Timewise is a mobile app designed to help young adults build healthier relationships with their screens. Developed as part of the Social Interaction course in the MSc Human-Computer Interaction program, this project explored how behavioral science and gamification can support self-regulation and wellbeing.
Duration
1 month
Team
7 teammates
My role
Researcher, ideation, prototyping
The problem
Despite being aware of the negative effects of excessive screen time such as anxiety, poor sleep, and reduced wellbeing, many adults struggle to self-regulate their digital habits, especially for entertainment use.
Existing solutions often rely on rigid limits or guilt-based feedback, which users tend to ignore or disable over time.
This raised the following design question: How might we help adults reduce screen time without making them feel restricted or judged?
Our solution is a mobile application called timewise designed to help adults between 18-30 years reduce their screen time through various techniques inspired by behavioral science and gamification. The features include:
Digital Nudges (Active
and passive)
Perspective and awareness, app shuffling, selective grayscale, and interrupting "immersion" state
Gamification and Motivation
Feedback and motivation system, and reminder notifications
We followed a theory-driven, human-centered design process, relying on secondary research to ground our design decisions in existing evidence and best practices.
Discover: Secondary Research and Exploration
We conducted secondary research, reviewing academic literature on screen time, wellbeing, and behavior change, alongside existing digital wellbeing apps, to understand current approaches and their limitations.
Define: Synthesizing Insights
From this research, we synthesized key insights and reframed the problem around promoting intentional screen use through autonomy-preserving interventions rather than strict control.
Develop: Prototype
Guided by these insights, we explored and prototyped design concepts inspired by behavioral nudges and gamification, translating theory into concrete interactions using Figma.
Deliver: Final Presentation
Developed a comprehensive presentation showcasing our findings and prototype
Successfully applied behavioral science principles to create a user-centric solution.
Designed and prototyped interactive features like app shuffling and selective grayscale to disrupt excessive screen time.
Gained experience in interdisciplinary collaboration and presenting our findings through a comprehensive final presentation.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Behavioral Insights
Impact of Gamification