Resources to help developers build with wellbeing in mind

Explore our toolkit and articles created to help you build new products and features that support people’s wellbeing.

The Digital Wellbeing product experience toolkit, at your service

Based on foundational research insights, our toolkit provides an overview of what digital wellbeing means at Google, and offers a set of principles, thought starters, and workshop activities to help you put wellbeing into the center of the products that you build.

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UX Principles

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A principled approach

Learn the definition of digital wellbeing and how it shows up in our 4 UX principles. Then, get to know each principle through research insights, guidelines, and case studies.

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  • Definition – Digital wellbeing

    Take the definition of wellbeing, add the key ingredient of positive tech use, and you get ‘a state of satisfaction that people achieve when digital technology supports their intentions’.

  • Principle 1 – Empowerment

    Based on research insights, it’s clear that thoughtful default settings can help people use tech in balanced, intentional ways. That’s why it’s good to start with supportive defaults.

  • Principle 2 – Awareness

    When people notice what they do from day-to-day, they’re more likely to make positive choices. That’s why product teams illuminate behaviors and help people set goals.

  • Principle 3 – Control

    Studies show that most people who take control to improve their tech use find the changes useful. For product teams, this points to the need to provide transparent settings.

  • Principle 4 – Adaptability

    When tech supports people’s goals, they feel happy, proud, calm, and excited. That’s why it’s important to build context-aware experiences that adapt to people’s needs.

Thought starters

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How might we...?

Explore insights and questions to determine how products impact digital wellbeing. These thought starters are separated into 3 themes that include research findings and ‘How might we’ questions to get you on your way.

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  • Theme 1 – Intentional use

    Consider 3 barriers to the intentional use of tech: distractions, multitasking, and compulsive checking.

  • Theme 2 – Social connection

    Get to know 3 factors that are most important for social connection: presence with others, the disconnected, and putting work in its place.

  • Theme 3 – Safe & healthy life

    Dip into 3 arenas where tech can impact health and safety: sleep, harmful content, and physical activity.

Workshop activities

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Building for wellbeing

Choose from 4 activities that will focus your team on the best solutions for your product, whether or not you have one yet! Each activity comes with downloadable worksheets and a facilitator’s guide to help you get the most from your time.

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  • Activity 1 – Reflect on tech use

    Get your team warmed up and shift into a digital wellbeing mindset in this 15–30 minute exercise.

  • Activity 2 – Assess your products

    Evaluate how your existing product aligns with the UX principles in this 60–90 minute exercise.

  • Activity 3 – Generate ideas

    Brainstorm new wellbeing-related products or evolutions of existing products in this 45–90 minute exercise.

  • Activity 4 – Investigate impacts

    Consider potential negative impacts of your concept, and turn them into opportunities in this 30–60 minute exercise.

Examples

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In real life

Get a sense for how the UX principles, thought starters, and workshop activities show up in products with these digital wellbeing articles and case studies.

  • article – How developers can support user wellbeing

    Meet the UX design principles that help product teams identify and build for digital wellbeing.

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  • article – 4 UX principles that put people first

    Explore ways to deliver apps that enhance digital wellbeing and learn more about how these design principles can help in practice.

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  • article – Implementing the 4 UX design principles

    Explore ways to deliver apps that enhance digital wellbeing through real world examples.

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