This scoping review aimed to explore soma design applications in DMHW interventions.

To guide this review, we formulated the following research questions:

The scoping review was conducted to map the existing literature in this research area [39,40], following the 5-stage framework: (1) identifying the research question, (2) identifying relevant studies, (3) selecting studies, (4) charting the data, and (5) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results [39] and the principles of the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines (Checklist 1) [41].

Two of the authors (SI-J and AHK) conducted initial literature searches relevant to the research question using databases, including Google Scholar. These initial searches were exploratory and aimed to identify relevant literature and refine the search strategy. Based on the relevant literature found during the initial searches, the search terms for the scoping review were discussed and selected during meetings among the authors. The search terms were combined using Boolean operators as follows:

((“somaesthetic*” OR “soma design”) AND (“health” OR “wellbeing” OR “wellness” OR “illness” OR “care” OR “therap*” OR “affect*” OR “emotion*” OR “feeling*”) AND (“digital mental health” OR “DMH” OR “digital technolog*” OR “technolog*” OR “digital health” OR “digital” OR “mHealth” OR “telehealth” OR “telemedicine” OR “electronic health” OR “mobile apps” OR “mobile health” OR “online based” OR “mobile*” OR “eHealth*” OR “electronic mental health” OR “e-mental health” OR “online-based*” OR “internet-based*” OR “web-based*” OR “computer-based”))

Three databases, PubMed, IEEE Explore, and ACM Digital Library, were searched on March 21, 2024, and again on January 18, 2026, and all results were imported into Rayyan [42] for screening. These databases were selected to capture the most relevant literature across health and medical research (PubMed), engineering and technology (IEEE Xplore), and HCI and design (ACM Digital Library). To enhance the comprehensiveness of the review, we additionally searched Google Scholar (first 50 records) and conducted backwards citation tracking.

Studies were eligible for inclusion in this review if they met the following inclusion criteria:

Studies were excluded from this review if they met any of the following exclusion criteria: review papers, an invitation to a workshop, papers that did not specifically state that the interventions targeted or supported mental health or well-being, interventions that did not involve digital technology, or papers that did not include sufficient details about the intervention (eg, soma design methods used, soma awareness exercises employed, or the purpose of the intervention).

In total, 3977 articles were identified from the electronic database searches (3456 IEEE Explore, 433 ACM Digital Library, and 88 PubMed), and an additional 56 records were identified through other sources. Following title and abstract screening, 97 articles were selected for full-text review. Two authors (SI-J and AHK) independently reviewed the articles and resolved disagreements through discussion until consensus was reached. Finally, 9 papers met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review (see Figure 1 for the PRISMA-ScR flow diagram).

Several papers described distinct stages or facets of prototype development, while others presented multiple prototypes, design concepts, or experiential artifacts. In total, 11 such items were included in the analysis.

Data extraction was conducted independently by 2 of the authors (SI-J and AHK). Extracted information included lead author, year of publication, country of study, digital mental health intervention(s), stage(s) of the product development, MHW framing and timing (ie, whether the importance of MHW was prespecified by designers [predesign] or emerged through collaboration with prospective users and whether mental health conditions or well-being were focused), designers and/or participants, sample size (n), age range, soma awareness exercises and other activities, documentation methods, analytical approaches, and primary outcomes or conclusions (see Tables 3 and 4).

The products described across the included papers varied considerably in their stage of development. Some were fully developed prototypes created by researchers and evaluated by participants, while others represented earlier phases of the design process, such as design concepts or experiential artifacts. Design concepts refer to bodily informed, experience-driven ideas for potential future products. Experiential artifacts are intentionally designed systems that elicit specific experiences based on the properties of a chosen digital material, serving as exploratory tools for design teams rather than goal-oriented, deployable products [50]. Throughout this paper, we use the terms, prototype, design concept, or experiential artifact, to accurately reflect the development stage of each product. When discussing collectively, we use the term interventions for clarity and readability.

Eleven DMHW interventions created using soma design methods were found. The Soma Mat is a body-sized mat, which directs the user’s attention by providing heat feedback to different parts of their body while they follow the instructions of a prerecorded Feldenkrais lesson [20,35,44]. The authors recommend that the Soma Mat should preferably be used with another intervention, the Breathing Light [20,35,44]. The Breathing Light is a lamp that measures the user’s breathing, creating an ambient light that dims in cadence with their breathing. The user is recommended to lie on the Soma Mat while placing the Breathing Light above their face to provide them a private space.

