Attention Enhancing Technology: A New Dimension in the Design of Effective Wellbeing Apps

Excessive phone use negatively impacts mental health and productivity. However, moderating phone usage is difficult because a deep understanding of the psychology of habit-forming and attention-grabbing has been deliberately exploited in design. Consequently, wellbeing applications (apps) which are not themselves grounded in behavioral science are unable to address problematic phone use effectively. In this article, we propose a set of design principles for wellbeing apps that brings together elements of value-sensitive design from interaction design and behavioral models from psychology. We describe the design of a wellbeing app according to these principles, its implementation, and its evaluation. The results show that our app can support users in controlling their phone use, but moreover, the design principles point the way toward attention-enhancing technology that can be used for habit-breaking, rehabilitation, and self-protection.