TimeUp

An app concept that would help people limit their excess screen times by getting reminder for a break and monitoring their daily/ weekly screen time.

Overview

This was a 10 week long capstone project for Interaction Design Specialization course on Coursera through University of California, San Diego. We were given 3 design briefs — Time, Change and Glance. I picked Change because I found it to be the most challenging and beneficial for people who want to break out of their bad habits and bring positive change in their lifestyle.

Challenge

Follow design thinking process and design an interface that facilitates personal or social behavior change.

Needfinding

I see that the technology has taken over our everyone’s day to day life. They are always hooked to either television, phone, or tablets. So I chose to change people’s habits regaring unecessary screen times. My goal was to observe the successes, breakdowns, and latent opportunities that occur when people are using computers, televison, phone or tablets in their daily life. I took detailed notes and use digital photos to document activities. By doing so I tried to understand why people are doing things the way they are by asking questions like, “Are there existing solutions that people aren’t using? If so, why?”

I chose to observe 3 people regarding their daily screen times.

Point of View

Through my observations I found out that a majorty of users’s day is spent in front of computer screens, laptops, TV or phone. This has become a very common problem in today’s day to day life as people are leading a very sedentary lifestyle and do not have time or energy to look after their health.

We can help them bring this change by helping them set some priorities in their daily schedules so they are able to better manage their days and health. Also, by setting up some ways to limit their excess screen times

Findings

All participants lead a very sedentary life remaing in front of some sort of screen for long periods of time. They all are concerned about their health and are aware of the consequences of such a lifestyle. They want a change in their lifestyle and be a bit more active but are either not motivated enough or do not have time or energy to bring that change.

Potential Opportunities

1) User needs a way to get their office work done.

2) User needs a way to be able to better plan their daily schedule.

3)User needs a way to be able to add a workout session in their daily routine.

4) User needs a way to be able to less strain their eyes with continuous looking at screens.

5) User needs a way to spend more time interacting with their family.

6) User needs a way to be able to be more activeand loose some weight.

7) User needs a way to de-stress.

8) User needs a way to be able to know latest updates in their social media without constantly checking.

9) User needs a way to limit simultaneous multiple screen times.

10) User needs away for setting healthy habits in his lifestyle.

11 )User needs a way to get motivated to limit their excess unnecessary screen time apart from their office work.

12) User needs a way to be able to better manage their eye, mental and emotional health.

13) User needs a way to check his postures while watching screens.

14) User needs a way to be able to go to social gatherigs more often.

15) User needs a way that someone ca take of their children and do household chores while they are away.

Inspiration Board

I created an inspiration board to see what existing apps, artifacts , products, services or anything that realted to my point of view. It helped me understand the existing landscape.

Storyboarding & prototyping

Next I used the design inspiration and came up with two different design ideas that address, engage the chosen point of view to address a user need.

Then based on my stories I made paper prototypes that concretely showed all the essential elements of a user Interface.

Storyboard 1

Storyboard 2

Paper prototype testing

The paper prototypes were then used to do testing with users and do Heuristics evaluation based on their feedback to find pontential problems in early stages of designing.

Heuristics Evaluation

I watched the video recording of testing to identify potential problems. Then I mapped the evaluator’s thoughts and opinions to different heuristic violations, writing as many violations for each heuristic as found in the video, and adding severity ratings between 0 and 4 (0 = minor violation, 4 = major violation) to each violation.

Wireframing

On basis of the findings from our paper prototype testing and Heuristics evaluation I made changes to the design and made some early wireframes.

Testing

Then I tested my wireframes with the potential users to find any usability issues or any pain points. Based on the feedback I iterated the designs.

Next steps

I identified the pain points and opporunities to make further changes in the design.

Pain Points

1. The users were confused when inputing settings for break time and device usage time seperately.
2. The users did not find a way to change device times or edit devices.
3. The break started without confirming user’s action.

Opportunities

1. Give users the power to start their breaks and confirm after completing them.
2. Give users ability to change devices and screen time limits for the selected devices.

I redesigned screens based on feedback and made final designs.

Watch video here

Final Designs