The deep touch pressure (DTP) garment is an experiential artifact created to help increase breathing awareness and appreciation through interaction with breathing-based deep pressure [45]. Fluito has a combination of technology (a flotation tank, a VR headset, a heart rate sensor, and a pneumatic system), which creates different experiences for the user, including relaxation [47,48]. Drone Chi is inspired by the martial art of Tai Chi, providing a close-range human-drone experience by the user either following or leading the drone [46]. The Somaesthetic meditation wearable is a novel targeted warmth wearable intended to be used during meditation [43].

Adolescent athletes developed 5 innovative menstrual technology concepts to address menstrual cramps and premenstrual depressive and anxious feelings [49]. Using Menarche Bits [49], participants designed technologies that incorporate touch, breathing rhythms, and modularity in intimate body placements (see Table 2). Värme Plagget (heat garment) is a wearable garment that provides heat to alleviate menstrual pain in the lower abdomen. The Calm-inator is a blouse equipped with air pumps that massage the chest area, helping to increase breathing awareness. U-formen (The U-shape) consists of 2 heat cushions that warm the lower abdomen and pumps that create pulsating sensations on the hip bones. Korven (The Sausage) is a portable heat cushion to relieve menstrual pain and bloating before and during menstruation. Transformer consists of heat and pumping machines, which can be placed in the middle of the stomach to ease menstrual pain.

Across most interventions, MHW considerations were prespecified by the designers, typically framed around goals, such as relaxation or calmness, rather than clinical treatment. In one study, the relevance to MHW emerged during collaboration with prospective users, although emotional dimensions had already been implied by the authors [49]. Overall, all included interventions focused on general well-being rather than addressing specific mental health conditions.

Five of the interventions were designed primarily by researchers. At the time of the papers’ publication, 1 intervention (DTP garment) had been developed solely by the research team [45], whereas 4 interventions (The Soma Mat, The Breathing Light, Drone Chi, and Fluito) were first designed by researchers and subsequently tried by participants, who provided experiential feedback [20,46,47].

The Somaesthetic Meditation Wearable was designed by participants with varying experience in meditation [43]. The 5 menstrual technologies were designed by adolescents who played sports [49]. Specialist expertise was integrated into 2 studies: one study involved a “somatic connoisseur,” a consultant specializing in a particular bodily practice (in this case, a Tai Chi master) who contributed to a co-design session [46], whereas the other consulted an expert in Eastern medicine during the design process [43].

In addition to taking notes during workshops and conducting participant interviews, researchers employed a range of strategies to document the soma experiences encountered during the design process. To capture how designers or participants felt in their bodies, each person filled out the body maps [52] before and after bodily activities in 8 studies (Table 5). These body maps were filled out by researchers in the development of 2 interventions (DTP garment and Fluito) [45,47], by adolescents during the co-design of 5 menstrual technologies [49], and by participants to report their experiences with 3 of the interventions: Soma Mat, Breathing Light, and Drone Chi [20,35,44,46].

Researchers also frequently used video recordings to document key moments during the design process and interviews. For 3 interventions, such as DTP garment, Drone Chi, and Fluito, researchers recorded soma design workshops to reflect on their own experiences [45-47]. Additional recordings captured participants using the Drone Chi intervention [46] and adolescents engaging in the design of menstrual technologies [49]. In one study, participants were asked to record short videos on their phones to present their design concepts (menstrual technologies) [49].

In all studies, designers engaged in first-person, subjective reflection to foreground experiential insights, facilitate iterative exploration, and foster reflective practice throughout the design process. To analyze the data collected from participants, a range of qualitative methods was employed. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyze semistructured interviews with participants for 3 of the interventions, such as Somaesthetic Meditation Wearable, Drone Chi, and Fluito, to identify recurring patterns and themes [43,46,47]. For the Soma Mat and Breathing Light interventions, a storytelling approach was adopted to capture and interpret individual participant experiences [35]. In many of the studies, the use of video data, which captured the moments from the design process or participant interviews, was not explicitly detailed. However, in the case of Drone Chi, video content was integrated into the interviews and analyzed thematically [46]. For the menstrual technologies project, researchers produced thick descriptions of key workshop moments to support interpretive analysis [49].

