Official website of the course "Strategies for Digital Wellbeing" (code 01GOFIU) offered to Ph.D. students at Politecnico di Torino.
Short link to this page: http://bit.ly/polito-design4dwb
Course Organization
Teacher: Alberto Monge Roffarello.
The course will be held primarily in person, with video-recorded lectures and the possibility of virtual attendance during the exercises (see the Introduction slides).
Students are encouraged to attend classes with their laptops.
Course Topics
The last decade has seen a growing amount of public discussion and research attention on the problems deriving from excessive and frequent use of technology, from smartphones to social networks. In parallel, researchers from different communities have started considering a new kind of psychological “digital wellbeing” to establish the proper boundaries between technology use and users’ wellness. The course introduces students to digital wellbeing and gives them practical and conceptual methods for investigating and facing the impact of technology overuse on people. A combination of lectures and exercises will provide students with different techniques for analyzing technology through the lens of digital wellbeing and designing digital services that respect and preserve users' attention and time.
The main topics of the course are the following:
- Introduction to Digital Wellbeing
- Current strategies for Digital Wellbeing
- Digital self-control tools
- Designing in the Attention Economy
- From design patterns to dark patterns
- Persuasive technology
- Attention-capture damaging patterns
- Shifting the paradigm
- The Leverage Points Framework
- Digital wellbeing guidelines
During the course, some additional topics related to the field of Human-Computer Interaction will be (briefly) addressed to successfully complete the course assignments (see the Exam section below):
- Needfinding
- Interviews
- Observations
- Diary studies
- Prototyping
- Low, Medium, and High fidelity prototypes
- Prototyping tools (e.g., Figma)
- Evaluation
- Heuristic evaluation
Exam
The exam will consist of three assignments:
- Assignment 1 (Needfinding)
- Implementation of a needfinding method
- Selection of a digital service with its negative impacts on peolpe's digital wellbeing
- Assignment 2 (Prototyping)
- Application of a set of digital wellbeing strategies to the identified service
- Assignment 3 (Heuristic evaluation)
- Evaluation of the identified service according to the Digital Wellbeing guidelines
Successfully completing two out of three assignements is needed to pass the exam.
Schedule
The table below contains the schedule and the learning materials of all the lectures and exercises. Please consider the following information as a tentative preview of the course organization; it is provided only for helping students organize and plan, and is subject to change without notice.
All lectures will be video-recorded and will be available on the Portale della Didattica, as well as here and in a dedicated YouTube playlist.
| Date | Type | Details | Time | Room | Video | Teacher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19/01/2023 | Lecture |
Introduction to the course, fundamentals on Digital Wellbeing |
14:00-16:00 | Room C |  |
Alberto Monge Roffarello |
| Exercise |
Needfinding in Digital Wellbeing Assignment 1: Needfinding |
16:00-18:00 | Room C | - | Alberto Monge Roffarello | |
| 26/01/2023 | Lecture | 14:00-16:00 | Room C | |
Alberto Monge Roffarello | |
| Exercise | Needfinding (cont'd) | 16:00-18:00 | Room C | - | Alberto Monge Roffarello | |
| 02/02/2023 | Lecture | From design patterns to attention-capture deceptive designs | 14:00-16:00 | Room C | |
Alberto Monge Roffarello |
| Exercise |
Assignment 2: Prototyping |
16:00-18:00 | Room C | - | Alberto Monge Roffarello | |
| 09/02/2023 | Lecture |
The Leverage Points Framework and Digital Wellbeing heuristics |
14:00-16:00 | Room C |
|
Alberto Monge Roffarello |
| Exercise | Prototyping (cont'd) | 14:00-16:00 | Room C | - | Alberto Monge Roffarello | |
| 16/02/2023 | Exercise | Assignment 3: Heuristic Evaluation | 14:00-16:00 | Room C | - | Alberto Monge Roffarello |
| Exercise | Heuristic Evaluation (cont'd) | 16:00-18:00 | Room C | - | Alberto Monge Roffarello |