Proposal of the Killing Time Smartphone Apps for Optimize the Lifestyle of Smartphone Users

260 Int'l Conf. Software Eng. Research and Practice | SERP'16 |

Ziran Fan 1, Takayuki Fujimoto2 1Graduate School of Information Sciences and Arts, Toyo University, Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan 2 Graduate School of Information Sciences and Arts, Toyo University, Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan conditions have not been determined. We could not judge Abstract – In this study, we focused the needs that the what the killing time application was. smartphone applications to kill time are most needed by smartphone users. At this point, there is no objective definition The points of this study are survey, analysis and of the killing time applications and the conditions of the killing proposal. First, we made the survey to elucidate the usage time applications have not been disclosed either. Through this environment in Japan. Then we analyzed the lifestyles of study, we made a survey about the smartphone usage smartphone users: what they are using and what they want to environment of society and the life styles of smartphone users. use. Finally, we proposed the objective definition of the The requirements of the killing time smartphone applications killing time applications and tried showing it with a prototype are established through the consoderation. Then, we show the application in the optimized way for users’ needs. objective definition of the killing time applications and the application prototypes are proposed based on those results. 2 Background Keywords: Smartphone Apps, Killing Time, Smartphone Today, the number of the smartphones use is high in Users’ Needs, Smartphone Users’ Lifestyle, Smartphone Japan. People who have smartphones as their first mobile

Usage Environment, Application Prototypes. phones is increasing mainly among the middle-school and

high-school students. From the consumer confidence survey of cabinet office in March, 2015, the rate of diffusion with 1 Introduction phone is 94.4% and the rate of diffusion with smartphone is Smartphone has been spreading at high speed recently. 60.6%. From 2015 Information and Communications Use We can see people using smartphone in one hand at Trend Survey of Ministry of Internal Affairs and everywhere, for example, in the subway, the bus stations and Communications, the rate from the age group showed that the the Starbucks. Those scenes are certainly becoming popular. rate of diffusion of twenties is 83.7% the highest and thirties With the functions of smartphone such as telephone call, E- is 72.1% the second in a series. The rate will also raise at the mail, surfing the Internet, game and SNS really have been base of old people and young generation in the future. It is making our life more convenient. expected that the base of the user in Japan will be expanded with the spread of smartphones. For the most of smartphone users, the purpose of the smartphone use is to spend free time in life. For example, the 3 Motivation time you are waiting for a date, boredom when you are taking bus, rest between works. Because smartphones are more The lifestyles of the smartphone users has been portable than wallet or ID card and could be used at all times becoming complicated by the spread of smartphone, the and all places freely. change of the usage environment and advanced technology for the development of smartphone and applications. Regarding the needs of the smartphone users, many killing time applications, which take advantage of smartphone From a survey of JustSystem Co.,Ltd which was taken features, have been released. The popular applications we are with 960 smartphone users whose age was between 10 and 70, using have some of the elements of that needs. Most of the game applications are used most often in a day and the case, they are game applications. Many developers are average time is 63.8 minutes. Perusal of Internet contents and planning to make a hot application as killing time applications, social communication applications such as Facebook and however, there is still no objective definition of the killing Twitter are also often used and the average time in a day is time applications. The idea of the killing time applications is 57.1 minutes. Time of use tends to increase at young based on the subjective sensation of the users’ experience. Of generation clearly. course, if the usage environment changed, the sensation about the killing time applications also would be changed too. Smartphones are different from the phones based on the call function. The number of the usage is as many as the Even though the killing time applications are the biggest number of the applications you installed. According to a needs from smartphone users, the objective definition and the survey about the usage of smartphones, spending free time: watching some interesting videos, net surfing, playing game

ISBN: 1-60132-446-4, CSREA Press © Int'l Conf. Software Eng. Research and Practice | SERP'16 | 261

applications and checking the shopping net site, is the most in our life, and we always have to spend that spare time with common and the rate on the whole is 18.5%. something on purpose on the train.

