Product Designer
Product Designer @ DICK'S Sporting Goods. Propelling products through craft and strategic thinking.
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Personal concept · iOS · 2026
Dial: choosing your own minutes
Dial treats every phone session as its own decision. Before a distracting app opens, you set the minutes that session actually needs, and the app re-locks the moment they run out.
Role
Solo: research and concept design
Timeline
Oct 2026, 2 weeks
Methods
Literature review, review mining, 15-app teardown
Platform
iOS, Screen Time API
01 · Problem
No two sessions are the same size
A day of phone use isn't one block of time but dozens of separate sessions, from a 20-second notification check to a 10-minute commute to a 40-minute evening drift. A single daily cap treats that whole range as one number that fits none of them, and it only steps in once the budget is spent, mid-scroll, after the decision has already been made. It never asks what each session is for, whether that's checking one thing, filling a wait, or unwinding. The stakes are broad: 53% of US adults say they spend too much time on their phone, yet only a quarter of those who try to cut back succeed (Pew, 2026).
Hover a stage to see the evidence behind it.
02 · Research
Evidence for and against intentional sessions
My research question was whether choosing a time limit for each session works better than passive tracking or a fixed daily cap. I reviewed HCI and behavioral science research, mined App Store reviews, and broke down 15 competing apps. This phase is secondary research, meant to shape a user study rather than replace one.
What supports it
1. Friction at the point of launch works. one sec's short delay led people to drop 36% of opening attempts (PNAS, 2023).
2. Commitment beats tracking. In GoalKeeper (IMWUT 2019), warnings alone cut 32 min/day (not significant), while a hard lock cut 74 min/day.
3. Implementation intentions help. Stating when and how much you'll do something has a medium-to-large effect across 94 studies (d = 0.65). Dialing in a session is a small version of that plan.
What works against it
1. Easy overrides get used. Snoozable timers were snoozed 97.8% of the time (CHI, 2019), so "+5 more" becomes a reflex.
2. People loosen their own rules and misjudge time. In HabitLab, 73% had switched to "no intervention" by their 200th visit, and self-reported phone use matches logged use poorly (r = 0.38).
3. Effects fade. Most screen time interventions decay after about three weeks.
The landscape
Choosing your time isn't new. one sec ("Always Ask") and Opal ("Unblock for…") both offer it, buried in settings, and Android added Pause Point in 2026. Apple Screen Time and ScreenZen stick to fixed caps. None lead with the choice, hold you to it, or show what you planned against what you actually used.
Hover an app to see how it handles time.
03 · Hypothesis
Sessions are portions, not a budget
If people choose the length of each session up front, the intent is set at the moment of decision, and a hard stop holds them to it. Researchers have pointed in the same direction, recommending design for satisfying "portion sizes" rather than system-wide lock-outs (Tran et al., CHI 2019).
Four session archetypes
The Checker: sees one thing and leaves. Would dial 1–2 minutes.
The Waiter: fills a queue or commute. 5–10 minutes.
The Unwinder: the evening scroll, "just a bit more". 15–30 minutes, needs a firm end.
The Coordinator: needs DMs, not the feed. 3–5 minutes, often.
04 · Solution
Make the choice the product
Selected apps are locked by default, and opening one requires dialing in a session length, with no remembered default or one-tap extension. When time expires, apps re-lock and any extension requires a fresh selection. A session recap then compares intended time against actual use.
Point around the dial. Each detent is a portion of time; the posts in the arc rise.
Design principles
1. Locked by default, zero setup. Pick the apps once, and you're done.
2. The pick is the pause. Every session starts with a deliberate turn of the dial, never a remembered default. Detents resist past 30 minutes.
3. Extending costs more than starting. A fresh dial, not "+5", and extensions show up in the recap.
4. Accuracy, not abstinence. Feedback compares chosen with used ("you said 5, you used 5") instead of shaming total time.
Hover a step. Each pass around the ring writes to the history in the middle.
05 · Next
Validating with a diary study
Next, I'll ship a TestFlight build and run a three-week diary study benchmarked against Apple's Screen Time limits, tracking app opens, extension rate, and whether intended time stays accurate past the novelty effect. Three weeks is the point where most interventions decay.