren’t able to keep up, or that it needed additional text and captions (and less visuals) to help explain the story better. Thus, we decided to adapt our product based on the feedback given to us through testing. 

Overall, this project was a great way for us to be able to collaborate with each other and understand the team dynamic by setting deadlines, being open- minded to each other’s suggestions and using each others’ strengths to create a final product that all of us were proud of in the end.