DEFINE THE PROBLEM
How might we help students to conquer information overload and focus on their studies?
Mobile phones connect us with the world, give us quick access to information, and largely enrich our daily life. However, my friends and classmates all said they feel they are interrupted by messages or notifications all the time and this influenced their study efficiency. For students who are preparing for the graduate entrance exam or final exams, focusing on their studies is very important. However, they have a low efficiency of study and always fail to accomplish their daily tasks because of the interruption from phones, which makes me start to rethink the role of mobile phones in our daily life.
RESEARCH
Research Goal 1
Figure out what happened when they were disturbed
Research Goal 2
Is there any difference between different kinds of students?
RESEARCH CHALLENGE
What users “say” does not match what they “did,” making it challenging to figure out the real reason for the disturbance
During the research, I surprisingly find out that some interviewees said that they were disturbed by their phone notifications. But in fact, they were not interested in learning and lacked internal motivation, which caused a distraction. Fear of missing important information is just an excuse to open their mobile phone and entertainment.
Approach
1. Observe where dose the interviewee place their phone during studying
2. Take their usual study habits into consideration
What an app can do is very limited, so for this type of student, there is no way for any app to change their learning status. It is unrealistic and not feasible that the previous apps attempt to solve the problem of all types of students in one design. Therefore, I narrowed down the target group to students who have the motivation to learn but are disturbed by mobile information.
TARGET GROUP
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“After talking a few words on my mobile phone, the flow of studying is ruined completely”
“After talking a few words on my mobile phone, the flow of studying is ruined completely”
“Attractive headlines, pictures are everywhere, I feel like being fooled.”
STORYBOARD
1. Received unimportant/non-urgent notifications
2. Reply to these non-urgent notifications
3. Forget the chat content
4. Continue their studies
1. Search online or use dictionaries apps
2. Distracted by irrelevant information on that pages
3. Get rid of distracting information from their mind
4. Continue their studies
INSIGHTS
INSIGHT 1
People today hold contradictory attitudes to notification
Some may say “why don’t they just turn off the internet or don’t allow some apps to send notifications?”
1. Students are accustomed to using WeChat. Turning off the network, you can receive no message.
2. Because people don't have their number, turning off the network makes students feel anxious.
3. It is very troublesome to set all those modes before and after each study session.
How might we help students classify information by the level of importance?
INSIGHT 2
Students don't want to be distracted when using some learning apps
Attractive pictures, titles, etc. are like nicotine, continually stimulating the brain to find more pleasure. Unwittingly browsing a lot of irrelevant content, many people even forget their initial purpose of opening mobile phones. (Reply to important information or use the dictionary.)
Visual information accounts for 80% of the interaction between people and mobile phones.
How might we reduce distraction by reducing visual stimuli?
INSIGHT 3
Individual differences of learning habits
Self-control abilities varied from person to person. A constraint that is too strict on one person may be too loose for another. Individual differences in design can allow new users to grow while meeting the advanced needs of old users.
How might we let users control and customize their study mode?
INSIGHT 4
Students need a reward system, not punishment
When students are still wasting their time, they should not be treated with a punishment mechanism (e.g. Forest). There will be a counter effect of punishment and meaningless self-blame will only consume positive energy, resulting in continued and repeated mistakes.
How might we let users control and customize their study mode?
PROTOTYPING & ITERATION
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SKETCH & User Testing
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• Users worry that deliberately turning a blind eye to notifications will create a barrier with their friends.
• Limitations and constraints can neither be too strong nor too weak.
• Privacy concern
My Solution:
• I narrowed down the information that my app can collect to only the contacts.
• Meanwhile, users should be informed about what information the app will collect and what their data is used to do during the onboarding process.（Users have the power to control their data collected by the app)
LO-FI PROTOTYPING
After asking for feedback on my sketches, I started the lo-fi prototyping process to turn ideas into concrete screens. I framed our scattered ideas into the main user flow below.
FINAL DESIGN
Set study mode
Set reminder
In Frog Zen, Temple you can customize your study mode. Filter photos, videos, and notifications according to the number of tasks and your own status. You can decide for yourself the time interval you want to check messages and notifications. New users can set these during onboarding process.
Quick start-up
Concentrate on study
Does the little frog look like your inner self? That's right, supervising, concentrating, and meditating is the same as what you expect from yourself.Adjust your mood and thoughts and come to the Frog Zen Temple with the little frog. Floating on a small leaf boat and dive into your learning process.
Have a rest
Get rewards
As a reward system, after studying for a while, you can get a varying lengths of study break without constraints.(The duration of rest will be calculated based on your study time) In the message bottle, you can check notifications collected during your study (jump to chatting apps to reply). Don't forget to go back to learning, or you can only browse monochrome Instagram.
Music & Report
My statistics:
Encourage your every progress in a more intuitive way; for example, saving 8 hours on the phone this week is equivalent to the entire working day. Make you feel very fulfilled and closer to your goals.
Frog Zen music:
Zen music can help you to relax, calm and concentrate quickly. Those minimized choices won’t turn it into a music app, but it is enough when you need to start your studies.
A Few takeaways
Design with a clear goal in mind
Design with a simple and clearly-defined goal. Always revisit your goal during the design process and check if you are deviating from where you started.
Everyone is a designer
Use every chance you get to talk with people about your ideas and get feedback as frequently as possible. I found most of my good ideas come from talking to those around me.
The design is in the detail
Be mindful with every small design decision you make, and stay sensitive to the nuances in the design. Recognize the impact it could bring to the users and your strategy.
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