Rescue
Not just a digital well-being feature within Instagram, Rescu empowers users with personalized insights, goal-setting tools, and AI-driven recommendations meanwhile educating and eradicating unintentional social media adherence which leads to social media addictions among youngsters.
"Stitch in time saves nine!!"
Rescu is designed to foster a healthier relationship with social media, promoting mindful usage and prioritizing mental health.
A hypothetical usage based solution to help educate users and reduce unintentional social media adherence on the social media platform.
Project breif
I studied what Instagram users were currently feeling about excessive social media usage and unintentional social media adherence. The goal of this project was to create a solution to an existing system of social media usage to create awareness and control on unintentional social media adherence.
Tools
Project type
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UX Research
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UX Design
Workflow
Mobile app, Feature update
Devised a system and introduced an additional feature to the existing platform, aiming to mitigate Unintentional Social Media Non-Adherence and addiction by educating users and empowering them to comprehend and cease these behaviors.
Project Overview
Initial problem discovery
What problem am I trying to solve?
Primary and secondary research
Use of social media isn’t the problem
—but letting it control us is
Initial Research /Problem Validation
Why is this problem important?
the current system in place for controlling extensive use of social media platform can be easily bypassed and leads to unintentional social media adherence and later to addiction. effecting user's productivity and sometimes whole professional and personal life balance.
86%
of surveyed social media users admit over using social media by bypassing current time limit features.
45%
of surveyed social media users are not aware or still haven't used the current features set in place.
Whose problem am I solving?
Focusing on social media users there are 2.35 billion daily active users in Instagram. Between the ages of 21 and 34 years are the biggest demographic group on Facebook and Instagram alone.
This issue is significant due to its vast user demographic, which includes millennials and young individuals, adversely affected in terms of productivity and future prospects.
An extensive research was conducted on what Meta and Instagram was currently doing to mitigate the problem
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has implemented several initiatives to address the issue of excessive social media use and addiction among young individuals. These efforts focus on promoting mindful usage, providing tools for managing time spent on social media, and supporting users' mental well-being.
Promoting Mindful Usage
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Take a Break Reminders
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Your Time Well Spent Dashboard
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Quiet Mode and Focus Mode
2. Providing Tools for Managing Time Spent on Social Media
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Daily Time Limits
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App Limits and Downtime
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Third-party App Integration
3. Supporting Users' Mental Well-being
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Resource Center for Well-being
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Emotional Well-being Tools
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Mental Health Support Resources
but from the recent studies, research, news reports, articles and lawsuits it indicates that its not enough. I conducted user interviews with several users spanning from students, IT professionals , influences and job seekers who are active users in this platforms.
I studied what Instagram users were currently feeling about excessive social media usage and unintentional social media adherence.
from the user surveys and secondary research, the takeaways and information I got were -
Even though there were several initiatives and tools put forward by Meta and in Instagram app there is ways to bypass them due to unintentional social media adherence and which later on leads to addiction.
What is unintentional social media adherence?
This refers to the inadvertent failure or difficulty in adhering to self-imposed or recommended limitations on social media usage. It involves unintentional neglect or non-compliance with one's intentions or goals related to managing social media time or frequency of usage. For instance, an individual might aim to spend only 30 minutes daily on social media but unintentionally exceeds this limit due to distractions or habit-forming behaviors.
this might be because of several factors including - instant gratification and dopamine involvement. (reels and swipe)
often unintentional social media adherence leads to addiction.
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people are not aware of limits and tools available.
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users set time limits but its easy to bypass and it forms as a habit and leads to unintentional adherence.
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there is no one to monitor them as they are individuals between age 18-35 - thereby lack of external help and care monitoring.
Meta has technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens," according to the complaint filed in the Oakland, California federal court. "Its motive is profit."
Children have long been an appealing demographic for businesses, which hope to attract them as consumers at ages when they may be more impressionable, and solidify brand loyalty.
For Meta, younger consumers may help secure more advertisers who hope children will keep buying their products as they grow up.
research has associated children's use of Meta's social media platforms with "depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and many other negative outcomes."
"Meta did not disclose that its algorithms were designed to capitalize on young users' dopamine responses and create an addictive cycle of engagement," the complaint said - Reuters
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Problem statement
"If I can mitigate the early stages of unintentional adherence by enhancing tool accessibility and providing powerful resources to educate individuals on the prominent effects, it will empower them to become more aware of potential causes leading to habit formation. Subsequently, this can facilitate a shift towards healthy social media usage and a balanced lifestyle.
