Live Offline
Role: Co-founder, Design Lead
Size: Team of 3 co-founders (professionals in design and business)
Duration: 11 months and on-going
Skills: User Research | Visual, Content, and Interaction Design | Prototyping | Strategy
Methods: Guerilla Interviews | Surveys | Journaling
Context
42M people consider their phone a leash and it is no accident. Apps have been psychologically engineered to make them addictive, leaving our society more socially isolated than ever. Our dependency on phones have led to physical and mental harm. It is time we step back to examine our usage and shift our habits.
During my Stories of America trip to San Antonio, I came to the realization that I was making wonderful connections with people I never would have approached. Why? Because it was my job to get uncomfortable, talk to strangers, and learn about their lives. It was a sad epiphany that our culture does not facilitate or promote this kind of interaction. Those who do spark conversation are considered the Chatty Cathies of the world. With "stranger danger" and the "don't make eye contact on the train" mentalities, it is no wonder we stay in our bubbles, pretend we're busy by burying our heads in our phones, and miss out on the world happening around us.
I wanted to capitalize on that feeling of joy when you spontaneously meet someone and find common ground. It led me to scrappily prototype a concept that was brewing in my head: a wristband that displayed a hashtag of your choice. #DANCE. #JURYDUTY. #AMA. #JUSTASK.
The Inspiration
Customer Problem
I am a 20-40 year old woman with an active social media presence and am seeking ways to reclaim my time from my phone, but the struggle is real.
Live Offline is a startup I co-founded with a fellow Carnegie Mellon alum and my husband. It is a practice to use your phone with intention rather than mindlessly filling your time. Phones are virtually present in every moment of our day, from the second we awaken to the food we eat...heck, even in our private moments in the bathroom. Our team is hungry to solve this tech addiction that robs us of our time, our communication skills, and well-being. Own your time on your phone rather than it owning you.
Early Experiments
As a tinkerer/solopreneur at the time, I set out to test my hypothesis. Below are the ways the wristband evolved based on several insights with each iteration.
>> MY INTENT
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Take your Twitter/Facebook status (or whatever phrase you want to start a conversation on) and "acronymize" it. e.g. Talk About Life Offline = TALO
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After all, what's an easier ice breaker than asking "What does that stand for?"
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Bonus: if #AMA was in view on the excess of the bracelet, then it was an open invite to "Ask Me Anything," as borrowed from the Reddit world. Otherwise, you'd be considered "offline."
v1. ACRONYMS
>> REALITY
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Cryptic messages leave people curious but unwilling to ask for fear of probing into personal space.
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Over time, this pleather fabric showed signs of wear and tear. The lettered stickers also became tattered, which led to an assumption the bracelet was gothic or related to a personal memorial.
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#AMA is not so commonly known and could barely be seen from most angles.
Mission
To empower the digitally dependent to detach themselves from their devices. We provide tech-free, regular reminders to reclaim the joy in offline activities and authentic connections.
After the final iteration and failed attempt to get folks to wear the band, I took some time off from the concept. A couple months later, Live Offline officially became branded and exposed via a flash mob opportunity for an upcoming UX Holiday Party. This led to my next couple hypotheses.
Hypothesis #1: If you voluntarily shared information about yourself in a visual way, it would be a conversation starter with interested parties. Isn't that essentially what Facebook statuses serve? If we deem ourselves so social online, how big of a step would it be to take interaction offline?
Hypothesis #2: If people can rely on high-quality photographers to capture themselves at an event and tag them, they'd be less inclined to take photos and allow themselves to be in the moment.
Hypothesis #3: If there were events that required you to leave your phone in a safe spot for the duration of an event, people would want to come.
Using flash mob practices as the test bed, our unofficial Live Offline team was ready to put these hypotheses to the test. At a dance studio, we set up a phone caddy in the back of the room and ensured all flash mob practice attendees stowed their phones away or left them in the caddy. We also had a photographer to capture candid photos.
The result? Attendees being phones-free for something they would normally be phones-free for. One participant, however, felt a strong urge to check her phone during the break and snuck a peek to see if her husband had contacted her.
Ultimately, this hypothesis and business model was not viable after posing the concept to a few photographers. No one wants to exchange labor for exposure, especially if you're pretty good at what you do. On to the next idea.
Let's Back Up and Do This the Right Way
It was clear at the stage we were at, we needed to learn about our potential customers and validate we had a real problem to solve. We conducted guerilla interviews at the mall to understand the perception around phone usage, especially by age and gender. We would ask interviewees to estimate their usage in hours and if they identified themselves as an addict. Then, we had them pull up their battery stats in their phone's Settings to compare perception to reality. Almost every participant underestimated their use and did not feel they were addicted. Top apps by men? Sports apps, Reddit, Safari, and music playing apps. Top apps by women? Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Facebook Messenger.
We barely skimmed the surface when it came to understanding who was out there that already identified themselves with this problem. After all, there had to be people who can't justify the countless hours they spend on their phones. We decided to create a Meetup group solely to attract people who wanted to live offline, thus re-entering Hypothesis #3.
Just as we started to find direction, I was notified in early February 2017 that my Hera Labs Launch Intensive application (back from October) was finally accepted! While the three of us had no expectation of joining a business accelerator, we were thrilled to get some startup mentorship.
Since being part of the Launch Intensive program, we hosted our first Meetup event on the National Day of Unplugging and have continued to host an event every month. We are 188 members strong and are now collaborating with other Meetups in search of potential early adopters to learn from. It's been a fruitful way to connect with people who are genuinely interested in tackling this problem.
Our next major milestone is iterating on a physical starter kit that we tested in a beta group of participants. Live Offline is a firm believer of using physical reminders, or triggers, to help create positive habits around mindful phone usage. Additionally, we have started collaborating with a local all-girl high school to bring awareness to the harmful effects of high phone and social media usage. It is our hope Live Offline can be a resource for organizations to lean on for education and offline practices.