UNPLUG
Mobile Application Design
UNPLUG's initiative helps users either cultivate a healthier relationship with Instagram or eventually delete it altogether. The app tracks users' daily screen time, mood levels, and loneliness levels to encourage reduced Instagram usage. Its locked timer feature allows users to preselect a daily usage limit for Instagram; once reached, the app locks Instagram for the rest of the day.
User Research Insights
Affinity Map
Personas
User Flows
Sketches
Low Fidelity Wireframes
High Fidelity Wire Frames
Usability Testing & Iterations
Prototypes Application
January 2024
Ell Mahoney
Figma
UX Research
UI Design
Usability Testing
Prototype
"Despite the known psychological and biological negative impacts of Instagram, young adults experience extreme difficulty with deleting their Instagram"
Instagram has become integral to many people's lives over the past decade. However, research highlights the negative physical, psychological, and social effects of Instagram and other social media platforms. Consequently, there has been a surge in the desire to delete Instagram. In the past year, internet searches for "How to delete my Instagram" have significantly increased.
For young adults, quitting Instagram isn't as simple as deleting the app. There is a need for an app to help detractor users effectively transition off Instagram.
How might we help young adults build a healthy relationship with Instagram?
UNPLUG aims to help users build a healthy relationship with Instagram by making it easier to decrease screen time or delete the app.
My research began with reading qualitative and quantitative studies on the correlation between social media and mental health, the decline in Instagram's popularity, and social media addiction. The research highlighted the lack of tools to help young adults effectively and permanently delete Instagram.
I surveyed 28 individuals to identify my target audience, focusing on young adults aged 18-26 who have used social media daily for at least six months. These individuals either:
I selected 11 of these 28 users for further research through informational interviews to understand their pain points and behavior toward social media and its alternatives. Four participants identified as churned users, three as detractor users, and four as engaged users.
My first step into depicting the solution was creating some rough sketches of the screens from my red routes. This was an low-cost way that helped me learn about certain constraints of the app.
Once the sketches had been finished, I moved on to creating the low-fidelity wireframes on Figma.
Once the high-fidelity wireframes were completed, I created a fully interactive prototype with Figma. The prototype was used for two rounds of usability testing, with five users participating in each round. The high-fidelity design was then revised after each round of testing.
