Through smartphones, we have gained a tool with many advantages. However, this invention sometimes leads us to lose the sense of time and reality, creates addictions, and distracts us from the important things in life. So we asked ourselves:
We talked to a variety of people about how they interact with their smartphones and noticed that the majority were not conscious about how much time they spend with this tool. A lot of them lose their time in social media and entertainment applications. After using a time-intensive and "useless" app with no goal, the user often feels disappointed and frustrated.
We sorted these different use cases and put them into three major categories. We found out that most of the negative effects are created by the communication and the entertainment sector.
To achieve better digital wellbeing, we needed to do these two important things. So we took a deeper look into the three categories and created a bunch of ideas for the different problematics. This took the most of our time, because we iterated, tested, and improved every idea until we would agree it fulfills its purpose.
We created six different ideas on how you can restructure and integrate functions in iOS to strengthen the user’s digital wellbeing. Let us start with the homescreen.
The home screen acts like a candy shop for us, a chaotic paradise where we can easily get distracted.
The red widgets, unread messages, and a lot of unnecessary notifications are attracting us to open certain applications and stressing us out.
The user can finish the main tasks of an application without even launching it. The minimalistic design of the home screen prevents the user from distractions. Our operating system adapts to the user’s behavior and provides helpful suggestions.
Through our smartphones, we are reachable for everybody, at any time through different communication channels. This results in an overload of information and distracts us from whatever situation we are in.
Messages from different communication channels get connected in the communication center. The incoming messages are sorted by persons, so you don't have to check every social media application manually.
You probably had this once (or twice), the loss of time in social media applications.
To break out of all the so-called "autoloops" and endless scroll functions, the system counts the minutes and reminds the user at different stages how much time they already spent.
To keep the user aware of its smartphone usage, we implemented a quiz about the last week's usage. The overconsumption of your smartphone can also lead to dysfunctions like insomnia or loss of reality. So we integrated the iOS feature "Screentime" into the Health App.
It does what it should, shutdown your phone.
You can still use the basic functions of your phone, but all communication ways, GPS, and our beloved internet are turned off. And you don't have to have FOMO, because everyone who tries to send you a message or tries to call you, receives a "Sorry, I am offline." message back.
They won't be able to reach you if it's not an emergency.
We want the user to decide when he is reachable, so he can switch between customizable modes. On the weekend we don't want to get distracted by work and at work, we don't want to get distracted by the weekend.
To get people to understand why they should accept and use the tools for digital wellbeing, they need awareness about this topic. For that, we created a campaign video and several posters containing interesting facts about smartphone usage in our society.
You probably had this once (or twice), the loss of time in social media applications.
To break out of all the so-called "autoloops" and endless scroll functions, the system counts the minutes and reminds the user at different stages how much time they already spent.
To keep the user aware of its smartphone usage, we implemented a quiz about the last week's usage. The overconsumption of your smartphone can also lead to dysfunctions like insomnia or loss of reality. So we integrated the iOS feature "Screentime" into the Health App.
It does what it should, shutdown your phone.
You can still use the basic functions of your phone, but all communication ways, GPS, and our beloved internet are turned off. And you don't have to have FOMO, because everyone who tries to send you a message or tries to call you, receives a "Sorry, I am offline." message back.
They won't be able to reach you if it's not an emergency.
We want the user to decide when he is reachable, so he can switch between customizable modes. On the weekend we don't want to get distracted by work and at work, we don't want to get distracted by the weekend.
