Addiction Meter

My device is used to measure how intense a habit or addiction is. It does this by taking into account both the frequency and duration of the activity the user is addicted to. For example, for something like smoking, high frequency is more important, whereas for something like gambling high duration is important. It then displays both a long term reading, a short term reading which can be reset, the amount of time each of these readings has lasted and whether the habit/addiction is trending up or down.

As the way this device works is based a lot on a scale of time, I started looking at timepieces as a direction for this model. My initial idea was a handheld device, but I have also begun exploring a wristwatch style device. One of the most important constraints for this product in my opinion is that it must be portable, and also not so large that it becomes annoying for the user to bring with them.

I wanted to keep the interface very simple, so it uses simple buttons for the inputs, being a start/stop button and a reset button, very similar to a stopwatch. Initially I also decided on analogue dials to display the reading, however I am starting to explore ways to combine digital and analogue using LED's. If i do use an electronic display method such as this, I will also include a display button, so that the device does not consume too much battery power.

Although it is mostly designed as an addiction meter, in discussion I realised that it can measure many things that combine frequency, duration and time. For example, a coach may ask their athletes to use it when they are training, and keep the reading at a certain level to make sure they are doing enough work.