With those survey results, it is clear that spending free In that kind of free time we have to spend, the question time (killing time) is the most common purpose for the use at is how we spend it. If we pay attention to the passengers on the lifestyles of smartphone users today. So, there is a the train, we would know that most people use their question: what kind of free time do users have and spend? smartphones. The things we can do with smartphone on the The survey shows the users tend to use the smartphones to train are not only information collection but also playing the kill time on a train. games, chatting with someone on applications, surfing the Internet and schedule management on that small box. From From survey results we can see that smartphone users these, it could be said that smartphone is a suitable tool to use smartphones to spend their free time most commonly, and spend free time on the train. a time when getting on a train is specifically boredom to the users. It was usual for people to read newspapers or 5 Definition of Free Time magazines to spend free time on a train, but with the significant changes of the information usage environment The killing time applications have a great market value from the spread of smartphone, people use the smartphones because of the needs from the users. But there is no objective instead of books to spend free time on a train. definition as long as we investigated. This study is based on the survey for the smartphones’ usage environment in Japan This study focuses on spending boring time on the train, and the lifestyles of the users to propose the definition on the which is the biggest needs from the users and proposes a killing time applications. smartphone application to meet that demand. As we have described, the meaning of free time is 4 Purpose different from the respective condition which people have. However it is common for everyone that one is free for transit 4.1 Meaning of Killing Time time on the train until he/she gets to the destination. Because the reason why we all have to take train is just to transfer to Killing time is defined as taking acts and works which the destinations. Using the time effectively to do something are not requested to spend time when one has spare time. such as remembering a few English words is thought to be a Definition for spare time is different from the respective sensible way of spending free time on the train when you go conditions and the standard to make a judgment of spare time to the office or the school. The time on a moving train is a is not absolute. So it is difficult to take an objective definition. free time for most Japanese people and it is inevitable. So this study focus on transit time on the train to plan the killing time 4.2 Smartphone Usage on A Train application. In the previous chapter, the results show that The sensibility of People to feel a time as free time is smartphone users tend to use the smartphones to spend their relative, but a transit time is commonly definite. For example, spare time on a train. We assume that two main elements are if the time for which a person gets on the train is 5 minutes, important. free time he/she could feel is invariably limited to a range of 5 minutes. Most of the case, he/she has some purposes or One is the social environment. Taking train is the major tasks after getting off a train. mean of transportation in Japan. The Japanese people use the train to go to the school or work more frequently than other We collected the statistics for the survey to research the transportations such as the buses or the cars. Many people average transit time from one station to the next station of 36 decide their work or school on the basis of the range in which main train lines in Tokyo, and show the result in Tab1 and they can commute by train. Since the train is always crowded Graph2. The result shows that the indicated time is free for in the rush hours, smartphone’s smallness is suitable to use the passengers. The average transit time from one station to with one a hand in the limited place. the next station is about 2 minutes and 27 seconds.

The other is today’s our lifestyles. Nobody would get on The users would not always get on a train for one a train every day without a destination, except those who have station, but the time we got, 2 minutes 27 seconds, is a a hobby to enjoy to get on a train for nothing. Taking train is standard value for a time during which the users feel free. If a mean of transportation and people have a certain purpose to the user get on a train for three stations, by just adding 2 arrive at somewhere they have to go. So we could declare that minutes 27 seconds three times over, we can get the average they are actually free in a time during which they have to wait value of the user’s free time. until they arrive at the destination. Unless they meet an accident, the thing that they should do is just waiting. In fact, a time when we are getting on a train is the biggest spare time Tab1. Average moving time of lines (1 station) in Tokyo

ISBN: 1-60132-446-4, CSREA Press © 262 Int'l Conf. Software Eng. Research and Practice | SERP'16 |

Line Station Time This study assumes that there are two ways to achieve killing time in transit time on the train regarding the biggest Toei Asakusa Line 20 1.84 needs of the users. One is the usual way such as reading Toei Mita Line 27 2.00 newspapers or magazines, which we have been doing. Toei Shinjuku Line 8 4.14 Relatively, using the Internet for reading news sites is also a Toei Oedo Line 11 2.10 common way to spend free time on the train. The other is the Toden Aragawa Line 30 1.83 way to spend free time on the train by playing the games or TokyoMetro Ginza Line 19 1.78 enjoying any kind of the entertainment applications, it is TokyoMetro Marunouchi Line 25 2.04 coming popular with the spread of smartphone. TokyoMetro Hibiya Line 21 2.15 TokyoMetro Tozai Line 23 2.32 Regarding the former way, as there are already many TokyoMetro Chiyoda Line 19 2.17 news sites on the Internet, we did not treat it in this study. TokyoMetro Yurakucho Line 24 2.22 This study tests the latter way: spending free time on the train unwittingly by the game, which enables the users to get a TokyoMetro Hanzomon Line 14 2.31 kind of fulfillment. It seems that the killing time method with TokyoMetro Namboku Line 19 2.17 fulfillment to challenge the user’s gaming mind is the biggest TokyoMetro Fukutoshin Line 16 2.33 needs because the rate of diffusion about smartphone is the JR Yamanote Line 29 2.18 highest at twenties who is familiar with the game applications JR Nambu Line 26 2.27 and other entertainment applications through their everyday JR Chuuou Line 14 4.54 life. JR Chuuousobu Line 20 2.58 JR Oume Line [Tachikawa 13 2.67 6 Application Implementation Oume] JR Oume Line[OumeOkutama] 25 3.00 6.1 Apps Summary JR Itukayichi Line 7 2.83 Seibu Ikebukuro Line 13 3.92 The significant feature of killing time applications must Seibu Kokubunji Line 5 2.00 be simple. Everyone can easily use it everywhere. The Seibu Seibuen Line 2 3.00 simplicity does not mean uninteresting. We can spend free time by just gazing steadily at the screen of smartphone. But Seibu Shinjuku Line 17 3.81 the users would not be satisfied with that and it cannot be Seibu Tamagawa Line 6 2.40 expected that the users continuously use it. On the other side, Seibu Tamago Line 7 2.83 it does not mean that application must be interesting Seibu Toshima Line 2 2.00 unlimitedly. It is necessary to project more functions to make Seibu Yurakucho Line 3 2.50 the applications more interesting. As a result, the users may Seibu Haijima Line 8 3.00 spend the time with an addictive joy instead of just spending Tobu Kameido Line 5 1.75 free time. It is confuse of natural order of our project if the Tobu Tojo Line 24 2.22 users spend more time on playing to enjoy the game with Tobu Daishi Line 2 2.00 addiction rather than using it to kill time. So it is very Odakyu Odawara Line 20 4.63 important to secure the effect of killing time in a proper way Tokyo Monorail Line 11 2.50 in the limited average transit time of 2 minutes 27 seconds. Rinkai Line 8 2.71 The application proposed in this study has the simple Figure2. Average moving time of lines (1 station) in Tokyo structure and operability with which the users can play it with only one finger. And the system sets the play time based on the average train transit time to meet each user’s needs to spend free time of the time on the train. The system has been designed to enable the users to feel fulfillment.

