RITA
WANG
MY POD
Gisela Liu (PM)
My Pod is my team's submission to the 2024 Rice Hackathon challenge. We had 72 hours (a weekend) to complete the assignment.
We were given the prompt:
Create a product that improve college student's lives and wellbeing.
During the initial ideating phase, my teammates and I tried to think about solutions to practical issues we face.
I wasn't satisfied with just practical solutions, so I proposed to solve an emotional problem.
→ WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
How do you keep up with your long-distance home friends while at college?
→ WHAT'S THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT?
Providing long-distance friends with meaningful shared digital experiences.
46 HOURS LEFT
51%
Expressed decline or stagnancy in their long-distance friendships
83%+
Expressed willingness to spend up to 20 minutes with their long distance friends
→ USER SURVEY
We polled 70+ undergraduate students with a form asking them about their relationship with long-distance friends.
→ KEY PAIN POINTS
The 'Weakening' Friendship
Busy schedules and diverging life paths reduce contact frequency, and students often don't realize these friendships are weakening without regular reminders.
Lack of Shared Experience
Students feel they're growing apart from long-distance friends due to a lack of shared daily experiences and the limitations of existing digital platforms that fail to sustain meaningful connections.
Introducing My Pod: Connection Through Guided Activity
→ SUMMARY
My Pod helps long-distance friends stay connected, no matter where they are. It provides fun, personalized prompts for sharing photos, texts, and voice messages, encouraging deeper conversations.
24 HOURS LEFT
→ ITERATION SKETCHES
The app's function is activity-based, utilizing personalized prompts chosen by individuals rather than universal ones. This design makes the prompts feel more personal and gives users agency in their friendships.
→ PERSONALIZED ACTIVITY PROMPTS
Prompts are personalized and chosen by individuals rather than universal, giving users agency in their friendship journeys.
→ ACTIVITY-BASED PROTOTYPE
We didn't want My Pod to be another social media app.
We wanted to drive interaction through the prompts.
They can also choose three different media types for responding to the prompt: photo, writing, and voice memo.
I realized the importance of having a very well-thought-out and planned hi-fi state, and reviewing every interaction decision before thinking about branding.
If we have more than 72 hours...