Documentation / Recommendations for Phase I

Table of Context

🪄Team Roster

◆ Mini Phase 0

✍🏻 Overall Summary of Pre-Phase - What we did

Conducted primary and secondary discovery research in the first two weeks of pre phase to better understand the problem space and users. Generated a backlog of insights and further research questions. In Sprint 3, we were able to test concepts and impressions on potential solutions through prototype for the HMW research question: “HMW facilitate self-awareness and reflection among users regarding their social media usage, empowering them to identify addictive behaviors and take proactive steps towards healthier digital habits?” by testing a potential solution of facilitating self-awareness and reflection among child users regarding their social media usage through taking care of a digital pet and analyzing results.

During the 4 weeks, the team performed the following:

Sprint 1 (Discovery Research)

<aside> <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/BLANK_ICON.png" alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/BLANK_ICON.png" width="40px" /> 1️⃣ Generated problem statements based on our product prompt below:

• Children Online Safety
  • Children are increasingly exposed to online video and social media at a young age. Current parental control solutions are often restrictive, limited by age filters, and can hinder a child's natural curiosity and exploration online.
  • Parents are concerned about the safety and appropriateness of online content for their children, leading to anxieties around screen time and potential delays in introducing mobile devices.
  • How might we bridge the gap between parental concerns and a child's natural desire to explore the online world.
  • Children can learn, explore, and develop their interests by creating a safe and engaging online environment while parents gain peace of mind.

2️⃣ Prioritized problem statements, choosing:

• HMW mitigate the potentially addicting effects of social media in children given their brains are not fully developed yet?

3️⃣ Generated, prioritized and chose three HMW research questions for discovery research:

• How does excessive social media use affect children's cognitive development (e.g., attention span, memory, critical thinking, learning new things, paying attention to good behaviors or bad behaviors)? (Secondary)
• What specific features of social media platforms are most associated with addictive behaviors in children? (Secondary)
• How can we define addiction? (Secondary)
• Who are we targeting? The user (child), the parents, or the products? (Secondary)
• What are the main challenges parents (and children) face when trying to regulate their children’s social media usage? (Primary)

4️⃣ Validating research question assumptions through secondary (research articles) and primary research (generating and sending out survey, survey may have been biased, leading questions and not too many open answers).

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Sprint 2 (Discovery Research)

<aside> <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/BLANK_ICON.png" alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/BLANK_ICON.png" width="40px" /> 1️⃣ Generated new assumptions and implications for sprint 2 2️⃣ Discussed sample bias or other bias in the survey results to further check things to continue validating or invalidating 3️⃣ Picked the top priority research questions for sprint 2 based on the last results:

• Research if effective remedies for addiction already exist, specifically teen addiction to SM (or cyber-addiction), (and possibly for other types of addictions -alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc. If there are not enough studies). How might we find ways to incorporate these solutions in our product?
• What needs are fulfilled by social media and can we offer other ways to fulfill these needs?
• At what age are children exposed to smart phones and when does the usage become addictive? (Primary research could answer this)
• How can we enable Social Media Self Control in children?
• Is the challenge primarily for amount of time they spend or the type of SM they are using?

4️⃣ Performed sprint 2 primary and secondary research answering above prioritized questions and validating assumptions

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Sprint 3 (Prototyping and User Testing)

<aside> <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/BLANK_ICON.png" alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/BLANK_ICON.png" width="40px" /> 1️⃣ Analyzed the research so far and formed conclusions

2️⃣ Formed new problem statements based on research conclusions

3️⃣ Picked the highest priority problems and chose one HMW problem statement “HMW facilitate self-awareness and reflection among users regarding their social media usage, empowering them to identify addictive behaviors and take proactive steps towards healthier digital habits?”

4️⃣ Brainstormed solutions by rapidly sketching ideas using the Crazy 8's method.

5️⃣ Chose solution to be tested: To facilitate self-awareness and reflection among child users regarding their social media usage through taking care of a digital pet.

6️⃣ Prototyped potential solution

7️⃣ Conducted online moderated user testing

8️⃣ Analyzed user test results to form insights, to validate or invalidate the solution and identify further research opportunities

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