Background

Connecting in physical and virtual environments

During the transition from lockdown to life coming back to "normal", the pandemic had affected relationships in a multitude of ways. As many relationships took a pause to become virtual or encountered barriers to physical proximity, there had been a transition period as we began to reconnect with one another.

Collaborating with my teammate through a personal project, we came together to make an MVP prototype of Growing Friendships - a mobile application that seeks to help individuals to develop their relationships further through both in-person and virtual interaction.

Problem

How might we maintain socialization with others as we adapt an increasingly online environment?

With the progression to an online generation, the pandemic had added to an increase in virtual relationship building.

As we begin fostering new relationships with others and strengthening old ones, we come across the question: How might we maintain socialization with others as we adapt an increasingly online environment?

User Research

Breaking down relationship building

To inform our design decisions, we interviewed six technology users about their experiences in building relationships with others both virtually and in person. From our research we learned:

01
Value of In-Person Interaction

Although majority of communication may occur online due to convenience, face-to-face interaction has its own unique value.

02
Presence of Technology

When individuals spend time with one another in person, technology is still often involved.

03
Love Languages

People often go about relationships differently based on their values and personal needs. Interviewees frequently brought up how their personal love languages (quality time, words of affirmation, physical touch, gift-giving, acts of service) affect their relationship needs.

Synthesis

From our research, we came up with the goals:
• Design a platform including both physical and virtual interaction
•  Incorporate love languages
•  Playful, fun undertones
           ○  Avoid making users feel that their relationships are forceful or chore-like

Ideation + Solution

Growing Friendships

After brainstorming various ideas, we came up with Growing Friendships, a mobile application that strengthens your bonds in-person and virtually.

The app focuses primarily on a "Friendship Plant" created between two users who would like to develop their relationship further. Each time the users use the app to complete an in-person activity together, their virtual plant will grow.
‍
Growing Friendships build relationships through two main love languages: quality time (spending time together physically) and words of affirmation (users are prompted to write a diary about their experience after each activity).
‍
Below is a glimpse at our ideation process.

Main Screens

Friendship Plants

For each friend the user adds onto the app, they can create a friendship plant with together.

Plants are stored in a Friendship Garden and you can track the progress of their growth.

Bucket List

To motivate friends to spend time together, they are prompted to create a bucket list of activities to complete. Suggestions are also featured in case the users are struggle to create ideas.

Users will then complete the activity. The app checks that their location aligns with their activity to confirm completion.

Friendship Journal

After spending time with a friend, the user is fills out a Friendship Journal, allowing a way to remember their experiences. Once they are finished, their friendship plant will grow!

Learnings

Usability testing is key.

While designing a feature, it may be easy to believe there is a smooth user flow. However, it is always essential to go back to your users to understand their perspective and locate areas of confusion. As we conducted usability testing, we discovered key insights to help us improve our flow.

Realistic technical implementation.

Having a computer science background, I learned that understanding realistic technical implementation helps prior to development. I learned how engineering constraints are a large part in deciding what is able to be implemented.