Smartphone users can easily switch their devices from full functionality to minimal "mindful" modes in these concepts by UK design agency Morrama.
The agency created three "smarter phone" concept designs as part of a study into the future of mobile devices.
Each design incorporates a wellbeing feature into the hardware or physical interface, going a step further than recent screentime-reducing software additions from Apple and Google.
The first concept, A Helping Hand, allows you to change view by turning the screen
The first feature, called A Helping Hand, allows users to switch their phone into a more mindful mode by turning the screen upside down. In this mode, users can only access a few key apps ? such as the weather, calendar, clock, camera and calls ? whose icons display in monochrome at the bottom of the screen. The usual reams of colourful app thumbnails and their notifications disappear, until the user chooses to put their phone the right way up again.
The second feature, A Quick Escape, angles the screen away from the user
Morrama calls the second feature, which focuses on the phone's outer shell, A Quick Escape. It introduces a slight asymmetry into the phone back, which angles the screen away from the user when it sits on a flat surface.
To see notifications, they would have to push on the bottom of the phone, tilting it towards them.
"This study proposes smartphones that bring more conscious decision making to the user experience, ens...