PROJECT TYPE
User Experience
YEAR
2024
Problem Statement: I lost my nani, my grandmother, during the summer of 2023. To process this loss, I sought comfort in talking to people close to me and revisiting memories in the form of pictures, clothing, and handwritten notes. This made me think about how having a designated space for Nani’s memories that I could share with my family would feel very special and help me celebrate her life forever. While there were solutions in the form of digital memorials or substitutes available, there was no service that felt personal, organic, warm, and approachable. Recognizing this, my senior year capstone project aimed to address the need for a personalized memorial space in the digital realm.
Process: The project began with extensive research into the existing memorial platforms and their limitations. It became evident that many digital memorials were static and lacked the dynamic elements that make remembering a loved one a more enriching experience. To address this, the development process incorporated feedback from potential users to understand their desires and concerns regarding commemorating someone online.
The design phase emphasized the importance of incorporating multimedia formats to capture the diverse ways people remember their loved ones. This involved creating a user-friendly interface that allowed users to upload and share photos, videos, and written anecdotes. Additionally, a timeline feature was introduced to enable users to chronologically capture and share significant moments in their loved one's life. A bulletin board was integrated to facilitate community engagement, allowing friends and family to leave messages of remembrance and support.
Solution: The resulting solution is a digital memorial platform that provides users with a customizable and dynamic space to celebrate the lives of their loved ones, a marketing website that explains why the service matters, and a comprehensive brand book of the service. This digital memorial project seeks to redefine the way people commemorate their loved ones by offering a versatile and interactive platform that transcends the limitations of traditional memorials. It combines technology with the human experience, creating a space for remembrance that is not only accessible but also reflective of the diverse ways in which people celebrate the lives of those they have lost.
Research Process
Competitor SWOT analysis
To gain understanding of the market, conducted an industry and competitor analysis. This process identified potential learnings from existing players, while also revealing opportunities for differentiation through a SWOT analysis. The competitive analysis revealed insights into competitors’ common weakness and strengths along with key opportunities for Kavita to differentiate in the market. This made way for a positioning map where Kavita stands out as a differentiator.
User research
User insights
The interviews were analyzed by first summarizing each conversation to capture the essence of the participants' experiences. Key insights were then extracted, supported by impactful quotes that highlighted the main points. This process led to the identification of overarching themes, which informed the development of well-grounded recommendations. Revisiting this project this year, I leveraged Miro's AI capabilities to validate my analysis.
Personas
Personas in this research provide a detailed representation of different user needs, behaviors, and motivations related to memorializing loved ones. They help in understanding diverse emotional and functional requirements, guiding the design of a more empathetic and user-centered digital memorial platform.
User stories and Feature List
For each user story, I built a corresponding feature or function that would meet the user's need and achieve a desired outcome. I prioritized features considering both their desired functionalities and the project's time constraints.
Information Architecture
Creating the information architecture gave me a sense of flow of information. The flow starts with the marketing website which leads the user to the sign up/ log in page. From there, the user accesses the digital platform. Here, the user starts by creating a memorial for a family member, friend or pet.
Lo- Fi wireframes
Marketing website- The marketing website constitutes of the home page and a FAQ/support page. The website teaches users about Kavita and why it matters. It also allows users to reach out if they have questions about the service.
I iterated on different versions of the banner and wall to consider different formats for the two. In order to decide which version to go ahead with- I conducted a round of user testing that allowed me to make my decision.
v2
v1
v3
Digital Platform- Kavita’s social media platform underwent rounds of iterations- specifically the home screen. I played around with different placements of the different sections.
In the third iteration, I thought about how my design needs to be altered to suit the functionalities of a web app. During this iteration, I added a sidebar and also created an internal scroll for the main page.
Design System & Brand Book
Hi-Fi Wireframes & Prototype
I incorporated colors, typography, icons and UI elements from the design strategy in order to create Hi-Fi wireframes
Marketing website
The onboarding process starts from the sign in/ sign up functionality on the marketing website. After this, the user is asked if they are commemorating a loved one or pet, and asked to provide some information about them. This creates the profile of the deceased and it gets added to the main page with the rest of the profiles.
Onboarding
Digital Platform - Home page iterations
Previous versions- Consisted of three images of the deceased in the header and a bulletin board that appears in a shape similar to a physical bulletin board.
Home page-sort functionality
Sort functionality consists of scattered, tag, format and date sort.
Scattered sort: Randomized media
Sort by Tag: Sort based on whether the media is an anecdote, memory, quote, poem, story, tribute, diary, letter or other.
Sort by Date: Sort based on date of media upload
Sort by Format: Sort by type of media, whether it is an image, note, sticker, video, or recording.
Bulletin board
The bulletin board consists of:
Toolbar consisting of multimedia creation options
Notes
Recordings
Images
Videos
Stickers based off different cultural symbols
Timeline + Friends & Family section
The Timeline is located at the bottom of the home page on scrolling past the bulletin board. It consists of milestones of the deceased’s life. The person memorial comprises of old age, midlife and childhood for milestones. The pet memorial consists of senior years, adulthood and early life.
The Friends & Family section consists of all the collaborators of the memorial- their name and profile image.
Final version - Consists of a resolved header with 1-2 images of the deceased, a shorter header height and clear information hierarchy in the bio. The bulletin board is redesigned to show infinity scroll in the left and right of the board. Further, the media is placed in a painterly fashion following a pre-decided placement style. Overall, the elements tie in effectively.
Pet memorial
The home page consists of:
A side bar containing links to share memorial, ask for support and chat with Kavita’s AI feature
A customizable header picture
Bio/description about deceased
Pictures of deceased
Digital Bulletin board
Timeline of deceased’s life
Friends and family section consisting of list of collaborators
AI chat feature + share memorial feature
The AI chat feature allows users a private method of grieving by facilitating a conversation between the AI bot and user. The conversation is focused around the deceased and the AI feature lends an ear by suggesting stories, pulling up pictures or talking about memories with the user. This is all made possible as the AI pulls data from the platform itself and uses it to learn about the deceased and facilitate conversations.
The memorial can be shared with friends and family of the deceased to provide a community that fosters sharing of memories. The admin can grant and control access to collaborators as they wish to- viewing, editing or admin access.
