Before Judgement

A guided first encounter exploring how people form judgements about unfamiliar wellbeing practices.

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Research Question

How can a guided first encounter be designed to suspend immediate judgement and encourage more open engagement with unfamiliar wellbeing practices?

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Aim

This intervention explores how people form immediate judgements when encountering unfamiliar wellbeing practices.

Using Chinese cultural wellbeing traditions as a case study, the intervention does not aim to persuade participants that a practice is correct or effective. Instead, it investigates whether sensory experience, embodied engagement and reflection can create a pause between first impression and final judgement.

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Participant Journey

Stage 1: First Impression

Participants enter the space and encounter a statement:

“Would you try this?”

7 days without eating.

No explanation is provided.

Participants are invited to respond immediately.

On a reflection wall they choose labels such as:

• Interesting
• Strange
• Dangerous
• Trustworthy
• Spiritual
• Fake
• Curious

They are also asked:

Why?

Participants write a short word or sentence explaining their reaction.

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Stage 2: Visual Response

Before entering the experience, participants receive a small card.

Prompt:

Draw how this statement makes you feel.

No artistic skill is required.

Participants can draw:

• shapes
• colours
• symbols
• lines

The purpose is to capture an emotional response before any experience takes place.

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Stage 3: Guided Five Elements Experience

Participants are invited into a simple sensory experience inspired by Chinese cultural wellbeing traditions.

The experience consists of five stations.

Each station lasts approximately one minute.

Participants are free to spend longer if they wish.

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Wood

Theme:
Growth and release

Elements:

• Wood music
• Green visual card
• Stretching movement

Prompt:

“What are you holding onto today?”

Participants make a simple drawing or write a word.

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Fire

Theme:
Energy and emotion

Elements:

• Fire music
• Hand warming exercise

Prompt:

“What gives you energy?”

Participants leave a word or symbol.

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Earth

Theme:
Grounding

Elements:

• Stone or natural object
• Slow breathing

Prompt:

“What helps you feel stable?”

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Metal

Theme:
Reflection

Elements:

• Metal music
• Quiet listening

Prompt:

“What would you like to let go of?”

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Water

Theme:
Rest and flow

Elements:

• Water music
• Eyes closed listening

Prompt:

“What do you need more of right now?”

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Stage 4: Reflection

After completing the sensory journey, participants return to the original statement.

“Would you try this?”

7 days without eating.

They revisit the reflection wall.

Participants may:

• keep their original labels
• remove labels
• add new labels
• write additional comments

They are not encouraged to agree or disagree.

The purpose is simply to observe whether reflection has occurred.

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Stage 5: Visual Response After Experience

Participants receive a second card.

Prompt:

Draw how you feel now.

These drawings can be compared with the first drawings.

The focus is not on artistic quality but on emotional and perceptual change.

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Data Collection

Evidence may include:

• Reflection wall responses
• Before and after drawings
• Participant comments
• Observation notes
• Short conversations after participation

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What Is Being Measured?

The intervention is NOT measuring:

• whether Bigu is effective
• whether participants agree with Chinese traditions
• whether participants change their beliefs

The intervention IS exploring:

• first impressions
• judgement formation
• emotional responses
• reflection after experience
• how a guided encounter influences perception

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Expected Outcome

The project aims to understand what happens between first impression and final judgement.

Rather than asking participants to accept unfamiliar wellbeing practices, the intervention creates a space where judgement can be slowed down, questioned and reflected upon.

From Promoting Understanding to Investigating Judgement

This week’s tutorial became an important turning point in my project. Rather than focusing solely on the intervention itself, the discussion encouraged me to reconsider the assumptions behind my research question and think more critically about what exactly I am trying to investigate.

My project has gradually shifted away from questions of health outcomes and towards questions of perception, experience, and wellbeing. I am becoming increasingly interested in how people respond to unfamiliar wellbeing practices before they have experienced them, and whether design can create a space where immediate judgement is temporarily suspended.

This led me to refine my research question towards:

How can a guided first encounter be designed to suspend immediate judgement and encourage more open engagement with unfamiliar wellbeing practices?

Chinese cultural wellbeing traditions remain an important part of the project, but I now see them more as a cultural lens through which I can explore this question.

