by jessica.schiller -

Calm UX in Healthcare

What Designing for Vulnerability Teaches Us About UX Everywhere

In the previous article, I explored how Calm UX becomes essential when digital products start predicting, recommending, and acting on users’ behalf. As systems grow more intelligent and autonomous, clarity, control, and psychological safety are no longer optional—they are prerequisites for trust.

Healthcare takes this one step further.

Healthcare is often treated as a special category in UX design—a domain with its own rules, constraints, and sensitivities. But it is not defined by different principles. It is defined by a different context of use. Healthcare doesn’t require new UX fundamentals; it requires existing ones to perform under pressure.

In healthcare contexts, users are rarely relaxed, curious, or exploratory. They interact with products while anxious, cognitively overloaded, emotionally vulnerable, or afraid of making mistakes. That makes healthcare products a powerful stress test for UX as a discipline.

If an interface fails under these conditions, it doesn’t fail because healthcare is “special.” It fails because the design was never truly calm, clear, or human-centered to begin with.

Healthcare as an Extreme UX Environment

Much of mainstream UX quietly assumes ideal conditions:

  • stable attention
  • emotional neutrality
  • tolerance for exploration
  • low cost of errors

Healthcare strips these assumptions away.

Users engage with health products while processing emotionally charged information, navigating uncertainty and risk, experiencing cognitive fatigue or distress, and fearing irreversible consequences. Under these conditions, even small ambiguities or unnecessary decisions can escalate into anxiety. This reveals a crucial insight:

Many interfaces rely on idealized users. Healthcare reveals real ones.

Calm UX becomes critical here not because healthcare is unique, but because it removes the safety buffer that often hides poor UX elsewhere. When attention is scarce and emotional stakes are high, only designs that genuinely reduce cognitive load and uncertainty can hold up.


Where Healthcare Reveals Broken UX Assumptions

Healthcare UX tends to fail in the same places where mainstream UX quietly struggles—but the consequences are far more visible. Designing for healthcare also means designing for neurodivergence and mental health, which exposes fundamental truths about how people actually interact with systems under strain.

Users with ADHD, anxiety, autism, or depression are more sensitive to cognitive load, less tolerant of ambiguity, more affected by interruptions, and more easily disoriented. These are often treated as edge cases, but they are not. They represent states that all users enter under stress—and healthcare places everyone in that state.

This is where many interfaces break down:

  • alarmist language that escalates uncertainty instead of explaining it
  • silent systems that leave users unsure whether an action succeeded
  • dense information displays that prioritize completeness over comprehension
  • binary outcomes presented without context or confidence framing

Outside healthcare, these issues cause frustration. Inside healthcare, they lead to anxiety, mistrust, and hesitation.

Calm UX reframes these moments by separating information from urgency, acknowledging uncertainty rather than hiding it, layering complexity instead of front-loading it, and reinforcing user agency at every step.

Calm UX as an Opportunity in Healthcare

In healthcare, Calm or Mindful UX is not about “being nice”—it’s about designing with a clear understanding of human limits. This means explicitly considering the user’s emotional and cognitive state: how much attention they can realistically give, how much information they can process, and how uncertainty might amplify fear or hesitation. It also means designing systems that reassure without misleading, guiding users without overwhelming them.

Focusing on Calm UX in healthcare doesn’t just improve health products. Much like accessibility features, it advances UX practice as a whole by grounding design decisions in real human constraints—and by bringing those improvements into everyday products where everyone can benefit.

My Conclusion to Calm UX and Calm Technology

The principles of Calm Technology are not a new discipline, but are already deeply embedded in established UX approaches—across digital and physical product design, and in domains such as healthcare and AI. UX has reached a level of maturity where the focus is no longer only on efficiency or fixing major usability issues, but on consciously considering people and their emotional experience throughout the process. Calm Technology makes this focus explicit, much like accessibility does, reminding us that user-centered design cannot meaningfully exist without these principles.

References:

AI Assistance Disclaimer:

AI tools were used to improve grammar and phrasing. The ideas, examples, and content remain entirely the author’s own.

by jessica.schiller -

Calm UX in AI-Driven Products

How Google’s and IBM’s AI Guidelines Help Reduce Cognitive Load

Artificial intelligence has become foundational in modern digital products, powering everything from search and recommendations to analytics and automation. But when AI is integrated carelessly, it doesn’t feel “helpful”, it feels unpredictable, opaque, or intrusive. That’s where Calm UX intersects directly with practical AI design.

To create AI experiences that feel reassuring rather than stressful, we need both behavioral guidelines and design patterns that embed calmness into interaction. Leading design frameworks from companies like Google and IBMarticulate such principles, explicitly tying usability, transparency, and control to trustworthy AI experiences.

Why Calm UX Matters in AI Systems

AI systems are fundamentally probabilistic, they make predictions, not certainties. Yet users instinctively seek clarity, control, and predictability when interacting with digital products. When an AI recommendation appears without context, or when a system acts before the user has given explicit consent, the interface can quickly feel noisy or demanding. The result is increased cognitive load: users must expend mental effort to interpret what the system did, why it did it, and whether they are still in control.

A familiar example is autocorrection. When it quietly suggests a word and allows the user to accept or ignore it, it feels helpful and unobtrusive. When it automatically replaces words without explanation or easy reversal, it creates friction, uncertainty, and frustration. The difference is not the intelligence of the system, but how its behavior is communicated and constrained.

