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After finishing the last unit2 tutorial with Sasha, I realized that my project is still very flexible in interventions that can be extended. I can try as many as possible when time permits. Among them, I think the most worthwhile trial is sending the door-to-door approach is the most reasonable way to help busy people working at home.

I have considered online or offline workshops before, but one of the fatal problems is how to get busy people to spare a lot of time to cooperate with me. Sasha gave suggestions for kit delivery, which I think is very suitable, so I tried this plan afterward. In addition to this method, some short video guidelines can be uploaded online or targeted publicity in specific online work communities. Later, these can also be used in my project, but these two strategies involve more advertising. In terms of promotion, I think I can consider this possibility in advance in unit3. During unit2，I contacted about six influencers or experts about nature or meditation to help. I mainly do my test with some people I already know who work at home and cannot coordinate work and life well, and there are more home study cases among classmates; I can also try to involve my classmates in my experiment in the unit2 final stage.

The process of Relaxing board kit

1.First, I contacted five target users and asked them to choose two photos. After receiving them, I began to prepare materials. (Before this step, I purchased the required materials online)

2.I placed a printed photo, introduction card, a few pieces of double-sided tape, and a6 whiteboard card in each kt.

3.This is an experiment, so I went to deliver the card on my own.

4.After receiving the card, everyone will go home to make it and place it for short-term visualization exercises in the work/home process.

The feedback

I tried to collect some feedback from the audience on the project. Below I will sort out the pros and consI tried to collect some feedback from the audience on the project. Below I will sort out the pros and cons.

Strength:

1. The effect of pictures taken by yourself is better and will make people more immersive.
2. The experience after closing the eyes is better so that distractions can be avoided, and there will be a feeling of inner peace, one people think which is more conducive to better involvement in the next thing.
3. In general, the effect of the physical object is better. Whether it has been delivered or placed alone, these are real experiences.

Weakness:

1. Some people have developed the habit of taking a rest when they are exhausted. This isn’t easy to adjust. At this time, the relaxing board will appear deliberate because people have the most psychologically urgent way to rest, such as lying down and just letting go. But trying to close your eyes when you are relatively relaxed is indeed very effective.
2. Some people think that sometimes being next to her at work will distract her, but when she wants to take a break, she will relax when she sees it.
3. It is difficult to leave people with deep memories in the process of dissemination. It is challenging to achieve without a perfect advertising package and people’s consciousness.

Others:

1. One person mentioned that it is more effective to use photos with a longer time distance because there will be more room for reverie.
2. One person mentioned that the current environment is the best hook for visualization when a person feels relaxed; at that moment, the relaxing board is not essential.

After getting feedback from everyone, people agree with the method worked well, but there are some questions about when to watch the relaxing board. One of the following most significant questions is making my target audience accept this effective way and be willing to participate.

At the same time, one person mentioned that she might need to solve more is psychological procrastination. I think people’s attitudes may come from social pressure or the possibility of being evaluated and rejected; this is people’s solution to face to there pressure; working so harder and don’t take rest is some other people’s solution to their stress, these two kinds of ways are all not worked well, so I think the next step I could also try to help people think about where the stress original come from and how to pay attention to these unhealthy coping styles. This could be a good following of realxing board because its soft fascination could make more reflective thinking. So it’s also a problem how could relaxing board or the visualisation idea worked more meaningful.

I begin to design the rule of my relaxing board, from before’s interview, the influencers think the scene need to show the main elements clear , like grass, river, or sky, but don’t need to show more specific things like a festival or a conspicuous and unique building .

Here are the steps I designed

1. First, elect some pictures in the album that can make you feel relaxed, but these pictures are best not to be too detailed pictures that others can see to know the clear time and place.
2. Print out the two selected pictures and paste them on a card or board of appropriate size (different from person to person), and write a message reminding you to take a break on the board, such as: Do you want to take a break?
3. Place the card in the field of vision in the office area. When you see and think that you need to take a break, associate the elements in the picture scene and close your eyes for visualization exercises. After a short period, you can quickly switch your attention and do other things you want.

Here’s my relaxing board, I bought a small print equipment for this and try to carry it outdoor and do the test with more people, but after I realised this is for people who work remotely, I think it’s better to hold some workshop for a specific group. 

I have already shared the intervention with five stakeholders, and I will try to find more people to participate and get feedback.

Now the most important problem is, how could it attract me at a suitable time?? It worked, but I need it woked maybe eight times a day, but now I only could notice it four times.

After do more research about visualisation, I find they always have a clear guide for audience.

