The second draft of this Service Design Principle

This is the second draft, where I turned the transcript from the video above into a first written draft

Lately, I've been using an app called Noom that helps you understand nutrition and eat more healthily. Each day, the app gives you tiny tips on nutrition, psychology, and habits that help you do that.

When I started using the app, I was so excited that I wanted to read all the tips at once. That's when I got an error message. One that was annoying but healthy! The error message told me that I couldn't read more tips for that day. It then explained that it is important not to burn out because we are here for the long term.

Many services can overwhelm users and let users overwhelm themselves with the possibilities offered. So it is helpful if we sometimes remind users not to do too much.

For example, social media apps could suggest taking a break once you spend some time in them. Obviously, here you can do this in many ways. You can do it just with a reminder and not blocking people to act. Or you can be very paternalistic about it and force people.

As a service creator, you can decide where you want to be on this spectrum. You can leave all the choices to the users, set a limit, or suggest alternative activities. The idea of helping people not to do too much is an interesting service principle that could be applied in many contexts.