The widespread use of smartphones has become the focus of a discussion on stress and distraction as a negative influence of mobile phones. We argue that this is not just rooted in the cognitive distraction from the present, but also that the style of touch user interface design, while optimized for efficient data manipulation, adds to the stress.

PAUSE draws upon principles from Tai Chi and mindfulness meditation by extracting the essential qualities of slow, continuous and gentle bodily movements, and transferring them to finger movements. We introduce an interaction style called Mindful Touch, which complements our current smartphone interactions, and can potentially be extended into the design of other systems.