Imagine a future in which wearables can accurately detect stress and precisely time stress interventions, such as breathing exercises or calming music. With current advancements in wearables and stress research, this future may not be far away. However, if we do not design the technology carefully, the technology might do more harm than good. For instance, imagine that this technology shares your stress levels with your employer. Such a design choice could compromise an important human value: privacy. Similarly, other design choices might support or compromise other values. However, value-oriented design guidelines for future stress management wearables are currently lacking.

Therefore, Merel van den Berg and colleagues conducted design workshops with participants with a background in design. Participants created sketches and prototypes of future designs for fictional users. They analysed these designs and found several important values, such as care, community, and responsibility. For instance, they found that the technology implicitly influences where responsibility for managing stress is placed. Current technologies often place primary responsibility on the user, while they could also encourage and facilitate support from the user’s family and friends. This paper provides ten guidelines to support value-oriented design of future wearable stress management technology.