Object-mediated fidgeting (pen clicking, ring spinning, paper folding, etc.) is a pervasive and often unaware human behavior. Despite its prevalence, fidgeting has no consensus cause or effect in existing scientific literature. This graduation project seeks to operationalize fidgeting through and with design to enable affect self-regulation, or the recognition and modification of emotions and mood states. In particular, the Fidget Spheres concept and prototype aim to move users towards a “productive” mood state. Further, we consider the use context as traditional offices and higher education, in situations such as a lecture, conference meeting, quiet desk work, or a video call. Key project outcomes are “constructed” – both a physical prototype and future concept, but also a theoretical landscape of fidgeting.

The project began with a literature review, launching from the topics of “somaesthetics,” emotion, and interaction design. While somaesthetics is not the guiding principle for the final design concept and generated knowledge, it served as a vehicle to introduce many relevant topics, such as embodied interaction, extended cognition, implicit and explicit interaction, affective loops, and mind wandering. Research into these disparate domains, once synthesized, yielded key takeaways that informed concept directions and desired interaction characteristics for later development.

After acquiring a theoretical background, three research activities were conducted to better understand both fidgeting and affect. A three-person introspective experience scanning exercise yielded early insights about the intent of fidgeting. Next, analysis of a short-response survey on stress coping mechanisms revealed common mechanisms and strategies for affect self-regulation. Third, an intensive Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) was conducted on a large public data set of ‘Fidget Widgets’ and use descriptions. These study results, taken alongside the literature review, drive our theory of “Reflexive Focus Bounding” and the embodiment of the Fidget Spheres prototype and concept.

Concept directions were loosely explored before settling on “Fidget Spheres,” a set of handheld spherical fidget objects inspired by Chinese Baoding meditation balls. This simple and adaptable platform allows for future iteration and development of interaction and haptic feedback modes. The prototype was used to embody specific interactions with responsive vibration feedback and was evaluated by six participants in a focus group session. While prototype development was not finished during the project term, rich insights from literature, data analysis, and prototype testing were still sufficient to create the final concept vision for Fidget Spheres. The concept video details the use case, effects, and interaction characteristics for the envisioned and optimized Fidget Spheres.

This graduation project constructs both a fidgeting design space through synthesis of cross-disciplinary knowledge, and an embodied prototype to enable affect regulation through established ‘mindless’ or implicit fidgeting behavior. Future work can conduct more detailed analyses of the perception of varied feedback modalities in-situ, as well as prove (or disprove) the proposed Reflexive Focus Bounding theory. The prototype could be evolved with “personalization” protocols and the implementation of other haptic feedback modes.