FreeTime is an app that inspires people with activities and interesting facts to cope with boredom during COVID-19. As a Brooklyn team, many of us are isolated inside and want help to stay motivated while in quarantine. We made FreeTime to change the way our users spend their time during the pandemic.
Before we moved to remote learning, we were using the human-centered design process to create assistive tech for those with cerebral palsy. Empathy had a big influence on our team when deciding how to pivot our invention for virtual sessions. We decided that it would be useful to create an app that would help people during the current crisis.
Through our Google Slide prototype, we emulate the ideal user experience for FreeTime as a mobile app. Each user makes an account after a questionnaire, where we learn more about their interests. Users then pick a category and the FreeTime generator provides a quote, activity or fact to occupy their mind. Here, we link to Glitch websites that we coded together by making a JavaScript generator. As a group, we picked our logos from The Noun Project website and a color scheme using Adobe Color. In the future we would expand the categories, sections for games, journal entries, rewards, and add a security feature.
Make sure to view Google Slides as a Presentation on your desktop to have the full user experience. Some slides have links to view, make sure you click on those!
Additionally, please watch the video interview to hear directly from the experts about the FreeTime design process.
Additional links (these are included in order on the FreeTime App on Google Slides but you can also see them individually here above).
Emoti-Con 2020 has ended and leaving new reactions is now off.
The thought, care, and effort that went into your collective planning and solution design is notably evident. Very nice job, team! There is a level of polish shown in all that you put together here that really lifts your solution idea even higher.
This is such a great idea! And an app I could use myself!! What I really like is the efforts you put in to make the app feel cohesive, from the color scheme to the icon designs. I like seeing how you were able to recycle your JS to many different applications. Using Google Slides to prototype your app is also a clever technique!
This app was well developed, super easy to use and fun! The time and effort that you put into this project is very apparent. Well done! I would love if there was a space for users to add their ideas for things that people can do when they are board, or maybe the ability to "like" the actions they are given. Awesome work!
The beauty of this project is the ways in which the user can make these exercises as in drawn out or quickly done as is good for them! Every "Freetime" activity kept me delighted and wanting more.
Very good, engaging pitch, clear and concise description of project/demo and design process. This project has a clear, well thought out and researched vision and method for social impact.
I liked this project a lot because there are many people that are wondering what to do during a pandemic. All of the info on this app are things you can find online however with a simple Google search. One thing I would like to see more of in this app is the community angle - such as - "Bored People Finder" or something where you can connect with other people who are bored and figure out what to do... So for instance, if you click that, it would find another bored person and based on your questionnaires it would suggest things for the two or more of you to do together during the pandemic.
self-reporting bored connections would increase app usage and partnering with other apps like Stop Motion for users to have other apps at their fingertips to use on the spot would also increase free time relevance. great work! very proud to be able to see how this developed and progressed against all the odds...
Stellar! The images and style really pull this together.
Such a cute project! Love the light yellow showing calmness and all the random generators to find things to do! It's a great app for people who are great at doing work but need a starting pointing!
I love how your project turned out! I really might use this some day if I am bored and can't think of what to do. Great work BDL!
This is such a great idea and a helpful resource - sure you could google stuff, but if you don't have any idea of what you want to do, then this is helpful and makes it fun. You guys put in a lot of thought into this and accomplished a lot.
This is such an impressive project- you took a challenge that everyone is facing while we are all stuck and home (boredom) and turned that challenge into an opportunity to design something that is playful, interactive and very well executed. Great work!