Calm UX addresses this tension by deliberately reducing the mental work required to understand and manage AI behavior. It does so by:

  • clearly indicating when AI is active,
  • explaining why a suggestion or prediction is being made,
  • making it obvious how users can intervene, override, or undo an action,
  • and keeping AI signals in the periphery until the user chooses to engage.

This approach aligns closely with the core idea of Calm Technology: technology should inform without demanding attention. AI should participate quietly in the background, stepping into focus only when its input is meaningful, actionable, and invited.

How Google’s People + AI Guidebook Supports Calm UX

Google’s People + AI Guidebook provides a concrete set of principles and patterns for AI-enabled interfaces, emphasizing user understanding and control. Key patterns include:

1. Model Status and Confidence Indicators

Instead of presenting AI output as a definitive outcome, designers should surface confidence levels or uncertainty ranges (for example, “83% confidence”). Making uncertainty visible helps users better predict system behavior, build appropriate trust, and reduces anxiety when outcomes are not certain.

2. Recommendations with Rationale

AI suggestions should clearly communicate why they are offered. For example, by referencing past behavior or recent activity. Making this underlying logic visible provides essential context, reduces cognitive load, and helps avoid the “black box” effect that often undermines trust in AI systems.

3. Human-in-the-Loop Controls

Allowing users to accept, reject, edit, or refine AI suggestions keeps agency firmly with the user rather than with an opaque automated system. This sense of control builds confidence and reduces anxiety about unintended or irreversible outcomes.

Google’s guidance pitches these patterns not as optional add-ons but as core UX requirements when embedding AI into workflows, because clarity and control directly reduce cognitive demand.

IBM’s Approach to AI UX — Transparency, Trust, and Shared Agency

IBM’s AI design practice also emphasizes understanding and human-centered automation. Explainability helps users understand both the process and limitations of AI. In their guidelines, this approach is summarized in two key concepts:

1. Explainability as a UX Function

When systems articulate how and why they reached a specific conclusion—even at a high level—users can form a clear mental model of the AI’s behavior. This predictability reduces mental effort and helps prevent frustration caused by uncertainty.

2. Role Clarity Between User and AI

Users should always understand where human responsibility begins and where AI assistance ends. Clearly demarcating these boundaries in the interface minimizes anxiety by removing uncertainty about whether the system is acting autonomously or on the user’s behalf.

This emphasis echoes research suggesting that AI designers must address both model transparency and user understanding if they want trust and low friction in human-AI interaction.

Calm UX, Cognitive Load & Calm Technology

At its core, Calm UX in AI interfaces is about managing the mental effort users invest in understanding system behavior. It uses patterns that reduce ambiguity, promote transparency, and preserve control, all of which are directly supported by Google’s and IBM’s AI guidelines.

That alignment is not coincidental. Calm UX and Calm Technology principles converge around the same goal: Design systems that support human thinking — not overwhelm it.

When AI interfaces follow clear guidelines, from explainability to human-in-the-loop design, they become not just smarter, but calmer, more trustworthy, and easier to use.

References:
  • Weiser, M., Seely Brown, J. (1995): “Designing Calm Technology“, Xerox PARC
  • Weiser, M., Seely Brown, J. (1996): “The Coming Age of Calm Technology“, Xerox PARC
  • Case, A. (2015): “Calm Technology: Principles and Patterns for Non-Intrusive Design“
  • Google PAIR – People + AI Guidebook https://pair.withgoogle.com/guidebook/
  • IBM – Explainable AI Design Guidelines https://www.ibm.com/design/ai/

AI Assistance Disclaimer:

AI tools were used to improve grammar and phrasing. The ideas, examples, and content remain entirely the author’s own.

by jessica.schiller -

Application of calm technology principles in Digital Product Design

Many digital products today are technically well designed. They pass usability tests, follow established patterns, and allow users to complete tasks efficiently. And yet, they still feel stressful to use. This tension points to a common misunderstanding in UX:

Usability alone does not guarantee a calm experience (Calm UX).

What users often struggle with is not failure, but mental strain — the quiet effort required to interpret, decide, remember, and stay oriented while interacting with an interface.

Cognitive Load Is the Invisible Friction

I realized that a key driver of user stress is cognitive load: the amount of mental effort required to process information and make decisions. Human working memory is limited. When interfaces demand too much attention, comparison, recall, or interpretation, users become fatigued and error-prone — even if nothing is technically “broken”.

Research by Nielsen Norman Group shows that cognitive load increases when users are forced to:

  • hold information in memory instead of recognizing it
  • make too many decisions at once
  • decode unclear labels or system states
  • recover from interruptions without guidance

Reducing cognitive load is not about removing functionality. It’s about removing unnecessary mental work.

Calm UX Goes Beyond Usability

Calm UX builds on classic usability principles but extends them into the emotional and psychological domain. As described in recent UX research and writing, calm experiences are those that reduce anxiety, uncertainty, and hesitation, especially in moments where users are unsure what the system is doing or what is expected of them.

According to UXmatters, much of the most damaging friction in digital products is not physical or functional, but psychological. Interfaces that rush users, provide ambiguous feedback, or escalate situations unnecessarily create stress — even when users ultimately succeed.

Calm UX asks different questions than traditional UX:

  • Do users feel in control?
  • Does the system behave predictably?
  • Is uncertainty acknowledged or ignored?
  • Does the interface reassure, or does it pressure?

