SoulGarden: A Gamified Meditation Application to Enhance Meditation Habits, Enjoyment, Mindfulness, and Mental Well-Being

Braese O, Kirchner-Krath J, Schubhan M, Degraen D, Altmeyer M (2025)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Association for Computing Machinery

Book Volume: 9

Pages Range: 29-63

Journal Issue: 6

DOI: 10.1145/3748597

Abstract

Meditation can enhance mental well-being, but practicing meditation regularly can be challenging. In this work, we present SoulGarden - a gamified, web-based meditation app that draws on the narrative of personal growth, a guiding avatar and several progress-related mechanics to increase users' enjoyment in meditation and thereby enhance their meditation habits, mindfulness, and mental well-being. We conducted a within-subjects field study spanning four weeks (N=30) in which we evaluated the effectiveness of SoulGarden by comparing it to a non-gamified version and baseline measures. Our results show users meditated a lot using SoulGarden and the addition of gamification increased user enjoyment, frequency of meditation, and mindfulness. Thus, we contribute evidence for the potential of gamification to increase engagement and enhance mindfulness in meditation practices, ultimately paving the way to more effective mental health interventions.

Authors with CRIS profile

Jeanine Kirchner-Krath Assistant Professorship of Information Systems (Gamification) - endowed by adidas

Involved external institutions

Universität des Saarlandes (UdS) DE Germany (DE) University of Canterbury NZ New Zealand (NZ) Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Braese, O., Kirchner-Krath, J., Schubhan, M., Degraen, D., & Altmeyer, M. (2025). SoulGarden: A Gamified Meditation Application to Enhance Meditation Habits, Enjoyment, Mindfulness, and Mental Well-Being. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 9(6), 29-63. https://doi.org/10.1145/3748597

MLA:

Braese, Oliver, et al. "SoulGarden: A Gamified Meditation Application to Enhance Meditation Habits, Enjoyment, Mindfulness, and Mental Well-Being." Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 9.6 (2025): 29-63.

BibTeX: Download