Relationship Management
A digital tool designed to help students abroad stay better connected with family.
Role
UX Research
UX Design
Timeline
Jan 2025 - Apr 2025
Team
5 UX Researchers & Designers
THE PROBLEM
Understanding the emotional disconnect from family faced by students abroad
Moving away from home to university marks a major transition for students and their families. It is a major life event that comes with challenges (Smith et al., 2012), such as:
Loneliness and reduced social support.
Widening emotional distance from family, especially parents, which can negatively impact academic performance and social well-being.
ORIGIN STORY
Where did it all begin?
Inspired by one of our team member’s experiences of struggling to stay in touch with family as frequently and intentionally as she’d like, our initial concept began as a mobile app.
Early ideas included:
Geotag-based tracking of time spent with loved ones.
Message prompts and templates to encourage connection
Analytics for users to reflect on relationship balance.
EXPLORATION
Pushing Beyond Familiar Territory
Although we were excited to dive into the problem space, we didn’t want to default to generic solutions or reinvent features that already exist.
Two questions came to mind:
1
What unique digital intervention could we design to foster deeper, more meaningful connections?
2
How could we create something more engaging than just another messaging or calendar app?
FIELD RESEARCH
Time-Zone Differences and Communication Challenges
KEY INSIGHT
Students with greater time-zone differences from their families found it harder to maintain frequent and casual communication compared to those living in the same or nearby time zones.
The main pain points these students experience include:
TIME-ZONE DIFFFERENCES
Limit the window of time during which synchronous communication can occur.
BUSY AND CONFLICTING SCHEDULES
Makes it difficult to schedule synchronous calls, which limits communication frequency.
PROVIDING CONTEXT
Limited time frame for communication means lots to discuss when updating family but a lack of mental and physical energy to do so. This effect is amplified by infrequent communication, which often backlogs topics from previous conversations.
COMMUNICATION FEELS LESS "CASUAL"
Because synchronous communication is difficult, students often only reach out when something feels important or urgent—making interactions feel less spontaneous, as if they must have a “purpose” to it.
User Personas
Based on our field study findings, we synthesized two personas that reflect common patterns, behaviors, and challenges faced by students abroad. These personas guided our design decisions throughout the project.
SEE PERSONAS
How did we discover insights and pain points?
We observed 10 students abroad as they communicated with family in natural settings, followed by short interviews. This helped us surface key behavioral patterns and emotional pain points.
FIELD RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
DESIGN CHALLENGE
Narrowing the Scope of our Solution
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we develop a digital tool that can help university students living abroad maintain meaningful and intentional connections with their family?
DESIGN ITERATION
Pushing for Novelty, Pulling Back for Feasibility
We each made individual sketches of how the app could look like. This was mine:
Based on the feedback we received, we conducted cognitive walkthroughs with a more novel, metaphor-based lofi prototype. However, we eventually decided to stay true to our original app concept due to feasibility concerns with our tight timeline.
Screen-by-Screen Descriptions: (1) Widget showing an update from a family member, (2) Detailed view of that family member, (3) Your family members page, (4) Profile page, (5) Profile page with updated status, (6) All igloos, (7) Igloo of Lee Family, (8) Detailed view of ‘Call Mom’ quest, (9) End of call notification
OUR SOLUTION
An Ephemeral, Time-Aware Approach to Connection—2 Ways
We created two medium-fidelity prototypes: Interface Memoji and Interface RealPhoto. Both support 3 main tasks, with Interface RealPhoto incorporating CTA-driven and gamification features.
Calling
MEMOJI
Family members’ latest status updates, including local timezone and call availability, are shown using widgets. Users choose their preferred call app manually.
REALPHOTO
Includes a call-to-action based on family members’ availability to encourage timely, synchronous communication. Users also receive “quest” notifications (e.g., after completing a call) to help reinforce consistent connection habits.
Reacting
MEMOJI
Users react to family members’ updates with just emojis–can be done via the widget or within the app.
REALPHOTO
Users can react to updates with comments and emojis within the app only.
Updating
MEMOJI
Can view all status updates in the past 24h, share an update, and change their call availability. “Thoughts” are limited to 60 characters, and status updates are sent to the feed once shared.
REALPHOTO
Users receive a reminder when their status is about to expire, along with a “quest” notification once it’s updated — encouraging regular, low-effort updates and check-ins with family.
DESIGN DECISIONS
How did we address each pain point?
TIME-ZONE DIFFFERENCES
TIME MADE TRANSPARENT
We display each family member’s local time zone in both the widget and app, so users can instantly see when it’s a good time to connect—no manual checking or mental math needed.
BUSY AND CONFLICTING SCHEDULES
HASSLE-FREE CALL SCHEDULING
Call availability is set by each family member and updated daily, making it easy to know when someone’s free for a call without the back-and-forth of scheduling.
PROVIDING CONTEXT
STAY IN THE LOOP, EFFORTLESSLY
Short, ephemeral updates help family stay caught up, making check-ins feel lighter and reducing the effort needed to provide background and context during infrequent calls.
COMMUNICATION FEELS LESS "CASUAL"
EASY SHARING OF EVERYDAY MOMENTS
Interactive, ephemeral updates encourage casual, regular interaction— so communication feels less like a chore and more like everyday connection.
EXPERIMENT
Putting our Features to the Test
EXPERIMENT DETAILS
OUTCOME
Evaluating the Impact of Our Design
While our experiment results did not show statistically significant differences for cognitive load or user satisfaction between the two interfaces, participant feedback revealed a slight preference for RealPhoto due to its added features like commenting and quest-based nudges. Others preferred Memoji for its simplicity and ease of use, suggesting that an ideal solution would balance functionality with low effort.
Participants appreciated the clear display of time zones and call availability — features that addressed major logistical barriers uncovered during our field study. However, responses also highlighted that communication habits vary—some students found their existing methods sufficient, while others desired more subtle and casual ways to stay connected. This suggests our app's value also depends on users' satisfaction with existing family dynamics.
REFLECTIONS
Designing with Empathy—Navigating the Nuanced, Multifaceted Nature of Digital Connection with Family
This project made us realize that digital connection isn't just a technical problem — it's an emotional one. What students abroad often need is not more communication, but communication that feels lighter, easier, and less emotionally taxing.
Being voted class favorite reinforced that our peers resonated with the problem space and design direction. It affirmed the importance of exploring creative, empathetic approaches to long-distance connection with family.
NEXT STEPS
Toward a Refined Solution
Although our results didn’t conclusively validate either interface, they revealed genuine interest in a digital tool to help students abroad stay more meaningfully connected with family. A next step would be to iterate on a more refined prototype that combines the strengths of both RealPhoto and Memoji. More extensive testing of this prototype would then allow for a deeper, longitudinal investigation into how such a tool might impact communication habits and user satisfaction over time—offering stronger insights into user behavior and preferences.
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