● ● ● Scroll State - Designing A Behavioral Mirroring System That Detects Doom Scrolling And Surfaces The Emotional "Why" Behind It

Scroll state :
Designing Behavioral Mirroring System That Detects Doom Scrolling And Surfaces The Emotional "Why" Behind It

Timeline

Summer 2026

Team

Just me

Role

Product Designer

Skill

Conceptual Design
Prototyping and testing

Overview
Three Weeks To Attain A Better Scroll Behaviour

I was challenged to design a mobile application that can identify doom scrolling and address the “why” of it to create a better digital habits among smartphone users.
In 3 weeks i designed a lightweight passive monitoring system that detects unhealthy scroll patterns by reading touch-hold behaviour and scroll intensity.
The app gently nudges the user to capture their emotion via camera,Prompt to log what they're watching, and present an AI-generated insight card built from their own scroll history then let user decide whether to freeze the distracting app or keep scrolling consciously.

ProblemOur Attention Span Are Shrinking,Our Anxiety Is Growing

Most of us don’t decide to doom scroll, it just happens. We pick up our phone, and twenty minutes later we're somewhere we didn't mean to be.
Scroll State was designed around one core question: What if your phone could notice before you did ? and help to address the “ why” behind it.

Most apps that claim to fight screen addiction are just digital bouncers. They block, restrict, and guilt-trip users into putting their phones down.
Frustration is not a solution. A forced timer is not empathy.

ChallengesHow Do We Detect Passive Scrolling From Natural behavior?

Legacy social media users couldn't self-report when they were doom scrolling.They only noticed in hindsight. Identifying the perfect timing to trigger nudges to make an intention check.

How Do We Make The Emotional Tagging Less Pressurised And Guide Self Check-In In Maximum 3 Taps ?

scroll state shouldn't feel like quiz contest. We needed a playful, low-pressure environment where emotions are identified more than just from written words.

How Do We Shift The App's Role From A Supervisor To A Collaborator That Facilitate Smoother User Autonomy?

Respect autonomy to access content on their own terms is less pressurising and keep customers in the app for long time behavioural shift.

Design Heighlights
Turning The Screen Touch Pattern Into Active Nudge Triggering Parameter

To protect user privacy, Scroll State analyses touch patterns and scroll intensity not content feeds to detect doom scrolling behaviour and time emotional check-ins.

Translating Micro-Expressions Into Emotional Data

You reflect without having the need to find the complex words first.

Playful Notes For Pattern Expression

The insight card doesn't just log how you felt , it shows you the pattern behind it, and hands the next decision back to you.

The Hourglass — A Mirror Of Transformation Overtime

The Hourglass isn't a dashboard it's a reflection. A quiet space to see how your relationship with scrolling has changed over days, months and beyond.

Outcome Concept validated through student focus groups (16+), who responded strongly to the awareness-first approach. A recurring theme emerged students valued the idea of monitoring their scroll habits during study hours without disrupting their flow state, seeing Scroll State as a tool that works with their desire & focus, not against it

My biggest takeaway: Solutions don't always need to be complex. The biggest design inspiration often comes from simply observing human behaviour. When you focus on one real pain point and shape your solution around it, the result can feel fresh, intuitive and genuinely human .

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