Pen-pen: a wellbeing design to help commuters rest and relax

We report on the design process and evaluation of Pen-Pen, which is a design combining a neck-cushion, a mobile app, and a multi-modal feedback loop to help commuters relax and rest during commuting hours. The design process of Pen-Pen includes a series of inquiries, which identified "support for relaxation" and "location based arrival notification" as desires of commuters, and "mindfulness" and feelings of "autonomy" as relevant determinants of commuters' wellbeing. We evaluated Pen-Pen in the field with five commuters, and through an online survey with 68 participants. Our results indicate that using Pen-Pen has the potential to increase feelings of rest and autonomy, and to foster mindfulness through the feedback loop which feeds back spatial audio based on user location and finger touch. Especially commuters who reported to be less mindful and easily stressed anticipate Pen-Pen to be useful for them.