Niki Marathia
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UX of slowness
Week 1 of 2
Team
Slowness is not just delay, it is difference. It can be a strategy, a symptom, a burden, or a gift. Slowness challenges the myths of efficiency, productivity and constant progress. It makes space for process, reflection, friction and care. Design an encounter that values patience, presence, or pause.

Research methods:
Behavioural mapping, speed dating
Amita Tulpule
Ayesha Saleem
Eryue Wan
Evander Wang
Niki Marathia
Vanashree Chowdhury
Yifei Huang

We started the project by brainstorming on what an encounter means to us based on our experiences.

Figure 1. Personal examples of encounters.


We did the same for the 3 p’s: patience, presence, and pause.

Figure 2. What patience, presence, and pause mean to us.


This exercise helped us familiarise ourselves with the requirements of the brief. To us, an encounter was a short meeting that happened by chance. Patience, presense, and pause were about tuning in to our senses and surroundings, accepting delay, and taking things slow.

Figure 3. Relating our thoughts from the readings to the brief.


Having gathered these ideas, we each did some reading about slowness to expand our thinking. The readings that stuck with us the most were Tricia Hersey’s (2024) blog entries framing rest as resistance and Jenny Odell’s (2021) How to Do Nothing. Both discuss the role of capitalism in pushing people towards productivity in order to have value. They both also propose slowing down as a way of resisting the systems that create this pressure.

Figure 4. Thinking through our areas of interest. Drawn by Ayesha Saleem.


Our readings made us think about where we could observe slowness. Odell (2021) proposes rituals, like walking and being in nature, are ways to feel more present and slow down. We connected to this idea because we also try to incorporate rituals in our lives, each team member in a different way.

Behavioural mapping

Figure 5a. Amita taking down observations at CSM. Taken by Yifei Huang.
Figure 5b. Niki taking down observations at CSM. Taken by Yifei Huang.
Figure 5c. Vanashree taking down observations at CSM. Taken by Yifei Huang.
Figure 5d. The workshop area. Taken by Yifei Huang.
Figure 5e. Close-up of Niki’s notes. Taken by Yifei Huang.
Figure 5f. Close-up of Vanashree’s notes. Taken by Yifei Huang.
This is how we decided to visit the workshops in Central Saint Martins. We wanted to record how hands-on activities might help people slow down. On the day, we found a puppet-making workshop the MA Animation students were taking. We recorded our observations individually (Figures 6a-g), discussed what stood out to us, and then combined them into one behavioural map (Figure 7).

Figure 6a. Niki’s observations.


Figure 6b. Evander’s observations.
Figure 6c. Wan’s observations.
Figure 6d. Amita’s observations.
Figure 6e. Yifei’s observations.
Figure 6f. Vanashree’s observations.
Figure 6g. Ayesha’s observations.
Figure 7. Our final behavioural map.


We found students appeared focused during the workshop and made limited use of their mobile devices. We thought that the academic environment and the fact they were monitored by tutors could have influenced how focused they were. We also observed the students’ body language and posture indicated how focused they were on their tasks. This was evident through careful hand-movements while moulding materials, eyes focused on the tasks even during conversations, and pausing to take a step back to observe their models.

Figure 8. Our thoughts after behavioural mapping.


We grouped these observations so we could see what kinds of themes might emerge.

Figure 9. Themes that emerged after behavioural mapping.


Doing so led us to asking more questions rather than identifying themes: ‘what environments allow slowness?’, ‘what reduces cognitive load?’, ‘what helped people stay present?’, ‘what interrupts (steals) slowness?’. These were the wider areas that we wanted to explore further in our speed dating.

Sources
Harvey, T. (2024) ‘WE WILL REST! The Art of Escape’ The nap ministry, 9 November. Available at: https://thenapministry.wordpress.com/ (Accessed: 3 January 2026).

Odell, J. (2021) How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Melville House Publishing.