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/visualization

I begin to do more research about visualization and meditation, and I find about a vision board; the below two articles hold different opinions, most people support it, but some people think it will make people waste time, in my opinion, the fast-developing business environment totally controls them, dreaming is a shame for them.

Anyway, the original idea of this is to encourage people to work hard and get energy, but my opinion is to let people slow down for a while and just enjoy; our aim is different, so my next intervention name will not be vision board, it may be relaxing board.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-scientific-reason-why_b_6392274

After collecting relevant images and pictures of people, I can try to build a community. Corona Flower Show is a good reference.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/514407705870153

I found some infuluencers in some social medias, introduced my project and asked some questions.

Four influencers have responded about the message, it includes different countries. Some of them mentioned hypnosis and meditation. This is the point that inspired me the most. But when I conveyed the relevant concepts to the audience, I found that everyone would have subjective ideas, so I tried to propose a brand new one. The concept of is more important. Maybe I need to learn a lot from hypnosis, meditation, or creative visualization, but this requires new packaging.

https://www.headspace.com

About the link, it looked good, and the promotion was also clear and exciting, but it’s still more about traditional ways.

And also an influencers mentioned about a book that meditation could involve in many kinds of daily activity.

But after these exchanges, I found that most people will also say that the theoretical content they have learned is relatively not so much; most teaching is based on practical things. This is also because the users who actively come to them already know what they want; the clear demand may also be based on high-quality promotional content ( from the influencers). So I still need to consider how to promote the project better.

I think this is the topic I changed after many interventions and research, so my idea is to use mediation to let people think about a scene that could make them feel relaxed; this is motivation’s visualization. The motivation is for relaxation.

I plan to let my target audiences prepare 3-5 different scenes to make themselves feel relaxed, give them enough time to write them down, and try to lie down and imagine one of the scenes when they are tired from work and study.

About engagement part I can think of a way to set up a forum for target audiences to share hobbies and scenarios that let them relax. These could be separated into two fascinations: hard and soft. People can choose and refer to, exchange or draw inspiration according to their own needs.

If I still think that this plan is feasible later, I will collect enough effective stories or scenes and start it. I think padlet is a suitable carrier.

After research, I find this method already exists.

https://www.verywellmind.com/visualization-for-relaxation-2584112

Anyway, I get some feedback from the lying visualisation meditation

1. There will indeed be a feeling of relaxation. A short-term meditation in a comfortable posture is delightful when people open their eyes at the end.
2. Most people say it is not suitable for intense and messy relaxing scenes such as shopping or sports, but one people say it’s fine to think about some gently sports, one other say the scene no need to be so real that have experienced before , recalling the specific experience scene will also be mixed with a lot of unnecessary interference.
3. The hard thing is how to get into the condition; one people say if he get it already, he can stay in the state when others talk to him.
4. The text description is a bit blunt, and it is difficult for people to feel relaxed at the moment they see it.
5. Sometimes it makes people feel incomplete, thinking that the planning is very random, and it is difficult to invest or expect results.

After all the feedback collecting, I realised I need more professional opinions and I will do some talking with people who worked in the field (meditation and visualisation) and design the third test about visualisaiton.

The main purpose of this interview is to know people’s preference for involuntary attention and directed attention, soft and hard fascination, and think about the influence of hobbies on people’s attitudes. I get 10 people’s response of these questions.

A. In the state of working and studying alone for a long time, how do you take breaks more often? (Or not among the four), why?

1. I always realize or make myself aware that I should take a break at some point. When I think I should take a break, I will do something that I know is good for me, even if it is mechanized or uninteresting, such as eating a fruit, Close your eyes for a while or move your limbs and look out the window for a bit.
2. I always realize or make myself aware that I should take a break at some point, and I have something I want to do, such as playing games, musical instruments, or chasing dramas. I use this as my motivation to rest. When I feel that I need a break, I will do something targeted at a certain point.
3. I usually don’t think about whether I need to rest, but sometimes I could be avoided by some usual small things. For example, people chatting outside the window are loud, and the mobile phone pops up some daily news that I am not interested in.
4. I usually don’t think about whether I need to take a break. Still, sometimes there are surprises or exciting news that are not related to work, such as receiving a courier I bought for me, and seeing related consultation pop-ups about things in my area of ​​interest, etc.

B. Is there any other way in the four choices you want to try?

C. How do you judge whether it is time to take a break during work and study?

D. Would you please describe a scene that makes you feel relaxed when you take a break during work?

About question A, all people chose 2 and 3. Question B tended to be the most inclined to 4. As for question 3, people generally experienced mental and physical fatigue, and there was no clear method.

