Today, people seem to be more attached to their smartphone than ever before. Their work life, social life, and down time appear to all revolve around one device which has instant access to all of the world’s collective information. However, instead of using their phone as a productive tool, many people seem to have an unhealthy relationship with their device. We wanted to get to the root of this relationship and understand why phones aren’t being used to maximize different areas of people’s lives to their fullest potential. Through our research, we found that students and working professionals often found themselves unaware of the time that they spent on their phone and that they weren’t consciously choosing what they wanted to do on their phones. That’s why we created mode: a productivity app that helps you both actively and passively manage your screen-time in a way that works for you. Mode helps to keep you aware of the time you’re spending on your device through a plant on the home screen that grows as you continue to use your phone in a healthy way. Mode also lets you switch between work and play functionality, which restricts which apps you can access at any given time, allowing you to be fully intentional with the way you use your phone. ### Design Research Goals, Methods, and Participants We decided to format our design research as a combination of interviews and informal diary study. The interview was structured to have three different stages: perception, revelation, and reflection. For the first stage of the interview, we asked participants questions about their current phone usage. In the next stage we had our participants take out theirs phones and navigate to their personal Screen Time data, which was then followed by the final stage, which was about absorbing and reflecting upon that data. We asked participants to gauge the differences between their perceived phone usage and their raw data and reflect upon that difference. This interview structure was important in that it allowed us to better understand the possible problems that arise when people are confronted with the data that either supports or rejects their perception of reality in regard to phone usage.

We contacted a college student, a graduate student, and a young working professional to conduct our research. Phone usage isn't a problem restricted to one age group and we wanted to explore multiple occupations to see different problems. ### Design Research Results and Themes After we conducted the research, we compared our participants' perceived phone usage and their actual usage. Also, we documented their reflection on the difference between perceived and actual usage. Our participants also mentioned their concern about their current behavior and what they are looking forward to as a potential solution to help them. The followings are the key findings we have: **Balance Between Work and Leisure Activities** Our first participant, the college student, sought the balance between work and leisure activities, Aa there is no clear boundary between class/work and personal life for her. However, the graduate student and the working professional actively exercised this balance. **Lack of Awareness Regarding Phone Screen Time** In the majority of our users, we found a disconnect between their perceived and actual usage of their phone. For the most part, users underestimated their usage and we’re surprised to see the amount of time they spent on their phone. Partial versus complete restriction of phone Our users also mentioned that when they sought to restrict their usage, they didn’t want to lock their whole phone down. Rather, they needed to restrict access to certain apps that they found distracting, while leaving others available. **Subconscious Scrolling on Social Media** Finally, our users found themselves constantly scrolling through different feeds on their phone. In particular, our college student was shocked by the amount of time she spent on a single social media app throughout the week. ### Identified Tasks Throughout our design research, we observed what our participants did to enhance their productivity with their phone. Moreover, we discovered concern regarding their phone usage. We came up with six tasks that our participants perform that reflect our findings: **1. Being Present in the Moment When With Family and Friends** Our participants turned off their phone and notification, so they can enjoy the moment with their family. **2. Blocking Notifications After Work and Before Bedtime** With an increasing ability to communicate with their friend, our participants felt anxious about the bombarding messages throughout the day and decided to turn off the notification. **3. Using Phone for Work Productivity** Our participants use Slack, Messenger, Canvas, and email to communicate with their co-workers. **4. Browsing Phone for Extended Periods of Time** Some of our participants are not aware of their actual usage of their phone, and they are surprised by how much more usage they spent a day than they estimated. **5. Limiting Time on Certain Social Media Apps** Realizing that they spent too much time of the social media apps, our participants decided to completely disable their apps during work hours. **6. Using a Smartphone in Place of Computer** As a product manager, one of our participants used her phone as the primary tool to communicate with her team when she is commuting. ### Proposed Design Sketches **Design 1: Modes** This design focuses on partitioning your phone into two different modes: social and work. These modes are activated by a notification that appears only on the lock screen, forcing the user to commit to the activity that they want to use the phone for. After unlocking the phone, depending on the mode chosen, different apps will show up on your home screen. In work mode, only apps related to things such as email, business messaging, and schoolwork will show up on the home screen. In social mode, only apps related to social media, gaming, and entertainment will show up on the home screen. There will be presets for which mode each app fits in, but ultimately, the user can decide which app they want in each mode.

**Design 2: Social** This design is implemented as an application that limits functionality of users' phones to let them be present in the moment while tracking the overall phone usage of everyone. In this application, the home screen shows different groups that the user is in. Before a specific group decides to hang out in person, the group members can send a "Request Lockout". If everyone agrees with the lockout, their phone functionality will be limited according to their set goals during a specific period of time. For example, if the users plan to decrease usage on Instagram, Facebook, and games to encourage in-person communication, the lockout will block those apps for two hours when they are hanging out. Clicking a group, the user can see the group members' overall usage of different categories of apps throughout the week. When the user clicks on a category of app in the pie chart, it will show individual usage of different members.

**Design 3: Plant Visual** This design will act as a passive way of notifying the user about their phone usage by displaying a plant in the user’s home screen. When the user is spending too much time on their phone, the plant wilts. Conversely, when the user spends less time on their phone, the plant will grow. If the user spends too many days beyond their limit, the plant will die. Some statistics will be shown along with the plant like how long the current plant has been kept alive, the total number of plants killed and the longest time a single plant is kept alive. Users can also set which apps support or diminish plant health in their settings, tailoring limits to their particular usage.

### Selected Design and Storyboards We ultimately decided to move forward with a combination of two of our designs:

For the work and play modes we want an active way for users to intentionally switch between modes when they want to take a break and relax or sit down to focus on their work. With the plant, we have a passive way to visually indicate time usage. Despite most phones having graphs and charts of time usage, we found that our participants did not look at their data despite knowing about the functionality. The plant growth will be mapped to goals that a user sets for themselves. If they wish to spend less time on an app, the plant will decay faster when using that app and if they wish to spend more time on an app, the plant will grow accordingly. We find it very important that the user has the ability to set their own limits and apps to their personal needs. **Storyboard 1:** Mark is about to head into work, but sees that he’s been using his phone all morning and his plant is dying. To prevent distraction, he puts his phone into work mode and gets to work. During his lunch break, he switches his phone back to normal and sees that his plant has grown while he’s been productive.

**Storyboard 2:** Our second storyboard focuses on how people can limit time on certain social media apps. During bedtime, Sarah is scrolling through Instagram and unknowingly spends more than two hours on her phone. Moving to her home screen, she notices that her plant is beginning to wilt so she consciously puts down her phone and opens up a book instead.