The Problem
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many students and professionals have shifted to a mostly, if not entirely, virtual lifestyle. The excessive screen and sitting time thus led to both mental and physical symptoms contributing to unnecessary stress.
"How might we help reduce stress for users engaging in high screen time in their worklife?"
Primary goal: alleviate, manage, and prevent screen-usage induced stress.
Preliminary User Research Insights
- General dissatisfaction with online work/school
- Users don't take breaks from their work besides to eat or phone usage
- Users experience discomfort due to bad chair
- Recurring theme of mental fatigue from back to back meetings
- Productivity affected by lack of physical aspect
- Users need more desk space
- Users have increased bonding with those in their home environment
- Need to minimize distractions both mentally and from external environment
User Persona
Journey Map
Ideation: Divergent Thinking
1. Standing desk: reduces prolonged sitting time; reduce back pain
2. A ring/wristband timer: blinks or buzzes like a timer to reminds users to take breaks without relying on digital scheduling apps for breaks
3. Screen material that acts like blue light glasses to reduce eye strain without using separate glasses
4. Mental health app: let users connect anonymously and send daily positive reminders
5. Lamp: simulates natural light because natural lighting is known to improve mood and productivity compared to artificial lighting. Target users include international students who have to attend classes at night.
6. Simple physical textbook exchange platform between students to reduce the time and money spent on buying them + reduce the extra screen time from digital versions of textbooks.
7. Chair with elastic material: support to reduce back strain + incorporate some system to track the time users spend sitting + remind users to get up after long periods of sitting
8. Productivity app: tangible rewards system motivating users to follow an organized schedule.
Ideation: Convergent Thinking
From the above ideas, I narrowed down to two for the book exchange app and the productivity app.
I chose the book exchange app because our research found that a majority of online students’ activities are inseparable from online platforms so having easier access to physical textbooks could significantly reduce unnecessary screen time when studying.
I chose the productivity app because a large part of the online school or work “symptoms” relate to not being able to stay away from digital devices even when people are taking breaks.
Low-Fidelity Prototypes
I eventually chose to proceed with the Productivity App and combined it with the mental health app idea because it addresses the source of the problem that users are ultimately looking for an easy way to balance work and rest. The mental and physical strains would be alleviated once we manage and eliminate the prolonged activities that cause them.
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
According to Andrew J. Elliot's 'Color and psychological functioning: a review of theoretical and empirical work,' colors are often described in 'lightness,' that signifies the 'good' compared to the dark, hence the light pastel color scheme.
Insights from Usability Testing
1. Leaderboard creates community but people might want more privacy with a personal productivity app
Fix: removed leaderboard and added social media style page to discover more free time activities (later incorporated into to-do list)
2. Telling people how much time or “energy” they’re spending on apps isn’t really helping them with anything
Fix: changed to tracking task progress as well as energy of the user based on types of tasks completed
3. Actual tangible rewards might not be feasible in the long run
Fix: removed rewards
4. Too much work finding new activities/checking off tasks
Fix: simple ui to check off tasks; "suggested" portion of to-do list from previously written down activities
High-Fidelity Prototype
Next steps...
- Further user testing using hi-fi mockup
- Track user interaction with app parts to identify essential features
- Explore ways to maintain user engagement while minimizing unnecessary time on app
Thank you!
