CRII: CHS: Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Application Software for Meaningful Smartphone Use

本研究的目标是开发形成理论，识别软件界面设计模式，促进强制性智能手机使用习惯，并发明替代模式，促进有意义的使用习惯。来自不同社区和所有社会经济阶层的美国人都报告说，他们出于习惯和强迫性的方式使用智能手机。虽然智能手机的使用总体上为用户提供了巨大的价值和生活质量的提升，但促进强迫性、习惯形成的参与模式的软件设计让用户对自己的行为感到沮丧，并努力做出改变。从历史上看，科学文献已经使用“有问题的互联网使用”和“智能手机成瘾”等整体结构来研究这些现象，设计研究通过创建独立的机制来支持用户自我监管他们对技术的使用，例如锁定工具和系统范围的计时器，在这个领域进行了创新。该项目将设计重点转移到应用程序本身的内部运作，并重新设计现有的体验，以减少习惯的形成，而不是试图通过监控工具来对抗习惯的形成。该研究将使用YouTube和Twitter这两个最受美国智能手机用户欢迎的应用程序作为重新设计的试验台。该项目的第一阶段将进行一系列以用户为中心的设计活动，参与者将确定为这些流行媒体的常规用户，以了解他们在使用体验中的价值，他们希望改变什么，以及他们的行为如何与界面组件相关。利用这两个平台提供的现有第三方应用程序编程接口，研究将重新设计和实施每种技术的客户端应用程序软件的新版本。最后，对每种技术的25名用户进行为期四周的部署研究，将两周的基线使用情况与目标应用程序重新设计版本的两周使用情况进行比较。在基线和干预期间，将收集使用模式的日志数据（包括使用频率、使用持续时间、使用环境以及与各种应用功能的互动），以及探测用户对其自身行为的满意度的经验采样方法数据。部署后将对参与者进行离职面谈和更大规模的调查，以了解他们使用重新设计的YouTube和Twitter客户端的经历。在研究结束时，这些重新设计的应用程序将提供给更广泛的公众。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The goal of this research is to develop formative theory that identifies software interface design patterns that promote compulsive smartphone usage habits and to invent alternative patterns that promote meaningful usage habits. Americans across diverse communities and all socioeconomic strata report engaging with their smartphones out of habit and in compulsive ways. Though smartphone use in general provides enormous value and quality-of-life enhancements to users, software designs that promote compulsive, habit-forming patterns of engagement leave users feeling frustrated with their own behavior and struggling to make changes. Historically, the scientific literature has examined these phenomena using monolithic constructs like "problematic Internet use" and "smartphone addiction," and design research has innovated in this space by creating stand-alone mechanisms that support users in self-policing their use of technology, such as lock-out tools and system-wide timers. This project shifts the design focus to the internal workings of the app itself and redesigns the existing experience to be less-habit forming, rather than attempting to combat its habit-forming nature through monitoring tools.This research will use YouTube and Twitter, two of the most popular apps among American smartphone users, as testbeds for redesign. The first phase of this project will conduct a series of user-centered design activities with participants who identify as routine users of these popular media to understand what they value in their usage experiences, what they wish they could change, and how their behaviors relate to components of the interface. Using existing third-party application programming interfaces provided by the two platforms, the research will then redesign and implement a new version of the client application software for each technology. Finally, a four-week deployment study with twenty-five users of each technology will compare two weeks of baseline usage against two weeks of usage with the redesigned version of the target app. During both the baseline and intervention periods, log data of usage patterns will be collected (including frequency of use, duration of use, context of use, and engagement with various app features), as well as experience sampling method data probing users' satisfaction with their own behaviors. Exit interviews and a larger survey with participants will be conducted following the deployment to understand their experiences with redesigned YouTube and Twitter clients. At the conclusion of the study, these redesigned apps will be made available to the broader public.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.