Connection Across Distances with Intouch (Full Case Study In Progress)
Fostering digital connection habits in a way that feels natural, genuine, and most importantly…human :)
For a master’s-level HCI course, Digital Service Innovation, I pitched a digital service inspired by my own difficulties with keeping my family as involved in my daily life as much as my friends are and imagined how a service could thoughtfully and gently bridge that gap.
After winning the individual pitch with my Intouch concept, I led a team of other students who supported my idea and together we validated and fleshed out a pitch that won first place from investors on our final pitch day!
Tools & Skills:
Figma, Lean UX Framework, Service Design Frameworks, Research
Timeline:
Spring 2025
Role:
Project Lead, Designer
With
Pitch Video
100+ frames of hand drawn animation to express a very human problem (with love)
Project Context
I created the concept for InTouch and won the individual pitch via class vote
I then lead a team of students who voted to work on my idea in fleshing out a finalized product concept and pitch deck for real investors
Together, we received the most (hypothetical)investment $$$ from real investors during our pitch day :)
Initial Pitch Deck (Individual Project by me)
Framing and Iterating Our Concept
Making sure we were solving the right problems the right way
Following Lean UX Startup diagramming and service design principles we mapped out our concept in many ways to get a better understanding of what problem we were solving and the best way to approach it.
Ideas generated with the team, visualized below by talented Jade
MVP Testing
Validating the demand for contextual small moment life updates with real long distance friends & family.
On a short timeline, we didn't have time to create an actual product people could use, so we narrowed down the core need we wanted to validate. Do long distance relationships benefit from smaller life updates that happen in the moment? Do people want this? Does it feel natural?
Jade created these lovely mockup "life updates" to send to her long distance friends to simulate what intouch updates may look like
We discovered that…
Small life updates sparked easier conversations that often went beyond the original update.
People naturally felt motivated to share back: the people I tested with to start sending updates of their own.
People preferred updates with images and liked feeling a part of someone's every day life
Final Pitch Deck
Mockup Screens (Proof of concept)
