mo
THESIS DOCUMENTATION
TINGTING GAO | INTERACTION DESIGN 2016 | SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS
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BIG HUGS TO Mom, Dad and Bill C, for your support and encouragement
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YOU DON’T HAVE TO SEE THE WHOLE STAIRCASE, JUST TAKE THE FIRST STEP. - MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. -
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Content Prologue 5 1 Early Research 7 2 My Hypothesis 15 3 Experiments & Findings 17 4 ReďŹ ne Key Values 27 5 Design Development 29 6 Finalization 35 Afterward 45
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PROLOGUE
Since I went to high school, I always have to do a lot of homework.
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However, there’s always a tomorrow before I get to start.
Therefore, I wasted so many todays and often felt panic before the deadline.
To survive, I have to stay very late in Sunday evening to ďŹ nish my homework.
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Research
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EARLY RESEARCH Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time. Sometimes, procrastination takes place until the "last minute" before a deadline. Procrastination can take hold on any aspect of life — putting off cleaning the stove, repairing a leaky roof, seeing a doctor or dentist, submitting a job report or academic assignment or broaching a stressful issue with a partner. Procrastination can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-doubt. - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Modeling procrastination The graph below is the general model of how I think about procrastination. No matter what scrope of the work is, I always start working when the time is close to deadline. As a result, I spent more time doing everything else than focusing on work.
Procrastination
Goal set
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I start‌
Deadline
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Benefit of starting early Instead of putting everything towards the end, starting your goal early will give yourself more time to think, develop and improve the process.
think, develop, improve
Goal set I start‌
Deadline
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Market focus Currently, there’re mainly three types of solutions: to-do list apps, project management tools and mind training courses. But if put those products into the procrastiantion timeline, they all seem only work well when people really start working.
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Problem space Most of current products only work well when people start working. I want to shorten people’s procrastinating time, so the problem is what we could do when people are procrastinating?
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Procrastination
Goal set
I start‌
Deadline Market focus
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Reasons of why we procrastinate I also started to search the reasons that cause people procrastiante, to see if I can focus on one aspect ďŹ rst.
Distractions Time management Goal problem
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Lack of confidence Low energy Perfectionism
Distractions
Low energy
Lack of confidense
Procrastination
Goal problem
Perfectionism
In fact, many reasons can cause one person procrastinate. If I only tackled one aspect, people could probably procrastinate for other reasons.
Time management
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Hypothesis Research
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HYPOTHESIS
I started to map out assumptions around procrastination topic. It’s complicated that many reasons cause procrastination, and many ways of solutions seem to be helpful. I ďŹ rstly assume that if there could be a better way for procrastinators to manage time and tasks, they can get motivated to work
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Experiment & Findings
Hypothesis Research
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EXPERIMENT & FINDINGS
Machine
People
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Mutual accountability
Plan your day smartly
Set your focusing time
“Smart” Machine
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1. Set your focusing time Inspiration I got inspired by an article How to use Kaizen thinking to design better by Mark Jenkins, which aims to continuous improvement. Crumbling a big problem/ goal can be a good way for procrastinators, because people have limited focused time, and it’s difficult for them to make a big step without super confidence on success. Besides, Kaizen also shows another way implementing the goal —– persistence. Thinking small and taking small actions could help people keep doing the work, or say reducing time waste.
Test steps 1. Users set a goal and the time frame 2. Input the time that you can actually stay focused 3. Break down the goal into several pieces 4. Start working based on the list you generate
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Findings 1. Users don’t know how to break down tasks 2. They get distracted easily when there are plenty of time left, and they are more focused when the deadline is closed
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2. Mutual accountability
Inspiration After the 1st experiment, also based on the market research I did before, I found that people can’t follow step by step just like a machine. Because their life is always changing. So maybe guiding them through a real conversation will be more useful.
Test steps 1. I paired two people as a group 2. They asked goals of each other, and checked each other’s process periodically.
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The relationship of two people affects the process a lot
If two people don’t know each other well, they actually don’t care about other’s process; If two people are close enough, it works still when the time is close to deadline, so it’s difficult to prove if it’s the mutual accountability work or because of the deadline.
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3. Smart plan
Talk with a machine
Have a natural conversation
Smart machine Inspiration The advantage of having real conversation is, the feedback you got from your partner is always exclusively for you. So then I combined previous ideas and think about making a smart 23
machine.
Functionality test 1. Type to-do list with duration estimation of each goal and the overall time frame 2. I made plan for them 3. The user check the result of the goal(s)
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Smart plan prototype 1. Users input their goals of today 2. A plan will be genreated based on your goals and priority 3. It will track your habit and give you suggestion when you may have wrong estimation of duration
Findings 1. It’s helpful because users can see what they should do in sequence for today 2. But it asked too much input from users which probably will cause them procrastinating on using this
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Key Values
Experiment & Findings
Hypothesis Research
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KEY VALUES
Minimal input
Learn users’ habit
Provide personalized feedback
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Key Values
Experiment & Findings
Hypothesis Research
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Design Finalization
DESIGN FINALIZATION
TimeFly
GoodDay
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mo
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1. TimeFly Idea draft Inspired by “The Power of Habit”, I iterated on how the habit loop model could work in my thesis idea. I also thought about these two questions: 1. do I want to cultivate a new habit for procrastinators? 2. do I want to make changes on their existing habit? No matter which direction I will go, another big problem I need to answer is how to make my idea fit to their daily life. What could be a good intervene in people’s procrastination process? I was thinking some images of working, getting interrupted, procrstinating, etc. Nothing super specific. Then suddenly, I got one inspiration about notification: - We get tons of notification everyday - Receiving, responding, waiting notifications becomes our habit already - It could be an interruption for work, or a way for people to consume time.