Growing up, practices such as tea, incense, fasting, breathing exercises and ideas related to the Five Elements were familiar to me. However, I have become increasingly interested in how people react when they encounter these ideas without having the same cultural background.

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Thinking About the Audience

One of the most useful discussions during the tutorial was about my target audience.

Initially, I questioned whether there was really resistance towards unfamiliar wellbeing practices. Many young adults today are willing to try yoga, meditation, mindfulness and other alternative wellbeing experiences. If people are already open to new ideas, then who exactly is my project for?

Reflecting on this question brought me back to one of the key examples that inspired the project: Bigu, a traditional Chinese fasting practice.

From my observations and conversations, many young people are curious about wellbeing, but their reactions vary greatly depending on the practice. Activities such as tea drinking, breathing exercises or mindfulness are often accepted quite easily. However, when fasting practices such as Bigu are mentioned, the response is often much more sceptical. People may immediately describe them as dangerous, extreme or unscientific.

At the same time, I have noticed an interesting contradiction. Many people who are sceptical about traditional practices are highly willing to consume supplements, vitamins or various commercial wellness products. This does not necessarily mean one approach is right and the other is wrong, but it raises questions about how trust is formed and why certain wellbeing practices are accepted more readily than others.

This observation is also connected to my own understanding of wellbeing. My project is not about promoting supplements or persuading people to stop using them. I do not think it is realistic or appropriate to try to change people’s personal choices in that way. Instead, I am interested in understanding how people evaluate different wellbeing approaches and what influences their judgement.

Because of this, I am currently considering focusing on adults between approximately 25–35 years old. This age group is often actively engaged with wellbeing culture, whether through fitness, self-care, supplements, mindfulness or alternative health practices. They are also at a stage where they are making independent decisions about their lifestyles and wellbeing habits.

Rather than targeting people who are completely resistant, I am becoming more interested in people who are already engaged with wellbeing but may hold strong assumptions about what feels trustworthy, scientific or acceptable.

This helped me realise that my project is not about whether people are generally open-minded or closed-minded. Instead, it is about understanding how judgement is formed when people encounter practices that challenge their existing beliefs about wellbeing.

Rather than trying to convince people to accept something, I am interested in what happens between first impression and final opinion.

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Developing the Intervention

My current intervention continues to focus on this process of judgement and reflection.

Participants first encounter a series of unfamiliar wellbeing practices and respond to them through a reflection wall. They are invited to share their initial reactions using labels such as “interesting”, “strange”, “dangerous”, “trustworthy” or “spiritual”.

After this, they take part in a number of simple sensory and embodied activities inspired by Chinese cultural wellbeing traditions. These currently include breathing exercises, finger emotion practices and other small activities designed to encourage awareness and reflection.

Finally, participants return to the reflection wall and reconsider their initial responses.

At this stage, I am less interested in whether their opinions become positive or negative. Instead, I want to understand whether experience creates space for reflection before judgement becomes fixed.

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Exploring More Creative Forms of Reflection

Another exciting part of this week’s discussion was thinking about how the experience could become more engaging and reflective.

At the moment, most of the intervention relies on verbal responses and discussion. However, I have started exploring whether other forms of expression could reveal different kinds of insights.

One idea is to invite participants to draw before and after the experience. Rather than asking them to explain everything through words, drawing could provide another way of expressing feelings, associations and emotional responses. Comparing these drawings might reveal changes that participants themselves are not immediately aware of.

I am also interested in experimenting with sound and atmosphere. Music, scent and sensory elements already play an important role in many cultural wellbeing practices. Rather than presenting these elements as treatments, I want to explore how they might help create a slower and more reflective environment.

At the moment these ideas are still in an exploratory stage, but I feel they could help transform the intervention from a simple testing activity into a richer participatory experience.

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Next Steps

My next step is to continue testing the intervention while gathering stronger evidence about where judgement actually occurs.

I would also like to speak with wellbeing practitioners and people from different cultural backgrounds to better understand which practices generate resistance and why.

Alongside this, I want to continue experimenting with drawing, sound, sensory elements and embodied activities to see how they might support reflection and participation.

I also want to further refine my audience profile and investigate how people aged 25–35 make decisions about wellbeing, particularly how they navigate between traditional practices, commercial wellness products and contemporary wellbeing trends.