Design Principles That Create Calm

Research from NN/g, UXmatters, and Calm Technology literature points to a small set of recurring principles that consistently reduce cognitive strain and user anxiety.

Minimize cognitive effort by default
Calm interfaces prioritize recognition over recall, limit information to what is immediately relevant, and use familiar, consistent patterns. Clear visual hierarchy and progressive disclosure help users stay oriented without unnecessary mental effort.

Communicate with clarity, not urgency
System messages are emotionally charged moments. Calm UX avoids alarmist language and explains what happened, why it matters, and what comes next—without blame, pressure, or artificial urgency.

Make system behavior visible
Uncertainty increases stress. Loading states, background processes, and validations should clearly communicate progress and outcomes, even when no action is required from the user.

Respect attention as a scarce resource
Notifications should interrupt only when they provide clear, timely value. Calm UX is quiet by default and intentional when asking for attention.

Introduce complexity gradually
Complex systems don’t need to feel complex upfront. Calm UX reveals detail only as it becomes relevant, reducing initial overwhelm and supporting user confidence.

These principles are not new rules. They are a reframing of established UX heuristics through the lens of Calm Technology—shifting the focus from efficiency alone to cognitive and emotional ease.

Design Patterns That Create Calm

In practice, these principles materialize through a set of recurring design patterns that can be used as tools to create calmer products.

Progressive Disclosure
Calm UX avoids presenting all information and options at once. Instead, complexity is revealed gradually, as it becomes relevant. This helps users orient themselves quickly and reduces initial cognitive load, especially in complex systems.

Recognition Over Recall
Rather than relying on users’ memory, calm interfaces surface choices, defaults, examples, and familiar patterns directly in the UI. This reduces mental effort and minimizes the anxiety that comes from uncertainty or second-guessing.

Visible System Status
Calm UX avoids silent systems. Loading states, background processes, and validation feedback clearly communicate what is happening and what to expect next, even when no action is required from the user.

Gentle Confirmation
Success and completion are communicated through subtle, inline feedback instead of disruptive modal dialogs. This reassures users without interrupting their flow or escalating the interaction unnecessarily.

Forgiving Interactions
Undo options, editable states, and non-destructive defaults make mistakes recoverable. When users know they can correct an action, they interact with greater confidence and less hesitation.

Predictable Interaction Patterns
Consistent layouts, control placement, and feedback behavior reduce the mental effort required to re-orient across screens. Calm interfaces prioritize familiarity over novelty.

Descriptive Microcopy
Clear, outcome-focused language replaces vague labels and technical jargon. Users understand what will happen before they act, reducing hesitation and cognitive strain.

Status Over Alerts
Whenever possible, calm systems communicate information through passive status indicators rather than interruptive alerts. Information remains available without demanding immediate attention.

Notification Gating
Notifications are used sparingly and intentionally. Calm UX is quiet by default and interrupts only when timely user action truly matters, treating attention as a limited resource.

Clear Exit Paths
Users can cancel, go back, or pause processes at any time. Knowing there is always a way out significantly reduces pressure and perceived risk.

Together, these patterns don’t eliminate complexity — they structure it, pace it, and communicate it with care. They shift UX from demanding attention to supporting orientation, from pushing users forward to helping them stay grounded.

As digital products increasingly incorporate AI-driven predictions, recommendations, and automation, these patterns become even more critical. When systems begin acting on users’ behalf, clarity, control, and calm are no longer optional — they are the foundation of trust. In the next article, I’ll explore how Calm UX principles apply specifically to AI-driven products, and how thoughtful design can make intelligent systems feel supportive rather than intrusive.

References:
  • Weiser, M., Seely Brown, J. (1995): “Designing Calm Technology“, Xerox PARC
  • Weiser, M., Seely Brown, J. (1996): “The Coming Age of Calm Technology“, Xerox PARC
  • Case, A. (2015): “Calm Technology: Principles and Patterns for Non-Intrusive Design“

AI Assistance Disclaimer:

AI tools were used to improve grammar and phrasing. The ideas, examples, and content remain entirely the author’s own.

by jessica.schiller -

Drink Smart and Keep Calm: Technology that Stays in the Background – Part III

From Concept to Prototype: Planning a Calm, Tangible Drinking Reminder

After introducing ubiquitous computing, tangible user interfaces, and calm technology through the example of a smart water glass, the next step is to explore how such a concept could be translated into a physical prototype. Rather than focusing solely on technical feasibility, the planned smart coaster is intended as a design-driven experiment — one that combines physical prototyping with a human-centered design (HCD) process.

The goal is not to build a “perfect” product, but to create a functional artifact that allows the underlying interaction principles to be examined, questioned, and refined.

Framing the Problem in Its Usage Context

The initial motivation for the project stems from a common everyday situation: forgetting to drink water while working or studying. Existing solutions, such as hydration reminder apps, typically rely on push notifications, sounds, or vibrations. While effective in theory, these mechanisms often interrupt users at inopportune moments and shift attention away from the current task toward a screen.

Before committing to a specific technical solution, I would usually start the project by planning a usage context analysis. This would involve observing when and where drinking usually happens, how glasses are positioned in work environments, and how people react to reminders during focused tasks. As the design proposal has already been introduced, I move directly into this idea rather than conducting a full exploratory phase. The underlying assumption is that drinking is already embedded in physical routines and object interactions—making it a promising candidate for a tangible, environment-based interface.

