Basis.
Has COVID-19 made you feel lonely or disconnected from your loved ones?
Basis is a collaborative family platform that allows users to stay in touch with their family by leveraging downtime in each member’s schedule.
Red Dot Award 2020 : Communication Design
This project was completed in my Senior Studio class with four other students; Hadyn Hawkins, Mara Healy, Lydia Goshen, and Darren Wells.
My Role:
Project Manager
Mobile UI Design
User Research
Timeline:
Twenty weeks
Our Problem:
Lack of in-person social interactions with family members, especially currently, can cause communications to deteriorate, leading to family members feeling disconnected from one another.
Our Users:
Long-distance families looking to improve their family dynamic.
Our Solution:
We set out to design a platform that will strengthen the bond between family members by creating purposeful communication, encouraging sentimental memories, and emulating physical closeness.
Basis Ecosystem.
Basis is a three-part ecosystem that includes a mobile application, a TV application, and a gesture tracking camera. Our mobile app focuses on communication on the go. With features such as creating events, playing games, and sharing content with your family.
Our gesture tracking camera, known as the “Base”, easily plugs into any TV using an HDMI cord. Users can use Basis on the TV to host watch parties, have group video calls, and play party games. A remote is also available to users for quick and easy navigation of the TV interface.
Key Features.
Stay Connected.
Basis brings families together allowing for them to be more open and empathic towards one another.
Our Process.
Secondary Research
My team and I began our research by looking into family communication, traditional family roles, sibling relationships, and military families to discover trends of challenges that exist within families of varying dynamics.
““The important thing is that you are
utilizing the time to zero in on your family and
to focus on talking about your day or other things going on in life at that moment.”
”
““The emotional support provided by social ties enhances your psychological well-being. One study found that people who view their friends and families as supportive reported a greater sense of meaning in life and felt like they had a stronger sense of purpose.”
”
Primary Research:
After completing our secondary research, our team conducted multiple interviews, surveys, and competitive analysis.
Two rounds of interviews resulting in 31 total.
Three licensed family therapists
Two rounds of surveys resulting in 329 responses.
Competitive analysis of 10+ existing products.
““I wish there was a way to get that family presence even though they are not present.””
““40% of respondents said understanding was the most important aspect of healthy communication but is also the weakest aspect of communication in their own families.””
““I wish there was a common ground where my family can input all of our information such as our schedules and our photos.””
Affinitization.
Once we gathered all of our insights from our primary and secondary research we began the affinitization process to help guide us to the perfect design solution.
Key Insights:
A lack of physical presence is directly linked to a decline in emotional closeness.
Many believe that more open, non-judgemental communication would bring their family closer.
It’s common for young adults to feel like they lost their support system after moving away.
Frequent & deeper communication is key for healthy family dynamics, but families struggle to find time for it.
Family members value family traditions but feel that they diminish after members move away from home.
From the insights gathered, it is evident that it is important for families to stay connected to have a healthy dynamic. Keeping the entire family in mind, we created four mindsets that would reflect the different types of family members. We then used these mindsets and personas while designing to ensure that each family member would be satisfied with our product.
Mindsets
Personas
Preliminary Concept Designs
Final Design
Openness - Sentiment - Togetherness
When designing our product the main goal to make sure that families were able to be more open, create sentiment towards one another, and ultimately bring them closer together.
