How can we design for an invisible sense

Our Mission

"Design a tool that tracks, measures, visualizes or quantifies an aspect of human sensory experience. Within the tool, provide the ability to detect, enhance, or manipulate those same sensory inputs."

FigBuild had a HUGE turn out this year


So going into this

Our Research

What even is an "Invisible Sense"?

We used our personal experience and wants from a tool like the prompt and defined it. We inputed our ideas into clause where we used to storm ideas

Initial Directions

"Bridge"

privately syncs how two people are feeling and responds with small prompts tailored to the emotional gap between them.

"Mycelium"

maps your relationships as a living organism that pulses, grows, or fades based on the invisible consistency of your care.

"Undertone"

helps you privately name the emotional texture of a situation before you walk into it, giving you a compass not a script.

Initial Directions

"Bridge"

privately syncs how two people are feeling and responds with small prompts tailored to the emotional gap between them.

"Mycelium"

maps your relationships as a living organism that pulses, grows, or fades based on the invisible consistency of your care.

"Undertone"

helps you privately name the emotional texture of a situation before you walk into it, giving you a compass not a script.

Initial Directions

"Bridge"

privately syncs how two people are feeling and responds with small prompts tailored to the emotional gap between them.

"Mycelium"

maps your relationships as a living organism that pulses, grows, or fades based on the invisible consistency of your care.

"Undertone"

helps you privately name the emotional texture of a situation before you walk into it, giving you a compass not a script.

But which topic had the most meaning?



Design Approach

What does a digital "Mycelium" even look like?

In our designs our top priority was to always respect the user. So we strayed away from addictive factors such as doom scrolling or instant gratification content.

This is the description of the photo

This is the description of the photo

This is the description of the photo

During the week leading up to the event Figma hosted pannels that talked about what makes a good project and workshop on how to use FigmaMake


Our inspirations

Learning from former hackers and how they turned these events into jobs was really inspirational. Hearing them made us really lock in for FigBuild

Our inspirations

Learning from former hackers and how they turned these events into jobs was really inspirational. Hearing them made us really lock in for FigBuild


Stephs incredible Guidance

Steph explained their new tool Figma Make incredibly clear. Learning how to prototype fast, especially under this short time frame, was detrimental for our project

Stephs incredible Guidance

Steph explained their new tool Figma Make incredibly clear. Learning how to prototype fast, especially under this short time frame, was detrimental for our project


Life long advice

Akbar told us one of the biggest takeaways going into the weekend. "People will remember how you make them feel" and we took that as our foundation in what we wanted to make.

Life long advice

Akbar told us one of the biggest takeaways going into the weekend. "People will remember how you make them feel" and we took that as our foundation in what we wanted to make.


Build something meaningful

like Sophia's guitar-to-sheet-music converter for her mom, the most compelling projects solve real problems you genuinely care about, which makes your pitch far more passionate and memorable to judges.

Build something meaningful

like Sophia's guitar-to-sheet-music converter for her mom, the most compelling projects solve real problems you genuinely care about, which makes your pitch far more passionate and memorable to judges.

User Flows

Key Terms

Spores

Represents an individual person in your network, a single connection that has the potential to grow into something deeper over time

Mycelium Network

Your full relational map inside the app, a living visualization of every connection you have and how healthy each one is at a glance.

Relationship Strength

A measure of health a single connection based on how consistently and meaningfully you have been showing up for that person.

Key Terms

Spores

Represents an individual person in your network, a single connection that has the potential to grow into something deeper over time

Mycelium Network

Your full relational map inside the app, a living visualization of every connection you have and how healthy each one is at a glance.

Relationship Strength

A measure of health a single connection based on how consistently and meaningfully you have been showing up for that person.

Key Terms

Spores

Represents an individual person in your network, a single connection that has the potential to grow into something deeper over time

Mycelium Network

Your full relational map inside the app, a living visualization of every connection you have and how healthy each one is at a glance.

Relationship Strength

A measure of health a single connection based on how consistently and meaningfully you have been showing up for that person.

Daily Focus

  • Log the last time you connected with someone


  • Rate the relationship through a felt-sense slider, not a number


  • Build self-awareness alongside relationship awareness

Daily Focus

  • Log the last time you connected with someone


  • Rate the relationship through a felt-sense slider, not a number


  • Build self-awareness alongside relationship awareness

Daily Focus

  • Log the last time you connected with someone


  • Rate the relationship through a felt-sense slider, not a number


  • Build self-awareness alongside relationship awareness

Connection View

  • See a high-level view of any relationship at a glance, giving you a quick read on where things stand


  • Photos submitted through daily focus and warmth levels surface the most meaningful signals over time


  • Having your close circle always visible prompts you to notice when a connection needs tending before it fades

Connection View

  • See a high-level view of any relationship at a glance, giving you a quick read on where things stand


  • Photos submitted through daily focus and warmth levels surface the most meaningful signals over time


  • Having your close circle always visible prompts you to notice when a connection needs tending before it fades

Connection View

  • See a high-level view of any relationship at a glance, giving you a quick read on where things stand


  • Photos submitted through daily focus and warmth levels surface the most meaningful signals over time


  • Having your close circle always visible prompts you to notice when a connection needs tending before it fades

Insights

Tracking social relationships *can* go wrong

As our edge case we explored parasocial relationships.

Parasocial: a one-sided psychological bond where a person invests emotional energy, interest, and time into a media figure, celebrity, or fictional character who is unaware of their existence

According to Thriveworks and Mediakix, 51% of Americans are likely to have had a one-sided parasocial relationship with an online persona, all while the average American is now spending three times more time engaging with social media than actually socializing in person.

AI verification

  • To circumvent this issue, when adding a spore, Mycelium requires the user to submit a photo of themselves and their connection.


  • Using AI verification to ensure the user and the person are in the photo together and AI detection to ensure it is a genuine photo, Mycelium ensures that all spores in the network are real, growing relationships.

AI verification

  • To circumvent this issue, when adding a spore, Mycelium requires the user to submit a photo of themselves and their connection.


  • Using AI verification to ensure the user and the person are in the photo together and AI detection to ensure it is a genuine photo, Mycelium ensures that all spores in the network are real, growing relationships.

AI verification

  • To circumvent this issue, when adding a spore, Mycelium requires the user to submit a photo of themselves and their connection.


  • Using AI verification to ensure the user and the person are in the photo together and AI detection to ensure it is a genuine photo, Mycelium ensures that all spores in the network are real, growing relationships.




Lessons

What did we learn from all this?


Put in work BEFORE the hackathon

The sessions and preparing how we were going to spend our time was a HUGE contributor to our win

Story over features

Learning to lead with a human problem rather than a product solution completely changed how I think about presenting and communicating design work

Depth Beats Breadth

Going deep on one real, grounded problem and understanding it fully produces better work than trying to solve everything at once.

Put in work BEFORE the hackathon

The sessions and preparing how we were going to spend our time was a HUGE contributor to our win

Story over features

Learning to lead with a human problem rather than a product solution completely changed how I think about presenting and communicating design work

Depth Beats Breadth

Going deep on one real, grounded problem and understanding it fully produces better work than trying to solve everything at once.

Put in work BEFORE the hackathon

The sessions and preparing how we were going to spend our time was a HUGE contributor to our win

Story over features

Learning to lead with a human problem rather than a product solution completely changed how I think about presenting and communicating design work

Depth Beats Breadth

Going deep on one real, grounded problem and understanding it fully produces better work than trying to solve everything at once.




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