SoundMind

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PROJECT OVERVIEW

SoundMind explores wearable tech designed to aid mental wellbeing and focus which have been impacted by screen addiction. For this project, I investigated behavioral patterns, pain points and preferences of students from Georgia Tech with the team. The process that followed yielded key features - customization, user reports and notifications. These features are spread across the designed wearable device and application which show great potential to help students refocus their attention and understand their usage patterns!

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Learnings

Projects within the realm of Health call for increased attention to any impact made (positive or negative) by the design intervention, irrespective of how insignificant it may seem.

Co-design workshops might seem daunting but they can provide very valuable insights into what users think they want vs. what we as designers and researchers think they want.

For these kinds of projects, it is good to start with a hypothesis but user studies are key to give us true feedback about our work and help redirect our attention to issues that need fixing.

Taking feedback with a pinch of salt- I learned that it is okay for the first iteration of the design to have many flaws! This only increases the scope of what is possible to achieve with the idea by making some adjustments!

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CONTEXT

Problem Statement

How might we design a product intervention to improve the mental well-being and focus of college students struggling with addiction to their mobile phones using intuitive interactions to notify students and realign their focus to identify and reduce unproductive screen time.

Contextual Study

The team studied the effects of addiction to mobile phones and social media on the mental health of young people. Unstructured observations, surveys, and in-person interviews were conducted to gain insights into the mobile device usage patterns of students.

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An affinity diagram which synthesizes data from the sources

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Key findings from Contextual study

The study confirmed that addiction to mobile devices has a negative impact on productivity, mood, sleep quality, and mental well-being.

Participants expressed a desire to reduce screen time but faced difficulty in doing so because of a lack of concentration and excessive use of social media during leisure time.

Break time largely featured the use of mobile devices.

Mobile Usage based on 28 survey respondents:
- Perception vs Reality
  - 50% thought they spent about 3-5 hours daily on their mobile device
  - 36% thought they spent 6-8 hours daily on their mobile device
  - In reality, 46% spent 3-5 hours while 21% spent 6-8 hours on their mobile device
- Screen Time Habits of Participants
  - 75% of the participants were not comfortable with their screen time and wanted to reduce it.
  - Only 11% of the participants were making efforts to reduce their screen time.
- Frequency of Usage
  - Participants reported picking up their phone between 17 to 300 times daily.
  - The average phone usage was approximately 105 times per day
- Reasons for using mobile devices: Social Media and Entertainment

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RESEARCH

Secondary research for persona building

Each of the three researchers picked one kind of personality trait which might suffer from the effects of mobile device addiction and studied relevant research to construct personas.

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Personas based on the ICF Model (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health)

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Co-Design workshop for further insights

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Key findings from workshop

Wearable device should be visible yet subtly notify to promote privacy.

Detachable and attachable to different locations on the body to promote customization.

Origami route was appreciated because of it’s aesthetic quality, alluding to a fashion piece.

Sharing their productivity information to their social circles as a reward.

Notification through tactile sensation provided by movement of origami.

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PROCESS

Goal: To promote productive screen time by notifying students of their unproductive usage throughout the day, especially during procrastination periods.

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Conceptualization

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We used inspiration from other interactions that could inform our own designs.

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Scoping features

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Information Architecture for application

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OUTCOME

Highlighted Features

Feature 1: Customization

Throughout our research it became clear that customization and personalization had to be important aspects of this design. Whether it is to maintain privacy of the user's productivity or to allow them the choice and agency to define what is productive and unproductive for them, this feature umbrella is key to achieve users' personal goals.

Choosing whether a task is productive or unproductive will adust the overall time reports.

The data visualization will change according to adjustments made by the user to define their productivity

Customizing the color, intensitiy as well as light and/or haptic feedback to promte privacy

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Feature 2: User Reports

The concept of Personification of time as seen in the Forest App inspired us to visualize time differently. We wanted to think of time as more fluid and personal to each individual. We also wanted the users to associate their productvity with growth, hence, we used the metaphor of a flower to visualize time. We created a moodboard to consolidate our ideas.

Having experience with data visualization using real user input, I created a p5.js sketch which extracted information from json files and presented it in the form of a flower. Each of the petal lengths was symbolic of productive time.

Moodboard visualizaing the passing of time through imagery of growth and increment in nature.

A sample p5.js sketch referenced from Open Processing.

p5.js sketch which visualizes productive time.

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Coding for the p5.js sketch which visualizes productive time.

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Prototype

Figma Prototype (Can be interacted with in fullscreen for a better experience)

SoundMind, a unique wearable and application, combines haptic and light feedback to address screen time management. This device utilizes notifications beyond the screen to alert users when they exceed their desired screen time, the progress of productivity and even encourages breaks. The stylistic choice for wearable is origami exterior which makes it serve as both an accessory and a responsive tool, providing haptic nudges and color changes based on usage. Specifically designed for college students, SoundMind aims to foster healthy screen time habits by offering engaging visual notifications, promoting breaks during procrastination periods. By leveraging phone-collected screen time data, sourced through APIs, the device supports users in maintaining mental well-being.

User study- Wizard of Oz

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Key findings from user study

Visualization
- Information heavy
- Graphical representation of information is preferred

Clarification
- Icons were not clear enough nor easily recognizable
- There was confusion about what represents productive and unproductive time
- Report needs context and further explanation
- Wearable lacked visual clarity on what direction to wear the device

Customization
- Haptic notifications were well liked by all
- Customization of intensity/ pressure of haptics was appreciated
- Customization of haptics as an option would be preferred over light customization

Preference
- Users prefer option to compare report data from the previous day and/or week
- The shape of the visualization could be more organic
- Users wanted a prize option for “successful” productivity
- Request for suggestions on steps to take after receiving the results
- There needs to be an overview of the detailed report in the home screen

Wearability
- The paper origami texture felt bad against users’ skin
- Request to minimize size of wearable to be better incorporated into daily life

Privacy
- Lights attract attention
- Haptics promote privacy

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