My Role
Team
Duration
UX Researcher & Designer
4 teammates
8 weeks
Tools Used
Figma, Miro, Figjam, Google Forms
Context
Indiana University has three Grand Challenges initiatives in progress: Precision Health Initiative, Prepared for Environmental Change and Responding to the Addictions Crisis.
With the theme of addiction, we focused on social media addiction which is prevalent in most of the individuals today leading to serious problems such as depression and anxiety.
How big is the problem?
4.5 hrs/day
Average social media consumption by gen zers
6 years & 8 months
Average individual social media consumption in a lifetime
80%
users
Tried to limit their social media usage, but failed
Why is this problem important?
01
Social media consumption and mental health are directly correlated. Users having high usage of screen time for social media often struggle with mental health.
02
2019 study by the Royal Society for Public Health found that Instagram is the platform most likely to have a negative impact on mental health, particularly in terms of anxiety, depression, and poor body image.
03
25% of 18 to 29 year olds reported mental illness. These groups report high social media usage.
This 25% accounts for 4.99 M people.
Identifying problem space
Main Problem
Social media is addictive and people don’t know how to reduce their social media usage
This is the problem space we decided to focus on and started our primary research to understand the issue and come up with a concrete problem statement that reflects the struggles of quitting social media.
Exploring why is it difficult to reduce social media usage?
Lack of Motivation
Reducing social media usage requires a strong motivation. People often find themselves mindlessly scrolling through their feeds, caught in a loop of cat videos and status updates.
Unaware of the impacts
Sometimes, people are blissfully unaware of the impact excessive social media use can have. Understanding the potential downsides of social media overindulgence is crucial for motivating change.
No magic method
People often try various methods to cut down on social media – setting time limits or deleting apps. This trial and error process can be frustrating, and when folks don’t see immediate results, they may throw in the towel.
What methods of UX research did we use to help drive clarity and focus to our problem space, and why?
Ux research method 01: User Surveys
Insights on Screen Time and Strategies for Limiting Usage
A total of 42 people took our eight-question survey. The survey was designed to give us basic information about users (age, gender identity, employment status) and insight on daily screen time, awareness of social media addiction, and attempts to limit social media use in the past.
Of the people who took our survey, 47.6% said they had 5 to 10 hours of screen time per day and 7.1% has more than 10 hours. And over 80% had tried to military their social media usage, but failed in doing so.
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Ux research method 02: Observation
Unveiling Social Media Habits in Everyday Settings
To enhance our understanding of the habits and amount of social media usage , we decided to conduct Observation sessions.
Multiple people observed in various locations such as airports, cafe, campus, parks etc through 8 observation sessions which lasted 30 mins each.
Outcome: Most people fill time using their phones while waiting for the “next thing” to happen. More than half of people were fully engrossed in their phones for the full observation.
Pictures and notes from my observation sessions:
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Ux research method 03: Interviews
Talking to the users
Eight semi-structured interviews using the below protocol were taken with a wide range of users from students to working professionals to understand their social media habits, triggers, motivations to use social media and its effects.
FOMO (Fear of missing out)
Anxiety if the photo doesn’t get enough likes
Habit that you can't get rid off
Using social media as a way of distraction
Common themes emerged from the interviews:
Interview Quotes:
Steve Wilson, 30
“I go on Instagram to message a friend and before I know it, an hour has passed and I achieved absolutely nothing”
Anna White, 22
“Some girls my age appear to have effortlessly perfect lives in perfect houses with perfect boyfriends and cute dogs, while I’m struggling to find a matching pair of socks in the morning. All my attempts to look glam fall flat, and I feel worse with every picture I post”
What did we takeaway from our primary research?
Primary Research Summary
No motivation to stop using social media
Tried to limit social media usage, but failed
Want to find balance between online and offline world
Ux research method 04: Affinity Mapping
Analyzing data gathered
We used affinity diagramming to analyze the data gathered, which helped us categorize and prioritize problems, issues, and challenges.