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How about changing something on these notifications?
Description TimeFly is an app cares about your productivity. It will visualize how you spend your time, and send you notiďŹ cation together with regular messages you got from people. But, it seems too invasitive.
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2. GoodDay Description GoodDay is an app that helps you focus on things that really matters. Everyday, the coach bot will talk with you both inside the app and notiďŹ cation, to check the process of your goal However, the goal of coversation is not that clear or oriented for users.
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Key Values
Experiment & Findings
Design Finalization
Hypothesis Research
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Final Product
FINAL PRODUCT
mo Mo is an app that provides ongoing conversations which will help users stay focus on their work and accomplish the most prioritized goal for today.
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Description Many people struggle with procrastination. They put o their work until the very last minute, and consequently face stress, panic, regret, and eventually fatigue. Most of them assume that this issue is caused by a lack of time management. And current solutions like general to-do list apps and project management tools help us only when we start. However, there are also complex psychological issues deep within our minds that keep us from simply starting. Mo is a digital friend that encourages and coaches you to start your work early. Through a conversational user interface, you build a trusting relationship with Mo.
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Experience model Set a goal for today
Check the process
Time left
Work you’ve done
Decide the next step
Work on the goal
Get suggestions
Take other actions
Why it’s chatbot? As conversational interface becomes a trending of ux design, messaging service can be applied to many fields. When people are using machine, the basic flow is that we give an order, and then the machine responds. Many applications work like a conversation, but they don’t look like that. And that’s why it usually takes users’s time to learn how to go through the flow step by step. “Should I press this button?” “Where am I?” “How can I go back?” These questions always come up when we do user testings. The grid layout always means solid rules, however, it only works well when there’s no other routine to achieve our goals. With well-built intelligence and clear personalities, we can naturally talk with bot as we talk with people. The bot should set expectations and guide users how to get what they want. 38
Key features of mo
One goal, one day Instead of making a long to-do list but never executing it, one-goal-one-day feature helps you always think about what is your priority. You may have a lot of things to do everyday, but no one can do two things at the same time. Set your time frame smartly, and get it done. If you have a long term project to work on, instead of struggling with how to plan each day but still putting everything towards the end, mo encourages you that “just start to do something for now”. Even though it may be a little piece of the whole project, you won’t regret doing it earlier.
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Coaches you focus on your goal: start early and get it done During the day, mo helps you know about time and the process of your goal by checking with you every hour. It will ask you, first, did you work on your goal in the past hour. If you did, second, it will ask you how much have you done. Based on the time you left and the work you’ve done, it will respond differently. It pushes you more as you procrastinate more, it encourages you to stay focused when you are working. mo also asks your next step when it checks with you. You can choose if you are going to work on your goal, or you may have other things to do next, or you can ask mo about next step suggestions.
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When you are procrastinating, and you still feel less motivated to work on your goal for next hour, mo can provide you some suggestions that will help you overcome the procrastination mode and stop wasting time. There are many random suggestions about shortrelaxation, and ways to start working. This is the part that particularly tackles your mind set. When you are still thinking you have time to do it, mo tells you the reality. As you keep seeing how your process status become less positive while you procrastinating, you will get pressured more. With knowing actionable steps, you can get away from falling down to the procrastination bottom.
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Learns your habit, grows with you For example, mo was angry with you because you had dinner at 7pm today instead of working on your goal, but after a few days later, mo knows that having dinner at 7pm is your habit. So it won’t push you to work at that time
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Deep-learning programs
I imagine that mo can work with building deep-learning programs, just like Microsoft XiaoIce and IBM Watson Engagement Advisor. This technique allows natural conversation to go back and forth between the author (mo) and the performer (the user). In mo system, it analyzes the context and presents relevant feedback based on users recent procrastination pattern.
IBM Watson Engagement Advisor
Microsoft XiaoIce
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AFTERWARD References Books Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, January 2014 Golden Krishna, The Best Interface is No Interface, 1st Edition
TED Talks Tim Urban, Inside the mind of a master procrastinator, February 2016 Adam Grant, The surprising habits of original thinkers, April 2016 Tristan Harris, Distracted? Let’s make technology that helps us spend our time well, December 2014
Articles Mark Jenkins, How to use Kaizen thinking to design better, October 2015 Joe Edelman, Human Value, Choicemaking, and Interface Designs, July 2014 Eric Barker,This Is The #1 Ritual You Need To Do Every Day, unkown date Julie Zhuo, Good Design, October 2015 Natasha Singer, Technology That Prods You to Take Action, Not Just Collect Data, April 2015 Sean Kim, How to Avoid Procrastination For Good, March 2016 Ryan Block, Conversational Interaction Design: Constructing Context, March 2016 John Pavlus, The Next Phase Of UX: Designing Chatbot Personalities, January 2016 John Marko, Scientists See Promise in Deep-Learning Programs, November 2012 45
Acknowledgements Thesis Advisor
Thesis Instructor
IXD Chair
Jason Severs
Eric Forman
Liz Danzico
IXD Community
Special Help
Wolfgang Gil Hilla Katki Gwen Kurtz Jason Rabie Jason Santa Maria Christina Xu Jerey Zeldman Class of 2016 Class of 2017
Anqi Cai Sally Chan Nico Chang Gao Shanshan Gao Yinman Guo Chenxu Huang Cindy Xiao Li Xuanyu Liu Bojia Lv Sneha Pai Sunnie Sang Ren Wang Orchis Wen Xu Xiaolong Zhang 46