‘Do Not Disturb’: An Implication Design To Be Alerted But Less Stress

The pervasive utilization of smartphones, while augmenting personal and professional communications, also elicits mental stress and disrupts the work-life balance. Users necessitate staying connected to critical updates without undue disruption, necessitating an optimized, user-friendly smartphone interface. However, current "Do Not Disturb (DND)" features fall short of providing the desired customization options, thereby contributing to heightened anxiety and diminished productivity. Consequently, this study proposes a design modification to the DND mode by incorporating an "Exceptional Apps Notification", feature thereby aiding in alleviating stress and enhancing focus by permitting essential alerts from selected apps or contacts. In other words, the users only need to turn off notifications for specific applications, not every application. This approach addresses the problem of users fearing they will miss some important notifications. Therefore, the design process employed principles of selective attention and color theory, and user experience was assessed through questionnaires and psycho-physiological feedback. Early findings suggest the potential for stress reduction, albeit with opportunities for further optimization, such as including a memory feature for user preferences and allowing selective access for specific contacts.