Peng Cheng on how we can improve our learning experience with design

Lawrence Geo Live, Thьюyget, StğpelinMotion, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was excellent. I can't wait to meet this superstar. Please give a huge round of applause to Pan, Heline, and Chris. Hello, everyone. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Good. So I can actually start without the slides, so I will just start now. I would like to, I'm very happy to be here and have the opportunity to share with you perhaps a new, so here is forward, backward. Okay. So I want to share with you perhaps a new angle of how we could design digital experiences. You know, we live in an incredible time where digital technologies are transforming every aspect of our life. We are connected to anywhere at any time, to anyone, soon will be to anything on this planet. This is really enriching and empowering, but it would be really a shame if we start to lose sight of the deeper values that make us human. And we know that consumptions and entertainment can bring us temporary pleasure, but what makes us happy is we have the energy to take responsibilities. We have the capacity to choose wisely and still have that presence for the relationship we truly cherish. This is really difficult to do in our daily life. And the Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, he has wrote in his influential book called The Soul is a Psychological Phenomenon. He wrote in the book, we create ourselves by how we invest our attention. And the way to happiness begin with the ability of paying attention at will. So if we think about paying attention at will is actually really hard to do in our daily life because there are just so much distractions out there. But also in here, right, our wandering mind, our thoughts, our feelings, our reactivities, that just, yeah, constantly distracting our focus. And there is the recent research unveiling that the attention span for a goldfish is nine seconds. And the attention span for an average human being in two seconds is nine seconds. You know? So, and that to me just explaining why there are so much fragmented information around us is because, you know, we have tweets, updates, short message, very nice, short video clips. It's because that's the only way they can capture our attention. If they designed a little bit longer, we would have turned our attention away. So, and many people start to blame is the mobile phone. It's, you know, it's the mobile phone's fault that make our life much more stressful and less concentrated. And I think it's an assumption worth questioning. I think as a designer and designers that we have the power and responsibility to make our lives better. I think it's the power and responsibility to turn that assumption around. It's because the core of that assumption is actually about how we design the mobile interaction. I'm sure all of you knows that, you know, this concept of natural user interface. That the interface is just so intuitive to use and then it disappears. So it's only between you and the data. With the touch screen, we have that. We're directly manipulating the data. And we have been designing mobile interaction to make it fast, efficient, and snappy. And, I mean, those are really powerful and right things to do. And for many, many things we do, right? But on the other hand, it also opens up another side which is we are extremely vulnerable to the unlimited amount of connectivity, stimulation, entertainment content around us. You know, we can be playing at our phones for minutes without even knowing it. It's just so intuitive. And it's become automatic. And there is research saying. The accident rate in playground is going up because the parents just not looking at their kids anymore. So, but hey, let's look at this piece of technology. It didn't tell us why we have to be really interacting in the fast and, you know, snapping way. Always, right? That's just one type of interaction style. We could do. So now I want to switch gears to talk about another possible interaction style. And how many of you knows Tai Chi? If you can raise your hand. Right. So Tai Chi is a Chinese magic-tive martial art form. That it moves the body in an extremely special way. That is completely different from everything else we do in our daily life. I can demonstrate it to you. So basically it can be categorized as, you know, really slow and continuous and gentle movement. So from moment to moment. So there is not a single point is it's breaking. So actually this kind of movement requires me to pay attention from moment to moment to sustain the moment itself. Otherwise it's going to break. So this kind of intentional focused movement is actually why Tai Chi has the calming effect to the mind and body. Because it's. So it's anchors the attention away from the stressful thoughts. It's actually most of the time is our thoughts make us stressful. So but how could we borrow that moving quality onto a mobile interaction? So I want to show you a video clip. That is the first prototype I made. And to show how it could work. This is an example of how to transfer Tai Chi movement quality onto the fingertip on a touch screen. To move a finger in a slow continuous gentle and repetitive way. It actually requires our attention from moment to moment to sustain it. So when I do that. The phone senses it. And it provides me a calming feedback. Because I would like to listen to this music. It motivates me to keep sustaining this action. But if my finger moves too fast. The music fades away. Because my attention has wandered away. So the music stopped. To remind me to bring the attention back. And when I do that again. The music starts again. So this is a interaction mechanism. So how to represent this kind of idea. So with the calming music feedback. This one actually really works to help people relax. And I can tell you. This is the very tool I built for myself. Get myself out of my depression. And I know it works. So after that I have sending out to many of my friends to test out. And all of them say hey this really really helped me. But none of them used the second time. So then I learned this is not a product. This is just a prototype. There is no user experience built around it. And to me it became clear. I need to build some really nice visual and audio feedbacks. That is both attractive and engaging. At the same time it is not stimulative to our mind. And I knew I need a partner. Luckily I found my perfect partner. It is the digital product studio. Us2. So I had the chance to work with it. And I had the chance to work with an amazing team of designer, artist and developer. To produce a mobile app together that we call POS. That I want to show you a video clip of how we made that together. Everything started with my own severe stress. And depression. And to the extent I couldn't