digital product designer
WeToca
Communicating through touch
WeToca is a product that looks at the building and maintaining of emotional bonds between friends, family and loved ones in a way that current social media cannot. By using the sensation of ‘touch’, WeToca creates meaningful moments which mimic those of real life.
This project was completed during the 2020 lockdown, with a team of designers spread across Milan and the world. WeToca is a true testament to the quality of work that can be achieved by an entirely remote team.
why we designed WeToca
During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, many young adults were kept far from friends, family and loved ones for months on end. This event caused a great strain on the relationships of young adults, who were used to regular social interaction.
We wanted to understand why existing technology-based socialising was not fitting the bill and identify opportunities to help mask the feeling of distance through technology. After analysing the results of a broad investigation, we recognised that communication at a distance involves several challenges.
Many people found that the traditional social media forms, messaging or video calling, were a far cry from real-life interactions – significant elements were missing that made these communications ‘empty’ or ‘generic’.
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understanding touch
Touch is arguably one of the most intense of our senses - so complex, its almost a language but how do we really feel?
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temperature
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pressure
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stimulation
We understood that it was crucial to reduce the difference between remote communication and in-person communication. We focused both on mimicking elements of human interaction and linking people together by making them experience similar things.
Emotionally, our needs are similar but how do we take into account the diversity? We identified three key ‘bonding’ interactions that are vital for keeping close connections.
understanding our users
In order to create the best solution possible, we wanted to really understand what our users were feeling. We undertook extensive research to delve into the lives of our users - using quantitative and qualitative research methods.
66% increase in lonliness
the crisis has caused an overwhelming increase in people experiencing lonliness
34% find social media does not help
a large number of people felt that social media does not help them to combat the feeling of lonliness
These statistics were gathered from a survey for 696 participants.
different types of 'loners'
From our extensive research, we identified 6 different types of loners. From this, we created our user personas.
social loner
emotional
loner
accompanied
loner
new loner
active
loner
solitary
loner
searching for interactions
searching for activites
searching for interactions
In order to understand the problems and opportunities for our 'searching for interaction' users we developed personas and customer journey maps.
Ally
26
Travel and fashion blogger
California, USA
As an influencer, she is never home, she is always traveling and attending to the top- notch events of the fashion industry. Her network is huge, as she is always interacting with people. Besides from being a super influencer.
Current Lifestyle
Work: Partially cancelled,
working remotely
Home: Lives with boyfriend
Habits: Increased use of social media, trying to spread optimism
Problems Encountered
Lack of motivation
Feeling trapped
Lack of inspiration for social media
Core Needs
Strict routine
Personal interactions
New stimulus
our target user
emotional loner
Hug
Beat
Tickle
WeToca aims to mimic three key ‘bonding’ interactions that are vital for keeping close connections. Each of these connections is designed for different levels of intimacy so that the product can be used to maintain different types of bonds.
The physical design of WeToca takes inspiration from rocks, using the connection between humans and nature to encourage our users to truly experience the sensations.
designing the experience
The Hug rock is designed to recreate the warm embrace of a hug from a friend. The rock senses the pressure when the user is holding the rock and measures the hug. The hug is then experienced through a glowing warmth in the palm of your hand.
The Beat rock is designed to mimic the key experience of resting your head on the chest of a loved one - feeling their heartbeat. This rock will measure your pulse through your fingers, and play you the pulse of your loved one using haptic vibrations onto your chest.
The Tickle rock is designed to imitate the feeling of caressing between two people. This rock senses the touch on the surface of the rock and recreates this using a mesh of haptic vibrations onto the back of the wrist.
It is important that WeToca fits seamlessly into the life of the user - utilising technology already widely available. WeToca uses an app-based platform to connect each individual to their loved ones - through live ‘touch’ connections and ‘touch’ messages - but also ensuring our service did not become a social media platform which could take the intimacy out of the user’s communications.
live connection & sending messages
system map - messages
system map - live connection
building meaningful interactions
WeToca App is designed to enhance meaningful interactions. The app emphasises each bond by building a flower scape with the last 10 interactions, giving visual importance to each relationship's uniqueness.
designing the app
Easy, yet memorable navigation
Inspired by nature. Each navigation has its meaning. Changing page is as simple as swiping. Moving the fingers on the water allows the user to scroll through the bonds. It is possible to pin the closest bonds to the home screen, for quick access. The app is designed for fewer, more intimate relationships.
Distraction-free experience
The application guides the user during the experience of Touch Messages or Live Connections. As soon as the experience starts, WeToca communicates with the user with a lighting system, and so the app just provides a supplement with essential information. The pages are designed to provide a calming sensation and increase the focus on the connection.
an international team, for an international experience
Living away from our loved ones made us realize the importance of being connected, with this idea in mind, we came up with WeToca. The transdisciplinarity in our team made WeToca something unique and designed from the bottom of our hearts.
We aim to help people like us, that due to different circumstances have left their home and started a new life away from their loved ones.
My Role: our product designer
our graphic designer
our software developer
our industrial designer