Abstract
This thesis portfolio explores ways in which software technologies influence user behavior via design, rewards, assumptions about attention, and self-control. The technical report, Aqua Health: A Low-Retention Aquarium Game for Sleep and Step Habits, introduces a Flutter mobile application that motivates users to sleep and walk through the use of a straightforward aquarium collectible loop. In the prototype, successfully completing the sleep task produces an egg, walking towards the daily step target progresses the egg's progress bar, and a finished egg hatches an aquatic species that can be named by the user and added to their aquarium. The app uses Hive database and Flutter health package in order to store and gather steps and sleep data via Android Health Connect, while including some simulated inputs to enable demonstration and reproducible testing. Aqua Health is meant to be a low-retention game in terms of usage. It does not feature leaderboards, news feeds, ads, purchases, penalty-based streak tracking, and an ever-ending story to encourage screen usage but instead utilizes the reward system in motivating offline behaviors.
In the sociotechnical research paper, TikTok's Ideal User: User Configuration and Neurodivergent Adolescent Harm, I analyze the popular app TikTok as a sociotechnical system and its configuration of the ideal user through a lens of Steve Woolgar's User Configuration theory. In this paper, it's claimed that short form content, recommender algorithm, autoplay functionality, infinite scrolling, transitions, and the feedback loop embedded in TikTok's design presuppose a user able to handle constant novelty, reward signals, and ease of exiting the app. This may not be true for neurodivergent adolescents diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or autism.
