The product I would sell to the people I have identified in my opportunity is an app that will slowly lock-up parts of your phone to prevent you from using it at night. Many phones have a minimal version of this built in, but without the option for customizing the controls specifically. The opportunity is that many people use screens before bed and that either causes issues with melatonin production and falling asleep or serves as a distraction and people forget to sleep. I would like to address this opportunity by locking people out of specific apps and functions of their phones late at night, so they have to get off and fall asleep. The app would allow people to create specific restrictions for each app, including when the effects take place, and the type restrictions (time allotment, or simply a lock-out). I would also include the option for lock-out that you can not get around. I know some phones will alert you when you’ve hit your bedtime time restriction, but you can still override and do what you want, but I would like an option in my app that you can’t override it. I think the main purpose of the app/product would be to have lots of customizability with how and when the restrictions take place.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think this idea has great potential with the right market in mind. While I think this is a great idea the average consumer will get annoyed by this feature. However, I think this app would be great for parents who want to restrict the amount of time their kids spend on their phones and set a curfew that locks them out of there from selected applications at a certain time. Therefore, I would include an override setting for the parents that allows them to change the settings.
ReplyDeleteJoe,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a unique idea on how people can customize how they can use their phone so they can get a better night sleep. If I was figuring out how it can be used, I would think that this product should allow adults to set a timer on the tablets their children are using, that way they cannot argue with their parents on wanting to spend more time playing games when the parents themselves are not even able to unlock it. However, when it comes to using this product for the parent, they should have an option to set a timer that restricts the use of their phone entirely, except for text messaging and phone calls. If they are in real dire need to use their phone for anything else, the product should have an option to have a verification code sent to their phone in a certain time-period, say 5 or 10 minutes. This can be done for people who may end up changing their mind, and deciding to take care of these errands the next morning since they are so tired currently as they wait for this code to be received. That is just an idea that came off the top of my head. Regardless, I think you have a great idea on your hands that can help many people.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI really think that this is a fantastic idea. I more often than not find myself on my phone in the waning hours of the night which then often makes it difficult to go to sleep once I finally decide to get off of my phone. I think one idea that you could include in your idea is the inability to change the settings past a certain hour of the day. That way the settings can be overridden, but not at night when you're on your phone. This way you could edit the settings throughout the day but past a set time, say 6pm, the settings for that day would lock until 6am the next morning. I think this would give it a great balance between keeping the user honest but still remain adjustable should they want to make a change!