This scoping review mapped the current landscape of DMHW interventions developed using soma design methods. All included studies reported positive outcomes associated with soma design. Among the 5 interventions tested by participants, users reported increased bodily awareness, full-body engagement, enhanced emotional comfort, and relaxation. Notably, 2 of the interventions demonstrated lasting effects, with participants applying the skills they had developed, such as self-regulation and relaxation, beyond the duration of the intervention sessions. Designers also reported significant benefits from using soma design. These included the identification of experiential qualities that informed the design process and a shift in how adolescent designers perceived their bodies, not as separate from the mind, but as integrated aspects of their whole being. These findings suggest that soma design can offer meaningful value for both designers and users.

However, the balance of evidence is inconclusive due to the heterogeneity in the stage of design development (ranging from conceptual designs to functional prototypes), the identity of the designers (eg, researchers vs adolescents), the extent of end-user involvement, and the analytical approaches employed. In the following section, we explore both the opportunities and challenges in advancing soma design within the DMHW field.

This scoping review highlighted the value of mind-body-focused approaches within DMHW, drawing attention to the often-overlooked role of bodily awareness in design processes. While much of DMHW has traditionally centered on cognitive and screen-based interventions, soma design underscores the importance of attending to the body as a site of both experience and intervention [54]. It adopts a first-person, subjective stance in which the designer’s own bodily experience becomes a source of insight and knowledge production [33]. Grounded in the principles of Research through Design, soma design values reflective practice, iterative making, and somatically grounded engagement with materials and technologies [21]. These epistemological foundations not only distinguish the soma design methodologically but also enable the development of more nuanced, embodied, and user-sensitive DMHW interventions.

In doing so, soma design may offer a bridge between 2 emerging trends in health care: digital mental health and digital physical health. While these domains have often evolved in parallel, one focusing on psychological well-being through digital therapeutics, the other on physiological monitoring and movement-based interventions, soma design invites a more integrated perspective. It encourages the design of technologies that do not treat the mind and body as separate domains but instead recognize their continuous interplay [24]. This integration is particularly relevant in conditions where mental and physical symptoms co-occur [55]. By fostering embodied awareness and sensory attunement, soma design opens up new possibilities for interventions that are not only technologically innovative but also deeply attuned to the lived, felt experience of users. In this way, it contributes to a more holistic vision of digital health, one that supports the whole person, rather than isolating mental or physical aspects of well-being.

This integrative approach aligns with a broader movement within HCI and DMHW toward more body-centric technologies and interaction paradigms. Similar to HCI, the DMHW field is increasingly moving beyond traditional screen-based or VR-focused interventions and embracing emerging modalities, such as wearables, soft robotics, and other forms of embodied interaction that integrate seamlessly with the body [54]. As such, soma design contributes to ongoing conversations about the future of DMHW, suggesting that embodied, somatically informed design practices may play a critical role in shaping more holistic and responsive mental health technologies.

This holistic vision is operationalized through a range of embodied design techniques that lie at the heart of soma design practice. These include soma awareness exercises, body mapping exercises, and the use of Soma Bits, technologies that deliver unfamiliar sensations through heat, vibration, or inflation to disrupt habitual perception and foster deeper bodily engagement [54]. These methods serve as generative design strategies, enabling participants and designers to access and articulate subtle aspects of embodied experience. In doing so, they help ground the design process in lived bodily sensation, reinforcing soma design’s commitment to creating technologies that are attuned to the full spectrum of human experience.

While soma design offers a compelling framework for creating more holistic and embodied DMHW interventions, realizing its full potential depends on meaningful engagement with the people that these technologies are intended to support. However, the studies reviewed revealed varying degrees of user participation. Only 2 studies involved end users from the onset, resulting in the development of 1 prototype and 5 distinct design concepts. In contrast, others engaged participants only during later testing phases.

In mental health research, cocreation is widely recognized as a cornerstone of effective intervention design. It involves engaging end users as active stakeholders throughout the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of digital interventions [56]. This approach aligns with the principle of responsible research and innovation, which emphasizes the importance of creating technologies that are ethically sound, socially desirable, and aligned with users’ values and needs [56].

Participatory soma design holds significant potential as an embodied, holistic coproduction approach. While cocreation has gained traction in mental health research, it has predominantly focused on cognitive-based interventions, often through patient and public involvement workshops or focus groups. Participatory soma design methods present new opportunities for mental health research by offering a more embodied and experiential approach.

This is particularly important when designing for populations that differ from the researchers themselves. For example, Søndergaard et al [49] demonstrated the value of involving adolescents in the design of interventions targeted at their age group. Similarly, including individuals with lived experience of neurodiversity or mental health conditions is essential to ensure that interventions are both relevant and effective.

