Building empathy by exchanging stories with everyday strangers
overview
In the digital world of information, it's easy to make quick judgements about people without understanding their true story, and we often lose empathy that we feel for others.
Inspired by "Humans of New York", this projects aims to deepen connections with each other by sharing their personal stories with strangers.
timeline
Jan - Feb 2024
roles & responsibilities
1. introduction
background
People often judge others without understand the full story, leading to conflict and misunderstanding
In online spaces, where interactions are often superficial, it's easy to make quick judgements and spread negativity without understanding other side of the story. I've seen this many times, through cancel culture and politics, where I've caught myself villainizing others without fully understanding their side.
By taking the time to understand others, we can reduce uninformed conflict and create a more compassionate society.
before — stagnated and stuck
after — growing and learning
solution highlights
A reflection of you
Discover your perspective on life through everyday clips and weekly journal prompts
Stories in passing
Passing by strangers in real life will grant access to one of their perspectives
Spread the love
Showing support and empathy to others will allow others to feel acknowledged
2. research
my approach
Sharing personal stories to bring people together
To gain direction, I did some desk research and found that stories can bring people together and evoke strong feelings of empathy.
A perfect example of this is 'Humans of New York', a project that combines the intimate stories and portraits of everyday people. It captures the human experience so well and evokes deep feelings of human connection.
Inspired by this, I focused on discovering how people tell their own stories and how they would share it to strangers.
before — stagnated and stuck
after — growing and learning
interviews
Gathering insights from real lives
I conducted interviews with five young adults who document and reflect to understand how people view personal vs. strangers' stories.
I focused around these three research objectives to gain some more insights on the factors that they are comfortable with.
personal growth
How do you preserve and reflect on meaningful experiences?
- "When I look at my journal, it makes me feel like life has been lived"
- "Video captures a memory in a different way than a picture"
safety
How comfortable are you with sharing vulnerabilities?
- "I prefer to keep those feelings to myself"
- "Sharing vulnerabilities is something I do selectively... I don't share everything with just anyone"
empathy
How impactful would it be for you to exchange experiences with a stranger?
- "It's a lot easier to talk to strangers about issues because they don't know anything about you"
- "I wouldn't care but I think it would be interesting"
user needs
Making sure users felt safe and understood
Recognizing that sharing snippets of their lives can make people uncomfortable, I created an empathy map to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and address potential hesitations.
pov & hmw statements
Understanding their POV
Despite isolating user needs, it was overwhelming to juggle all considerations. By creating multiple POV and HMW statements, it became clearer on what to focus on.
This led me to hone in on a guiding question... "How might we create a safe space for people to share their lives so we can foster empathy and understanding?
competitive analysis
Learning from others to inspire successful features
Since people don't typically share their intimate stories on the daily, it was crucial that documenting their stories was engaging to users, so that they would be more likely to share with others.
So, I researched popular platforms used for documenting everyday life to understand what motivates their users to record their experiences.
These apps excelled when they compile small moments into a cohesive story, but struggled when they limited how much a user could document.
3. ideation
priority matrix
Sorting through meaningful ideas
I brainstormed potential features and sorted through the ideas using a priority matrix, keeping note of which features addressed which HMW to ensure that all user needs were met.
Focusing on a video journal with prompts allowed users to document their lives in a way that was personally meaningful and secure. The format also made it an easy, digestible format to share with others.
iterations
Refining the user experience
The design process involved multiple iterations, focusing on core features like the camera, stories, editing tools, profile settings, and recap functionality.
Each iteration was aimed at making the platform intuitive and engaging, while also ensuring users felt safe and encouraged to share their stories.
4. solution
SOLUTION
Reduce judgement and build empathy through shared stories
vlogging & journaling
Weekly recaps of your life moments
- Each week, record clips of your life and write a reflection
- Captures both external experiences and inner thoughts with each week
- Provides a unique and interesting way to document life, keeping users engaged
vlogging & journaling
Exchange unspoken stories with the strangers you pass by
- Users will be reminded that even strangers live complex lives
- Forms deep, unspoken connection with the people around you and boosts empathy
- Exchanging likes on your story creates an empathy loop that drives users engagement
privacy features
Maintain full control over what you share
- Anonymity, expiring stories, and privacy toggles ensure users feel comfortable over how their life is shared
- Care to user comfort will increase user trust and satisfaction
5. conclusion
conclusion
Building empathy through shared stories
By creating a platform where people can safely share their personal experiences, this project aims to reduce quick judgments and foster a deeper sense of empathy.
Through video journaling and thoughtful privacy features, users can connect on a more meaningful level, helping to create a more compassionate and understanding community.
next steps
The next steps for this project
Refine user privacy
A main concern for users will be privacy, so adding features that will help users feel more in control will benefit the app
User testing + feedback
User feedback is especially important for this project, since it can make a lot of people uncomfortable.
We can measure success by how satisfied the users are, user activity on the app, and user retention rates.
Build communities
Reaching out to communities who are more close-knit, like college campuses, could kick-start this app with users who actively engage in the app.
takeaways
What I learned from this project
1. Balancing business and user value
Balancing both can be a very difficult task, especially since both need to be prioritized to have a realistic app. It definitely affected my design process, as I had to ideate more creatively to meet all the requirements.
Balancing both can be a very difficult task, especially since both need to be prioritized to have a realistic app. It definitely affected my design process, as I had to ideate more creatively to meet all the requirements.
2. It's either pretty or functional
Balancing both can be a very difficult task, especially since both need to be prioritized to have a realistic app. It definitely affected my design process, as I had to ideate more creatively to meet all the requirements.
Balancing both can be a very difficult task, especially since both need to be prioritized to have a realistic app. It definitely affected my design process, as I had to ideate more creatively to meet all the requirements.
3. It's either pretty or functional
I tried to be more exploratory with the visual design, but maintaining functionality with aesthetics is very debatable.. For example, using orange is hard to maintain good color contrast, and black backgrounds would be better for a camera app, but not for journaling. It's good that the research will more often than not point us in the right design decision.
I tried to be more exploratory with the visual design, but maintaining functionality with aesthetics is very debatable.. For example, using orange is hard to maintain good color contrast, and black backgrounds would be better for a camera app, but not for journaling. It's good that the research will more often than not point us in the right design decision.