TikTok Empowerment Token
The TikTok Empowerment Token is a feature that helps ensure the TikToK experience contributes positivity to people‘s digital well-being.
Team
Solo project
Role
Researcher,
UX designer
Time
Summer
2023
Duration
2
weeks
Empowerment Token
By taking mindful breaks from the screen, users will earn empowerment tokens, which can be used to contribute to meaningful causes. And that's not all – for every token you contribute, TikTok will also make a corresponding monetary donation, amplifying your positive influence.
Break reminder
When a user receives a Break Reminder, they have the option to take a break from their screen or adjust their screen time settings. The break reminder feature tries to alleviate user's feeling of being interrupted, and reduce the negative user experience
Unlock Vibrant Bonuses
As a token of appreciation for users‘ commitment to mindful breaks and positive impact, they will receive vibrant bonuses to boost their video visibility or enjoy in-app purchases with valuable coupons.
Edge case - a user returns to the app during the break
Instead of redirection or restrictions, the interface offers a gentle acknowledgment. It respects the user's autonomy while subtly nudging them towards their predetermined goal.
The Hook Model
The additive nature of tiktok reminds me of the hook model, a four-phase process for product development based on the creation of habitual behaviors via a looping cycle that consists of a trigger, an action, a variable reward, and ongoing investment. This approach enhances user engagement and brings great success to similar products. But it also leads to addiction.
Negative impact on digital well-being
Research has shown that excessive use of social media can lead to
side effects on mental health and wellbeing
feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and depression
pressure to maintain a certain image
fear of missing out
“There may be hundreds of papers that present correlations between social media and well-being (...) When I started to really look into the trends of deteriorating mental health among the young adults, though, I came to realize how truly bad the situation is, and that stuck with me.”
Alexey Makarin, an assistant professor at MIT Sloan
Current solutions
Current solutions in the market cover varying degrees of toughness, such as screen time dashboards that inform the user about their usage time, user interfaces that blur to add impediments to usage, and forced locking of the app. These approaches either create a negative feeling of control being taken away from the user, or can‘t motivate users enough.
If you enter TikTok during a set break, it will ask you to enter a password, but the password is written on the page for you, which doesn't make any sense at all...
“
“
Yan
24yrs | Model
Business goal VS social responsibility
During the research, I realized the conflicts between engaging users to make profit from the business side and preventing wasting time on the platform from the user side. And this led to my HMW question.
HMW
How might we keep users engaged while motivating them to prevent binges without creating negative user experience?
Context
TikTok brings a lot of fun to people's daily lives, but its addictive nature also has a lot of potential negative effects. After watching "The Social Dilemma", a documentary about how social media platforms are designed to make people addicted and influence their thoughts and behaviors to maximize profitability, I realized that platforms should take more responsibility for this. So I wanted to explore the possibility of promoting Tech for Good through design.
Findings
Through desktop research, reviewing comments from Internet users and 6 interviews, I learned that people love the content on TikTok and enjoy the joy it brings to life. But on the other hand people find that they get caught in an endless scrolling loop, wasting a lot of time accomplishing nothing meaningful, and feeling empty after watching those videos.
Ideation
initial thought
I tried to use brainstorming techniques such as crazy 8 to think of possible solutions. At some point, it occurred to me that why not also follow the Hook Model?
Filtering ideas
After having two round of crazy8, I filtered the ideas by how disruptive they were to the user experience and how much they benefited the business, society and individual.
Reward users with promotion coupon to get discount for in-app purchases
Reward users with vouchers to get more views
A pop-up component to offer opportunities to contribute social value via meeting the limited usage goals
Set barriers to continue scrolling （i.e solve a math problem）
A campaign to challenge users for mindful screen time
Disable the recommendation algorithm for taking breaks
Gamify the screen break i.e card draw for meaningful things to do for breaks
Gamify the screen break i.e customize things users like to do for card draw
Personal assistant for building healthy relationship with the app
Educate users to be intentional about their time
Grey out the videos during breaks
Mute all the videos during the break
Blur the videos during breaks
Introduce a dashboard for achievements and rankings of mindful screen breaks
Inserting expert-recorded videos of symptoms related to digital wellbeing into the video stream as a break reminder
Break reminder videos recorded by their loved ones
Final Solution
By incentivizing mindful breaks and rewarding users with tokens, it encourages balanced interaction. Real-world impact is integrated through cause contributions, fostering a sense of accomplishment. Customizable goals, rewards like boosted visibility, and in-app purchase coupons keep users engaged. This feature is expected to empower users to be mindful, make a positive impact, and foster a healthier relationship with technology.
Iteration
Break reminder
Design decision
I chose the final break reminder articulated video + animated transitions because:
It is not easily ignored by the user
Jumping out of the original video interface helps the user strip away the source of the addiction and focus on the content of the break reminder.
Relatively less disruptive to the user experience
Reward hub
Design decision
I iterated into the final version because:
Visualizing weekly goal attainment and achievements helps motivate users to stick to them
Putting the projects users have worked on and the bonuses they've earned on the same page reduces unnecessary clicks.
Actions to use earned bonuses are likely to be more frequent and contribute more to business goals than viewing the status of participated projects, so this component was placed first.
Tabs are more intuitive and the style adheres to the existing design system, reducing confusion.
Token allocation
Design decision
The last one was chosen as the final version because:
The vertical flow of cards shows more content
The one-line filter button at the top allows users to make a selection of different types of cards on the same page, making them feel still connected
The indicator bar, the information about the number of tokens and the status of the buttons help the user to quickly determine which options are eligible.
Combining the call-to-action button with the card information helps guide the user to the next step.
Design system
Reflection
By encouraging users to take breaks, accumulate tokens, and contribute to meaningful causes, the feature aims to create a positive impact on both individual well-being and the broader world.
However, I also recognize the complexities that come with implementing such a feature. Balancing engagement with breaks is a delicate task, requiring thoughtful design to prevent excessive disengagement. The risk of users gaming the system to earn tokens could impact the authenticity of the experience.
Regular user feedback, monitoring, and iterative adjustments will be pivotal in refining the feature's impact and addressing any unforeseen challenges.
Next project
Monetization strategy
Sponsored ads integration
Collaborate with brands or organizations that align with the causes supported by Empowerment Tokens. Allow these partners to sponsor specific causes, and in return, they could be featured within the app (i.e on the reminder page)
Sponsored Challenges
Collaborate with brands to create sponsored challenges related to wellness or SDGs. Users who complete these challenges could earn extra Empowerment Tokens and rewards.
Partnerships with Wellness Services
Partner with wellness or mindfulness apps and services. Users could earn Empowerment Tokens by completing activities in those partner apps, and vice versa, creating a cross-promotional benefit.
