The basic idea of the course is to invent something new or to use existing technologies in a new, yet unknown way. Our concept is based on the challenge to minimize the negative effect of smartphones on society.
First Step
Through self-analysis and a radical restructuring of our own home screens, we were able to identify many problems. Just by rearranging or deleting some apps, many problems could be solved.
Key findings
The most important key findings in our research of smartphone users in all generations and life situations, as well as our own analysis, have resulted in the following findings.
Time investment
The usage is divided into three rough areas. Productivity, communication and entertainment. There is a clear imbalance in terms of time investment. You can say that the longer the time investment, the worse the feeling.
Goal
Another key finding of our research is that a goal achievement is necessary to have optimal use without bad feeling. Thus, entertainment apps are often structured in such a way that there is never an ending, which implies no satisfaction in having completed a task.
Our Approaches
Our approach was to develop an extension of an existing operating system, in this case, iOS. This should help the user to consciously use his smartphone. The aim is to reflect on the user’s behaviour and, in the best-case scenario, to reduce the time spent on the smartphone.
In the semester project, we worked out six approaches to solve the biggest problems with the use of smartphones.
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Campaign
Many of us are not at all aware of our unhealthy behaviour, which is why we have also created a campaign that focuses intensively on communicating the problem. We have therefore developed several videos and poster concepts that offer a new perspective on our behaviour through visualised facts. Here we work with the well-known patterns in order to attract the user’s attention. We have realized one of the video concepts, as you can see at the top.
Video concepts
Poster concepts
During the project, we personally noticed that we had used our smartphones unconsciously and thoughtlessly and in the course of this project had changed our way of using them in a positive way.
Info
The semester project was supervised by Prof. Jörg Beck and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Barnhöfer.
Team
- Joshua Bökle
- Noemi Roser
- Ferdinand Sorg
Project
- Invention Design
- 3rd Semester
- Wintersemester 2018/19
- HfG Schwaebisch Gmuend
