InteractOut: Leveraging Interaction Proxies as Input Manipulation Strategies for Reducing Smartphone Overuse

TL;DR

InteractOut introduces an implicit input-manipulation approach to smartphone overuse interventions by inserting an interaction-proxy layer that subtly alters taps and swipes. Grounded in cognitive theory and interaction remapping, it defines a $4\times 4$ design space across Time, Location, Direction, and Number of Fingers, and demonstrates eight concrete Android implementations. In a lab study with 30 participants and a field study with 42 participants, InteractOut outperformed Timed Lockout in reducing target-app usage time by about 15% and opening frequency by around 16%, while achieving higher user acceptance, albeit with increased perceived workload. The work highlights a new, compatible direction for interventions that complements existing techniques and opens opportunities for personalized, long-term deployment across devices and apps.

Abstract

Smartphone overuse poses risks to people's physical and mental health. However, current intervention techniques mainly focus on explicitly changing screen content (i.e., output) and often fail to persistently reduce smartphone overuse due to being over-restrictive or over-flexible. We present the design and implementation of InteractOut, a suite of implicit input manipulation techniques that leverage interaction proxies to weakly inhibit the natural execution of common user gestures on mobile devices. We present a design space for input manipulations and demonstrate 8 Android implementations of input interventions. We first conducted a pilot lab study (N=30) to evaluate the usability of these interventions. Based on the results, we then performed a 5-week within-subject field experiment (N=42) to evaluate InteractOut in real-world scenarios. Compared to the traditional and common timed lockout technique, InteractOut significantly reduced the usage time by an additional 15.6% and opening frequency by 16.5% on participant-selected target apps. InteractOut also achieved a 25.3% higher user acceptance rate, and resulted in less frustration and better user experience according to participants' subjective feedback. InteractOut demonstrates a new direction for smartphone overuse intervention and serves as a strong complementary set of techniques with existing methods.

Figures (17)

• Figure 1: Design Space of InteractOut. The rows include the four essential interaction properties, and the columns show the four manipulation strategies. The underlined techniques are our demonstrated implementations, while others are techniques associated with interactions. Note that pink blocks indicate invalid types.
• Figure 2: Summary of Remapping Methods According to the Design Space of Interaction Proxies InteractionProxy. The underlined techniques are our demonstrated implementations. "1", "0", and "N" here means the number of operations/interactions needed to perform a task before and after the proxy.
• Figure 3: Structure of the InteractOut Implementation on Android. The proxy overlay takes user input and outputs the modified gesture. Swipe Reverse intervention is used for illustration.
• Figure 4: Bypass Option Menu in Android Notification Drawer. User can select 1 or 15 minutes or ignore the limit for the rest of the day directly in the notification.
• Figure 5: The Two Mobile Applications Used in the Lab Study. (a) Bubble Mania, for tap implementations. (b) Twitter, for swipe implementations.