Summary

#### Recap

I recently concluded an experience prototype. It was really helpful because as soon as I reached out to people via Instagram, it made me realise how much I could rely on other people to try things and lead the way. They're interest in the exercise fuelled my enthusiasm and the value of the experience. At the same time, I've been trying to thinking a lot about what Nicholas told me about *sense and control*. How sense informs control. He referred to the case of slow baking as a way in which human sense can give us a feeling of control that can be rewarding in itself. I think it applies quite nicely to sensing of time.

The activities in the prototype were not specific to sensing *slowly*. People could go about their usual day to day activity. It seems like the prototype was answering a combination my first two opportunity statements - *How might we design an experience that aligns people with a slower rhythm of living and gives them a greater sense of control over their time spent?* It's interesting how I didn't think of timekeeping as a solution. The idea of the one-hour clock came up as a random example for an idea. It turns out that creating a motivation for slowness could come from imposing a slower rhythm of living. We ordinarily survive on hours, minutes and seconds but don't pay attention to how we the actual utility of each unit. Seconds matter when we're boiling milk, minutes matter when we're waiting for a train, hours matter when we're engaged in a prolonged activity, days matter to us when we're close to a project submission deadline. Each of these units matter more or less depending on the context. Between telling time from the sun and having a device on our desk counting every passing millisecond, second, minute and hour, is there a rhythm that may feel more meaningful? One that does not reduce us to mere consumers of quantified time but as living actors. The unit I chose to explore was an hour. In the context of everyday routines, minutes don't matter to us for most parts of our day. It is usually in order to get somewhere at a certain time or have to do something at a certain point. But in other cases, not knowing can simplify our lives. In this sense, knowing can be counter-productive - especially if one is trying to relax, engage in an activity fully or absorb an experience.

Thus by subtracting minutes from our life, we gives ourselves more space to perceive time on our own terms.

It curbs this habit we have of always counting down to the next thing. Our days tend to feel like a series of segmented countdowns and our behaviour can sometimes feel like just actions that fill in the space. This idea of our capacity for accessing time impacting our behaviour was very interesting to me. It made me think about what I was reading about information overload and how our accessibility to unlimited articles have restructured our brains. This abundance of information comes at a price - the price of focus. Projects like *iA writer* and *Hardly Everything* attempt to bring focus to only that which is sufficient for function. It builds a cadence for how our mind craves content. As a parallel, I think an hourly clock does that for us in terms of time. Less can be better for most for our day. In that sense, I see this as an experiment in a minimalist approach to time perception and living.

I want the device to help people be more in control and spend their time better as they see fit.

There were the following insights from the prototype:

1. There is a relief in not knowing. The mere act of blocking out reduced stress over how much time of the hour had passed.

2. It is more successful at putting people into a state of *flow*, some reported increased productivity or engagement, some just claimed less distraction

3. People realised that it actually isn't that hard to give up an otherwise assumed dependency on minutes

4. It allows people to align with a certain inner clock, their own rhythm (rate of change in action and thoughts)

5. People reported that it feels like time slows down. The lack of newness over 60 minutes can make it feel like forever.

The key frustrations that people had were:

1. Not being able to check the time when they needed it

2. Not being able to ignore the time in the uncensored spots

Neither of the conditions that led to these frustrations are things I want to enforce through my design so I am not very concerned with them. This brings me to my assumptions and the nature of this project. My key assumption is that people have a desire to experience time in the experimental way that this device affords and will be open to the value that the slowness of this timekeeping device can have on their behaviour and well-being. This is based on what was demonstrated through the experience test.

People who were chosen for this test were a mix of males and females between the age group of 22-32 years. They were a mixture of students and unmarried working professionals. Some of them had strict schedules, some were semi-flexible while others were on holiday. Most of them are Indian by nationality though residing in different parts of the world. They are all educated and live fairly comfortable lives. They were very open to the idea of an experiment. Since many of them were my friends, it is possible that they were partial to the good points instead of the bad inspite of me requesting completely honest responses.

#### Press for minutes

This is something that emerged from the learning that people want to see minutes at certain times in their day because they need to. It is very understandable. I was very tempted upon learning this to weave an interaction where they could access minutes via some resist-full interaction. Like pressing for longe, waiting for the information to appear etc. I explored some ideas of how it could materialise. As soon as I began thinking in this direction, I was confronted with questions like:

- what happens if I press it every time I want to check the time?

- Is there a limit to the no. of times I can check?

- How do you know people are not checking elsewhere?

- Won't it get annoying if I have to keep performing the same interaction and have to wait every single time?

- Why would I put in an effort to know the minutes when I could just check it on my phone instead?

Soon I realised , I was designing a feature. And one designs features for products. But I was not making a product in the market sense. Also, the simplicity of my idea - 'less can be better' when it comes to time was being compromised by the inclusion of this idea.

#### Experiment vs. Product

I have made a decision to not pursue this as a product offering that tries to draw users in with a value proposition and retain engagement over time, thereby replacing the timepiece that they already own. Tobias mentioned to me the the DURR project occupies an interesting category - it's a product but it's also and experiment. He bought the DURR, used it for 2 months and then defaulted to a regular watch. But that doesn't not dilute the value of the experience he had. It seems to me a worthwhile position to take. I would like my project to occupy a similar space. The project is not a pitch for a product, it's the documentation of a behavioural experiment that is centred around an artefact. What I find fascinating about the device is the ability for people to be drawn to it in the first place. It is probably worthwhile asking- what made it interesting? The proposition seemed novel, fun to try and worth the risk vs effort needed. It made them think about their day differently, it elicited different behaviours and responses to situations. These are the things I am curious to explore because our structure of time is created by us. So I think we deserve the right to play with it and see how things change. Also, like everyone's experience suggests, the experience of time is subjective. The project needs to surface some of those unique human experiences that arise from these small modifications in our structures. They might expose some understanding of our sensibilities.

#### Digital vs Physical

I am very keen on working with physical computing and tools like Arduino so I would like to make a tangible product. It will give me an opportunity to work with form.

#### Goals

1. Help us align with our own personal rhythm and perception of time to promote awareness of thoughts and environment

2. Encourages us to be more thoughtful about when we desire to access smaller units like minutes

3. Makes us reflect on moments and experiences in our day when we feel a pressure or impulse to know

#### What is it

A timekeeping device (probably a watch) that only displays hours of the day and not minutes. It is an artificial modification of the normal hours-minutes method we are accustomed to globally. It is also a tool that people can use to reflect on moments in their day when they feel a pressure of time.

#### How it works

A person wears the watch. They are able to look at it and see the current hour of the day. They go about their day as usual allowing themselves to be guided by the hour number. The number changes every hour with some transition effect. When a user feels a moment of anxiety or impatience, they can press a button that logs that moment in the daily register. In this way, a person can log many such moments. At the end of each day, they receive a list of these moments and the corresponding time in a visual way. This serves as a prompt to reflect on those moments and in effect their day. The person then performs a reset interaction of winding so that the watch can be used for another 24 hours.

#### Path forward

1. What are instances that humans would like to log? What can serve as a worthwhile record that is worth reflecting on?

2. What form will the product take? What are the affordances?

3. What are the components that are required to execute this prototype?