Paper Phone

Paper Phone is an experimental app which helps you have a little break away from your digital world, by printing a personal booklet of the information you’ll need that day. Printed versions of the functions you use the most such as contacts, calendars and maps let you get things done in a calmer way and help you concentrate on the things that matter the most.



As a studio we’re interested in the theme of digital wellbeing, and more specifically how leading technology companies are now integrating wellbeing features into their software.



We created a series of concepts and submitted them to the Google Digital Wellbeing Experiments platform as a way of sharing our approach to finding a balance with technology.



We were particularly interested in the idea of a digital detox, which usually involves spending some time away from your smartphone. Many of the people we spoke to about this were literally terrified at the idea of leaving their phone behind. “What would I do without my maps”, “I don’t even know my boyfriends phone number”. We also found out about a condition called Nomophobia, which is the fear of being without your mobile phone.



Existing approaches often involve going cold turkey and completely cutting out the use of a digital device, but we feel this is sometimes inconceivable to people who rely heavily on their devices and can put them off the idea entirely.



These insights shaped our approach to try to take the risk out of being without your mobile phone for a short period of time, in a gentle, empathic way. Rather than removing all of the functionality of your digital world we wanted to keep some of it, in a calmer, more passive way.