What did we learn from affinity mapping?
01.
Challenges:
The main challenge while trying to limit social media usage was self control and motivation.
02.
Triggers:
What triggered users to go on to social media ranged from boredom to a way of avoiding to talk to someone.
03.
Emotional Changes:
Users often felt anxious and even guilty at times after using social media. Few users even reported being depressed as a result of extreme social media usage.
04.
Replacement:
Users would like to replace their time spent on social media with various types of things such as spending time with family, cleaning, gardening etc.
05.
Strategies:
Various strategies used by users to limit social media usage were to hide their phone, deactivate social media apps, selecting app lock.
Ux research method 04: Empathy Mapping
Empathizing with the users
To make more sense of our insights from the affinity diagram, we decided to use a empathy mapping. Empathy mapping made it easier to understand the problems from the persona’s point of view
Who are our target users?
Based on our research insights, we created personas that helped us gain a clear perspective of our target users and their goals and interests. For our MVP, we decided that our system’s target users would be students and working professionals around the age of 18-35.
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What is the problem?
Having comprehended the needs of users and identified the existing gaps in research, we formulated a problem statement to articulate a precise objective for the design, outlining what issues it should address.
“People recognize that social media use disrupts their lives and productivity, but often don’t have the motivation to reduce screen time on their own.”
How did we come up with solution?
Brainstorming sessions:
Following the establishment of a well-defined problem statement, we proceeded to engage in brainstorming sessions to generate solutions and explore potential design directions informed by our research insights. Through three rounds of brainstorming, we amassed a total of 53 design ideas.
Solution
To help people motivate themselves, stay on track, and maintain focus, we came up with two effective solutions:
Accountability
Accountability partners serves as a source of motivation. Knowing that someone is tracking your progress or expecting you to complete a task can provide the extra push needed to overcome procrastination and stay focused.
Detox Challenges
Digital detox challenges offer a strong motivation by setting clear goals and encouraging healthy online-offline boundaries. They provide participants with achievable targets, helping them regain control over their digital habits and enjoy a more balanced life.
Wireframing Solution
There were several iterations in the final design process. It all began with sketching a user flow of what the design should include and concentrate on.
We created a low-fidelity prototype on paper as the second step, which helped us achieve cognitive walkthroughs. The feedback through these walkthroughs was considered for improvisations, which were implemented during the final high-fidelity prototyping.
We started working on concepts for the Balance application after defining the problem and doing research.
Below is the first paper prototype.
We then created mid-fidelity wireframes on Figma.
Final Screens
Once the user has logged in or signed in, their interests are asked. User can select multiple options and continue. This is asked to give rewards based on the interest selected.
Here, you can select your "Balance Buddy" who will be keeping you accountable. You and your balance buddy both will the locking the apps together for the selected amount of time and date.
You can select the apps you would like to lock and select the time, then send request. Request will be sent to you balance buddy and you can not open the locked apps without the approval of your buddy.
Early unlock can be requested. Your can accept or reject your request.
Here is the 2nd feature, encouraging people to engage in outdoor activities to achieve online and offline balance.
User can select a challenge on their choice and details will be given for the same.
Challenge details will be shown here. User can also keep track of progress by their balance buddy.
My learnings
Working in teams
I have worked in teams as a Software Engineer, but this was the first time I worked with other designers. It was great to learn from each other and collaborate on creating user-centered, visually appealing, and functionally efficient designs that truly enhanced the overall user experience.
Research is key
It is so important to learn and understand the problem from the users’ point of view. I feel this can be done only through research. User research provides amazing insights into the users’ needs, behaviors, and pain points, ultimately guiding the design and development process to create solutions that resonate with the end users and solve their real-world problems.
Gaining feedback is important
I knew I didn’t know everything- trying to fight the urge to create solutions not from my own assumptions and trying to find different opinions than my own really helped me to expand my horizons.