Planned Human-Centered Design Approach

The development of the smart coaster is intended to follow a simplified human-centered design (HCD) process:

  1. Empathize & UnderstandThe process would begin with self-observation and informal conversations to gain insight into why drinking is often forgotten and how existing reminder systems are perceived in everyday situations.
  2. DefineBased on these initial insights, the core design challenge can be formulated as:How might a drinking reminder support hydration without interrupting or demanding attention?
  3. IdeateThe ideation phase would focus on identifying calm forms of feedback. Different modalities—such as light, sound, or subtle movement—would be explored and evaluated in terms of intrusiveness, social acceptability, and perceptibility in the periphery of attention.
  4. PrototypeA low- to mid-fidelity prototype of a smart coaster is planned as a tangible representation of these concepts, allowing interaction principles to be examined in a physical form.
  5. EvaluateShort, qualitative user testing sessions are intended to help validate assumptions and inform iterative refinement of the interaction and feedback design.

Technical Implementation as Design Medium

The planned prototype combines accessible digital fabrication and physical computing tools:

  • A 3D-printed coaster, designed to visually blend into everyday environments.
  • A pressure sensor to detect the presence or absence of a glass.
  • A Raspberry Pi Pico as the microcontroller handling timing and state logic.
  • Subtle ambient feedback, such as low-intensity light, to communicate reminders without explicit alerts.

Importantly, the technical setup is intentionally kept minimal. This aligns with calm technology principles by reducing complexity and ensuring that the coaster remains usable even if the digital components fail.

Planned User Testing and Evaluation

Rather than large-scale usability testing, the project is intended to rely on small, qualitative user tests. Participants would use the coaster in desk-based work scenarios and reflect on their experience afterward.

The evaluation would focus less on performance metrics and more on experiential questions:

  • Was the reminder perceived as intrusive?
  • Did it remain in the periphery until needed?
  • How did it compare emotionally to phone-based reminders?

These observations are expected to inform whether the concept successfully embodies calm interaction.

Conceptual Comparison: Coaster vs. App

As part of the analysis, the smart coaster will be conceptually compared to traditional drinking reminder apps. While apps centralize interaction on a screen, the coaster distributes interaction into the environment. This comparison serves to highlight how tangible interfaces and ubiquitous computing shift responsibility from the user to the surrounding system.

Outlook

By planning the smart coaster as both a technical prototype and a research artifact, the project aims to explore how calm technology principles can be operationalized in everyday objects. The focus remains on how interaction feels, rather than how much functionality is added — reinforcing the idea that sometimes, the most effective technology is the one that stays quietly in the background.

References:
  • Weiser, M., Seely Brown, J. (1995): “Designing Calm Technology“, Xerox PARC
  • Weiser, M., Seely Brown, J. (1996): “The Coming Age of Calm Technology“, Xerox PARC
  • Case, A. (2015): “Calm Technology: Principles and Patterns for Non-Intrusive Design“
  • https://calmtech.com
  • Human-Centered Design nach ISO 9241-210:2019

AI Assistance Disclaimer:

AI tools were used to improve grammar and phrasing. The ideas, examples, and content remain entirely the author’s own.

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

Finding our way without rushing 10/10

#slowness #slowliving #slowinteraction #digitalcalm #calmtechnology #navigation #urbanexperience

[1] Photo by Margo Vorobeva

Most modern navigation tools are optimized for one goal: efficiency.
The fastest route. The shortest time. The fewest obstacles.

But cities are not just systems for getting around. They are places to experience, observe, and gradually build relationships with. And our movement through them shapes our sense of connection — or alienation.

I imagine a different type of navigation. One that adapts not only to geography, but also to people.

What if a map asked not only where you want to go, but also how you want to feel along the way?

🗺️ A map that takes into account:

⭐ your mood (calm, curious, tired, sociable);
⭐ your time (a quick walk or a day off);
⭐ your preferences (parks, cafes, quiet streets, shops, dog-friendly routes etc.);
⭐ and your familiarity with the city.

💡 Instead of constantly directing you along the same optimized routes, the system could gently suggest alternatives:

👉 a longer route through the park when you need to slow down;
👉 a street you’ve never walked down before;
👉 a neighborhood you usually pass by, but never visit;
👉 a café along the way when the time seems right.

This wouldn’t remove choice — it would expand it.
Multiple routes. Different rhythms. Clear intentions.

*Video is AI generated

Research by Gregory D Clemenson already shows that the way we navigate affects how we remember places and how focused we are on what is happening. Clear step-by-step instructions can reduce spatial awareness and personal engagement with the environment, while more exploratory or sensory forms of navigation promote cognitive mapping and concentration. [2]

Urban theorists such as Jan Gehl have long argued that cities should be designed with human experience in mind—for walking, stopping, observing, and staying—rather than solely for high throughput and speed. However, digital navigation often pulls us in the opposite direction. [3]

In large cities such as Vienna, London, New York, or Moscow, it is easy to live in a very small personal world:

🏠 home → 🖥️ work → ☕ favorite café → 🛍️ supermarket

Entire neighborhoods remain unknown, even after many years of living there. A slow, adaptive navigation system could gently open up these worlds. Not by forcing detours, but by inviting them.

I want to explore this idea in more detail: to develop a navigation interface that prioritizes quality of movement over speed, awareness over automation, and choice over control.

