High school project idea · Health & Psychology
Investigate how apps compete for your time and redesign one part of the relationship.
Study persuasive design patterns and personal usage data to build a healthier digital-attention intervention without treating technology as universally harmful.
Why this project matters
Study persuasive design patterns and personal usage data to build a healthier digital-attention intervention without treating technology as universally harmful. This project feels different from a school assignment because the student serves students and families trying to make intentional technology choices, creates something visible, tests it honestly, responds to feedback, and explains the decisions behind the final result.
What you will create
Use these deliverables as milestones for Audit the Attention Economy. Adapt the details to your interests, available time, and real-world opportunities.
Research notifications, infinite feeds, rewards, social pressure, time perception, personal goals, accessibility benefits, autonomy, and privacy. Document the needs, constraints, credible sources, and perspectives of students and families trying to make intentional technology choices.
Turn the evidence into a focused plan for the attention economy audit and digital boundaries prototype, including success criteria, ethical boundaries, scope, and a realistic path to completion.
Create the first complete version of the attention economy audit and digital boundaries prototype. Include an interface pattern inventory, personal or volunteer use diary, trigger map, design critique, boundary experiment, redesigned feature concept, and findings.
run a short opt-in behavior experiment or prototype test and compare perceived control, use patterns, and unintended effects Record what happened, what failed, what users or reviewers said, and which changes you made.
Publish the final attention economy audit and digital boundaries prototype with a portfolio-ready case study showing the challenge, evidence, process, revisions, results, limits, and next version.
Make the work stronger
For Audit the Attention Economy, use these checkpoints to protect the quality of the work without turning the project into a performance for admissions.
Skills you can build
College application value
Can demonstrate initiative, curiosity, reflection, and growth through the student’s choices, response to setbacks, work with students and families trying to make intentional technology choices, and development of Behavioral Analysis, Digital Wellbeing, and Interface Critique.
The goal of Audit the Attention Economy is not to manufacture an impressive activity. Do real work, keep evidence of the process, and reflect honestly on what changed.
Audit the Attention Economy is an original Compass educational starting point designed around real work, visible evidence, feedback, and reflection. It is not an admissions guarantee.