Photo of Ulrik Lyngs

I am a Carlsberg Foundation Oxford Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Human Centred Computing group. In Denmark, I am also a research representative on Medierådet for Børn og Unge (the Media Council for Children and Youth).

My research focuses on attention and self-control on digital devices such as smartphones and laptops. I am passionate about open and transparent scholarship, and teach workflows for reproducible research.

Outside of academia, I play various instruments in The Karaoke Collective. Previously, I was a festival producer at HowTheLightGetsIn.

Department of Computer Science
University of Oxford
OX1 3QD Oxford, UK

Featured work

Designing to support digital self-control

On online stores for apps and browser extensions, hundreds of apps and browser extensions promise to help us control our time and attention on smartphones and laptops. These 'digital self-control tools' can block distractions, track device use, remind us of our intentions, gamify intended use, and more.

I use the evolving landscape of these tools to explore what good design that helps us stay in control of digital device use looks like. To understand why they work - and why there is a challenge in the first place - I use psychological models of self-control.

I have studied digital self-control since 2015, with a large number of wonderful collaborators including Sir Nigel Shadbolt (who supervised my PhD), Kai Lukoff, Petr Slovák, Max Van Kleek, Kasper Hornbæk, Reuben Binns, Jakob Eg Larsen, Jun Zhao, Michael Inzlicht, Helene Willadsen, David Levy, Laura Csuka, Claudine Tinsman, and Lize Alberts.

Which design patterns are explored in digital self-control tools?

In Self-Control in Cyberspace we reviewed design features in 376 tools, and used a dual systems model of self-control to analyse them (CHI'19 Honourable Mention Award)

In The Goldilocks Level of Support we analysed ~54,000 user reviews to understand how people use the tools, and what their key design challenges are (IJHCS, 2022)

Which design patterns actually work?

In SwitchTube, we showed the value of letting people switch between a search-first and a recommendations-first interface on YouTube. (CHI'23 Honourable Mention Award)

In “I Just Want to Hack Myself to Not Get Distracted”, we tested the effects of removing the newsfeed or adding goal reminders on Facebook (CHI'20)



Helping people find the right digital self-control solutions

Writing rigorous academic papers is one thing. But what should a person who just wants to find effective solutions do? Academics don't usually provide concrete advice, nor make the tools they build publicly available.

To help people control their time and attention on digital devices, I run the 'Reduce Digital Distraction' workshop. I developed the workshop with the incredible Maureen Freed, who formerly was Deputy Head of Counselling at the University of Oxford.

I also develop digital self-control tools for the Safari browser. I originally did this for my personal use, but shared the apps on the Apple App store and made the code open source.

Coaching interventions for digital self-control

The Reduce Digital Distraction (ReDD) workshop helps people reflect on their challenges and goals around device use, and apply digital self-control tools to help.

I have run ~150 workshops with 1200+ participants at universities and high schools in the UK, Denmark, and Thailand. Our paper “I finally felt I had the tools to control these urges” presents insights from participants in Oxford.

Open-source self-control tools for Safari

"No Distractions" for YouTube lets you hide distractions on YouTube, and set a delay time and motivational message before you can change the settings.

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MindShield is a more general solution that lets you hide distractions on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google search.

Open and transparent research practices

I was exposed to the ‘reproducibility crisis’ early on when I studied psychology. It made me passionate about open, transparent, and reproducible research practices.

Since 2018, I have shared materials, analysis scripts, and data for all my first-authored work, and written my papers as reproducible documents in R Markdown or Quarto. I also teach open research practices and develop related open-source tools.

Reproducible research with R Markdown and Quarto

I teach workshops on best practices in reproducible research with literate programming.

Example course slides

oxforddown
Oxford University Thesis Template for R Markdown

I wrote my PhD thesis as a reproducible R Markdown document, formatted with a traditional Oxford University LaTeX template.

I open-sourced the materials I created for this, which have since been used by hundreds of students across the world.

Video tutorials

pagedownCV
Dynamic CV generation with R Markdown

Keeping an academic resumé updated is tedious and error-prone.

pagedownCV is a set of R Markdown templates I created to automatically generate CVs in different formats based on entries kept in a spreadsheet.

Featured talks

Presenting insights from 280 student participants in the Reduce Digital Distraction Workshop @ CHI 2024

Attention, Freedom, Digital Addiction and Dating Apps @ Barnes Philosophy Club, London 2023

Demo of my workflow for reproducible papers with R Markdown @ Reproducible Research Oxford, 2021

Summary of my PhD research @ the '3 Minute Thesis' competition at University of Oxford, 2021

Tutorial video for my 'oxforddown' template for thesis writing with R Markdown, 2021

Presenting our research on design interventions for self-control on Facebook @ CHI 2020

Our analysis of digital self-control tools on the Google Play, Chrome Web, and Apple App stores @ CHI 2019

Showreel for the Karaoke Collective. Drop me a line if you want to book us :)