A map that doesn’t rush you to your destination,
but helps you build a relationship with the city along the way.

💚Thank you!💚

Sources 🛈

[1] Mobile photo: Movement. 35AWARDS Photography Contest. Best of Contest, Viewer’s Choice, Top 35. Photographer: Margo Aleksandrovna Vorobeva. Available at: https://35awards.com/page/contests/num/743

[2] Rethinking GPS navigation: creating cognitive maps through auditory cues. Scientific Reports, 2021. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8032695

[3] Gehl, J. Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. Island Press, 2011. Available at: https://cus.ubt-uni.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Jan-Gehl-Life-Between-Buildings_-Using-Public-Space-2011-Island-Press.pdf

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

Slowness in Navigation: How Maps Shape the Way We Move 9/10

#slowness #slowliving #slowinteraction #digitalcalm #calmtechnology #navigation #urbanexperience

Most navigation tools are built around one promise: get me there fast. The “best” route is usually the shortest, fastest, or most efficient. And, as with many digital products, this default value subtly trains us to behave in a certain way: we start moving through places rather than being in them.

This article looks at maps as interfaces that design movement. Not just in apps, but in cities too. When a system optimizes speed, it changes what we pay attention to, how we feel while traveling, and what we remember afterward.

🤔 Why this matters (beyond convenience)

❗ Your attention narrows: you follow instructions rather than your surroundings.
❗ Exploration slows down: you stop noticing landmarks, textures, narrow streets, and “micro-attractions.”
❗ Stress builds up: constant updates and the “keep moving” logic can feel like pressure—similar to how notifications increase the sense of urgency in digital life.

🚶‍➡️ Maps as “pace setters”

When using turn-by-turn navigation, you delegate some of the tasks of orientation and decision-making. Research in the field of navigational assistance has raised concerns that clear directions may reduce the effectiveness of spatial learning (you reach your destination, but remember less information about the route).

This is the key question of “slow living” in navigation:

Do we need a tool that simply takes us from point A to point B, or one that helps us connect with the place?

“…current GPS apps (based on turn-by-turn navigation) promote a passive form of navigation that does not support learning or the formation of cognitive maps.” — Microsoft Research, Redmond (2021) [1]

🗺️ Comparing map logics (what each app “optimizes for”)

1. Google Maps [2]

👉 Key principle: efficiency + accessibility for all


Advantages:
➕Extremely efficient A→B routing, multimodal options, reliable POI database.

Designed for quick decision-making: “best route,” “fastest route,” “leave now.”

Disadvantages:
➖The “fastest” approach may dominate, even if you have time.
➖Research is present, but it is secondary to speed (you can explore, but the interface pushes you toward achieving your goal).

2.Yandex Maps [3]

👉 Key principle: city management + detailed urban practicality (Russian cities)

Advantages:
➕ Often very detailed dense urban development: entrances, public transport logic, accurate location determination.
➕ The feeling of “the city as a system”: created for everyday travel in difficult conditions.

Disadvantages:
➖ As a rule, it supports a functional rhythm focused on daily travel: fast, straightforward, problem-solving.

3.Mapy.cz [4]

👉 Key principle: outdoor recreation + hiking/walking/cycling culture

Advantages:
➕ Great for hiking as an activity, not just a means of transportation.
➕ Offline-oriented logic and detailed route information encourage exploration and the creation of longer routes.

Specific example: Mapy.cz emphasizes offline maps and convenient route planning as a key set of features (especially useful for hiking, trekking, and traveling).

Disadvantages:
➖ The product “expects” you to wander. This expectation alone changes the pace.

Let’s compare the same place — the city center of Vienna — across different map interfaces:

Google maps
Yandex maps
Mapy.cz

🙋 Why would “slow navigation” be optimized?

If we rewrite the criteria for success, we get a different interface:

Instead of: the fastest route
Try: a peaceful route / an interesting route / a safe route / an accessible route / a shaded route / a scenic route

Slow navigation could purposefully include:
👉 landmarks (parks, observation decks, cafes) as key elements of the route
👉 rest stops (benches, quiet places, small squares) as part of the journey
👉 a gentle choice instead of one “best” route (3 moods, not 3 minutes)

This is directly related to the city: if streets are shared spaces, design should not only serve drivers and speed.

Sources 🛈

[1] Rethinking GPS navigation: creating cognitive maps through auditory cues. Scientific Reports. 2021. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8032695

[2] Google Maps.Google LLC. Available at: https://www.google.com/maps

[3] Yandex Maps. Yandex LLC. Available at: https://yandex.com/maps

[4] Mapy.cz. Seznam.cz, a.s. Available at: https://mapy.cz

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

The City as a Designed System: Architecture, Space, and Pace 8/10

#slowness #slowliving #slowinteraction #digitalcalm #calmtechnology

In my last three blog posts, I want to focus more on the city and the human experience in the city, the moments when we slow down and speed up, why this happens, and how design can shape our experience. In the last 10th blog post, I will describe an idea that came to me while using maps for traveling, hiking, and using maps in the three countries where I have lived.

Cities often have a default sense of urgency. We rush through the streets, quickly moving between buildings and rarely stopping unless there is a clear reason to do so. This feeling of acceleration is usually associated with modern lifestyles or digital technologies. However, long before the advent of smartphones and notifications, the city itself was already shaping the speed at which we move.

