Did It!

1. Prototype link (Please submit a link to a playable prototype, not a link to your design file) Link
2. Describe your project (max 150 words) Did It! Is an app designed to minimize guilt felt in undergrad students when they are are resting called Academic Guilt. I wanted to focus on creating a sort of "anti to do list," that values all the little things that students do to combat their biggest struggle... work life balance. Many apps for students and workers are focused on producing the most amount of work but, humans aren't work horses. Did It! rewards students for eating meals, calling friends and many other things to remind them that they are not their grades. They earn points for doing their homework and taking care of themselves to work towards discounts at local retailers near their campus. I was inspired by mixing Gen Zs love for "spotifyesque" cheeky humor, and anti-design, as well as the gentle treatment and sense of community students need.
3. Describe your research process and findings. If you conducted any surveys or interviews, please include the survey form and/or interview questions here. If you conducted secondary research by pulling from online sources, please include a link to your sources. (Max 500 words) I conducted 2 open ended surveys, 1 closed survey, and secondary research. I began my research with an informal survey asking "What is the hardest thing about being an undergraduate student? I received 20 responses and 9/20 was a form of struggle with work life balance. I then researched what are the factors of work life balance? Through my secondary research I learned that work life balance consists of many different factors such as physical health, family relations, and job satisfaction, using this resource https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7037206/. I then realized the poor health of students through talking with my peers. Many talked about forgetting to eat, or not getting much sleep, or even feeling guilty when they are resting. These factors negatively impact students health and do not support the number one factor to work life balance discussed in the first paper. This lead me to research the guilt that students feel when resting, and it turned out to be more of a phenomenon than I thought. Depictions and discussions of academic guilt are conveyed in this personal retelling from a teacher https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137428899_10 and this web article https://mindthegraph.com/blog/academic-guilt/. I wanted to make sure Academic Guilt was a feeling that a significant amount of students felt, to validate my solution. So, I created a google form asking "What is the strongest feeling you feel, while taking a break from your school work, that does not include sleeping." This survey had multiple choice answers listing the emotions: excitement, enjoyment, happiness, guilt, shame, neutrality, anger and sadness. Although there were multiple options many respondents chose to write in their answers. None the less 23% of respondents answered with guilt (sample size 47), and 51% of respondents answered with a negative emotion. This validated my need for an app that would incentives rest and completing homework, to possibly give students the balance they are looking for. I also conducted competitive analysis to learn about the effectiveness of existing mental health apps and productivity apps to steer the user experience of my app. This meta analysis entitled "clinical or gimickal" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0004867419876700 discussed the high drop-off rates of mental health apps due to confusion, and the high demand on the user to input their own information. This lead me to steer clear of making a dedicated mental health app, but creating an app just to encourage and or rewards healthy habits.
4. Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions? (Max 500 words) Did It! as previously stated is some what of an "anti to-do list". Students log what they have done and get rewarded immediately unlike traditional to-do list apps that rely on users to input unfinished tasks. Because of the negative emotions such as shame, and concerns about competitiveness shown in my surveys Did It! only focuses on small tasks that the user has already completed and does not have an element of competitiveness with their peers. As some may say "comparison is the killer of joy". Although Did It focuses on small things that students already do it still has a mission to encourage healthy habits. Encouraging habits is achieved by "focus tasks" these are small tasks created by the user that they wish to improve on. These tasks will then appear on their lock screen at a scheduled time once a day to be a gentle reminder, there is no punishment for not completing focus tasks, but users on 2 points for each focus task. Speaking of rewards I needed a tangible incentive for students to feel motivated to appreciate their small tasks, and attempt to complete their "focus tasks". Because this app is not competitive, peer pressure was not a good motivator, instead discounts to familiar restaurants, and retailers is a great private way to give users a reward. Giving students small discounts is already a common practice in businesses near college campuses and, it has the power to increase foot traffic and brand awareness through word of mouth. Students will earn 1 point per task, 2 points per focus task 1 points per homework completion. A student can log 5 manual tasks per day, this was implemented to appease businesses who would have concern about the app turning into a "coupon printer for students". Did It! syncs to Canvas an online homework application that is used in most college campuses to also reward them for completion. Did It automatically imports the points earned by homework completion to avoid cheating, when reporting homework that has been done. Students will get discounts upon sign-up to add intrigue and get more once they reach 50 points. 50 points may seem like a high number but since students are getting rewarded for their mundane class it should be just a high enough number to drive motivation, to rest, and to work. Did It! strives to achieve work life balance in undergraduate students by rewarding themselves for taking care of themselves when no one else will.

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