I led the design of Samsung’s first digital wellbeing app, a product that helps users balance their real and digital lives and stay healthy and safe.
Overview
Screentime VS Digital-wellbeing
Apple and Google have tackled cell phone addiction as part of their corporate social responsibility. Unlike many apps designed for more engagement, Digital Wellbeing encourages users to develop healthier digital habits and minimize excessive device dependence.
Find Samsung’s Digital-wellbeing
We aimed to create a unique solution reflecting Samsung’s commitment to user well-being. Instead of adapting an google’s model, the goal was to develop an original approach that prioritized user’s real life and health.
Problem
Trapped Between Screens and Reality
Endless scrolling, notifications, and social media keep people glued to screens, reducing real-life interactions and affecting mental well-being. While technology connects, it also isolates, making it harder to stay present.
Research
In-depth interview
worked with Samsung’s San Francisco Design Lab to explore North American users’ perceptions and pain points of phone usage.
conducted in-depth interviews with nine people of different ages, genders, occupations, and phones through a professional user research firm in San Francisco.
9 Participants
Ages from teens to 50s
San Francisco
👩🏾🦱 I think using phone for 8 hours is pretty normal.
👨🏼🦰 I don’t know how much time I spend on my phone.
👨🏻🦱 What should I do with phone use data?
Key findings
- Not knowing how phone use affects life
- Not understanding the status and patterns of phone use
- Not being able to focus on life due to constant phone interruptions
- Not understanding what data means (by iPhone Screen-time users)
Lack of Awareness & Control mechanisms
Mission
Empower users with awareness of their phone usage, foster deeper connections with their lives, and provide tools for mindful control.
Ideation
Workshop
Based on the research results, the initial concept was built through workshops in collaboration with Samsung design innovation center San Francisco.
Conducted two collaborative workshops focused on designing a Digital Wellbeing app. Participants used popular ideation methods such as Crazy 8 for rapid idea generation, followed by Affinity Diagrams to organize and analyze concepts. Based on these insights, we developed a prototype to visualize key features and interactions.
At the time, all of our team members were very sympathetic to the philosophy of ‘Light Phone’. We created a concept of providing extremely limited apps for the lockscreen like Light Phone, but this idea was abandoned in the final commercialization stage.
Direction
Awareness – Understand your phone usage with clear and simple data visualizations.
Control – Use effective tools like Focus Mode and App Timer to manage screen time.
Wellbeing – Stay healthy and safe with features that support better sleep, detect noise, and promote safe driving.
1
Be aware of your phone use
2
Take Control on your phone use
3
Be Relevant to your life
Solution
Be aware of your phone use
Dashboard
Meaningful message to take action
Interprets digital usage data for users to encourage behavioral change
Complexity to Simplicity
Highlight top 3 most used apps and reduce complexity
Weekly Report
Insightful data
The user's phone usage behavior is provided in the form of a weekly report. If a goal is set, success/failure is also displayed. These screens were later patented and have been cited 19 times.
Take Control on your phone use
Focus Mode
Focus on your real life! Choose apps to allow during Focus mode.
Stay focused!
Check your active time instantly with data visualization. Customize your allowed apps anytime while Focus Mode is running.
Don’t miss anything! Get a summary of notifications you missed after Focus mode ends.
Since the project's start, we've collaborated closely with Google's Digital Wellbeing team. One key discussion was about the usability of 'Focus Mode.' We preferred a whitelist method (selecting apps to allow), while Google's team favored a blacklist approach (selecting apps to block). In the end, both versions were released, reflecting each team's perspective—likely influenced by cultural differences.
Set goals
Set a goal for how long you use your phone or how many times you unlock it per day.
Be Relevant to your life
Tangible Health Benefits
Digital wellbeing refers to using digital devices in a balanced and healthy way, offering tangible health benefits. One interviewee even suggested that health-related features should naturally be part of what \"digital wellbeing\" implies.
Data visualization
Controlling complexity was a top priority and it was necessary to develop visual techniques to represent the data. All data elements were carefully designed to be visually appealing and easy for users to understand.
Impact
Selected as an app representing the changes in One UI 1.0
My Digital Wellbeing design was selected as the representative image for the Galaxy OneUI 1.0, prominently featured during Samsung's global launch event. It received extensive media attention and highlighted Samsung’s commitment to enhancing user health and balanced technology usage. The feature was praised for its intuitive interface and meaningful integration into users' daily routines.
Used as a principle for data visualization in Galaxy
Data visualization for digital wellbeing has become the standard for all Galaxy data visualizations, so apps like Myfiles, Software Updates, and Device Care, as well as many features like the volume and brightness controllers, are designed according to this visualization principle.
