Fighting Cell Phone Addiction
Based on my research and concept from the project Visualizing Daily Tech-Rituals, I developed a mechanism that expresses the essence of my deduced metaphor - Technology is an Addiction. This project maps out a way to overcome this metaphor.
Client: Student Work
Role: Concept, UI/UX Design
Guide: Prof. Ryan Schoenherr
Tools: Adobe Illustrator
Duration: 5 weeks
The Process
Idea
The idea was to come up with a mechanism (an object) that reduces cell phone addiction among teenagers.
Rapid Sketching
I started converting my thoughts into rapid sketches of hands holding a mobile phone to illustrate aspects of usability and interactivity through these sketches. These were quick and exploratory.
Gradually I moved on to sketching my mechanism. Each of my sketches were a variation on my idea considering alternate layouts or perspectives of the interface.
Chosen Mechanism
The heat sensitive cell phone case was the chosen mechanism as it acted as the best reminder for cell phone addiction.
Aspects of Consideration
It was important to consider the following aspects of interaction design while creating the mechanism.
User Journey
This is the experience of the user from the start to the finish.
Low-Fi Prototypes
The idea was that on excessive usage of cell phones, the heat sensitive cover would change its color and this would serve as a nudge to the user to keep track of their cell phone usage.
I first created typical or preliminary models of the mechanism, from which other forms could be developed or copied and later went on to targeting users’ phobias, by suggestions and body effects than just a change in the phone case color.
Final Execution
Gaining insight from the low-fi prototype, I further refined the designs to look disruptive and more off-putting to persuade the user to avoid excessive usage of the cell phone. These covers could be custom-made.
