What is my project?
It is pretty clear to me now that I will be focusing on making my mental health app that emphasizes using less screen time and being productive with your time by not using your phone. Partly inspired by The Social Dilemma, I am especially focusing on the aspects of the documentary that talk about the effects that social media/ phone applications have on mental health and how apps are inherently designed to make you addicted so your time is spent using their services. And before you shoot me with the “ok, boomer”, the goal is not to get people to stop using their phones completely, or even social media (although deleting these apps could prove beneficial), it’s to make people aware of their habits and have them acknowledge that their screen time may be an issue and there are more productive uses of time. This concept will be reflected in a mental health app designed to genuinely help people, but without an addictive app that draws you in constantly.
Much of the project itself will consist of actual research regarding mental health and its relation to screen time usage. This information will act as the stepping stones to what exact functions the app will include based on what makes the most sense. Ultimately the goal is to have a simplistic interface that doesn’t require much of a learning curve (thus time spent on the phone figuring things out) and is convenient to use.
Inspiration, representation, and future aspirations
I’m inspired by this idea because it combines so many different things that I enjoy doing. Technically speaking, there will be a lot of writing, prototyping, interface/visual design, and research which are all aspects I know I will enjoy. Additionally, something that stresses mental health motivates me especially with the times we are living in and everyone wants to maintain good physical health with the pandemic going, but I think sometimes people forget how much it can take a toll on people mentally as well. This is something I really value, and even though it’s been changing a lot in recent years, mental health issues are often misunderstood and stigmatized.
I also believe the emphasis on less screen time is a motivating factor because this whole concept is relatively new. Like sure, The Social Dilemma is a very new documentary, but when it comes to social media, apps, and smartphones it’s all fairly new. I mean it’s really been less than a decade that apps really became booming in popularity. Therefore, it’s inspiring to be working on something that still has a lot of controversy and is a newer concept to people. Our generation grew up as all this tech was advancing and we’ve seen how much technology has infiltrated our lives more and more as we’ve grown up.
My future aspirations closely tie in with this because ultimately I wanna be a user experience designer, but one who is ethical and doesn’t further this trend of user manipulation and dark UX. I mean hey, the only way to really solve that is to be a part of the industry itself, right?
Why should people care and what’s the relevance?
In the span of 10 years social media apps completely exploded. We went from it being almost a rarity for people to own fancy smartphones to everyone and their grandparents carrying a small computer in their pockets in 2020. So what will it look like another 10 years from now? New addictive social media apps? Fancy new additions to the preexisting apps? Something crazier? I honestly don’t know, but it is safe to say phones won’t be leaving our lives and I feel that over time people will start to realize some of the true side effects and company manipulation taking place. That’s why I want to create this project, because we need to start somewhere. As I will research in depth, screen time and quality of mental health are closely connected. Combining the two makes sense to me because not only will it helping hand to any person as a wellness application, but the active encouragement to drop your phone for a couple hours and do something else could spark better habits.
I’m not sure if something like this exists. There are tons of health/wellness apps out there but they are focused on just that – health and wellness. The whole “use your phone less” dynamic would be implemented within the app, which is still something I will brainstorm in the research and development phase. One idea is a lock in the app that only allows you a certain amount of time per day on the app, but other functions would still be available for voice and haptic touch. Regardless, there will actively be functions that will make people conscious of their screen time. The knowledge from this project is obviously related to The Social Dilemma and helped spark this idea in the first place. The app design itself will be the extension of this knowledge along with a lot of additional research.
Implementation
I’ve mentioned probably a million times already that I would like to design an app, so that is what I will build around. However, much of the actual research will be a part of the project to demonstrate the significance of the problem and will most likely be formatted as a case study.
Developing an actual app scares me though because I am not very good with anything to do with coding. At the very least I could still make an interactive mockup without much coding, however it would still be cool to develop the app itself if it is feasible and works within the timeframe of the project. In terms of the prototyping, I will wireframe and create paper prototypes initially, then create a digital low-fidelity mockup, and then a high-fidelity prototype on Figma or Sketch.
As I mentioned earlier, I want the interface to be fairly simple. I want it to look good of course, but I don’t want it to be a distraction for users or complicated to navigate. It should be easy for someone to use who’s not super tech savvy.