🏛️ Architecture as an Invisible Script

“First we shape the cities — then they shape us.” — Jan Gehl, Life Between Buildings (2011) [1]

Urban planning determines not only where we can go, but also how we get there. Wide, straight streets encourage continuous movement. Narrow sidewalks discourage lingering. Long building facades with minimal variation encourage visual scanning rather than observation. Even the absence of benches, ledges, or secluded corners suggests that stopping is not expected.

[2] Vester Voldgade, Copenhagen.

🤳🏾 Cities as Interfaces

From an interactive design perspective, a city can be viewed as an interface consisting of physical components:

👉 streets as navigation paths;
👉 intersections as points of interaction;
👉 buildings as visual landmarks;
👉 public spaces as potential places to pause — or missed opportunities.

As in digital systems, default settings matter. When urban space is designed primarily for efficiency, throughput, and movement, speed becomes the implicit norm. There is little friction, but also little invitation to linger.

Urban planner Kevin Lynch in his book “The Image of the City” emphasized how spatial clarity aids orientation and movement, but also warned that excessive legibility can turn a city into a mere transportation environment rather than a place where new experiences can be had.

[3] Urban Planning Elements: Kevin A. Lynch.

🏃‍♀️ Designing for Flow, Not Staying

Modern cities are increasingly optimizing flows: transportation efficiency, pedestrian capacity, visibility, and safety. While these goals are valid, they often result in spaces that are difficult to inhabit at a leisurely pace. Transitional areas—entrances, plazas, underpasses—are designed to move people through, not allow them to linger.

This logic stands in sharp contrast to alternative urban models such as the Cittaslow movement. The Cittaslow manifesto explicitly challenges acceleration as a default urban value, proposing a city designed not primarily for throughput, but for quality of everyday life. [4]

🦥 What is a Slowcity:

The Cittaslow manifesto contains seventy recommendations and obligations, the main ones being the following :

  • Enhancement of the historic urban heritage by avoiding the construction of new buildings.
  • Reduction of energy consumption.
  • Promotion of ecological technologies.
  • Multiplication of green spaces and leisure areas.
  • Cleanliness of the city.
  • Priority to public transport and other non-polluting transport.
  • Reduction of waste and development of recycling programs.
  • Increase in the number of pedestrian areas.
  • Development of local shops.
  • Development of community infrastructures and equipment adapted to the disabled and the various ages of life.
  • Development of a genuine participatory democracy.
  • Preservation and development of local customs and regional products.
  • Exclusion of GMOs.

🏎️ Pace as a Design Outcome

[5] Making Cities Slower… And Safer For All.

Speed in the city is rarely a personal choice. It is determined by structural decisions: street width, building density, visibility, and the presence or absence of places to rest. These elements together determine the rhythm of the city.

Understanding the city as a designed system helps shift the focus away from blaming individuals for driving too fast. Acceleration is often not a mindset—it is an architectural condition.

Speed in the city is rarely a personal choice. It is shaped by structural decisions embedded in street design and urban layout. When movement is prioritized over presence, speed becomes the default — even in spaces meant to be shared.

“City streets aren’t the sole domain of cars and their drivers. They’re also home to pedestrians of all ages, to cyclists, mobility scooter and wheelchair users, to groups of playing children, and mass transit passengers. They are shared spaces, which means they need to provide safety to all.” — Making Cities Slower and Safer for All, Forbes (2024) [6]

Sources 🛈

[1] Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. Jan Gehl. Island Press, 2011. Available at: https://cus.ubt-uni.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Jan-Gehl-Life-Between-Buildings_-Using-Public-Space-2011-Island-Press.pdf

[2] Vester Voldgade, Copenhagen. Massengale Blog. Available at: https://blog.massengale.com/2015/07/19/vester-voldgade/

[3] Urban Planning Elements: Kevin A. Lynch. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8OuADNE1EQ

[4] In Praise of Slowness: Let’s Slow Down the City! Citego. Available at: https://www.citego.org/bdf_fiche-document-1735_en.html

[5,6] Making Cities Slower and Safer for All. Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauriewinkless/2024/07/17/making-cities-slower-and-safer-for-all/

by jessica.schiller -

Calm Tech Institute Awards – Part I

As I started researching product examples that demonstrate how interactions could be designed in a calm and respectful way, I came across the Calm Tech Institute Awards. Through this initiative, the Calm Tech Institute recognizes products, services, and technologies that are designed according to the principles of calm technology. Products are evaluated through a 81-point criteria covering categories such as:

  • attention: Products are evaluated on how they work with (or against) human attention.
  • periphery: How does the product engage other senses through peripheral attention?
  • durability: How does the product break down? Does it offer support to customers in some way?
  • light: Does the product use warm lighting or harsh, blue lights?
  • sound: How does the product sound? For products with moving parts, what actions have been taken to prevent excess noise?
  • materials: What kinds of materials are used?

The award spans a wide range of product and service domains, including:

  • Smart Appliances
  • Transportation
  • Electronics
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Automotive
  • Health
  • Homes
  • Vacation Rentals
  • Museums
  • Education
  • Websites and Apps

This framework shifts the focus away from novelty and constant engagement, instead emphasizing thoughtful, human-centered design.

In this and the next blog entry, I want to take a closer look at some of the products that have received this award and explore how they translate calm technology principles into real-world design.