CONCLUTION:

1. All people tend to cooperate with comfortable postures, such as playing mobile phones, watching TV shows, and emptying, mainly lying down.
2. Some people think they have no problems with rest; they usually have clear interests, including watching clear types of videos or news.
3. At present, most people usually get the rest signal from the body’s discomfort; people are more willing to get a signal instead of mastering and calculating time by themselves.

So now the question is divided into two parts. One part is to help some people find things or areas of interest, and the other part is that everyone needs a signal to remind them to rest.

At the same time, I found that the four ways for people to take a short rest are: meditation, napping, doing short time exercise, and snacking. At present, it seems that all people prefer to napping. I think I could try to combine napping’s posture and meditation with the scene people prefer， the scene’s part is based on attention restoration , I want to try can this method divert people’s attention?

Reference:

https://positivepsychology.com/attention-restoration-theory/

Many articles on the Internet mentioned that the best way to alleviate numbness at work is to divert attention. Doing another job in time will also have a good mitigation effect. I remain skeptical about this, but the point of diversion and attention restoration theory. It fits well, and I decided to conduct further study and research on attention restoration theory.

One Chinese article about best rest way is doing different things, not sleeping https://www.jianshu.com/p/d5462b7afe2f

This link is about attention restoration theory https://positivepsychology.com/attention-restoration-theory/,In fact, ART has a very deep connection with nature, but this is not inevitable. What impresses me most is that  two kinds of fascination：

I think the soft part is very consistent with what I try to do with nature before, but I still need to study and explore people’s tendency towards soft and hard in the working time.

After some intervention with some friends, I realize a problem. If people want to take the initiative to take a break, more importantly, they need to have a desire to take a break. This requires people to clearly know the rest content that is interesting or meaningful to them. Otherwise, it is difficult for this kind of behavior to generate initiative. Therefore, the content problem needs to be solved first about the order of rest initiative and rest content.

But I found that people have not compared active and passive mental rest（all about body rest）, so I think I can try to compare the experience and effects of people’s rest under different restricted conditions, this could be done with some people already know what kind of rest way suitable to them.

This can be interviewed by people who have no rest and psychological pressure problems during homework. Ask them how they take the initiative to rest and how they perceive the difference between passive and active rest.

https://thrivehealthhk.com/blog/2020/1/10/active-vs-passive-recovery-which-should-you-use

1. Many nature companies design products or design concepts and convince everyone through packaging (no need to do the test now, but it could be used and tested in the promotion of my project)
2. Technophobilia (no need to test, just reference)
3. Attention restoration, creating small intervals (how could the breaks be made more friendly? )
4. To solve 3, Surprises and bonus system (How to design and test?)
5. The general content is difficult to resonate with, and it is necessary to create links with people’s personalities (worthy of verification, compare public’s and personal’s)
6. Some real views did not work better than abstract things (it is worth verifying, compare the actual image/video/sound and the abstract representative)
7. Stress and surveillance make it difficult for some people to take the initiative to rest when alone (Will it be effective to reduce people’s sense of stress and strengthen their sense of freedom? How to do it？)

In the end, I changed a little of my intervention; after I ask about people’s relaxing ways, I try to let people close their eyes to think about a scene that could make them feel relax. 

About the first part, there’s two helpful feedback: 

1. People have a lot of ideas about the way of rest. The reason why my previous guidance is difficult to work occasionally is mainly that everyone already has a way that suits them.
2. It is difficult for people to realise when there are many ways to rest. But in previous experiments, people didn’t like the alarm clock way, so what people lack is active motivation; this part can be more connected with the reward mechanism.

About the second part:

1. It is difficult for people to think of a scene in a short time(20s). Maybe this is still tension caused by the lack of freedom, but excessive space is also undesirable. It is important to find the middle balance.
2. When people start thinking, they can think of blankness, pure blankness, or the feeling of a roller coaster. I think this is related to the vision when the eyes are closed because the moment when the eyes are closed is such a scene.

Based on the above information, I have some new questions:

1. How to integrate the reward mechanism and interactivity more into the project so that everyone can be proactive
2. Is blankness a scene that relaxes everyone? Or is it just that the darkness in front of us makes everyone have a similar association? How to create a better visual guide?
3. Now, the concept of nature has gradually changed into a scene where people can resonate. My research before about nature has been combining branding, digitalisation and synesthesia. This is not a study of pure nature itself, but more of a study of nature’s healing effects on everyone. Is it time to discover a more accurate description?