Dovetailed releases app to reduce wasted time on social media
“When I am working, I have a lot of distractions and check my email constantly but I have no idea how much time I spend doing that. With TimeRipple I can tell how much of this chunk of time was spent doing email.” TimeRipple User
Using official Android APIs, TimeRipple pulls app data already available on users’ devices and presents it in real-time on their mobile phone or smartwatch. The design is simple with the watch face divided by app use. It allows users to see at any moment exactly what proportion of the last hour has been spent on each app, handing them immediate control over how they use the time ahead. There are two versions now available for Android smartphones and wearables: paid and free.
“Research shows that by applying the principles of nudge psychology, technology can be designed in a way that helps people have a better digital-physical life balance. We wanted to design a lightweight wearable tool that passively reveals how much time people are spending on (or off) their mobile phones and how they were spending that time.” - Dr Vaiva Kalnikaite, CEO of Dovetailed.
Dovetailed is an award-winning deep-tech UX design studio and innovation lab based in Cambridge. The TimeRipple app was born out of work Dr Vaiva Kalnikaite completed in collaboration with Professor Steve Whittaker and his department of psychology research group at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Dovetailed designed early prototypes and user studies to test the theory that physically visualising how we spend time can empower us to reclaim it, improving focus and efficiency. See their paper for details:
'Don't Waste My Time’: Use of Time Information Improves Focus, published in the proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
“Our data supports an awareness approach [such as TimeRipple] involving information presentation rather than interventionist designs.” - Professor Steve Whittaker, Professor in Human Computer Interaction, University of California at Santa Cruz.
Many time-management apps rely on lists and some input from the user, requiring a revisit to the app or the setting up of notifications to let the user know what they have been doing and how well they have been managing their time. With TimeRipple, the data is subtly ever-present; in an instant the user can absorb useful information and act on it straight away.
We already know we spend a lot of time on social media (and other apps), but with TimeRipple we can see exactly how much. With this knowledge, users can engage in preventative wellbeing, avoiding burnout from endless hours lost staring at a screen. TimeRipple gives the power back to the user and that is something Dovetailed believe in deeply.
Please go to the Google App Store to download the TimeRipple app. Free and paid options are available. For the free version Dovetailed ask you to permit your usage data to be shared with them for enabling continued research. See the privacy policy on the App Store.
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