work. So I have tried everything I could find. But only realized I have to participate into my own healing process. So I gave myself six months. I practically didn't do anything. But I meditated. I practiced Tai Chi. With only goal of staying in the here and now. As much as possible. And the key for my own healing process lied in myself. Most of stress only exists in our head. And absorbs all our attention. To break this pattern. I need to focus on what is physical and tangible. And actively put my attention in the moment. With this research. And my background in interaction design. I saw a unique approach of how interactive technology can help people with stress and depression. When Pause Paul contacted us. We were really excited about his unique approach. And pattern bending technique. We saw a massive opportunity to turn his scientific research into a digital experience. Using a rapid and iterative process. We soon landed on Pause. With Pause we have translated well-being and meditational practices. Into a beautiful and simple user experience. Throughout the process. We continuously tested Pause. By scanning brain activity. And it shows that Pause calms the active mind. And lowers the mental workload. Pause invites you to put attention onto something actually happening in the here and now. A simple action of moving your finger slowly, gently and continuously on the phone screen. And it rewards you with calming effects when you do so. Keep doing this action. And you will see that it effectively triggers the relaxation response in your body. To help you release stress. It also helps you quickly regain focus. The visuals and sounds in Pause help you stay in the moment. So if your mind wanders away. And you lose focus of your movement. The effects will also fade away. You could look at the visual process. As regrouping of your own energy and attention. And then you close your eyes. And listen to the calming sounds. That is where the real journey to relaxation begins. Pause makes stress relief super simple. It makes the act of voluntarily focusing attention. And engaging experience for the first time. I want everyone to discover their own power. To effectively release stress. And also want to demonstrate the potential. For a new dimension of relationships. Between technology, design and human well-being. So it's an incredible journey. Working with us two. To see how this idea. Combining with us two's open mind. And extremely professional skills. And turning into a lovable product and experience. And so we believe. Together we believe. We have really made a really simple. And effective tool for anyone. To take control of their stress. And energy at any time. So and then we have given this out. For different people to see. How this fit into their life. I want to show you two video clips. From interviews. The first one. Her name is Aldrin. And she's a busy professional. And so she talks about. How pause help her. I think that it was difficult for me. To leave work mentally. So after I left work. I still continue to think about it. What I need to finish tomorrow. And did I do well today. And is there anything you need. To carry on the next day. Yes. One more. That one. I see. And this is when I. Picked up the pulse. Yeah. And then. I did it on the way home. Because I am taking the train. Yeah. And it. It was incredibly helpful. Because it helped me. Yeah to relax. And leave work behind. And I think that is. One of the most important thing. You have to make sure. Yes. Because otherwise the personal life is also getting affected by the stress from work and all these thoughts. So then after that, I could really go and be a private person. So the next one is a boy, Christian, 13 years old. And so he talked about his own difficulty and challenge and how pause helped him. And of course, I got permission from both himself and his parents to show this video to you. Well, I had trouble finding reasons to do lots of the stuff that I get ideas from. And in a weird way, pause had kind of like motivates me kind of because I have like washed away all the bad stuff and made room for new stuff, which motivates me in a nice way. And with the new school and all that type of stuff, it's really been helping. But before that, um, uh, um, things weren't really going so well. It wasn't going well, both at home or at school. I had a lot of stress piled up, which caused me to quit some of my free time activities because I just didn't think I had the time to do it. I had too much on my mind. So it was just generically not a very good time for me at that moment. But the new school, and my daily ritual, what I do every day has really helped for me to come back to a lot of the things I like. So, would you describe this as a good circle now? It's a very good circle. Yeah. And you feel energized and happy? I feel like get out and play is kind of like what I would say. I, before I usually just sat on my bed and watch useless videos on my iPad, still in my underwear and they're feeling very, very filthy and bad. But, um, but now I feel like it feels like every time I use the app, I have taken a shower. My mind has just taken a shower. So, um, it makes room for ideas to get out and do something like go out and get berries to maybe mash them up and make a nice smoothie for your parents when they come home. Or go out, ask your friends if you want to play like dragons and warriors and stuff like that. So it just makes a lot of room for activities that I usually didn't have time for before. So, it's, it's really a gratifying experience to, you know, to, to know the insights from these users. And we know Paws will help many people. And so we are, so on behalf of both Pawsable and us too, we are very happy to announcing we are, so the Paws app will come into the iOS on the 8th of October. And so, we actually have a micro site, but it's not totally ready. The idea was to share with you now, but you can check later. So getpawsapp.com. So there you should be able to sign up. So we will be notifying you when you just go live. In the end, I want to share with you a quote from a Chinese philosopher, Confucius, who lived 2,500 years ago. So he said, when you are able to pause, you have stability. And when you have stability, you can be tranquil. When you are tranquil, you can be at ease. And when you are at ease, you can deliberate. And when you can deliberate, you can attain your aims. So that's why I call my company Pawsable. And the Paws app is just the first step. And I do have the app on my phone. Anyone interested, please come and try it. And I also very much look forward to talk to you and how we could work together to bring focus and calm to people's lives. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lina. Lina. Yeah, Lina Nernim. So should I press something? One second. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.