<aside> 🚧 This entire section is still being re-edited to reflect the final outcomes of the Thesis Research. You can preview the content below, however this section will be updated by Mid-October.

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1. What Are You Researching, And Why?

Overview

What topic are you exploring and investigating? What are you trying to prove? How are you going to prove it?

This thesis is an exploration on creating a computer-aided interaction to support in the self-regulation process towards achieving personal pursuits. Interaction design principles are rooted deeply in behavioral principles – however most commercial applications focus on leveraging these principles to guide users into behavior that is favourable for the company stakeholders. This includes guiding to more unconscious media consumption. Other applications that emphasize it is in the benefit of the user, focuses on overriding the user’s willpower to automate their behavior (i.e. regulate) on behalf of them. This thesis focuses on bringing autonomy to the user, by using computer-aided support to increase self-regulation skills, not to regulate on behalf of them.

This research will begin through investigating into existing supportive behavioral models through literature review, along with speaking directly to target users to understand their motivations and frustrations on progressing their own self-determined pursuits. Self-determination is emphasized because this thesis focuses on increasing autonomy – that is the ability to be in control and regulate yourself towards your own set goals, and not those that are imposed upon you.

Keywords:

self-determined pursuits; computer-aided self-regulation; user-centered design; self-determination & autonomy

Research Background

Why are you doing this research, and why is it an important topic to address?

Setting goals is a common motivational strategy
- However achieving goals not as easy as setting them
- Distractions are the anthesis of traction
- Disruptions are only becoming more complex
Obtaining autonomy over one’s personal pursuits is critical for well-being
- According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT) it’s a core psychological need
Can be potentially achieved by bringing awareness towards goals
- Awareness is required for effective self-regulation
This thesis aims to target specific interactions during the process of self-regulated achievement, to assist with the process of self achievement

Literature Review

What context around the topic supports your research argument? What literature have you looked into that support your argument?

Self-Determination & Autonomy
Self-Determined Pursuits: Needs & Challenges
- Physical Need for Well-Being
- Distractions & The Loss of Autonomy
- New Distractions in the Economy of Attention
Role of Intrinsic Motivation & Self-Regulation
- Self-Awareness for Goal-Congruent Behaviour
- Mental Modelling

Objectives

What specifics are you trying to learn through your research study? What are you attempting to substantiate/validate? What are your research contributions?

Research Objectives

To utilize a user-centered design framework to root proposed solutions within the direct context of user needs
To combine research from behavioral psychology with contextual user insight to determine a desirable interactive solution
To evaluate the proposed interactive solution’s desirability based on respective user groups

Research Questions

By speculating a desirable solution based on the UCD approach of determining user needs, how accurate was the user persona in targeting an appropriate customer segment for this problem space?
How do different attributes and correspond to the perception of feature attraction, including demographic segments, and related app-user types?
With a conceptual emphasis on prompting awareness, how does the user’s level of fatigue with notifications affect the desirability of prompt-oriented features?
Based on the proposed design solution, what are the key features that should be prioritized to maximize desirability for implementation?

Research Contributions

To contribute insight on the desirability of prompt-oriented features that aim to improve well-being, and the counter-effects of notification fatigue
To outline desirable features in response to the challenges of self-regulating personal pursuits
To demonstrate a solution that combines computer-aided support with the achievement of human self-regulation (opposed to interactions that regulate on behalf of the user)
To provide a response to the challenges of distraction and loss of awareness towards personal intentions, highlighting interactions designed to promote well-being

2. How Will You Achieve These Objectives?

Research Framework

What is the method you will use to perform your research? How will you test and substantiate your research results?

This research process aims to:

Investigate the process in which people self-regulate their own personal pursuits
Identify which specific interactions can be offloaded into a proposed function or service
Propose a design solution as a prototype concept
Test this proposal by evaluating how users respond to the proposal, and rank user-satisfaction and feature importance users respond to the proposal, and rank feature importance

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