The Problem
With the rise of social media, the average human attention span has dropped from roughly 12 seconds to 8 seconds. This drop can also be linked to impatience, rage, and the inability to focus. People today find it harder to stay connected, especially to themselves, while being disconnected from social media. In response, many social media tracking tools have been implemented but their use of negative reinforcements have shown to cause guilt within consumers rather than support users.
The Solution
By using research on positive reinforcement, we were able to develop an app called “Spur” that helps users track their social media usage by offering redirection as a solution to promote positive habits. Spur would be used as a center to store goals or interests, and instead of telling you, you have “failed” by exceeding your screen time goal, Spur would suggest a different activity based on your interest. Using encouragement Spur sets out to promote positive habit building, encourage hobby development and in turn decrease screen time.
Our Approach
The information gathered from our surveys and interviews helped continuously shape our approach to this problem throughout this project. We were able to better hone in our problem by analyzing and cross referencing our findings. Additionally, performing an in-depth competitive analysis of other habit building and screen tracking apps, we were able to identify pain points and reliable features that our participants experienced. Lastly we relied on 2 rounds of usability testing to help solidify our final deliverables.
What I Learned
Usability testing is a very crucial last step to projects. While we knew our project was solidly backed by research it was important to get user feedback before considering a launch in order to confirm usability. Recognizing that your users are on of the most important tool in your repertoire and using them to your advantage, that will ensure your project a success.
My Favorite Part
Designing pages, getting user feedback and putting those suggestions into our solution was my favorite part of this project. It feels good to know that the changes you are making will positively change lives, while getting to work on a project that will impact individuals in a healthy way was is rewarding.