I am interested in a particular class of warnings, but I don't know what to call them. The warnings are generated by tracking a user's specific usage patterns, and warns them when continued use of the current application could be detrimental to their health. I am not including the health warnings (such as for epilepsy due to flickering) that may appear at the start of some applications, since they do not involve tracking of behaviour.
I have only seen these kinds of "health warnings" displayed during the "loading screens" for some older games. The warnings were phrased in a subtle way (sometimes with humour), encouraging the user to take a break after a couple of hours of continued gaming.
More specifically, I am interested in the manifestation of compulsive checking behaviour (even on the less extreme side of the spectrum). Examples include:
- Checking e-mail every minute (or more).
- Checking for mobile text messages frequently.
- Checking social media sites frequently.
- Checking for correct meta data on large media libraries, one file at a time.
I have never seen an e-mail client that warns against excessive use. The obvious problem is how to define "excessive" in the first place? There are applications that allow blocking of applications to help you focus, that operate on an operating system level, but I have never seen the option (even optionally configurable) to detect and warn about usage inside the application itself.
The assumption is that it is good that people "become addicted" to your application. But, for a small percentage of users this could actually be bad for their physical/emotional well-being. I would be very interested in any research that discusses the efficacy of application-specific warnings to counteract such usage patterns
No comments:
Post a Comment