“Dreamie” by Hello Ambient

Last year’s highest certified product is a bedside sleep companion called Dreamie. The device is designed to reduce phone usage in the bedroom. A space that should ideally be reserved for rest and recovery. Looking at sleep behavior research from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), it quickly becomes clear why this is such a relevant use case for calm technology.

ccording to the AASM, 87% of adults keep a phone in their bedroom, and the majority of them report not getting enough sleep due to phone usage. Other studies show that just one hour of screen time after going to bed increases the likelihood of insomnia symptoms by more than 50%. Screen use at night is also associated with an average loss of 24 minutes of sleep. These numbers highlight a clear opportunity for a device that keeps technology present, but firmly in the background—supportive rather than disruptive.

Based on their research, the AASM recommends several habits to improve sleep quality:

  • Disconnect from devices at night
  • Leave your phone in another room
  • Follow a relaxing nighttime routine
  • Have a sleep schedule
  • Turn off push notifications

Dreamie, developed by Hello Ambient, directly addresses these recommendations and turns them into design requirements. Instead of asking users to rely on willpower alone, the device offers an alternative that fits naturally into existing bedtime routines.

At its core, Dreamie is more than a smart alarm clock—it is a carefully considered design solution. Recognizing how hard it can be to resist media consumption before sleep, the device provides calm, sleep-focused audio content. This creates a gentle alternative to scrolling through a bright, distraction-filled phone screen, helping users wind down rather than stay engaged.

In addition, Dreamie tracks sleep patterns without requiring wearable devices, reducing friction and discomfort. It also features a daylight-based alarm, which is widely considered to be a more natural and less jarring way to wake up compared to traditional sound alarms. Interactions are handled through tactile, physical controls, allowing for eyes-free adjustments in the dark—an intentional design choice that avoids bright screens and supports a calm, sleep-friendly environment.

Taken together, these features strongly align with calm technology principles. Dreamie avoids competing for attention, supports healthy sleep habits, and stays in the background when not needed—showing how research-driven insights and calm interaction design can address a widespread problem.

References:

AI Assistance Disclaimer:

AI tools were used to improve grammar and phrasing. The ideas, examples, and content remain entirely the author’s own.

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

Embodied Interaction: How the Body Influences Our Perception of Slowness 7/10

#slowness #slowliving #slowinteraction #digitalcalm #calmtechnology

UX and UI design is often viewed as a visual or cognitive discipline: layout, flows, clarity, usability.

However, every interaction with a digital service is also a physical experience. Users hold devices, move their fingers, adjust their posture, pause, breathe, and repeat gestures hundreds of times a day. The body is not an external factor, but the environment through which digital interaction takes place.

In the context of physical interaction, the main focus is on the physical layer of the user experience. This is especially important in “slowness”, as slowing down is not only perceived mentally or visually. It is felt through movement, tension, rhythm, and physical effort. Interfaces shape the behavior of the body — and, consequently, how time is perceived.

🤹‍♂️ The Body Inside Everyday Digital Services

Most everyday applications implicitly train the body to move quickly. Social media feeds encourage rapid scrolling, messaging apps reward instant responses, and productivity tools favor quick taps and minimal friction. These models may optimize efficiency, but they also accelerate the body’s rhythm:

Fingers move faster, attention shifts more frequently, and interactions become reactive.

[1] Lived Customer Experience

👋 Slow Gestures as UX Decisions

Gesture design is a powerful time management tool. When interaction is based on slow or prolonged gestures, it naturally discourages impulsive use.

Examples:

👉Long press instead of instant tap — requires a decision, not a reflex.
👉Holding to confirm actions — prevents accidental behavior.
👉Gradual unfolding of interactions — unfolds over time rather than ending instantly.

“A delayed button press is not just about waiting — it’s about signalling intention and providing feedback that connects the user’s body to the system. It creates a moment for the user to feel the interaction, rather than skim through UI elements without awareness.” — Lodestar Design [2]

👻 Tactile interaction and physical presence

Touch is not just a means of input, it carries emotional and temporal meaning. Touching, pressing, sliding, or holding are felt differently by the body, and interfaces that take this difference into account create a greater sense of stability.

Meditation and journaling apps often use this approach, avoiding aggressive touch navigation in favor of smooth transitions and prolonged touchscreen interaction.

A good example is the Calm [3] app, where respond smoothly to touch duration and pressure, that creates a stronger sense of presence. Instead of treating input as abstract commands, they treat it as physical engagement.

🏃 Movement-based feedback and body rhythm

Movement plays a key role in how the body interprets digital feedback. Abrupt animations signal urgency and demand attention. Smooth, gradual movements better match natural physical expectations.

Calm motion-based feedback:

👉 reduces startle response;
👉 supports continuity rather than interruption;
👉 mirrors the dynamics of physical processes in the real world.

Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines emphasize motion that feels “natural and respectful of user focus”, especially in transitions and state changes. This approach helps interactions feel less mechanical and more embodied.

“Aim for brevity and precision in feedback animations. When animated feedback is brief and precise, it tends to feel lightweight and unobtrusive.” — Apple Human Interface Guidelines, Motion [4]

⏸️ Pauses, Stillness, and Physiological Effects

Continuous interaction keeps the body in a state of readiness. Interfaces that never pause encourage shallow breathing and constant micro-movement. In contrast, designs that allow stillness — screens that wait, moments without animation, interactions without immediate feedback — create space for physiological regulation.

Some focus and writing tools deliberately avoid real-time notifications or visual noise, allowing users to remain physically settled for longer periods.

