The Mission:

To design and develop a mobile application with the purpose of surveying users daily in an un-intrusive manner. This would be in service of an academic investigation into on how excess exposure to social media and its incorporated algorithm and design attributes affect its users.

The Services:

Social Screen was developed in the Unity Engine to be adaptable and launchable on the largest amount of devices. To engage users in the survey, the app was designed with vibrant colors, bold type, and simplified input. Screens were designed, prototyped, and tested in Adobe XD before being implemented in the app. Google Firebase was used to retrieve and store the data received from users, with code connecting Social Screen and the database being written in C# and Javascript. Further, notifications were programmed to remind users to complete the survey each day (for the 14 day survey period).

THe Outcome:

Social Screen is a clean, to-the-point application that holds users’ interest for the short amount of time it asks of them each day. Social Screen gathers, compiles, and sends mass amounts of influential data about social media usage from users on any modern mobile device, ensuring that the study is supplied with the least biased sample possible.

The Impact:

With launch on the Google Play Store and iOS beta through Testflight, Social Screen consistently surveyed 21 social media users over a 14 day period, receiving 28 different points of information per person. Given the importance of primary source data in academic investigations, data received through the Social Screen app greatly influenced the study it was designed to serve.

You can view the study An investigation into how excess exposure to social media and its incorporated algorithm and design attributes affect its users here.