Heart Garden: Visualizing Heart Rate Data using the Metaphor of a Garden

Heart rate data is an indicator of the users’ emotional and physiological states, informing the design of interfaces that adapt to these states. Providing a real-time visualisation of heart data can provide feedback to the user, supporting discussion, reflection and insight into the user’s emotional and physiological states. In this paper, we present Heart Garden which visualizes real-time heart rate data using the metaphor of a garden. Heart Garden was developed using Unreal Engine and gets its data from a user’s pulse information, using a low-cost commercial heart sensor. It uses heart rate, inter beat intervals and coherence for visualization using different elements like the grass, sky, flowers, and butterflies. Feedback from therapists suggested that Heart Garden’s visuals were engaging, enhanced focus on well-being activities, promoted calmness and elicited emotional and physiological changes. They also anticipated benefits when using Heart Garden in therapy sessions with their clients.