Påverka din skärmtid : En studie om hur en display i gråskala kan påverka användandet av sociala medier på smarttelefoner

Sammanfattning: This study aims to examine how greyscale affects the screen time on smartphones and in what way it influences the user experience on the social media applications Facebook and Instagram. The use of social media applications is constantly increasing which has resulted in negative effects like difficulties with concentration and attention among individuals. Color can be used to make objects salient and draw attention to it. Color can also be used to affect the user experience through aesthetic aspects and the feelings that are connected to the interface. How greyscale affects the screen time on social media was investigated through a quantitative experiment that measured the screen time of the participants. The experiment was followed by an interview with the purpose to examine the participants’ user experience of the interface in greyscale with focus on aesthetic, emotional and functional aspects. The results show that color has importance for the way users are using social media, how long they tend to use the applications and that the screen time is reduced significantly when social media are used on a smartphone in greyscale. Further, the results also indicate that the user experience is affected by the absence of color. Aesthetic and emotional factors were the most affected by the change to greyscale. Functional factors were also affected by the removal of the colors on the interface, but not to the same extent, as the participants already knew how to use the applications.