Today I recived feedback for my digital currency project for the first time, by Oliver. Below I discuss some of the main points brought up and how I will continue to develop my project.
Only by making use of your time does it become useful. Only by filling it, it becomes valued.
I agree with this point made. If someone signs up for lessons in British Sign Language, only then they will be making use of their time. It isn't possible for a person to have every minute of their day booked with something useful. iI could solve this issue by limiting the time in the day my app is used. For example, it's only run at work/school.
Unfilled time allows unstrutured triggers. Design/programming problems are often fixed well when looking at it through the side of your eye, not sitting at a desk.
I totally agree with this point as I have experienced this myself. This does prove that it will be difficult to decide what is good use of time.
The NHS angle is interesting. Looking at productive use of your time and how it is somehow good for your mental health, it makes sense. There is a certain amount off keeping busy that is important, but you do need a balance. It's kind of interesting being too busy. You are presupposing that work is good and leasuire is bad OR self improvement is good and relaxation is bad.
Till now, my currency was primarily focused on how an individual could use their 'wated time' for something worthwhile. I didn't realise the negative effect this may have on someones mental health. Constantly being occupied with a task. As a result of this, I will update my currency so that there is also a system which prevents a person from overworking themself, and being rewarded for it.
Your current system seems like a mechanism for making people seem really guilty for wasting their time. Instead, maybe there is a way of using this idea to problematise some of our relationship with time. Some ideas of valuable/invalable work, activities.
Becoming more efficient / Saving Time - inrespect to computational tools. What am i gonna do with the 15 mins i saved at work? Its just a way of squeesing more work out of less people. Produce more work and hire less people.
Interesting to consider these other ways.
Time as a currency is really interesting. The idea of the moments of time we dont have control over, and being able to use them differently, may be interesting.
How would someone feel about instaling this inorder to use the NHS? We don't always have to do thngs that are good for us, but we do have to minimise the things that are bad for us.
I feel most would be happy with this. As times get more and more stress ful for people in thier work environemnts, Brexit being a major factor in this, I fell the majority would welcome a system like mine into their life as it aims to monitor them, making sure they are mentally stable - whilst also achieving some form of reward.
The currency doesn't need the financial direct transition if this comes throgh a government body. 1 minute can equal 1 tick, and 1 tick is a certain amount of benefit in the real world by putting it into the hands of the government. A tick can provide you with a specific service.
This point makes sense as this currency acts as a complmentary alternative method of exchange, not replacing money, and working with it.
I've also thought about building an artefact for speculative use: a physical artefact that an individual holds on thier body all the time, it knows how the person is using their time. It can be a necklace around the neck, or s phob that attaches to a keychain. These kind of things are more useful to getting the points across. There is no way to determin 100% through an app, you can always guess and infer. You might aswell have this thing that just knows and use speculative design.
How do you define the value of time?
This was the biggest issue in my project so far. I had thought of some ways to value time however, I was generalising to every individual when they will certainly be different for most people. There is a common phrase, 'time is money' which could be how I value time in this currency. My idea kind of moves away from this which is nice and different, instead focusing on self imporvement and not linking to money as many things in our society already do.
If you biuld something like this and allow for ambiguity (the quality of being open to more than one interpretation) that will become pretty interesting
What this means is, yes I may design this currency so that someone is rewarded from making the mst of their time, but this specific person might only feel that way. Somebody elses interpretation of this currency may be that it makes them a healther individual overall. This terns my currency into something that means differnt things for different people, which is a good way to accumudate and entice more people in using it.
Time is not wasted because you havent done anything useful, but because of other reasons.
Perhaps its less about the actual thing you spent the time on, but how you felt. Were you guity about the last half an hour? Why were you guilty. I could find out in my user research.
Could you rely on self reporting rather than an imposed sytem that tracks people. Trust the users to know whats good for them. Not something that many services do.
This is definatly a good idea.
I also recived some feedback on my research questions. I was told how I could improve them to devise indepth results.
Ratherthan 'wasting time', is there another way of talking about it? Asking how people felt? I could ask someone to map thier day, handing over a pen and paper, giving them control. 'When did you wake up, what were you doing then, and then, and then, anf then. Interviewee draws out thier day and I recive visual feedback which is more valuable than just verbal.
Project Development
I started designing the artefact what may work alongside my currency. I started producing some sketches.
I then took this design and developed it durther using Adobe Illustrator.
How this artefact works is, it must always be carried on the person’s body. Possibly best to have this around someone’s neck as a necklace. In that case it would need to be quite small. I would like to laser cut this onto acrylic in the 3D workshop. This has the ability to understand how the user is spending their time. There is a screen on the front and back which updates to show a message to the user. In the example above, it's showing the user they have earned some tick points which they can scan using the mobile app.
Taking the majority of this feedback into consideration, I have updated the aim of my digital currency:
The currency works alongside the pound sterling. It has been implemented within society, especially to those who suffer from mental health issues, to promote an individual’s self-help through a reward system.
With mental health conditions increasing, the government implemented this system of rewards to bring greater awareness to citizens, so they can focus on their self-help.
The user wears a key fob like artefact on their body at all times. This speculative artefact has the ability to measure how the person is using their time throughout the day, recording these events in a database. The fob works alongside an app.
The algorithm is constantly decided whether it needs to notify the individual, warn them about their current state of mind. works out whether the individual needs to stop at any time in the day to take a break, even the opposite.
At the end of the day, the user is prompted by the app to view their day journey, check if the algorithm has made the correct assumptions about that persons day. If there are any inconsistencies, the user is able to edit and correct the entries.
After everything is okay, the user then needs to react to each event throughout the day. I have kept the reactions abstract, with the options ranging from smiley faces to frowning faces. Based on what the user chooses for each entry, the app calculates the day’s average, then calculating a certain reward for that user they can then spend. The points can then be exchanged for rewards such as, discounts on family days out, travel and entertainment.
It may seem that the system is rewarding the individual whether they have had an overall positive day, however this is not the case. The system rewards an overall negative day as well as positive. This is so that everybody has that motivation they need to focus on their self-help.
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