Before this class, I didn’t have much exposure to the field of psychology and behavior change. Therefore, I think I got a lot out of the class, especially from the readings and videos associated with the Sketchnote assignments. I thought the materials we covered through Sketchnotes were really engaging, and just the right amount for it to be fun and digestible without feeling onerous. Moreover, I loved how applicable the Sketchnote readings were for our project, especially since they were concepts we could immediately apply towards our intervention solution.
At first, some of the expectations for the assignments were a little unclear and it seemed like a lot was thrown at us, especially with the pace of recruiting and running the baseline study by week 3. However, the assignments later became much more well-structured and the expectations more clear, as we provided feedback to the teaching team. Overall, I thought that the teaching team was extremely receptive to feedback and adjusted quickly to the feedback we gave in class.
During the class, we learned a lot of tools and methods for understanding user needs, synthesizing data, and applying them to design decisions. I felt that we glossed over many of these pretty quickly, but some that stuck were the system models, story maps, system paths, storyboards, proto-personas, journey maps, bubble maps, and assumption maps. Some of these get muddled together such as system models vs system paths and storyboards vs story maps. It could help to clarify the purpose of each method and where it’s best used in the design process. I think it would help to spend more class time going over more examples of how they’re used. Perhaps, a summary or handout of all these methods explained briefly would also be helpful.
One of the highlights of the quarter was Deb’s guest appearance and the class she led. I loved learning about her background and how she uses drawing to communicate. I thought the drawing exercises we did were also super helpful in expanding the range of emotions and actions I can express through people, especially for a novice sketch-noter like me. These are skills that I will take beyond this class.
I had a really good experience with my team, and I think that was a result of setting aside a time each week to sync and delegate tasks. We also communicated really well and helped each other when needed. I enjoyed the problem we were solving as well, that is, helping people get more sun. Naturally, it is a topic that many people can relate to, so I was able to get many of my friends to participate in our studies. One thing that I would want to try if given more time is recruiting and working with participants who I don’t already know. I think this would push me out of my comfort zone, but also give me valuable experience of doing real fieldwork.
Ethical Considerations
The ethics reading and discussion on gamification left a lasting impression on me, and it shaped the way we designed our solution. Initially, we had an idea of including a “sun score” to create “hype” around getting more sun, using self-care and well-being as a signal for status. We recognized that this could be toxic in many ways, so in our final solution, we decided to not include a social aspect because we realized that issues of wellbeing can be extremely personal. This was further backed by our literature review, which showed that people should be getting different amounts of sun based on their skin color, geography, and existing health conditions.
Our solution also relies heavily on nudging via two notifications during the day: one in the morning to remind the user to get sunlight during the day and one in the evening to remind the user to check in. Thinking of it in terms of acceptable nudging and manipulation, we designed our notifications to be encouraging and warm, rather than instilling a sense of guilt in the user. The voice of our app is laidback and friendly, which helps with this matter. However, we do recognize the pitfalls of relying on environmental nudging for behavior change; that’s why we give autonomy to the user to choose an anchor habit to integrate sunlight into their existing routine.
Overall, I think this class was very well-structured and I learned a lot from my experience. The teaching team created a fun and welcoming learning environment, and I would highly recommend it to any HCI student.
