With the increasing integration of AI, people are reflecting more closely on our relationship with technology and its structural impacts within our culture. Since the pandemic especially, technology's connection to mental health, depression, and anxiety has come under scrutiny. In 2020, the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, published the book "Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World," detailing how a loneliness crisis underpins our largest health epidemics, namely heart disease, diabetes, and addiction. One study found that the impact of social connection on mortality is a greater risk factor than smoking. The lack of social connection is found to be as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. According to Murthy, it is now a health imperative to prioritize in-person connections and establish greater safety standards for our digital environments.
Enhancing user control over app usage and increasing transparency in overall phone usage can make our devices more pro-connection. Current iOS features like Screen Time, Downtime, and Focus aim to help, but have limitations. Screen Time lacks comparative data, Downtime is cumbersome to set up, and Focus may not be sufficient for some users. Despite the demand for better attention and social interaction, current guardrails lack sufficient incentives to keep users on track.
With a focus on iPhone users, learn about the effectiveness of users’ screen time management strategies and identify user preferences for potential improvements.
Although iPhone ScreenTime offers the best reporting for time spent on your phone, it doesn't allow for customization or detailed information. Opal is the best market competitor for screentime management with an effective gamification strategy, however it is comparatively expensive to ScreenTime, which is integrated and free. It is also a less secure option for user data. OffScreen is the most mindful option at the lowest price point. Rather than interrupting behavior it gives you in-depth insights to your phone use. RescueTime and TogglTrack are other time tracking alternatives but gear more towards business billing use.
Phone usage provides a form of escape and decompression, but it creates tension by removing people from the present. Guardrails, such as ScreenTime, often fail to produce lasting behavioral changes, as negative feedback and unrealistic goals leave users feeling defeated. Many users struggle with subconscious phone use and poor goal-setting, making it hard to manage screen time effectively. The key challenge is balancing necessary usage with intentional breaks. While users want more nuanced, customizable tools to manage their phone habits, they also crave anonymity and empathy in tracking their screen time, especially when it relates to mental health.
“App Limits? I used them and then I turned them off. I was constantly exceeding and instead of making behavior changes to bring it down to a more reasonable level, I said — thats stupid. Let me take that off so I don’t have to feel bad about myself every single day I exceed.”
—Elan, 33
Based on themes found in user interviews, user personas were organized around empowered phone use, as this is the goal of ScreenTime. There is an overwhelmed user, hopeful user, and empowered user. They also happen to get younger with more empowered use as this was the pattern in my research.
Given the research and how-might-we statements, ideation techniques were used to form as many solutions as possible. Techniques included top of mind, analagous inspiration, and playing with opposites. Below are a select few from the brainstorming session.
A graph always present on your phone that shows your screentime as well as greatest time since pickup.
Send alerts every 10-20 minutes that tell you of your time spent each phone pickup. No prompt, just awareness to break concentration.
The longer you spend in certain apps, have the screen light dim slowly, to give a perception of time passing. Screen light can dim or maybe the lighting changes color, call it colorwise.
limit alerts to intervals based on a mode, like rest mode, so that users receive their notifications in batches rather than every second they come in to keep people less constantly distracted.
Allow ScreenTime limit exceeding alerts to have a scale of aggressive to friendly.
Set up geofences within your house - certain apps only work in certain locations. For example social media is turned off in the bedroom.
Have AI learn and detect the content that is specifically important to the user, allow users the flexibility to specifically limit that content. Let users dictate what general usage pattern/goals theyre looking for.
limit alerts to intervals based on a mode, like rest mode, so that users receive their notifications in batches rather than every second they come in to keep people less constantly distracted.
A feature add to Screen Time on iPhone, "Time Pass Aware," that haptically or visually makes users aware of how much time they have spent on their phones to prevent "blacking out" or "getting lost"
Building upon the initial storyboard, I created a journey map to get give more detail to the emotional expectations of the user at each stage of product integration.
To begin developing the feature, I first outlined a task flow that would guide users to the 'Time Pass Aware' feature and allow them to choose between sensory options, or both. These options—color fade and sensory pulse—could be applied universally across all apps or selectively to specific ones. I then created low-fidelity wireframes using construction paper to physically explore the layout and adjust the information flow. Since Apple's design system is already well-established, we skipped mid-fidelity wireframes and directly referenced the high-fidelity system to create our final high-fidelity designs.
Color Fade: The color fade feature gradually desaturates the screen from full color to greyscale. Regardless of the custom duration set, the desaturation always occurs during the last 5 minutes. The goal is to keep the phone usable, but make it less appealing, discouraging extended use. The color fade feature is set to activate and reset with each phone pickup and can be customized to only start the timer within certain apps, like social media apps.
Sensory Pulse: To ensure accessibility for users who might be colorblind or visually impaired, there's an alternative option: the haptic sensor. Instead of color fading, the haptic sensor sends a vibration to the phone at set intervals, making users aware of how long they've been using their phone. The timer resets with each new phone pickup.
The new feature is seamlessly integrated into Apple's existing UI, making it as easy to use and customize as other settings and features.
The feature's duration is fully customizable, along with the specific apps or app categories it applies to. Its user experience is similar to familiar iPhone features like App Limits and Downtime, making it easy to navigate and set up.
User testing revealed the need for more customization and flexibility in the Time Aware feature. Participants wanted the ability to control when features like Color Fade and Sensory Haptic were active, such as using Color Fade during work hours and Sensory Haptic afterward. In response, options were added to specify active times, days, and intervals for each feature. Users also found Color Fade "annoying" at times, prompting the addition of a control center widget for quick adjustments. This widget allows users to easily check usage time and turn features on or off without leaving their current activity. Despite some issues, all users expressed interest in trying Color Fade and Sensory Pulse, suggesting the features were promising.
One user mentioned wanting more customization within the feature. For example, could Color Fade be turned on during the day for work hours, and sensory haptic be turned on after work? Greater customization was seen as an opportunity during competitive analysis. A new option was then created to not only specify the interval duration of the feature, but also the time/days when the feature would be active.
Users mentioned that the Color Fade feature “felt annoying.” Additionally, an insight found in user interviews was that guardrails need to be flexible. To create greater flexibility, a control center widget was created for Time Aware for quick access. The Time Aware Widget shows you the amount of time since pickup, as well as an easy way to turn on/off specific features. If an important prolonged use came up in the middle of the day, you could quickly turn Color Fade off without closing out of your active screen.
This project heavily focused on understanding the psychology of behavior change and how to design effective incentives. One key insight was the importance of feedback—neutral feedback can often be perceived as negative in certain contexts, so it's crucial to recognize these nuances to create solutions that truly motivate users. The next phase of the project would involve testing the features to evaluate their effectiveness compared to existing Screen Time solutions. What became clear is that there are numerous design opportunities to help reduce screen addiction. Empowering users with a sense of control and offering them options is essential.
