Overview

This project dig the problems of using the communication technology nowadays and redefine the new way, “caRing”, to communicate with other people. It creates a new way to achieve the instant and immediate communication with the emotion and tone with your love ones or friends.

Background

In the modern world connection is constantly available to us, through the development of digital communication our friends and family are now just a click away. But despite this, many of us feel that technology hasn't actually brought us closer to our loved ones, but instead reduced our interactions to superficial and even stressful daily tasks. We think this dissatisfaction points to something missing in the way we use technology to connect with each other, and I believe I’ve found a solution to help people stay in touch in a more real way.

Role | UX research, UI design

Project | Team project

Period | 07/2022-09/2022

Tool | figma

Design process

Research

Define the initial problem statement by walking through the affinity diagram

Analysis from affinity mapping

Through doing the thematic analysis of the interview response, we perceived that the topic of obstacles, when people use communication technology, can be divided into several parts below.

Personas

Define the personas by walking the wall. Those who are professionals in early to late 20s who have moved abroad for work or study. All are highly competent when using technology and all can afford good technology. And according to the thematic topic we classified, those who also have faced those issues when they are using the communication technologies.
The main goals are

1. To feel connected with family and friends abroad / in another city
2. Have a reliable connection
3. Be convenient

Problem statment

HMW questions

Ideation

Based on the problem statement found in the previous research, through HMW question to develop several idea to solve the problem.

Storyboarding

Paper prototyping

Usability testing

To quickly get the feedback by paper wireframe, users have to do the three tasks below.

Data collected

Takeaway

During the testing, the colours always the obstacle they counter. Most of participants considered that the current colours are not enough to satisfy the necessary of users. And the meaning of colours can not meet everyone’s expectation.

How might we overcome the problem of emotion that we can’t express by colors?

Iteration

According to the feedback from the testing, we define the new iterative directions

Information architecture

User flow

Style guide

Define & Share

Define your emotion

Define your unique emotion or tone with your friends or love ones

Add your own wording

Define the wording of the tone which will only let those who you share to know

Select the friends

Select the friends you want to share and the colours you share will become the secret tone within you and your friends

Edit your tones

See the tone in your library, edit or delete it

Send the tone to friends

Drag to select the tone you set instantly or choose to select other tone you built

Choose & send

Select the tone you want to send and now your friends will see the tone on the rings.

Show the mood

Select the mood you’d like to show, and it will show on your profile. Other people can see your status on friend page.

Switch

You can also hide your mood or turn it on.

Profile

Your profile page will show the tone you send frequently. Let’s see who are your most intimated friends!

Self-critique & future development

Through walking the whole process of this project, the biggest challenge is to solve the problem of colours to express the tones. From the ananlysis of research, we found that it’s impossible for everyone to have same definition of colours. Therefore, self-defined colors have become the goal of iteration. However, if the number of self-defined colors increases gradually, it is likely that the user will not remember what the color represents, so "when the user receives the tone from the other users, how to make the meaning of the tone effectively reminded?" This will be the direction to work on for future iterations. On the other hand, in the future direction, this application may be able to combine with existing wearable devices, such as, apple watch, and may achieve more humane and convenient effect, so that the interaction between people is not only between words, but also gives a new mode of interaction, and is more immediate and convenient.