Design Competition | Prototyping
The Design Competition's Brief
Help young Adults (18-24) Better Connect With Their Parents
Key Insights
After conducting 10+ user interviews, we realized parents want…
to know you're okay
a platform they are familiar with
authentic information
less curation than a text
Scoped Down Problem
Parents just want to know their child is OK…but we are so busy giving an update.
Solution
Improving long-distance family relationships: with one tap, send a small grid of tiles filled with live insights about your life.
Dynamic Tiles
The default set of 6 widgets changes based on your recent activites & inputs
Concentrating solely on the particulars a guardian would wish to understand
A Lightweight Toggle
Switch between the different states of a particular widget to adjust what you’re sharing
Design Principles
Balancing Convenience with Customization
Make it a quick process
Family-focused
Making sure these widgets are things families want to know
Keeping You in Control
Toggle options and clear preview of what you are about to send
Alternative Explorations
The Tea / Hot Seat
iMessage add-on that was meant to fuel toxic family tea – because some parents really want to know the drama. 👀
Lightweight Conversation Prompts
You can reply to it with a voice note or photo – something that is one step more personal than a simply text messsage.
Voice Note & Photo Reply to Prompts
How to make the interaction a bit more fun and delightful for both sides? How can we store these replies?
Short Notes for Loved Ones
Lamp Check-in Idea: if you signal it from one phone, the other phone would 'light up' and the short message would appear for them.
Voice message that translates into a hand-written note. How to overcome language barriers for those who are not fluent in their mother language?
Takeaways
🫂 Collaboration under Time Pressure
Learned how to divide and discuss online and in-person
📕 Storytelling
I realized the power of building a narrative through my prototypes and presentation
🖇️ Professional Feedback
Was iMessage the right medium? How to add a human touch to it?
👩🏻💻 The Full Design Process
If you want to see the nitty gritty of research & design explorations that went into crafting this experience, please reach out to me!
I normally walk people through this in an interview environment or in a coffee chat.
Ani Nguyen Le, 2024.
Philadelphia / Budapest