Nosho
A delightful, low-tech desk gadget aimed to redefine our intrusive phone habits via notification behavior.
Team
Duration
Role
Tools
Introducing Nosho, a fun desk gadget for your phone that turns your distracting notifications into calm fishies swimming by. By integrating delight in the habit-changing process, Nosho helps you be intentional with picking up your phone.
Jump to final design!
Jump to final design!
The problem space
By the time we’re aware we picked up the phone, we’re already been completely taken out of the task we were working on.
8 research articles and 4 one-hour interviews later...
Trivial notifications have big presence
Instinctual phone-checking is due to constant distracting notifications, which makes people pick up their phones regardless of its actual value.
Beating their phone
is an uphill battle
Young adults rarely have the discipline and self-awareness needed to actively push against engrained phone dependency triggered by boredom.
User interviews
Design exploration
The key is to change the experience from a “punishment” to “something fun”. This is where Nosho was born!
Design exploration
Picking the right measurement to emphasize.
Focusing on the number of pick-ups (instead of screen time) encourages users to reflect if they truly need to pick up that phone right now.
Making Nosho a charging home for your phone!
All interviewees reported sitting next to a charger for easy charging/usage. Integrating phone charging into Nosho also solidifies its place as a useful phone hub.
Just the right amount of fun without stealing your focus.
Nosho’s goal is to minimize notification intrusion, yet, it should feel delightful. The longer your phone hasn’t been touched, the more lively your aquarium becomes!
Sketching & 3D prototyping Nosho’s form factor.
Nosho went through a myriad of variations in order to appear fun and approachable. After narrowing it down to the final one, it was 3D-modeled and printed!
Visual design & video work
Nosho’s visual look is captured by the idea of being delightful, fun, yet calm.
Final design!
Nosho is a playful, dynamic notification visualizer in the form of an aquarium to help manage those tempting phone pick-ups with a simple motto: out of sight, out of mind!
From loud notifications, to calm fishies swimming in.
Nosho softly restricts unessential notification information while providing some level of transparency in order to avoid notification anxiety.
Nosho is able to wirelessly charge your phone while keeping track of your notifications, serving as a great desk gadget whether you’re working or heading to bed.
Impact
When evaluating the success of Nosho’s concept, I turned to fellow designers and participants to provide their opinions.
82%
User satisfaction
Users felt that Nosho could effectively shape their relationships with their phone for the better.
100%
Success rate
Users successfully navigated through Nosho to remove notification noise.
If I had the opportunity, I'd also test:
% Change in phone pick-ups
Net Promoter Score
Taking the prototype into my everyday life…
I’ll admit, I’ve been using my own Nosho prototype to stay focused at times...and I’m happily surprised to find out that since using it, my screen time’s been down by 63%.
Late June’s screen time...
...versus early July!
