An app for teenagers and young adults who want to spend less time on social media.

The Reclaim Game helps users break unwanted cellular habits. To reduce screen time, social media use is interrupted by prompts that trigger reflection and offer an escape route. In-app goal setting, a hamster character that functions as a gamified reward system, and daily activity recommendations also promote behavior change.
Track your screen time, set weekly goals, and see your progress!
When you succeed, so does your hamster companion! Earn snacks, furniture and toys for your hamster as you work towards your screen time goals. And when you spend time off your phone, your hamster gets a chance for rest and play!

Your hamster’s habitat is fully customizable!

The Process

Ethnography

Literature Analysis

Competitive Analysis

Sketches

Wireframes

User Flows

Think-Aloud Sessions

Questionnaires

Made with Figma

Team: Just me! This was an independently-made passion project

Duration: Dec. 2020 - Apr. 2021

Research

Ethnography

Participant Observation

I observed University of Michigan students using their technological devices for leisure and schoolwork, in both private and public spaces.

Interviews

I interviewed 5 University of Michigan students. I asked about their tech habits and their feelings towards their devices. Some questions included: 

  • Which devices do you use the most often? What do you do on each? 

  • Do you wish you spent less time on technology?

  • Do you tend to use your devices by yourself or with others? 

Survey

Designed in Qualtrics.

Purpose:

  • Clarify observational and interview data

  • Confirm that findings were applicable to a large number of students

  • Ask more questions about students’ concerns regarding technology

Literature Analysis

The goal of this project is to help people break free of unwanted, excessive social media use and reduce screen time while minimizing feelings of frustration and shame. To meet this goal, I read up on the science of behavior change, habit formation and breaking, and persuasive design.

These readings taught me that 1. Triggering conscious thought can interrupt automatic, habitual behaviors. 2. Rewards, especially random rewards, are exciting and encouraging when trying to develop a new behavior. 3. Animated characters can be used to trigger empathetic response and internal reflection about one’s behavior. All of these concepts guided my approach to The Reclaim Game’s habit-breaking features.

Competitive Analysis

I appreciated this app’s multi-faceted approach to combatting tobacco addiction, including: tracking the behavior, goal setting, online community, and activity recommendations.

I was inspired by this app’s calming color palette and the simple yet effective design of the statistics page.

Key takeaway: Constant notifications telling you to get off your phone are both irritating and ineffective.

Moment: Screen Time Tracker

Unsmokify

Leeway

Ideation & Iteration

After I completed my research, I organized my findings in a affinity map. This helped me see all the most important findings in one place, and make connections between them.

Using my affinity map as a launching point, I made some wireframe sketches.

Next, I made Prototype 1 (below) in Figma

Iteration 1

During this iteration I focused on analyzing my research findings and deciding how The Reclaim Game would interact with social media applications to interrupt use.

  • When users open Tik Tok, they are given this prompt, asking them to take a moment and decide if this is how they want to spend their time. The goal here is to interrupt the habit of opening Tik Tok by having users make a conscious decision.

  • Let’s say the user decides to open Tik Tok. They can use the app normally, but as they scroll a hamster appears in the corner of the screen, running on his wheel.

  • Once they reach their time limit for the day, users receive this pop-up. Once again, The Reclaim Game is asking users to make a conscious choice about how to spend their time.

  • If the user decides to keep using Tik Tok, they must choose how much longer they want to keep scrolling.

  • Let’s say the user decides to use Tik Tok for five (5) more minutes. A timer appears at the top of the screen, counting down.

  • As time runs out, the screen starts to black out.

  • Once all of the user’s time is up, they receive a pop-up telling them their hamster is too tired to keep running on his wheel. They will have to take a short break from social media.

  • This brings us to the end of The Reclaim Game’s direct interruptions of social media. This is the homepage of The Reclaim Game app.

Iteration 2

During this iteration, I focused on designing The Reclaim Game app and all of its features.

Aesthetic design was not yet the focus; this iteration was about constructing the app’s features, layout, and navigation.

Sketching User Flows and Wireframes

Designing the hamster character interactions

The hamster companions are an important part of The Reclaim Game. They serve as a motivator for users because when they work towards their screen time goals, their hamsters thrive.

I researched pet games like Neopets, Nintendogs, and Tamagotchi to decide how users should be able to interact with the hamsters.

In addition to designing the prompts featured in Prototype 1, I began thinking about incorporating sensory interruptions into The Reclaim Game’s design.

Social media can promote a trance-like state where users are intensely focused on the app, making it hard to get off. I hypothesized that sensory interruptions, like visual disturbances, could help people snap out of this state and get off social media.

This video (below) shows what those visual disruptions might look like. They would begin after a user’s screen time limit has been surpassed.

Spoiler alert! This is how their character design turned out

Creating the prototype

I created a low fidelity prototype of the application for user testing. Although the aesthetic design wasn’t fleshed out, the functionality was.

Usability Testing

I conducted think aloud usability tests with 6 participants. I pulled up the prototype on my computer and then had participants attempt to complete 2 tasks, thinking aloud as they did so. 
I also gave participants a pre- and post-test questionnaire to better understand their social media habits and thoughts on the application.

Findings

+

Participants:
  • Easily navigate the app
  • Find the statistics page important
  • Find the hamster cute, and enjoy his presence and "positive affirmations" on the stats page

_

Participants:
  • Are concerned about the hamster dying
  • Want more statistics (daily breakdowns)
  • Want the statistics page to be easier to access

After conducting usability testing, I moved onto my third and final iteration. 

I established a style guide, made changes to my design based on usability test results, and created the final design and prototype.

Prototype

This video illustrates how The Reclaim Game affects social media applications. When users scroll, a hamster appears in the corner of the screen, running on his wheel.

He subtly reminds users that their scrolling has consequences: just as endless scrolling will exhaust their hamster, it will exhaust them. When they work towards their goals, both they and the hamster will thrive.

Final Screens

Onboarding

Home

Users can pet their hamster and feed him snacks

Goal Setting

Statistics & Goal Tracking

Hamster Home Customization