Squeeze Away the Worries: Exploring the Potential of Squeezable Interactions for Emotion Regulation for Desk Workers

Research Background and Problem

• Problem and Challenges: Compared to other professions, desk workers in office environments are more prone to experiencing negative emotions such as stress and emotional exhaustion. Emotion Regulation (ER) is crucial for their mental health. However, only a limited number of studies have explored how tactile interaction technologies like "squeezable interfaces" can support emotion regulation in office settings.
• Significance: 35% of full-time employees acknowledge that mental health stress is one of the primary barriers to work efficiency. If negative emotions in office environments are not effectively regulated, they may lead to emotional exhaustion and related psychological issues.
• Research Motivation: Although physical interactive devices that are touchable or squeezable have shown potential in emotion regulation, such as alleviating anxiety and stress, it remains unclear how to optimize and safely apply this technology in office environments, especially considering formal workplace etiquette.
• Research Objectives:
  • Explore how existing emotion regulation practices can be integrated into squeezable interfaces to design hardware and interaction systems that meet the emotional regulation needs of desk workers while adapting to real office scenarios.
  • Identify design requirements for device interfaces and address practical usage barriers in different work environments.

Solution

• Proposed Approach:

  • The authors designed two prototypes of squeezable interfaces for emotion regulation experiments:
    1. "Calm Stress Ball": Guides users to perform slow, relaxing squeezing and releasing motions through synchronized animations, employing the "response modulation" strategy.
    2. "Dinosaur Eats Fruit Game": A simple distraction game (attentional deployment strategy) to help users divert attention from anxiety.
  • The study combined interviews with mental health experts and 16 desk workers, along with five co-design workshops, to gather design requirements and explore different usage scenarios.

• Innovations:

  • Proposed the potential of squeezable interfaces to support emotion regulation in office environments and analyzed their applications in maintaining work efficiency and professional image.
  • Synthesized recommendations from mental health experts and feedback from actual users to propose more actionable and human-centered design considerations.
  • Explored how tactile interaction can be compatible with privacy and etiquette in office settings, opening new possibilities for touch-based interface design.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  1. Used conductive foam materials and Arduino to capture users' squeezing actions, and developed interactive animation interfaces with Unity3D.
  2. Analyzed user feedback to understand how to adjust device form, interaction feedback, and multi-sensory design (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile).
  3. Refined research findings into outputs from user group design workshops, including mood boards, sketch designs, and storyboards.

Research Outcomes

• Achievements:

  1. Identified key design adaptation points for squeezable interactive devices, including the integration of multi-sensory experiences and the need to align with office etiquette.
  2. Derived a series of design recommendations, such as prioritizing user privacy, professional image concerns, and work efficiency.
  3. Found that users prefer private, natural, and relaxed design examples, emphasizing that devices should adapt their interaction forms and feedback outputs based on different scenarios and needs.

• Advantages Compared to Existing Methods:

  • This study considered the dynamic characteristics of usage environments (open office spaces, private and public scenarios) and their impact on privacy needs during the design phase.
  • Addressed the "technostress" issue associated with existing emotion regulation products by proposing designs that avoid real-time notifications and mandatory tasks.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • User evaluations confirmed that specific material designs (e.g., soft, comfortable materials) and interaction modes effectively promote emotional calmness.
  • Experiments revealed unexpected findings, such as real-time emotional displays potentially increasing anxiety, suggesting a preference for post-event reflective emotion reports.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations: The sample population had relatively homogeneous professional and educational backgrounds (mainly highly educated researchers), which may not fully represent other occupational groups.
  • Future Directions:
    1. Further evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of "squeezing gestures" as indicators of emotional states.
    2. Explore how metaphorical interaction design can further support cognitive reappraisal strategies (e.g., re-evaluating negative emotions).
    3. Investigate design preferences and adaptability across different cultural contexts.