As a means of helping people find balance with technology, tech company Google has launched a new platform called Digital Wellbeing Experiments.
With Digital Wellbeing Experiments, Google hopes to inspire developers and designers to implement well-being practices into their design and also encourage users to reflect on their own welfare.
To fast track new ideas and development, all code and components for Digital Wellbeing Experiments is open-sourced. For those interested in creating and submitting a Digital Wellbeing experiment, a Hack Pack PDF is available. The Hack Pack includes an overview, user insights, information on APIs and idea templates.
“The more people that get involved the more we can all learn about building better technology for everyone,” noted Google.
Leading by example, Google Creative Lab has created six Digital Wellbeing Experiments.
Unlock Clock is a wallpaper that simply displays the number of times a user has unlocked their phone.
Post Box is an app that organizes and delivers notifications for minimal distraction. Users are able to customize when they want notifications to be delivered.
For those who want to spend time with friends and family without the urge of taking a look at their phones, We Flip is an app that switches off technology as a group. To begin a session, add others to a group and simply flip the switch.
When someone in the group unlocks their device, the session ends and stats such as how much time was spent switched off and the number of times devices were turned on during the session will be available.
To completely distance away from technology, Paper Phone is an app that enables users to print out a personal booklet with information that may be required for the day such as meeting time and locations, contacts, etc.
Desert Island is an app that limits the number of apps that a user can use for 24 hours.
