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:

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.

DateTypeDetailsTimeRoomVideoTeacher
19/01/2023 Lecture

Introduction to the course, fundamentals on Digital Wellbeing

14:00-16:00 Room C icons8 play button 48 Alberto Monge Roffarello
Exercise

Needfinding in Digital Wellbeing

Assignment 1: Needfinding

16:00-18:00 Room C -  Alberto Monge Roffarello 
26/01/2023 Lecture

Current strategies for Digital Wellbeing

Prototyping for Digital Wellbeing

14:00-16:00 Room C icons8 play button 48 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 icons8 play button 48 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

Heuristic evaluation for Digital Wellbeing

14:00-16:00 Room C

icons8 play button 48icons8 play button 48

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