Each kind act is a personAnd they are all connected by a common theme

text kindnessA pilot to create calm through interactive kindness

sharing

Everyone becomes encapsulated in his/her work, becoming stressed by increasing loneliness and degrading awareness of oneself.

Stressor:

Calmer: Forge intrinsically calming connections within a group of people by allowing them to share kind acts that another can do for themselves.

What does text kindness do?

In other words…

Text kindness introduces calm into one’s life by allowing him/her to be kind to others and receive kindness from others.

But before we get to text kindness…

Pilot 1: d.o. kindWorked with Project Compassion / Project Love at Stanford University

Launched a one day pilot to work in conjunction with their one day event, day of kind.

Design:1) Advertised for d.o. kind texting through Facebook event. Pitched as a way to be actively involved in being kind.

2)Users would receive five texts spaced evenly over the course of of one day. Texts would follow the pattern:

- Kindness for self- Kindness for loved-one- Kindness for stranger- Kindness for perceived enemy- Kindness for self

Pilot 1: d.o. kind

Results:

122 / 444 people attending event signed up

28% conversion rate

If something is advertised as an active way to participate in a larger event, more people will sign up.

Now back to text kindness!

The pitch

Based on lessons from pilot 1, I pitched text kindness as a way to actively contribute to a larger group’s web of kindness rather than just participating in the pilot itself.

email bit.ly link Google form

22 people signed up

70 people clicked bit.ly link32% conversion rate

Design2 Texts per

DayText 1:Ask all users to text back a kind act that someone else can do for themselves. I limit the scope by choosing a focus for the kind act, such as going outside, vision, sound, etc.

example: “TextKindness: Today the focus is on vision. Text a kind act

that one can do for themselves through vision (e.g.) looking at flowers, watching a movie, etc.”

Text 2:All users’ responses are randomly dispersed to other users in the group.

TextKindness: Today the focus is on vision. Text a kind act that one can do for themselves through vision (e.g.) looking at flowers, watching a movie, etc.

Look through some photos of a really good memory!

TextKindness: Enjoy your kind act for the day! Look up at the clouds like you used to when you were little and see if there are any shapes :)

Average Participation Rate: 60.2 %

Bunney Constant Reward Principle

Therefore, the Bunney Constant Reward Principle says to use rewards

as reminders for users in order to boost participation by 20 – 40%.

Each day, I received roughly 10 texts back after my first text.

Each day, I received roughly 10 texts back after my first text.

However, everybody received the second text regardless of whether they came up with a kind act themselves.

However, everybody received the second text regardless of whether they came up with a kind act themselves.

To my surprise, this elicited an extra 2 – 4 responses to the initial text each day from those people who had forgotten to answer the first time around.

To my surprise, this elicited an extra 2 – 4 responses to the initial text each day from those people who had forgotten to answer the first time around.

VisualizationIn order to visualize the connections made, I placed all

ideas and how they connected to one another in a Kindness Map at www.textcompassion.squarespace.com.

Lessons

People want to be kind to one another.

People will participate when reminded with rewards.

When asking for creative answers, do not limit the space for one to express their ideas.

Thinking of a kind act is rewarding itself when one knows that someone else will benefit from it.

While not every act was calming, all were rewarding and brought happiness.