Intagrow
Improving Digital Habits Through Idle Gameplay
Industry: Health & Wellness, Time Management
A mobile & desktop game concept to help students manage their time online; grow a virtual garden as you stay off your devices.
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Role:
I led the UX research for INTAGROW, including; user research planning, surveying, synthesis, and presentation of findings.
Deliverable(s)
Mobile mockups
Client-Facing Presentation
Skills:
UX Research, Synthesis, Documentation
Timeline:
April 2021, 3 weeks
Team:
Neharika Sidda (UX Research)
Greta Yu (Visual Design)
Overview
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced a sudden shift to online learning, many students were left struggling with managing their online time and motivation.
INTAGROW explores how UX research can be used to design playful, human-centered systems that target demographic-specific pain points.
Research Focus
How can changes made to the interactive technologies used by students, improve focus and reduce distraction?
Goals:
Explore the contradiction of using a digital environment to promote better digital habits
Learn about how students manage time during online learning
Investigate how students interact with time management tools
Find opportunities for game mechanics to improve engagement and task satisfaction
Prioritisation Matrix
Ahead of planning my user research, I created a prioritisation matrix to map out potential research and design tasks.
This streamlined our design process and made it easier to assign roles moving forward.
Methodology
Understanding the "what, why, and who” behind user behavior using mixed methods.
Research Objective:
Explore how students manage time during online learning, and identify opportunities for gamification to foster focus, reduce digital fatigue, and improve task satisfaction.
How & Why?
Surveys gave you breadth—capturing general behavior across a larger sample.
Qualitative synthesis gave you depth—providing emotional and motivational insight to inform meaningful gamification.
Together, this approach ensured that INTAGROW was grounded in real student experiences while identifying actionable opportunities for behavior-driven design.
Quantitative:
Online Survey:
Used to gather the broad insights on students’ productivity, habits, distractions, and openness to using productivity tools
Provided me with measurable data on behavior patterns —> ability to do a mass analysis of provided answers
Qualitative:
Stakeholder Interviews:
Interviewing professors and students to understand pain points and uncover commonalities within them
Think-Aloud Testing (low-fi wireframes):
To uncover usability issues & helping validate early concepts
QAI (Questions, Assumptions, Insights) Framework:
To set a framework for my research direction, make predictions on what I know & then to uncover real insights from collected user data
Insights
Design in Space is a physical play prototype designed to support the development of children's spatial awareness.
was the most biggest pain point for students when working online.
was the most biggest pain point for students when working online.
Time management & procrastination (62.5%)
94%
of participants said online learning was less effective than in-person.
Some other common pain points included:
Self-discipline & independence - being able to make your own schedule (37.5%)
Isolation & not being able to make friends (43.8%)
Working in a confined space (43.8%)
Empathy Map (from interviews & early testing)
I organised all my interview insights, materials, and results from our initial concepts into an empathy map to better understand and detect the pain points of our participants.
Persona & Journey Mapping:
I synthesized both the collected qualitative & quantitative data into a persona and mapped a user journey. This helped better visualize our users which, in turn, helped identify when & where identified pain points occurred in a typical day of online learning.
Synthesis
Translating user research into actionable design insights
Design Strategy:
Start with user needs: hands-on interaction, balance, tactile feedback
Reduce complexity: use geometric shapes and strong color contrast to increase cognitive clarity
User research helped us pinpoint users' pain points as well as identify when they experience them in their journeys
I brainstormed design solutions for each of the users' pain points to see where they would take us.
Tools Used
Empathy Maps · Journey Maps · Personas · QAI Framework (Questions, Assumptions, Insights)
🧍 Persona Highlight
“Leila the Overwhelmed Undergrad”
Needs structure but avoids rigid planners
Distracted by phone scrolling
Feels guilty about unproductive time
Design Strategy:
Start with user needs: hands-on interaction, balance, tactile feedback
Reduce complexity: use geometric shapes and strong color contrast to increase cognitive clarity
Phase 2: Synthesis & Mapping
Translating messy data into actionable game design insights.
🧍 Personas (Created from Survey + Interviews)
Leila, the Overwhelmed Achiever
Age: 20
Needs gentle nudges and calm spaces
Finds most tools too stressful or punitive
Jordan, the Passive Scroller
Age: 22
Struggles to stop doomscrolling
Likes idle games and soft achievements
🛣️ Journey Map
Mapped moments of emotional friction across a typical online learning day:
Midday crash → seeks distraction → opens phone → loses time
Successful focus moments → no feedback → feels empty
🧠 Empathy Map
Combined frustrations and desires to explore opportunity spaces:
Think: “I need to finish this, but I’m tired.”
Feel: Guilt, restlessness
Say: “I’ll start in five minutes…”
Do: Scroll Instagram → try a timer → give up
🧮 QAI Mapping
Questions: When are users most tempted to multitask?