Problem #1 - Current tools are not efficient in providing digital well being for the focus group and its easy to by pass.
Problem #2 - effective methods to ease the problems of the focus group
Problem #3 - Less awareness and focused solution on the issues faced by the focus groups.
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Sophie
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21 years old
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University student
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Bath
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Sophie is a full-time student who uses Instagram as a source of inspiration and entertainment. She enjoys sharing her life experiences through posts and stories but sometimes feels pressured to maintain a curated online persona.
Sophie experiences feelings of inadequacy and comparison when scrolling through her Instagram feed. She often compares her life to others' highlight reels, leading to negative self-perception and decreased self-esteem.
Sophie wants to cultivate a healthier relationship with Instagram, focusing on authenticity and self-compassion. She aims to limit her exposure to triggering content and prioritize her mental well-being over online validation and focus more on studies and offline achievements.
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Comparison and Inadequacy
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Pressure to Maintain an Image
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Negative Self-Perception
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Time Sink
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Validation Seeking
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lack habit and focus to studies
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2 personas where highlighted from the users from different demographic who use Instagram.
Personas
The user's demographic, experience, employment and motives where highlighted in the persona analysis. Allowing to highlight the key issues and empathy maps.
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Micheal
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25 years old
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Software engineer
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London
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Michael is a software engineer who uses Instagram to stay connected with friends and colleagues. He finds himself constantly checking his feed and reels during breaks at work, quick peeks and before going to bed.
Michael's frequent usage of Instagram has started affecting his sleep quality and overall focus and well-being. He often feels overwhelmed by the constant influx of information and struggles to disconnect from the platform.
Michael aims to establish healthier boundaries with Instagram, limiting his usage to specific times of the day and finding alternative ways to unwind and relax.
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Sleep Disturbance
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Difficulty Disconnecting
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Feeling Overwhelmed
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Impact on Mental Well-being
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Neglecting Offline Activities
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lack of focus
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Sophie
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21 years old
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University student
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Bath
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Sophie is a full-time student who uses Instagram as a source of inspiration and entertainment. She enjoys sharing her life experiences through posts and stories but sometimes feels pressured to maintain a curated online persona.
Sophie experiences feelings of inadequacy and comparison when scrolling through her Instagram feed. She often compares her life to others' highlight reels, leading to negative self-perception and decreased self-esteem.
Sophie wants to cultivate a healthier relationship with Instagram, focusing on authenticity and self-compassion. She aims to limit her exposure to triggering content and prioritize her mental well-being over online validation and focus more on studies and offline achievements.
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Comparison and Inadequacy
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Pressure to Maintain an Image
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Negative Self-Perception
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Time Sink
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Validation Seeking
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lack habit and focus to studies
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User journey map
A generic user journey map highlighting the key features and use of rescue from the initial discovery to end use was created.
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Ideation
Studied how effective it would be to compare the current method in Instagram to other prominent methods of de addiction for other types of addiction. formulated user journey maps and graphs to help support the comparison and come up with an improved effective way to help users.
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Information architecture and user flows
After coming up with prioritized feature requirements and user flow. I conducted another user testing with given information to de clutter and focus on most priority features.
Low-Fi prototypes
Designed the initial prototype of the feature on paper and tested with users on the specific age group for better understanding.
Prototypes and wireframes
These designs were further developed after testing with key users and added community guidelines page, notifications and guide through pages. which is under a non disclosure and some under review.
My involvement in the Rescue project emphasized the critical role of user testing, surveys, and thorough research in the design process.
User Testing and Surveys: These tools were instrumental in understanding user preferences, pain points, and behaviors. By conducting testing sessions and comprehensive surveys, I gained invaluable insights into user expectations, allowing me to refine features and optimize the user experience.
Learning from Current Systems: Analyzing existing social media platforms helped identify opportunities for innovation. By studying competitors and industry trends, and developed a deep understanding of user needs and pain points, inspiring to challenge conventions and deliver innovative solutions.
Research-Driven Iteration: A research-driven approach enabled to iteratively refine the design solutions based on user feedback and market insights. This iterative process ensured the product remained aligned with evolving user expectations.
In conclusion, the Rescue project underscored the transformative power of user-centered design and research-driven iteration, reaffirming the importance of empathy, agility, and continuous learning.
Retrospective