TLDR: I was the principal UX designer for this personal project. I wanted to dive deep into screen (phone) time and ideate solutions for moderating how much time we spend on them. I dug into academic papers, ran eye opening interviews, checked out competitors, iterated lo & hi-fidelity designs and tested them.
Problem
American’s average 4hrs+ a day on their phones, leading to several sociological issues.
Context
My partner and I were frustrated by how much we drift off into our phones when we’re together. It happens fast too. We check a notification, look something up, and bam, off we go again into the phone zone.
I read dozens of academic papers. They all mostly agreed. Screen time is ok in moderation. But, after about ~1hr issues start to stack up.
Too much screen time is linked to lack of sleep, persistent issues with inattention and behavioural problems in youth.
In a University of Virginia study, 1 in 10 people surveyed even admitted to checking their phones during sex.
Screen time has even led to it’s own verb —phub, “to ignore someone you are with and give attention to your mobile phone instead,” (Cambridge Dictionary).
I decided to focus on notifications, the reward systems training us to pay attention to our phones.
Third party apps and OS features already exist to manage notifications. But what I noticed is all of them require in the moment activation or pre-planning.
This, despite research showing 31% of users phone time is attributed to problems with self control.
—
Study participants I interviewed mostly blamed screen time on work email and social media. They employed screen time coping strategies that worked to a varying degree. I.e. using airplane mode, turning phones to silent, do not disturb, focus modes, physically turning phone upside down or moving it to another room.
There were three themes that emerged from interviews:
1. Interviewees did not know what to do with their time; especially when alone.
“If I wasn’t on my phone, what would I do with that down time? I don’t know.”
2. Interviewees acknowledged spending time on their phones in social situations.
“I use my phones in social situations almost 100% of the time”
3. Interviewees really don’t like when relations (family, friends, partners) go on their phones when they are together —even if they do it themselves.
“When someone pulls out their phone I feel disrupted and insulted”
This last theme, informed by the prior two, is what I chose to focus on.
Ideation
I originally planned a multi-layered app that had a rad AR geofence onboarding process, gamified notification blocking and the works. But it got complicated quickly and lost it’s original purpose —eliminate phubbing, be kind to users when they’re alone, and walk carefully around the hypocrisy of users phubbing others while not wanting to be phubbed themselves.
This lead to the idea of a notification proximity blocker.
Instead of location or time specific notification blocking, what if another user was the proximity blocker?
Result
At its most basic, when one app user walks up to another they’re connected with, all default notifications cease for both of them. When their phones move away from each other, notifications filter through again.
Notifications can be customized by app, but by default all notifications are blocked except calls and texts (never blocked). Because as one interviewee put it:
“No one’s going to Snapchat me that the dog died, but I still want to be available for emergencies.”
The proximity blocker addresses phubbing other people, and being phubbed, but intentionally leaves alone time alone.
Future iterations may include prompts towards self-identified ‘more meaningful’ activities than screen time, but Together doesn’t ever aim to police alone time.