Good example is iA Writer, which minimizes interface elements to reduce physical and cognitive agitation.

📢 Why Embodied Interaction is important in UX/UI design

Without taking the body into account, slow design risks becoming superficial—calm visual effects are superimposed on fast, demanding interaction models. True slowness arises when visual, cognitive, and physical rhythms are aligned.

Designing with embodiment in mind means designing with how services are actually used, not just how they look on screens.

Sources 🛈

[1] Phenomenology and CX: Designing for Lived Experience in a Digital World. New Metrics. Available at: https://www.newmetrics.net/insights/phenomenology-and-cx-designing-for-lived-experience-in-a-digital-world/

[2] Process Doc: Micro Interactions of a Delayed Button Press. Lodestar Design (Medium). Available at: https://medium.com/@lodestar-design/process-doc-micro-interactions-of-a-delayed-button-press-456d7bcfb0b3

[3] Calm: Meditation, Sleep, and Relaxation App. Calm.com. Available at: https://www.calm.com/

[4] Motion — Human Interface Guidelines. Apple Developer. Available at: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/motion/

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

Temporal Experience in UX: How Interfaces Shape Our Sense of Time 6/10

#slowness #slowliving #slowinteraction #digitalcalm #calmtechnology

In UX design, time is almost never neutral.


Even if an interface is designed to be “fast,” it still actively influences the perception of time: as pressure, flow, anticipation, boredom, or calm. Users don’t perceive milliseconds — they perceive moments. In this sense, every interface is also a temporal system.

From a technical perspective, time is rather an objective parameter. Loading takes a certain number of seconds, animations have a fixed duration, and interactions can be measured and optimized. From a human perspective, time is definitely subjective and variable. The same interaction can be perceived as rushed or relaxed depending on how it is structured, presented, and built. UX design is not just a process that occurs over time — it creates a sense of time.

Waiting Is a Designed Experience

Waiting is often treated as a failure state, something to hide or minimize. Yet waiting is one of the most emotionally charged temporal moments in UX.

The loading moment may sometimes feel:

👉 stressful and uncertain;
👉 neutral and unnoticeable;
👉 or calm and exciting.

This depends not so much on duration as on meaning. Progress indicators, language, movement, and visual rhythm all influence whether waiting is perceived as wasted time or purposeful preparation. When waiting is well structured, users tolerate it better—sometimes they hardly notice it.

“Show people what’s taking so long and they’ll be more satisfied. Sometimes they even *prefer a longer waiting time with information over a bland progress bar that is twice as fast because they know what to expect.” — Sanne Eikelboom [1]

Micro-Interactions Create Temporal Rhythm

“Micro-interactions are small but crucial elements that enhance user experience (UX). They offer intuitive cues and turn routine tasks into enjoyable moments. Learn about their significance in modern UX design through examples and best practices. Understand how these subtle interactions contribute to more engaging and intuitive digital environments.”[2]

[3] Micro-interactions to delight your users: what, when and how.

Micro-interactions shape our perception of the interface:

👉reactive or thoughtful;
👉hasty or deliberate;
👉demanding or forgiving.

Temporary perception arises not from a single animation, but from the accumulated rhythm of interaction.

Compression and fragmentation of time

Many digital products compress time by eliminating pauses and natural stopping points. Infinite scrolling, autoplay, and algorithmic sequencing contribute to continuous movement.

“The infinite scroll is just another one of these addictive design features … I often find myself … scrolling through recommended feeds on YouTube and Netflix for minutes on end, only to give up and not watch anything because nothing seems interesting. … You scroll. And scroll and scroll and scroll.” — Grant Collins [4]

The result is not only faster consumption, but also a disruption of the sense of time:

👉 users feel constantly active;
👉 but rarely feel present in the moment;
👉 and time passes without a clear memory of how it was spent.

Speed here does not equal efficiency — the opposite, it often leads to fatigue.

Making Time Visible Again

Some interfaces take the opposite approach: time is displayed rather than hidden. When users see the duration, progress, or boundaries of a session, they regain awareness and control over the situation.

“Showing elapsed time … accentuates the passing of each and every second and minute. When we show elapsed time, psychologically it is a bit of torture for the user and it accentuates the passing of each and every second and minute.” — Chris Kiess [5]

Examples include:

👉 a clear beginning and end;
👉 a summary of events or reflections on time;
👉 explicit pauses instead of endless continuation.

Visuality transforms time from something fleeting into something users can interact with and control.

When time becomes visible, interaction shifts from passive consumption to purposeful engagement. Users are no longer absorbed by a continuous default stream—they are given the opportunity to decide whether to continue, pause, or stop. Visibility transforms time from an invisible resource consumed by users into a shared reference point that they can understand and manage.

Sources 🛈

[1] Loading UX: Make Users Not Care About Having to Wait. UX Design. Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/loading-ux-make-users-not-care-about-having-to-wait-c3b02a0220b5

[2] Micro-Interactions in UX. Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/micro-interactions-ux

[3] Micro-interactions to delight your users: what, when and how. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgrkV_hJdJw

[4] Why the Infinite Scroll Is So Addictive. UX Design (UX Collective). Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/why-the-infinite-scroll-is-so-addictive-9928367019c5

[5] Expressing Time in UI & UX Design: 5 Rules…and a few other things. Prototypr. Available at: https://blog.prototypr.io/expressing-time-in-ui-ux-design-5-rules-and-a-few-other-things-eda5531a41a7