Async | Lydia Bhupathiraju

Async

O V E R V I E W

Team

Jayati Makhijani

Srithika Sheethal Suvarna

Vaishanava Samudrala

Lydia Bhupathiraju

Timeline

6 weeks

Tools used

Figma, FigJam,Miro, Microsoft Teams

How to explore effective ways to stay connected, support friends during long-distance moves, and navigate the complexities of maintaining strong and meaningful long-distance friendships.

T A R G E T U S E R S

Our demographic consists of youth aged between 17 and 25 and students who go to different states or countries to study and get detached from their friends.

I N T E R V I E W E D D A T A

B R A I N S T O R M I N G S E S S I O N/ I D E A T I O N

S T O R Y B O A R D S

Group of friends playing games virtually both synchronously and asynchronously.

Friends maintaining their habits from when they were together while connecting asynchronously using podcasts.

S K E T C H E S

U S E R F L O W

M A I N F E A T U R E S

W A L K

A creative way to stay in touch with friends remotely while being asynchronously through shared walks, even across different time zones. Record podcast while on your walk and share it with your friend to enjoy whenever they have time

S H A R E D C A L E N D E R

This calendar allows users to easily add upcoming events that they plan to do together and automatically syncs with outlook/Gmail calendar

P O D C A S T

A podcast feature that allows users to share and listen to content with group of friends or an individual

S H A R E D A C T I V I T I E S

This feature enables users to engage in activities such as reading a book, watching a movie together or shopping online together

P R O T O T Y P E

Link for prototype

F U T U R E S C O P E A N D C O N C L U S I O N

We plan to enhance the walk with podcast feature more by adding features like avatars for friends which could talk back with common responses, using AI to collect topics that two people might like to talk about and prompt them when they are stuck as it is quite possible that people might run out of topics to talk about when they are actually not getting any response, our goal is to make this interactive but at the same time don’t let the connection between friends feel distant.

In version 2 of the app, we plan to add more features to enhance the user experience. One such feature would be collaborative games like Pictionary and online video games to enable friends to play together, regardless of their location. We also plan to introduce a widget option where friends can use emojis to express their mood, visible on the home screen.

Another feature we plan to add is Collaborative Art Projects, offering users tools for virtual canvases to create art together. This could be a fun and creative way for users to connect and express themselves.

To keep the activities simple and refined, we aim to add a VR hangout area for friends to socialize effortlessly. Additionally, we plan to add interactive widgets to help people know about each other's emotional status, personalized vibrations for a more intimate connection, and an option for users to send virtual gifts or gift cards to show appreciation and support for their long-distance friends. Our goal is to keep our users connected without adding to their mental load.