Work

Colour Clock

Year: 2018

Achievement: Finalist of Future Lions 2019

Group projects:

Lee Lee Wong, Jacqueline Ling, Emma Pike, Long Le, Nhu Dang

Brief

Connect an audience of your choosing to a product or service from a global brand in a way that wasn't possible 3 years ago.

Overview

This project proposal plan provides an overview of the key research, insights and strategy to tackle the increasing concern for children’s screen time on digital media. Research shows that children are spending over twice the recommended time engaged with screens, which has lead to a dramatic increase in the amount of clinically diagnosed ‘screen addicted’ children.

Our suggested solution to curb screen time utilises new facial recognition technology and the grayscale feature on Apple’s IOS programming system to automatically monitor and gradually alter the device’s addicting colour display after half an hour of play.

Our unique solution seeks to encourage real change, through intrinsic, rather than extrinsic forces, in order to genuinely demotivate prolonged device use in children, whilst simultaneously eliminating the need for parental observation and intervention.

Through a communication strategy that highlights the unique features of automation and display alteration, we angle the product in a way that is new, non-intrusive and scientifically effective at getting kids off their devices.

Insight

Our psychological findings indicate that colour has a significant effect on brain chemistry and eye movement, therefore impacting our moods and level of focus. Bright colours are deliberately programmed into electronic devices and games in order to stimulate attention, energy and mood - much like a slot machine. Furthermore, the elimination of colour has been proven to diminish the arousing effects it has on the brain. We can utilise this natural ‘brain hack’ to de-motivate children’s interest in stimulating devices, by automatically fading the colour away to achieve a grayscale display.

Furthermore, we have identified an existing social dilemma regarding parents and their approach to managing kid’s technology use. Although aware of the damaging effects of prolonged screen use, more than half of parents admit to allowing their child to spend too much time on their screens. Parents don’t want to deny their kids the ability to use devices, since they are encouraged to in school, and it is widely accepted as a ‘normal’ part of growing up for Generation Z.

Call to action

We see an attitudinal and behavioural change in our target audience resulting from the campaign. The campaign will prompt parents to start using the automated grayscale function as a tool to set limits for their children. Upon experiencing its effects on their children, we hope it will gain more popularity and coverage through word of mouth, social media channels, and news publications. As more parents implement the tool into their daily life, we see a difference in children’s attitudes towards their devices. Based on colour psychology, there would be a decrease in screen addiction and children will be less prone to throwing temper tantrums. We also hope that this movement will prompt parents to make a conscious effort to set limits for their children’s screen usage and reconnect with their children, and decrease their dependency on technology as an emotional pacifier. Ultimately, we see our tool encouraging both parents and children to build healthy habits when engaging with digital devices.