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Reflection

This week’s tutorial reminded me that research is not only about developing solutions. Sometimes it is about questioning the assumptions behind the project and asking whether the problem has been properly understood.

The discussion encouraged me to move beyond the idea of introducing Chinese cultural wellbeing traditions and towards a broader exploration of how people form judgements when encountering unfamiliar practices.

I still have many questions to explore, but I now feel that the project direction is becoming clearer and more focused.

Planing Table

This timeline is expected to evolve as further testing and stakeholder feedback shape the direction of the project.

Developing Relationships Across Cultural Wellbeing, Healing Spaces, and Medical Perspectives

INTRODUCTION

This project focuses on building a research network around cultural wellbeing, healing practices, institutional perspectives, and medical viewpoints.

Rather than relying only on secondary research, I wanted to speak directly with people and spaces connected to different understandings of health and wellbeing.

The project explores how conversations, observation, and embodied participation may help develop more reflective ways of engaging with unfamiliar wellbeing practices.

NETWORK MAP

The network developed across four main areas:

1. institutional outreach
2. cultural wellbeing practice
3. healing spaces
4. medical perspectives

These different connections helped shape the project’s understanding of curiosity, scepticism, legitimacy, atmosphere, and embodied wellbeing.

INSTITUTIONAL OUTREACH

I contacted several UK organisations connected to wellbeing, public health, and cultural engagement, including:

1. British Acupuncture Council
2. Royal Society for Public Health
3. Science Gallery London
4. Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust

Although I did not receive replies, the outreach itself became meaningful.

It raised questions around legitimacy, visibility, and how unfamiliar wellbeing practices are often positioned differently within institutional systems (Smith, 2012).

CHINESE CULTURAL ACADEMY

I also had ongoing conversations with my family’s Chinese cultural academy, including video calls with the academy director.

One important discussion focused on Wen Gu Shu, a traditional Chinese body practice involving emotional regulation through finger holding.

The academy emphasised the idea that the body may respond before intellectual understanding takes place.

This directly influenced the embodied interaction developed within my intervention.

GEGEND LONDON

I visited Gegend London, a healing and tea space combining yoga, sensory experience, and Chinese inspired wellbeing practices.

I spent around two hours there conducting observation and informal conversations.

The founder described the space as attracting both Chinese and international visitors interested in slower and more reflective wellbeing experiences.

The interviewee mentioned that one of her impressed student friends was a Russian woman, and she strongly agreed with China’s way of maintaining health.

During the conversation, ideas like balance, regulation, atmosphere, and emotional wellbeing came up many times.From my observation, the space felt very active and welcoming, especially on a Friday afternoon, with many people staying for a long time and enjoying the environment.

Evidence of contact

CHANLE WELLNESS SERVICE

I also visited Chanle Wellness Service and personally experienced their treatment.

This became important because the project is not only about observing others, but also about embodied participation and sensory experience.

The experience made me think more carefully about atmosphere, bodily feeling, and how wellbeing practices are often understood through experience rather than explanation alone.

Evidence of contact

PHARMACY STUDENT INTERVIEW

I conducted an in person interview with a pharmacy student from Queen Mary University of London.

His initial reaction towards Bigu fasting practices was scepticism, especially from an evidence based medical perspective.

He explained that healthcare systems are largely built around evidence, statistics, and scientific validation.

At the same time, after a longer conversation, he said he would still be willing to experience unfamiliar practices if introduced through simple and low pressure interaction.

This became an important insight within the research, suggesting that curiosity may still emerge even when scepticism exists (Freire, 2001).

Evidence of contact

REFLECTION

Building this network changed my understanding of the project itself.

Rather than positioning cultural wellbeing and medical systems as direct opposites, I became more interested in the space between scepticism, curiosity, embodied experience, and dialogue.

The project is not trying to prove whether unfamiliar wellbeing practices are scientifically correct or incorrect.

Instead, it explores how research, conversation, and design may create slower and more reflective first encounters between different understandings of health (Deardorff, 2006).

REFERENCES

Deardorff, D.K. (2006) ‘Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization’, Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), pp. 241–266.

Freire, P. (2001) Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy and Civic Courage. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

McNiff, J. (2013) Action Research: Principles and Practice. London: Routledge.

Smith, L.T. (2012) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 2nd edn. London: Zed Books.

