Abstract
Although mindfulness has been proved to be an effective way to reduce anxiety, practice of mindfulness is still a big problem for novices as the process is boring and aimless. One way to tackle this problem is gamification. However, integrating game elements into mindfulness is challenging as some gamification strategies can be contradictory to mindfulness. In this paper, gamification techniques are explored to support mindfulness practice and principles are provided for mindfulness-based game design. Based on the principles, the study designs the game MindJourney, integrating virtual reality, biofeedback, gamification and attention regulation strategies. Results show that MindJourney can promote mindfulness and reduce anxiety, participants report their willingness to use MindJourney to practice mindfulness meditation.
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Acknowledgments
The research is supported by National Social Science Fund (Grant No. 18BRK009). Special thanks to mindfulness expert Jiang Du from Shanghai Mental Health Center, who provided precious advices on the design of MindJourney.
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Ge, Y., Han, T. (2021). MindJourney: Employing Gamification to Support Mindfulness Practice. In: Ahram, T.Z., Falcão, C.S. (eds) Advances in Usability, User Experience, Wearable and Assistive Technology. AHFE 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 275. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80091-8_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80091-8_27
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