6.2 Design Principle To meet the needs from the smartphone users to spend free time on the train properly, we decided to narrow down to one train line from 36 lines which we had checked. JR Yamanote Line is the most famous train line in Japan, and is also the train route used most frequently. JR Yamanote Line is the biggest line that connects the main area in Tokyo. JR Yamanote Line connects the busiest stations in Japan, such as

ISBN: 1-60132-446-4, CSREA Press © Int'l Conf. Software Eng. Research and Practice | SERP'16 | 263

Tokyo Station, Shinjuku Station, Shibuya Station and One is the user’s feeling that their playing skills are Akihabara Station. being improved. Spending free time is not just the expenditure of time. The results which people get from that We have designed the application based on a motif as action is important. The design principle of the application is JR Yamanote Line in this study. The application could offer based on this idea and focus on the change of the relative the users better killing time experience with this motif when difficulty on the game. Users would play easily first and when they use it. And we can also collect more accurate data easier the paly time is passing, the users can get used to the in our study. It is shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3. difficulty of the game. So we have designed the application in which the relative difficulty of the game would be improved It is important to consider how to apply the purpose of as time passes. We strived for providing a more interesting killing time to the goal of the game in design principle, game experience to the users by visualizing the change of the because the concept as the application to spend free time is relative difficulty and indicating that process to them. the prerequisite for this application proposed in this study. The other is a reward that the users can get in the game. First, the play time of the application is set based on the The feeling of skills improvement is not attractive enough for train transit time of the time determined by the departure the users, and if the users cannot get anything as they spend station and the arrival station. There will be some inevitable time for the game, playing will be a tired work. The score errors on the time, but the conditions of the time when the function is added into the application and its form is designed users get on the train are changing. Therefore it will not make as the theme of the application and like the trace of users’ any trouble for the study. The application we proposed has a playing. function that occurs game over when the play time passes, it will prevent the users from the overuse which is not supposed We thought those design principles could prevent the to be the use just for spending free time. users from feeling wasted when using the application, and we have developed the application based on them. The operation of the application is designed simply. The users can play the application with only one finger without any other operation, so everyone could use it intuitively. And also it has no functions which is not just for spending free time. Two elements on the design principle which we have to prevent are getting tired and becoming absorbed. And we have also tried some actions to make the applications more interesting for use: adding more variation of the game design and reflecting the results for the user’s each use of the game as a form of score.

The user’s experience as just spending free time leads to the long-term use of the application. The point of the users’ continuous use is enabling the users to feel satisfaction. We assume that satisfaction is achievement for the game in this study. The most important element of achievement for the game is the relative difficulty of the game. Users would not keep up using if the game is too hard, and on the other hand, if the game is too easy it will make users tired when they play only once. A clear goal (the ending of game) is specially should not exist in the application. The reason of that is to secure the long-term users with the design principle which Figure 2. Station-choosing Figure 3. Stations Selection makes no finish deliberately. We can find that feature in many famous social network game applications. So we had to design the application flexibly to give the users suitable 6.3 Apps Construction pressure on playing and to make sure that pressure could be accepted by people as much as possible. The illustrations of the application which we developed are shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5. But, there is a potential that it will make a wasted feeling with the endless game. The functions to enhance the The purpose of the application is a practice for achievement are important. With these functions, the users validating the theory which we have proposed. And we will could use the application with interest every time when show the explanation of the application at this section. playing the game. We took that mainly as two elements in this study.