Before Explanation Begins
A Guided First Encounter with Chinese Traditional Wellbeing Practices

WHAT

This project explores how people form immediate judgements when encountering unfamiliar wellbeing practices.

Using Chinese traditional wellbeing practices as a cultural context, the project investigates how atmosphere, bodily sensation, and first impressions influence perception before explanation begins (Pink, 2015; Böhme, 2017).

Rather than trying to convince people to “believe” in specific practices, the project explores whether sensory interaction and embodied participation may create space for curiosity and reflection.

Research Question

How can a guided first encounter be designed to disrupt immediate judgement and open up alternative understandings of health?

Key Terms include: guided first encounter, immediate judgement, embodied experience, cultural wellbeing, sensory interaction, and reflective engagement.

WHY

I grew up within a Chinese cultural academy where tea culture, incense culture, meditation, and traditional wellbeing practices like Bigu were part of everyday life.

These experiences made me realise that many wellbeing practices are often understood physically and emotionally before they are explained intellectually.

However, when introduced in different cultural contexts, unfamiliar practices are often questioned before people experience them directly.

This project became interested in that moment before judgement takes place.

The project is less interested in proving whether these practices are scientifically correct, and more interested in exploring slower and more reflective encounters with unfamiliar perspectives on wellbeing (hooks, 2010).

HOW

The project developed through qualitative and practice based research methods including observation, conversation, sensory interaction, prototype testing, and participant reflection (McNiff, 2013; Bolton, 2018).

The primary audience includes young adults in the UK from different cultural backgrounds who may feel curious yet uncertain when encountering unfamiliar wellbeing practices.

The intervention was also informed through ongoing conversations with cultural practitioners, healing spaces, and medical perspectives.

Research networking included:

1. conversations with a Chinese cultural academy
2. visits to healing spaces in London
3. outreach to wellbeing organisations
4. interviews with medical perspectives

These interactions helped shape the project’s understanding of curiosity, scepticism, atmosphere, and embodied wellbeing.

Some evidence is shown below. The detailed networking process and research development will be explored further in the Project 6 blog.

INTERVENTION DEVELOPMENT

The intervention was developed as a guided experiential showcase involving:

1. reflection prompts
2. scent interaction
3. Five Elements emotional associations
4. embodied finger holding practices
5. participant reflection

Rather than immediately explaining the practices, participants were invited to move slowly through atmosphere, intuition, bodily awareness, and reflection.

This is the reflection wall I designed and printed.

These are the emotional stickers I designed and printed.

These are the Five Elements cards I designed and printed.

SHOWCASE EXPERIENCE

Participants were first invited to respond to provocative wellbeing statements before entering a slower sensory experience.

The showcase encouraged participants to reflect on whether their perceptions shifted after embodied interaction and sensory engagement.

Tested during the showcase on 18 May.

WHAT-IF

If successful, the project may contribute people’s involvement in unfamiliar health and wellbeing practices in a more reflective and culturally sensitive way.

Rather than promoting specific health methods, the research explores how design might reshape the conditions in which first impressions and judgements are formed.

The project is also aware of the possible limitations. Some participants may still reject unfamiliar practices, while others may misunderstand that the project is promoting a particular cultural or health concept. Therefore, maintaining a balanced and reflective position throughout the research process remains important (Smith, 2012).

REFLECTION

This project shifted my understanding of wellbeing away from fixed answers and towards atmosphere, perception, and embodied experience.

Rather than attempting to prove unfamiliar practices right or wrong, the project became more interested in how design might create slower and more reflective first encounters between different understandings of health.

REFERENCES

Bolton, G. (2018) Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development. London: Sage.

Böhme, G. (2017) The Aesthetics of Atmospheres. London: Routledge.

Brown, A.M. (2021) Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation. Chico, California: AK Press.

Deardorff, D.K. (2006) ‘Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization’, Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), pp. 241–266.

Freire, P. (2001) Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy and Civic Courage. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

hooks, b. (2010) Teaching Critical Thinking. London: Routledge.

McNiff, J. (2013) Action Research: Principles and Practice. London: Routledge.

Pink, S. (2015) Doing Sensory Ethnography. 2nd edn. London: Sage.

Smith, L.T. (2012) Decolonizing Methodologies. 2nd edn. London: Zed Books.