However, the time- and resource-intensive nature of soma design can make sustained user involvement challenging. Ideally, end users should be engaged from the early stages of design. Where this is not feasible, researchers should still involve users in later stages of refinement to ensure that interventions align with their embodied needs and preferences. Adapted or phased models of participation may help balance feasibility with meaningful engagement.

Addressing these challenges requires not only thoughtful engagement strategies but also broader collaboration across disciplines and stakeholders to support the development and implementation of effective soma design interventions.

While soma design offers a compelling framework for embodied DMHW interventions, its broader impact relies on the ability to translate rich, experiential practices into solutions that are scalable and accessible. Despite its potential to support MHW in diverse contexts, the field currently lacks systematic evaluation frameworks to assess the effectiveness of these interventions. Much of the existing research remains exploratory, limiting its integration into DMHW practices that require rigorous validation and replicability.

Additionally, this review found a notable distribution between mental health conditions and well-being: no included intervention explicitly targeted a specific mental health condition (eg, anxiety and depression). Instead, current applications predominantly focus on well-being outcomes (eg, relaxation and calm). Addressing this gap is essential for understanding the therapeutic potential of soma design and guiding its future applications in both clinical and everyday settings. The interventions currently available may inform the development of future condition–targeted digital mental health interventions.

Furthermore, the interventions reviewed in this study varied widely in their stage of development, ranging from early-stage design concepts to advanced prototypes undergoing iterative testing. In many cases, the primary focus was on exploring and refining the methodological aspects of soma design rather than producing interventions intended for broader deployment. While this has contributed valuable insights into embodied design practices, it has also limited the immediate applicability of soma interventions in real-world mental health contexts. Nevertheless, examples, such as Soma Mat and Breathing Light [20], demonstrated the potential of soma design to deliver meaningful, positive experiences to a broader audience. These examples illustrate how embodied interaction can support well-being through sensory engagement and bodily awareness.

To fully realize this potential, interdisciplinary collaboration is essential. Bringing together mental health professionals, HCI researchers, industrial partners, and individuals with lived experience can foster the co-design, evaluation, and implementation of interventions that are both effective and scalable. Such partnerships ensure that interventions are grounded in robust design methodologies while remaining responsive to diverse user needs and real-world constraints. In particular, deepening collaboration with clinical partners and mental health researchers will be crucial for moving soma design beyond exploratory prototypes toward clinically relevant, deployable DMHW solutions.

This paper presents the first scoping review to systematically map existing research on DMHW interventions developed using soma design methods. To our knowledge, it is also the first to introduce soma design to the digital mental health research community in a structured and comprehensive manner. A rigorous literature search was conducted across 3 major databases, supplemented by Google Scholar screening and backward citation tracking to ensure comprehensive coverage. Study selection and data extraction were performed in duplicate to enhance reliability. Through this process, this review offers a valuable synthesis of current knowledge and highlights the potential of soma design to contribute novel, embodied approaches to MHW research.

Despite these strengths, several limitations should be acknowledged. First, the review included only studies published in English, which may limit the cultural and geographical diversity of the findings. This narrow scope may overlook relevant work published in other languages. Second, the included studies varied widely in terms of methodological detail and reporting quality, which may affect the consistency and comparability of findings. Finally, while this review maps the current landscape of soma design in digital mental health, it does not assess the clinical effectiveness of soma design interventions, as no included studies have conducted formal evaluations.

Future research should address these limitations by involving more diverse populations of designers and participants, including individuals from underrepresented cultural and linguistic backgrounds as well as those with lived experience, such as people with mental health conditions or neurodivergence. Broadening both the methodological and demographic scope of soma design research will be essential for realizing its full potential and ensuring its relevance and effectiveness in digital mental health contexts.

This scoping review provides the first comprehensive synthesis of DMHW interventions developed using soma design methods. The findings suggest that soma design offers a distinctive, embodied approach that can enrich both the design process and user experience by fostering bodily awareness, relaxation, and meaningful engagement.

At the same time, the review identifies important gaps in current literature, particularly around evaluation practices, user involvement, and the diversity of design contexts. Addressing these gaps will be essential for advancing soma design from an exploratory methodology to a widely applicable framework for DMHW innovation.

Looking forward, soma design presents a valuable opportunity to reimagine how DMHW interventions are conceptualized and cocreated. By fostering deeper collaboration among mental health researchers, HCI practitioners, clinicians, industry partners, and individuals with lived experience, future work can support the development of more inclusive, effective, and embodied mental health technologies. In doing so, soma design may help shape a more holistic and human-centered future for digital mental health.