Assistant Professor Yugo Nakamura Fukuoka, Japan\u2014You know it\u2019s time to put your phone down, but your thumb finds \u201cPlay Again\u201d once more.<\/p>\n In an age where digital entertainment never sleeps, willpower alone isn\u2019t enough. As more players, especially the younger generations, face physical and mental health challenges from excessive gaming, ethical design that prioritizes human well\u2011being during development has become more urgent.<\/p>\n A study from Kyushu University, published in the Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, shows that small design choices can help users naturally reduce their usage. Simple changes like grayscale or a few seconds of waiting can make a significant difference.<\/p>\n \u201cThe digital content industry has spent years building \u2018accelerators\u2019 to keep people engaged,\u201d says Yugo Nakamura, Assistant Professor at Kyushu University’s Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering and the paper\u2019s first author. \u201cBut technology also needs \u2018brakes\u2019 that support healthier habits, and we wanted to explore a gentle way to help players take breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n Nakamura\u2019s team conducted a month-long global experiment involving over 80,000 players of Flying Gorilla, a popular endless runner mobile game with around 200,000 active users worldwide. They introduced two design changes: a loading delay of 1, 5, or 10 seconds between rounds and a shift from full color to grayscale, testing either separately or in combination.<\/p>\n The results show that both ideas reduced how long and how often people play, with stronger interventions leading to greater declines. A one-second loading delay had little impact, but extending the wait to 10 seconds significantly reduced daily playtime and led to a steady drop in retention over two weeks. Switching the display to monochrome was even more effective.<\/p>\n Moreover, the combination of grayscale plus a 10-second delay proved most powerful, cutting average daily playtime by 30.8% compared to baseline. After a week, the number of people who kept returning to the game fell by 40.4%.<\/p>\n \u201cA few seconds of waiting creates a mental pause,\u201d Nakamura explains. \u201cWhen that pause is paired with reduced visual stimulation, players can step out of the flow more easily.\u201d<\/p>\n Researchers also observed regional differences. North America, Europe, and East Asia saw stronger reductions, while South America and West Asia showed more limited change. The team suggests this may be linked to the proportion of high-frequency players, who tend to be most affected by the changes.<\/p>\n The team hopes these findings will translate into real-world practice. Game developers could, for example, activate grayscale mode late at night or add friction after long sessions. This approach nudges without forcing, striking a balance between respecting user autonomy and gently discouraging excess.<\/p>\n \u201cThis doesn\u2019t have to hurt profits,\u201d Nakamura adds. \u201cThose extra loading seconds could carry ads that monetize the pause. And with the right content, encouraging users to stretch or go outside, that gap can even become an opportunity for behavioral redirection.\u201d The same logic, he notes, extends to social media and video platforms, and that is where his team is headed. They will further advance their research on digital content consumption and contribute to shaping healthier online environments.<\/p>\n \u201cThink of it like food,\u201d he adds. \u201cThose of us who grew up before smartphones still remember what lower-stimulation information tasted like. But today’s kids have only ever known high-calorie, intensely flavored content. They may never develop a taste for anything milder. If content providers consciously build in quieter, lower-stimulation experiences, it might help users rediscover what a balanced information diet feels like.\u201d<\/p>\n Yugo Nakamura, Assistant Professor<\/a>
\nFaculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nResearch-related inquiries<\/h4>\n
\nFaculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering<\/a>
\nContact information can also be found in the full release<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese researchers find small design changes can brake excessive gaming in a global study of 80,000 players, call for design-led action to create healthier digital environments. Assistant Professor Yugo Nakamura Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering Fukuoka, Japan\u2014You know it\u2019s time to put your phone down, but your thumb finds \u201cPlay Again\u201d once more. […]","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,32],"tags":[43],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30619"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30621,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30619\/revisions\/30621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}