Assignment brief and context

The assignment for this project tasked us with discovering problems that society faces with technology today. Once a problem had been identified, the challange was to design a solution that would help solve the problem.

The problem that this project focuses on is phone addiction and people struggling to concentrate when trying to work or study.

Deliverables for this project include:

Wireframes
High fidelity Prototype

Research

Reading the literature

Ofcom estimated that in 2015 93% of adults owned a phone and since then this number would have increased. From current research it has become apparent that excessive use of mobile phones, can be detrimental to people’s physical and mental health. “Sleep deficit, anxiety, stress, and depression which are all associated with internet abuse, have been related to mobile phone usage too” (De-Sola Gutiérrez et al., 2016). For this reason, it is important to try and tackle the excessive use of mobile phones.

Reports on screen time vary, some say that the average screen time is around 3 hours and 15 mins, and in some instances 1/5 people have a screen above 4.5 hours (Exploding Topics, 2023). A different report from Elite Content Marketer and an article from The Independant refers to a data source from DataReportal, that the average screen time is 6 hours and 37 mins for people aged 16-64, however, this does include other devices. Furthermore, for younger teenagers, 11-14, the average screen time is 9 hours per day (The Independent, 2023). Some of these screen times could be cause for concern, and when this data is used in conjunction with data from a study conducted by Beranuy Fargues et al. In this study, a self-reported 22.1% of teenagers and a 27.9% of young people had a phone addiction. This shows that many people who may have a high screen time may be aware of them having a problem and may want to change.

Design Solution

The proposed solution was to create an app that tracked user's screen usage. Screen usage would be tracked in pre-determined time slots that the user can set. In addition, user's can set goals for themselves to reduce their screen time, or specific tasks they want to get done in these pre-determined time slots.

Design requirements and features

Work time slots - a set amount of time a user can focus on work

When in a work time slot, phone is locked and access to other apps is anavailable

User can set goals for themselves on what tasks need to be done and when

A leaderboard feature where users can compare with friends

Study Buddy

Assignment brief and context

Research

Reading the literature

Design Solution

Design requirements and features

Wireframes

Prototype