The Market of Breath: A design strategy to productize breathwork meditation through tactile vibrations

Keeping a healthy work/life balance can be a daunting task in today’s overstimulated society. For many of us, a regular day can feel like running on a treadmill. This results in fast, restricted and shallow breathing throughout the day. Whereas, the right breathing rhythm can have a profound impact on our (mental) well being and overall happiness. It is argued that habituating deep breathing exercises is a promising solution to increase stress resilience. This explorative study aims to find a productisable solution for habituating breathwork meditation. The proposed solution (Sensescape) is supported with a novel, yet ‘grounded’ theory. The working principle of the product is validated with several small scale user tests and experiments. Furthermore, market potential was explored via market analysis, business modelling and strategic roadmapping. It is argued that Sensescape is able to differentiate itself from the competition by building a closed-loop-system in horizon 2 and a focus on first-responders in horizon 3. A brand identity was crafted based on those insights. Sensescape, is a handheld meditation device to guide breathing, through haptic and light feedback. Soothing vibrations will bounce between two handheld pulsators, to orchestrate the right breathing pattern. This will help you to ‘get out of your head’ and unwind from everyday stress. On top of that, the immersive tactile effect will naturally grab your attention and sustain focus during a meditative session. An extensive literature review was performed on the areas of neural entrainment, tactile vibrations, rumination and the art of breathing. These areas formed the foundation for the building of the novel grounded-theory. It was found that; bilateral tactile phantom sensations lead to easy neural entrainment. This phenomenon is exploited in the working principle of the product to create a natural point of focus. The physical sensations will help disrupt negative thought flow. Through some experimental sound engineering and an iterative approach, soothing phantom vibrations were designed. The user experience was shown in a live demonstration. See video here: https://youtu.be/VfWNLbKRofIStrategic Product Desig