The crux

Members of multi-generational families often feel disconnected and find difficulty keeping the family history alive.

Coming from an immigrant community, family and friends often expressed feeling detached from their family, roots, and history; this also led to a gap in their sense of self.

The opportunity

How do we overcome the disconnect that family members have to their roots & family history?

The Solution

A legacy recording app that uses storytelling as a tool for connection & insight.

Kintime provides an engaging platform for family members to comfortably record and share personal stories, fostering deeper bonds and giving members across generations insight into their past & present.

Get inspired to share & connect

Users can ask questions and send story requests to family members, building kinship into the sharing experience. Storytellers can get inspiration from dozens of insightful, pre-written prompts.

Preserve family history

The library page sorts and preserves all personal and group posts in one place, allowing for easy search and retrieval. Only those with sharing permissions can retrieve and view library contents, safeguarding treasured legacies.

Break through language barriers

The transcription, captioning, and translation features, compatible with multiple languages, allow family members with ranging language proficiencies to understand each other in ways not possible before.

Secondary rEsearch

The most insightful white paper research discussed the mental health benefits of learning about family history and improving connection to family. The research also supported that weakened family bonds are common outside of the immigrant population too, with 6 in 10 adults wanting more time for intergenerational connection^[1].‍‍

“Adolescents who...[knew] more stories about their familial past show higher levels of emotional well-being, and also higher levels of identity achievement”

- (Fivush, Duke, & Bohanek, 2010)^[2]

user interviews

‍I moved onto primary research, conducting 5 in-depth interviews. Participants discussed their involvement in family life, methods to stay connected, and challenges. I synthesized over 80 data points into the following key insights:

Cited causes for disconnection include distance, busy schedules, language barriers, & conflict.

"My grandmother only speaks Korean, but my Korean isn't that good, so we can't really have deep conversations."

Interview Participant #4

Preservation of family history is a key user need.

"When my Uncle passed, so many family stories and history left with him too. It was heartbreaking."

Interview Participant #3

Current tech is limited. Social media lacks intimacy, groupchats don't have good organization for shared stories.

Competitive audit

I conducted a competitive audit to examine key players & existing solutions in the family connection and legacy preservation space.

Storii

Best UX, requires third-party interviewer

My Stories
Matter

Confusing user flows

LifeTales

Poor UX/UI

Family Memories Search

Limited engagement, for specific religious community

The competition had no solutions for language barriers, limited organization systems, limited engagement features, limited accessibility & generally poor UX

Personas & problem statements

I created personas for 2 use cases and referred to these while ideating. The first persona is for a user in a younger generation (likely Gen Z/Millenial) interested in learning about family history to build on their own sense of identity and better understand family. The second use case is for an older generation family member interested in sharing their own stories and connecting with family. I wrote up accompanying problem statements to specify the user needs.

Ideation

Taking copious notes, I brainstormed on existing solutions and their limitations, then began ideating on new ideas that ranged from group chat add-on features, to time capsule messaging.

Ideation Notes, considering new solutions and pros/cons

Ideation Notes, diving deeper into Voice Notes App Idea. Listing out possible features and ideas to build out

Each idea built on the next until I eventually landed on exploring the idea of a dedicated mobile app to share audio recordings. Why?

Audio recordings are an accessible, convenient, creation form.

Voice messaging is already a widely beloved form of communication
Press record and share, no editing skills needed
Offers a comfortable, intimate listening experience
No scheduling/distance obstacles, can be created + shared asynchronously

A dedicated mobile app allows for better integrated features.

Build out library systems & complex search functions
Add auto-captioning + translation features to overcome language barriers/add accessibility
Photos/multimedia features can be built-in more easily

Engagement factor.

Offer engagement features﹣like story collaborations, group sharing, commenting + like interactions, & story requests﹣to keep users listening, sharing, and interacting with family
Users can get inspired with available selection of pre-written story ideas & prompts

Sketches, wireframes, & Lo-fi prototype

Building from the initial ideations, I created a user journey map, a user flow diagram, sketches, paper wireframes, and digital mockups; this phase culminated in a lo-fi digital prototype that compiled the best ideas.

Paper wireframes for Home page, Library page, and Create page

View the lo-fi prototype

Testing & improvements

I conducted a moderated usability study with 6 participants, aged 16﹣68 (considering the generational use cases). The KPIs included Error Rates & System Usability Scale scoring. I then aggregated the data into an affinity map and found 3 key insights.

Copy was an issue.
Many terms were confusing to users without additional context. To resolve this, I rewrote much of the copy with simpler wording, and for some instances, I added a “more info” icon to gives users additional information if clicked on.

Elements were too small.
Many buttons, search bars, and photo displays were too small to comfortably press or view. I reviewed the Apple Human Interaction Guidelines to find sizing recommendations and adjusted the prototype accordingly.

The creation flow was frustrating.
The creation flow was too long, and the recording step was overly simple. After the study, I simplified the flow by combining several screens and added missing elements to the recording step to meet user needs.

final designs

After the usability study, I got to work on the hi-fi designs. There were minor setbacks, including a period of time where I kept redesigning the home page feed and second-guessing my choices. This was resolved by an ad hoc research study, giving me user data needed to adjust my designs. Several weeks of refinement later, I completed the final hi-fi prototype.

Home page displaying recorded story posts of family members

Opened playbar displaying story captions & playback buttons

Library page

Story Post creation - selecting a recording prompt

Individual Post Page, description & related photos

Individual Post Page Mockup, Comments Section

Individual Post Page, comments & like section

Creation options - post, post request, photos, new group

Recording screen

Caption review & editing process

View the hi-fi prototype 🎉

ACcessibility

Kintime considers users with varying language proficiencies, physical & cognitive abilities, and familiarities with technology. Key accessibility offerings include:

Captioning & translation features, with easy caption editing processes

Text color compliance to WCAG standards

Heavy use of iconography

Speech-to-text integrations with all search bars and text input fields

Compatibility with device system font size settings

Organization by landmarks to aid assistive technologies

Design System

All text color pairings are WCAG compliant and checked for correct contrast levels.

big idea