Better Performance Through Mindfulness: Mobile Application Design for Mindfulness Training to Improve Performance in College Athletes

Abstract

Collegiate student athletes commit almost all of their time and energy to extremely demanding and competing pressures as both a full-time student and athlete. With very limited time for self-care or mindfulness practices, athletes are restricted to their exhausting schedules that are set for them each and every day. In this paper, we introduce an application design named Muses which facilitates the coordination between coaches/trainers and student-athletes with their mindfulness training. Through a complementing two-faced interface design approach, we began our process by researching current competing mindfulness applications along with the NCAA guidelines to required participation hours each week as well as current programs’ mindfulness practices. With two questionnaire surveys completed and a second round of research, we were able to obtain key insights from both general and collegiate athlete mindfulness surveys. This enabled us to begin and determine the final design direction and methods. The personal progress tracking and customization strategies were chosen as the primary features of the application motivating collegiate athletes and programs to practice mindfulness more often.