From Ancient Contemplative Practice to the App Store: Designing a Digital Container for Mindfulness
arXiv Preprint Archive June 16, 2020 Kai Lukoff, Ulrik Lyngs, Stefania Gueorguieva et al.
A review of 370 mindfulness apps on Google Play shows they primarily present mindfulness as a tool for relaxation and stress reduction. Interviews with 15 U.S. mindfulness teachers from therapeutic, Buddhist, and Yogic traditions reveal concern that this narrow framing neglects mindfulness's full potential. The teachers' experiences suggest design implications for linking apps with deeper contemplative practices, such as cultivating compassion. The findings emphasize the importance of coherence in design: the metaphors and mechanisms of a technology should align with the underlying principles it follows.