Interaction - Bachelor

Ripple Touch

TouchRipple is an immersive mindfulness web tool designed to explore somatic therapy principles through tactile, visual and auditory interactions to provide users with anxiety a resource that allows for autonomous emotional regulation.

Sanda Popovic

concept development

The unpredictability of user autonomy for individuals with anxiety has severe implications and self-awareness is hindered when dysregulating from emotional distress. Therefore, the challenge when designing for health is not designing to solve the issue, but rather promoting inclusive design to ensure these young adults are effectively supported through their management journey (Stein, Stanford & Rowland, 2020; Finck et al., 2023).

As humans, our sensory filter works overtime to consciously process only 5%, while the remaining 95% struggle to be filtered out leading to sensory overwhelm. Somatic therapy recognises emotional dysregulation associated with psychological stresses that are stored in the body, with a focus on reinforcing mind-body connection to regain agency when emotional dysregulated. The benefit of these therapy practices has demonstrated that the individual does not need to rely on verbal processes to alleviate stressed emotions but instead focus on kinetic movements that are integrated into daily routines ‌(Anastassopoulos et al., 2010; Bhattacharya & Hofmann, 2023). This effectively reinforces the relationship between resource building and routine to encourage the user to develop an autonomous skillset when managing emotional imbalances caused by anxiety.

Image of man facing away and sitting in a meditation pose. Sensory Research conducted through tactile interaction zones, multi-sensory integration, resistance interaction and contextual awareness.

Contextualisation

The purpose of building toolkits for young adults suffering anxiety conditions is to enable them with resources and education to assist them with regulating their emotions autonomously and becoming more self-aware ‌(Honinx, 2025; Xie, 2025). It establishes healthy routines and habits to develop interpersonal skills and self-management skills (Fang, 2025). However, while many individuals are aware of certain pain points or triggers, this can also be overlooked and loss of control for an individual’s autonomy sets in during a state of anxiety (Stein, Stanford & Rowland, 2020). Psychosocial mental health management is quite complex and is different for each individual, therefore, solutions must be flexible for the user to determine the agency (Anastassopoulos et al, 2010).

Interactive Components

The prototype was coded using a p5.js sketch with Javascript and is conceptualised as a immersive experience to promote mindful habits. The exploration of interaction that reflect grounding, breath awareness and biophilic design stimuli were engaged through the process to reinforce a supportive environment through the experience.

The premise of the interactivity is derived from kinetic hand movements where the tracking from the camera captures the user’s behaviour and translates it into the sketch. At its core, somatic therapy principles have been integrated to conceptualise mind-body awareness and instil grounding to guide sensory processing to restore emotional balance. Therefore, within my prototype I explored how these techniques can be utilised through tactile and immersive experiences as a resource building toolkit to assist in emotional regulation management.

User Testing

A particular challenge when designing for health is encapsulating the vast needs of the users you are designing for. Therefore, the goals when testing this prototype is refining that sensory elements are not overstimulating:

Are users overstimulated or soothed by the sensory elements?
How might the experience be improved to enhance calm and immersion?
Do users understand what to do when they approach the prototype?
Does the visual-sound-somatic principles feel natural and calming?
Does the ‘breathing pulse’ rhythm communicate relaxation?
Qualitative testing was the main goal to establish the user experience with the prototype. As the prototype explore various theories and health practices, I did ensure before initiating user-testing that the user was provided a brief on specific objectives as well as defining various somatic practices and techniques. It was important the brief did not focus too much detail into the interaction methods but instead highlighted the essential details. However, given the immersive nature of the experience, the main objective is to gauge the user’s interpretation of their agency with the prototype.

Ripple touch – faqS

View Prototype

Sanda Popovic

Sanda is an aspiring Brisbane Designer who also specialises in UX Design & Marketing and is passionate about the theories and concepts surrounding Co-Design for Health. She is excited to initiate insightful marketing and communication campaigns for purposeful impact.