First, the user should touch the title screen (Figure 4) to open the station-choosing screen (Figure 2). Since this applications is designed on a motif of JR Yamanote Line, the user should choose the station from JR Yamanote Line station list (Figure 3). When both departure station and arrival station are chosen, the user should press the “Start” button to start game. The user should tap the game character (player) on the screen (Figure 5) to play the game.

The image of the train in the left of the screen is the game character which the user will operate. The train will be falling constantly when the user play the game, and it will go the game over when the train touches the white area on the bottom. When the user taps the screen, the train will spring up and the degree of height and intensity will be changed by the speed of the user’s tap. If the user taps it too quickly, the train will spring up too high to hit against the top on the screen, and the white area on the top is same as the bottom, which will make the game over when train touches it.

To make the layout of the game useful, the time until Figure 4. Title Screen Figure 5. Playing Screen the arrival of the train: the real train on which the user is getting) is shown in the white area on the bottom and another white area is showing some information about the game to the 7 Conclusions user when they are playing. And the present score (reset when a game is over) and the total score are also shown on the Spending free time with smartphone is the biggest needs upper part, so that the user can always catch the process of from the smartphone users. But there is still no objective playing. definition on killing time applications, and the smartphone applications optimized for the users’ also do not exist at The point of the game is that the user should control the present. game character’s springing up between the top and bottom artfully with the apposite power at good timing to advance the We propose the smartphone application which is game. adapted to the purpose for spending free time with the analysis of the needs from today’s smartphone users, based Two obstructions will be drifting from the right side to on the survey on the users’ lifestyles. the left side. When the game character touches the obstructions, it will also go game over. And the size of the Game applications are the most frequently used obstructions will be bigger as the playtime passes. So, the smartphone applications by the users and there is the most user should control the game character to ward off the common trend that smartphone users are usually using obstructions and it will give the user suitable pressure and smartphones to spend free time when getting on a train. make the playing amusingly not as a boring work. We have fixed the standard value of the time in which Operating the game character to avoid three things: the the users use smartphones to spend free time when they get bottom area, the top area and two obstructions, and keeping on the train by the statistics about the average transit time of the game play is the structure of this game. the main train lines in Japan, based on the survey of the smartphone usage environment in Japan. We have tried Finally, we will take an explanation of the function of proposing the objective definition on the killing time score of this game (Figure 4). The score function, which has application. The smartphone application on the been designed as the results for the user’s play, will raise as presupposition of time expenditure in which the users could user’s experience stacks. The score, the numbers is not only be satisfied with some results from the use for 2 minutes 30 the value of the game. Some “new thing” can be opened by seconds. the user if he/she is playing consecutively. This function is based on “trophy” system. These functions will be useful to We considered the development of the application based secure the long-term user. on the results of the study for accuracy enhancement. We could propose the killing time application that is optimized for the conditions of the smartphone users’ lifestyles.

One of the tasks in the future is to take an actual 8 References condition survey for the application. It is necessary to check how effective the killing time application use is for the users’ lifestyles. We will make an adjustment and improvement [1] Japan Cabinet office. “Consumer Confidence Survey”; based on the results of the survey. 2014. http://www.esri.cao.go.jp/jp/stat/shouhi/shouhi.html

This study plans to show new possibility to the trade of [2] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. “2015 smartphone applications through the proposal of the killing Information and Communications User Trend Survey”; 2015. time applications optimized for the lifestyles of the http://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/statistics/ smartphone users (it is unexampled). It is also necessary to consider what kind of influence this study could have [3] AppMarketingLab. Website, 2014. consecutively. http://appmarketinglabo.net/appmarket2014/

We examined today’s smartphone users’ life styles in [4] D2C So.,Ltd. “Multidevice Use Survey”; 2014. Japan and it was found that the biggest need from the users is http://www.d2c.co.jp/news/2013/07/04/959/ spending free time. Smartphone is developing strikingly as the representative of information and communications [5] Appstudioz. “Mobile App trends Worldwide”; 2014. technology in the world. For this reason, it is meaningful to http://www.appstudioz.com/blog research the smartphone users’ lifestyles internationally, not only for the users in Japan. The application has been devised [6] JustSystem Co.,Ltd. “Questionnaire about the change of for the users, who live in Japan in this study. Therefore it is Smartphone and Lifestyle”;2014.http://www.justsystems.com necessary to check if it is efficient in the world range. It is also beneficial for further research to examine how the lifestyles of the smartphone users change under the different social environments, cultural backgrounds and the modes of daily lives.