Intently: Scroll with Intention

My Role & Impact

As the Lead Designer, I:

• Identified the Market Gap: Recognized the need for a non-intrusive, privacy-first solution that helps college students develop sustainable social media habits.

• Addressed Habitual Pitfalls: Tackled the “rebounce” effect where users revert to unproductive scrolling behaviors.

• Streamlined the User Experience: Designed a core goal-setting feature featuring a quick, 5-second pause to foster mindfulness before use.

• Ideated & Prototyped: Developed the initial prototype with only one other designer in a team of 4, then iterated on it independently.

• Validated Through Testing: Led targeted user interviews and concept tests that confirmed the app’s potential for lasting behavioral change.

Meet the Team

How's Intently Different?

• User-Driven Intentions: Users set their own intentions and goals, reducing unproductive doomscrolling and preventing reactive usage.

• Privacy & Data Ethics: With no data tracking, the app ensures privacy and puts users in control of their behavior.

• Focus on Quality: Instead of tracking screen time, Intently emphasizes meaningful social media use—whether users are discovering new cafés, exploring recipes, or catching up with friends.

UX Research

We interviewed college students what they think healthy social media habits are

• "Having genuine human interactions."

• "Using social media wasn’t inherently negative, but rather, how users spent their time on it reflected how they felt after using it."

• "Only consume what you need to consume."

• "When opening this app, it would ask you what you're there for (messaging, look at reels, memes, friends' posts, etc) and would only show you that part of the app."

We found that

• Users have attempted some form of limiting social media use but eventually relapsed.

• Students felt less productive when they spent their time “doom scrolling”; this took away time from school and social life.

Persona Building

Ideation & Prototyping

How might we encourage college students to change their social media habits, so that they utilize it for more enriching purposes?

Crazy 8 - Brainstorming solutions as a team

We each came up with 8 solutions within 8 minutes and shared with each other. These are the ones we have in common.

Prototype 1

We put stickers and bubble wrap on top of the ‘explore’ and ‘reels’ buttons on Instagram to prevent users from. We distributed these to test whether users would still enjoy the app while staying more focused and reducing scroll time.

Key findings and why it failed:

• Users indicated they wouldn't use this because it eliminated the "fun" aspects of social media.

• Users felt "forced" to click other buttons and ended up checking DMs and friends' feeds instead of scrolling through reels ← but we didn't want this to be a forced experience.

Prototype 2:

We developed another prototype in Figma for the app design.

Idea 1. Integrate features of goals setting + screen time tracking, with timer and notifications

Idea 2: Earn rewards for focused topic browsing

Users who choose to browse the explore page must focus on specific topics. Using algorithms, we track their content engagement

For example, if a user wants to find design inspiration, they need to stay focused on design-related posts (like those with #designtrends2023 #designthinking). We calculate what percentage of their browsing aligns with their chosen topic. Users can earn rewards by reaching 100% alignment with their intended focus.

Idea 3: Multi-platform connections for cross-app compatibility

Key findings and why it failed:

• The algorithm for calculating progress was too complex. Our goal-tracking graph showing daily achievement percentages was confusing to the users.

• Users found the app difficult to navigate due to its complexity and abundance of features.

• Users appreciated the goal-setting feature but wanted more personalization options.

• Some users felt the app's tracking features were too invasive.

  "I was not too sure on how to attain the rewards..."

  "Think it would be cool to gamify but not necessary since it [is] aiming for set motivation."

Refining Our Direction

Our goals:

• Encourage intentional social media use.

• Shift the focus from mere screen time to purposeful, goal-driven interactions.

• Help users break free from habitual, unproductive scrolling.

Reimagining the user journey:

Before Intently:

After Intently:

Key Features Addressing Market Needs:

The Final Design

Click here to play around with the interactive prototype

Testing & Validation

User Feedback:

“I found the app to be very efficient and smooth running. It helped me to stop mindlessly scrolling through any social media and prevented me from wasting my time. I think the app is sufficient in accomplishing the task needed.”

“I liked how the app can connect to different social media platforms. It will certainly help in terms of procrastination and preventing mindless scrolling.”

“Liked the interface and thought it was easy to use. No redundant features.”

Reflections

• Time & Scope:

  • Challenge: Limited external feedback forced us to rely on peers, professors, and secondary data.

  • Resolution: We enhanced our product quality by a lot of primary research, prototyping, and user testings.

• Iterative Design:

  • Challenge: The design process was messy, complex, and time-consuming.

  • Resolution: We embraced rapid iteration, using each setback as a learning opportunity to continuously refine our prototype.

• Team Collaboration:

  • Challenge: Our team came from diverse backgrounds—mechanical, biology, and digital design—with only two starter designers and two non-design members, and no app engineers, leaving us lacking expertise in algorithms and coding.

  • Resolution: We addressed this by leveraging our varied skills, seeking external mentorship, and utilizing online resources to bridge our technical gaps and foster a collaborative learning environment.