TimeOut - a solution to reduce digital pollution

Inspiration

As young university students, we were interested in the emerging market of digital sustainability due to its relevance to everyday users’ lives. We thought about the current problems that users face in the area of digital sustainability and how there is a lack of attention on the urgency of this issue.

What it does

TimeOut is an eco-conscious data management app designed to incentivise users to declutter and manage their digital files efficiently while reducing their carbon footprint. This app gives users a practical means of reducing their digital clutter, fostering the development of digitally sustainable habits. In doing so, the user’s link between personal data management and environmental responsibility is strengthened, in turn fostering a reduction in digital pollution and the resulting environmental implications in the long term.

How I built it

We started off with ideating by using crazy eights. Having 5 group members, we were able to come up with a variety of ideas. With like minded group mates, we all agreed on the similar concepts and we kicked off iterating the concept using sketches. We all sketched out our mental models of what idea we settled on with paper. And then we combined the ones we thought were the most intuitive and simple enough for users to want to use. And right after, we went straight into wireframes using Figma and user journey mapping where we identified our target audience and gave a story to what our problem was. Lastly our high fidelity prototype were used using Figma, using the wireframes as our guidelines.

Challenges I ran into

After consulting Daniel, we realise that although our problem scenario was niche and strong, it was not compelling enough. Here, we had to rethink how we could empathise with everyday users and attempt to solve the issues they face from the perspective. Although it was important for us to consider the environmental implications of the problem, it was especially important to innovate and take a strong angle on this pressing issue. It was also challenging to think about how we could turn market problems such as the cost of additional storage into issues that the persona would face.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We entered the designathon unsure of what to expect, especially since many of us hadn’t worked together before, except for Natasha and Nico. However, we quickly found our rhythm, collaborating effectively and completing tasks on time. We're particularly proud of how we persevered through challenges, especially when we got stuck during the ideation phase. Despite that hurdle, we pushed forward and made it through each stage of the design process. Overall, we’re proud of the effort we put into this designathon and hope it’s reflected in the quality of our work.

What I learned

As a team, we learnt how to delegate certain tasks to our group members who were best suited and could use their strengths to achieve said task. Communication was particularly important because of the restricted time limit of 24 hours we had on this designathon, because without effective communication, we wouldn’t have gotten things done in time.

As mentioned earlier, we also learnt about the importance of empathising with the user through storytelling and framing the problem emotionally as a means of leading users to the urgent matter of digital pollution. Users would not relate to the problem if it was merely described in qualitative terms, however if we showed them a persona that is relatable to their own circumstances, then we could connect with them.

What's next for TimeOff - a solution to reduce digital pollution

Being heavily constrained by time, we couldn’t flesh out all the specific features of the application, and we could only showcase the most essential features of the prototype. Additionally, conducting more user testing and research would give us deeper, more accurate insights into the problems encountered.