Time Management (The Hot Potato)
The Way Forward
Help people to engage in more off-screen possibilities during their leisure & free-time outside of work/study to deter them from retreating back into mobile devices.
My study shows 80% of the working population listed work as the most significant factor to use mobile devices and Internet. It is impossible to do work without technology and the key area to look at for a healthy digital/life balance is when they get off work, during their leisure or free-time.
It is a tall order to ask people to refrain using their mobile devices for entertainment during their down-time without giving them alternatives. It could be worthwhile looking at off-screen possibilities to bypass the use of mobile devices while keeping people intellectually engaged, curious and entertained. Newport also states that it will be easier to minimise low-quality digital diversions by cultivating a high-quality leisure life first. (Newport, 2019).
Why Humane Design Concept?
Attention crisis: Companies are racing to monetise our finite attention, which can create invisible harms in society.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described feeling a "responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people's well-being", announcing "a major change to how we build Facebook" so that time spent on the site is "time well spent. in 2018.
Humane Technology was first conceptualised by Tristan Harris, the “closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience” called by The Atlantic magazine, he was the former Design Ethicist at Google. He believes that it is essential to move away from technology that extracts attention and erodes society, and strive towards technology that protects our minds and replenishes society.
Current design interventions:
Through ‘Forcing’
1. Ikea Taiwan Phone-less Table
A special hot pot table powered by smartphones—it requires everyone at the table to surrender their devices and place them below the pot.
I've shared this in this post before.
I've shared this in this post before.
2. Mobile Applications
Forest: Temporarily block apps
Stay Focused: App that locks the phone while studying.
Through ‘Monitoring’
1. Mobile Applications
RescueTime, Moment: Track how much time spent on phones, set and track goals for mobile screen timeFlipd: App that blocks social media while studying.
Freedom: Block apps at certain times
2. Intiatives by Tech Giants
- Google Wifi:
Offers a “family pause” switch that suspends wifi at dinner or bedtime
- Youtube: Take a Break feature. A reminder is triggered after a set amount of time of continuous streaming is reached.
- FB and IG: Time management features such as setting time reminders and temporarily disabling push notifications
(Pardes, 2018, Wired.com)
Through ‘Movements and Awareness’
Time Well Spent Movement by Humane Technology
Wants to get technology platforms to stop hijacking society’s minds and start putting well-being first. Hopes to encourage a humane technology ecosystem that protects our minds and move away from technology that extracts attention and erodes society.
Through ‘Helping’
1. Sans Forgetica Font by RMIT
A font designed to better remember study notes
I've shared this in this post before.
2. Dumb Phones
Nokia 3310
The Light Phone & Punkt Mp01
(Mashable, 2017)
According to App Annie, we collectively spent 900 billion hours using apps in 2016. That's a ridiculously huge amount of time, but with a dumbphone your personal app tally will be zero. Say "goodbye" to your digital lettered keyboards and "hello, old friend" to those numbered push-button keyboards. Punkt's tagline is simple and straightforward: "Offline as the new luxury." And its MP01 dumbphone is all the rage. It's generally getting positive reviews, the phone has inspired an active (and very ironic) audience on Twitter. - Sequin, 2017
3. Table Games
Platypus Kitchen, Singapore
4. AdBlock
5. Hardware Mute Switch
Only Apple and OnePlus Phones have this switch.
Aim of adopting Humane Design Concept: Inspire more designers to design with compassion for our vulnerabilities, well-being and needs instead of just designing addictive applications and utilising persuasive techniques to keep us glued to screens.
No comments
Post a Comment