Assumptions: Visual feedback can reduce app-switching.
Insights: Gentle progression can provide long-term retention if users feel ownership over a space (like a garden).
Gameplay
Bridging research and gameplay mechanics
INTAGROW Core Loop
Set a timer →
Stay off your phone →
Garden grows while you focus →
Earn plant rewards & upgrades
INTAGROW's gameplay was directly informed by the collected user research. By identifying painpoints and when/where they occur, I was able to narrow them down to 3.
Procrastination
Time-managemnt
Motivation
Using these pain points I was able to brainstorm solutions in the form of gameplay to address them.
Game Design Principles
Idle/Progress Mechanics: Allows non-intrusive feedback
Soft Failure: No harsh punishments; garden pauses but doesn’t die
Variable Rewards: Unlock rare plants, garden types
Cosmetic Progression: Personalization to encourage repeat use
Outcome
INTAGROW is a mobile & desktop application in the genre of 'idle-games' it allows users to set a timer for as long as they wish and as they stay off of the app, they have a garden growing in the meantime.
What We Tested
Low-fi Wireframes with 4 participants using Think-Aloud
Concept Testing for mechanics: timer → reward → unlock
Feedback Form: How intuitive, enjoyable, and motivating it felt
📈 What We Learned
Players wanted “more garden variety” as a motivational hook
Initial visual metaphors were too flat—plants needed more growth stages
Some preferred shorter, immediate rewards vs. long idle timers
Our aim is to provide users with a productive and rewarding way of staying on task and a rewarding method of holding themselves accountable for that.
With a simple and relaxing layout we hope to keep our users engaged through rewards while maintaining minimal involvement to allow users to complete their goals.
As the user completes goals they set for themselves, the user is able to advance levels and collect points which they are then able to redeem for plant variations to beautify their gardens.
To further refine the app there are a couple areas we'd have to shift our focus to such as:
1&2Continuously collect & implement user feedback for all aspects of the app & building user research.&Consistently work with end-users to develop app interface & experience to cater directly to userbase.
Features
Features
A growing garden represents time well spent
Collectible plant types unlocked through time goals
Aesthetically minimal interface to reduce cognitive load
Idle-game elements allow low effort, high satisfaction
Heuristics
✅ Clear goal definition (set your own timer)
✅ Player agency (choose how long to focus)
✅ Reward-based progression (plants = achievement)
✅ Positive reinforcement (visual feedback instead of penalties)
✅ Low-risk engagement (no penalty for breaks)
Feedback
What We Tested
Low-fi Wireframes with 4 participants using Think-Aloud
Concept Testing for mechanics: timer → reward → unlock
Feedback Form: How intuitive, enjoyable, and motivating it felt
📈 What We Learned
Players wanted “more garden variety” as a motivational hook
Initial visual metaphors were too flat—plants needed more growth stages
Some preferred shorter, immediate rewards vs. long idle timers
Future Directions
Future Directions
Introduce companion characters for personalization
Conduct longitudinal A/B testing: timer lengths, reward pacing
Explore cross-platform syncing to support both desktop and mobile habits
Refine visual polish using game art techniques: parallax, motion cues
What We'd Improve for Future Testing:
A/B test: Timer feedback styles (e.g., animation vs. static growth)
User interviews: To dive deeper into emotional attachment to the garden
Longitudinal study: To evaluate habit formation and engagement over time
Add adaptive difficulty: e.g., increase challenge by introducing external “temptations”
Reflections
Design in Space is a physical play prototype designed to support the development of children's spatial awareness.
Key Takeaways
GUR techniques helped us deeply understand not just what users do, but why they do it
By applying behavioral psychology and idle game mechanics, we created a calm, self-regulating tool that encourages healthier focus
Thoughtful synthesis turned fragmented data into a design with emotional impact
🎓 Takeaways
This project taught me how game UX can transform mundane behavior into meaningful habits. By using games user research methods—from journey mapping to low-stakes feedback loops—we designed a system that rewards focus, not just tracks it.
Relevance
Design in Space is a physical play prototype designed to support the development of children's spatial awareness.
Relevance to Games User Research
Spatial Learning in Games: Spatial reasoning is key in many game mechanics—from puzzle-solving to navigation
Physical-to-Digital Translation: Shows understanding of how physical prototypes inform digital design
User-Centered Design: Embeds user psychology into every design choice, even without digital interaction
Relevance to Games User Research
Highlights the intersection of cognitive psychology and game mechanics
Demonstrates how physical prototyping can serve as a precursor to interactive game design
Emphasizes the importance of user empathy and iterative testing—even in early, analog form
© 2025 Neharika Sidda
Made with ♡ in Vancouver, BC