Factors affecting student success
Many students have expressed their struggles with procrastination, lack of motivation, and low comprehension. We explored diet, mental health, sleep, screen time, and exercise as potential influences on focus. Following our literature reviews, we noticed that all five topics had a connection to focus and concentration among university students.
Learnings from our secondary research
Juggling academic pressures with responsibilities can be overwhelming for university students, leading to stress and anxieties they often feel reluctant to address. This silence around mental well-being can negatively impact academic performance. Studies show some significant trends such as: rising anxiety, insufficient sleep, poor diet, and excessive smartphone use being prevalent among students.These lifestyle habits have a direct impact on focus and performance.
Irregular sleep patterns are linked to decreased motivation and concentration, while higher aerobic capacity and adherence to balanced diets are associated with improved cognitive function. Additionally, the constant allure of smartphones disrupts attention and hinders self-regulated learning, ultimately hindering the ability to achieve academic flow. Addressing these challenges and promoting healthy habits are crucial for supporting student well-being and academic success.
Why we’re exploring this behaviour
Understanding the various factors that affect university students’ focus and concentration is crucial for the following reasons:
Higher education can be a high stress endeavour where limited focus can leave students struggling to be mentally present and in turn contributing to mental and emotional fatigue.
It is a huge determinant of a student’s future and their career path. In order to excel in their journey, they need to develop their mental faculties and be trained in performing specific tasks for a long duration of time.
Despite having a detrimental effect on attention span, technology has become ubiquitous with students’ personal and academic lives. Learning to manage its use is crucial to sustaining mental well-being.
Managing increasing distractions in the workplace and being able to switch back and forth between social engagement and productive tasks is a skill modern day students can greatly benefit from.
Research Questions
Research Methods
Interviews
10 participants passed the screening phase and we promptly scheduled them for interviews.
Methods
Virtual structured interviews
Virtual screen recording with desktop devices i.e. laptop
Utilising online video conferencing tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
45 - 60 minutes interviews.
10 participants (2 per group member)
Snowballing sampling from friends and family.
University participant tool.
Research Tools
We created two tools to be used as part of the research. We also included a description of how each tool works and its purpose.
Tools
Generic Timeline Journal (Daily Habits)
A general record of the participant’s daily habits in a 12 hour span with emphasis on hours where they experience flow state (intense focus).
Diary Study
A specific record of the participant’s daily routine split into morning, midday and night, with emphasis on activities performed, screen time usage, emotions, meals consumed, and level of perceived focus.
Affinity Mapping
After interview coding, we grouped our findings to create themes in an affinity map.
Process
Placed all the codes and phrases from the inductive/deductive coding on figjam and began looking for similarities. Codes and phrases that had similar patterns were grouped together and ranked what category had the most pattern occurrence. These were then classified as the emerging themes for our research.
Research Considerations
Avoiding confirmation of hypotheses:
We were considerate in not showing bias to the participants’ responses despite our preconceived opinions.
Respect of privacy:
We tried not to probe too much when it came to personal information. If a participant mentioned their lack of focus is due to personal reasons, we didn’t pry.
Capturing stories:
We will keep it conversational, interactive and comfortable by letting them share their personal stories and experiences.
Being non-judgemental:
We will not judge their responses, habits, or other information they share.
Ensuring anonymity:
We will make sure their identity and what they have shared remain anonymous.
Keeping personal opinions away:
We will try to ensure that we don’t share our opinions when they’re trying to share their experiences, habits or personal situations.
Providing informed consent forms:
These forms were to let the participants know that we prioritised their safety. They were able to sign off on whether they want to be recorded and be informed about not having to answer uncomfortable questions.
To get started on creating this framework for understanding to share with our stakeholders, we first identified the emerging themes from our research through appraisals, coding and affinity mapping. We then created our behavioural archetype to inform the journey map as our framework of choice in understanding the problem area and context.
Emerging Themes
We created affinity maps from quotes and categories found in our appraisals and inductive/deductive coding to discover the prevalent themes in from our interviews.
Sleeping Habits
Some participants noticed that staying up late tends to affect their productivity the next day. They also mentioned that having a good sleep schedule, waking up early, and following a consistent routine helps them stay focused.
Mental Wellbeing
Participants mentioned that anxiety and unresolved issues can contribute to a lack of focus and productivity. Other factors such as pressure and time constraints play a significant role in maintaining focus.
External Distractions
Phone notifications, web browsing, and ambient sounds contributed to a loss of focus in some participants. Social media is noted to be particularly distracting, especially the curiosity sparked from notifications.
In this stage, we decided to prioritise the “Consistency” stage as it pertains to maintaining the habit. We looked at several solutions such as productivity apps and gamified priority cards. Still, we settled on an analog solution for we believe it to be the most helpful to the user. Ensuring users spend less time with technology is a viable solution to our problem and it’s feasible enough for the user to adapt. However, desirability may not happen immediately as the user will be switching from digital platforms to an analog system. In the consistency stage, the opportunity area our concept focuses on is “How might we help users schedule work sessions with intervals”. We recognise the area as contributing to maintaining the newly established positive habits. We also included incentives in the design concept to facilitate task completion—helping our target audience (end-users) view their progress.
Prototype
With this design concept, we aim to test the possibility for users to maintain a new habit through an analog based system. Our objective is to help users be able to schedule regular work sessions, while paying attention to their break intervals. Some design interventions and channels from our discussions are also included, namely:
Task management and prioritisation
Time management
Progress trackers
Periodical self assessment
Regular breaks and check-ins
Regular mindfulness and meditation schedule
To further make this concept successful, we leveraged the decision levers that seek to:
Help them in building a consistent routine
Use goals to incentivise them in finishing their tasks
Help them minimise external distractions from technology
We believe proper use of this system will be a positive contribution towards good habits we want to instil in the user. The desired habits we want to inspire from this system are consistency, accountability and mindfulness.
Use Case
1. The What + Why
Start by acknowledging why you want to improve your focus and what goal you are trying to accomplish.
2. Ideal Progress
Plan your week’s school responsibilities and set a target time for each task. Note down your reward for completing all tasks on or before the target time.
3. Actual Progress
After working on the task, assess the progress made. Record the actual progress made towards completing the task. Use the sheet to log the number of hours the task took. Compare this time to the target time set beforehand.
4. Time
Fill in the hourly time boxes at the end of each day for reference. This information will be helpful during introspection at the end of each week.
5. Distraction Log
Throughout the day, note any distractions that divert your attention from the task. Record these distractions in a log to identify patterns and work towards improving focus.
6. Feeling (Task Completion)
Reflect on how you feel after completing the task. Write down your emotions or satisfaction level related to finishing the task.
7. Feeling (Distraction)
Reflect on how you feel after getting distracted. Then compare the time distractions take to allocated tasks that could have been completed in the same period. Reflect on how that makes you feel.
8. Learning
Plan the next week’s tasks based on what you learned from the previous week.
9. Consistency
Apply what you learned to accomplish the next week’s tasks on/before the target time, and reward yourself!
