RESEARCH-LED EXPERIENCE DESIGN · EMOTIONAL DESIGN · 2026
Echo Archive
A sonic archive for the emotional experience of pregnancy.
Echo Archive pairs a mobile app with a tactile Worry Stone to help pregnant individuals capture voice notes, songs and emotional moments throughout pregnancy, creating a keepsake that can be revisited and passed on.
RESEARCH SYNTHESIS
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY
EMOTIONAL INTERACTION DESIGN
HYBRID DESIGN CONCEPT
ROLE
Researcher & Experience Design Contributor
TEAM
5-person design team
DURATION
12 weeks
TYPE
Research-led experience design
OUTCOME
Sonic archive concept for emotional reflection and future inheritance
QUICK OVERVIEW
THE INSIGHT
Pregnancy is tracked physically, but the emotional experience is what people most want to hold onto.
THE RESPONSE
A hybrid app and tactile Worry Stone that help pregnant individuals capture voice notes, songs and feelings as a sonic archive.
MY ROLE
Led research synthesis and contributed to the experience design of the archive, capture flow and Worry Stone concept across a 5-person team.
THE REAL PROBLEM
Pregnancy is tracked physically, but remembered emotionally.
"There's always this underlying worry, even when things are going well."
DIRECT PARTICIPANT QUOTE
Existing pregnancy tools support the physical experience well: appointments, symptoms and fetal development. Our research explored what sits outside those systems: emotional labour, identity shifts, cultural connection, bonding through sound and fleeting moments that are hard to preserve.
WHAT PREGNANCY TECH SUPPORTS
Appointments & medical information
Symptoms & physical changes
Fetal development milestones
Clinical measurements
WHAT PREGNANT INDIVIDUALS ALSO EXPERIENCE
Anxiety, overwhelm and emotional labour
Identity shifts and becoming a mother
Cultural distance from family and heritage
Bonding through sound, and fleeting moments worth preserving
Technology addresses the physical
Echo Archive holds the emotional
Research inputs: 10 participant interviews, 4 prototype testing sessions, desk research, affinity mapping and design synthesis.
WHAT RESEARCH REVEALED
The concept came from synthesis, not assumption.
Themes were synthesised from participant accounts of music use, emotional overwhelm, support gaps and cultural connection.
RESEARCH SYNTHESIS
10 participant interviews · 6 theme clusters · affinity mapping
01
Music as emotional regulation
Participants already used music to calm, focus and steady themselves during anxiety, overwhelm or fatigue.
DESIGN MEANING
Build on an existing behaviour, not a new coping mechanism.
02
Sound as cultural lifeline
Songs, languages and lullabies kept participants connected to family, heritage and identity when far from home.
DESIGN MEANING
Treat sound as a carrier of cultural memory, not just audio.
03
Support exists, but emotional needs stay private
People were present, but support did not always reach what participants felt in the moment.
DESIGN MEANING
Create a private, low-pressure space for emotional expression.
04
Emotional moments are meaningful but fleeting
Emotions were vivid in the moment but hard to capture, revisit or explain later.
DESIGN MEANING
Turn passing moments into something to reflect on and keep.
CENTRAL INSIGHT
Participants were not lacking support. They were lacking a way to hold and revisit the emotional texture of what they were going through.
REFRAMING THE OPPORTUNITY
From music support to emotional meaning-making.
CONCEPT EVOLUTION
INITIAL FOCUS
Music for emotional wellbeing during pregnancy
RESEARCH REVEALED
Music was already used emotionally, but passively and without reflection
DESIGN SHIFT
From recommending music to preserving emotional meaning
FINAL CONCEPT
A sonic archive of pregnancy memories
EXPERIENCE GOALS
01
Emotional Regulation
Support moments of anxiety and intensity without trying to fix them.
02
Self-Recognition
Help people notice and make sense of changing emotional states.
03
Cultural continuity
Preserve songs, language and rituals that connect to family and identity.
04
Future Inheritance
Turn fleeting moments into something that can one day be passed on.
EXPERIENTIAL SHIFTS
Invisible → Articulated
Emotional labour often goes unnamed, so the design gives people a low-pressure way to record and acknowledge it.
Isolation → Cultural Grounding
For those distanced from family, sound becomes a way to preserve connection, language and ritual.
Ephemeral → Inherited
Vivid in the moment but easily lost, emotional memories become part of a keepsake that can be passed on.
THE DESIGN RESPONSE
A hybrid system for capturing emotional moments.
Capture had to fit into emotional moments without interrupting them.
TACTILE CAPTURE OBJECT
THE WORRY STONE
Made emotional capture feel tactile, private and low-pressure, turning reflection into a small physical gesture rather than another task on a screen.
Single tap · archive song
Double tap · record
DIGITAL ARCHIVE INTERFACE
HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
01
Emotional moment
A meaningful moment arises
02
Captured
Stone tap or app
Voice note
Song
Feeling tag
03
Saved to timeline
Organised by time and emotion
04
Patterns emerge
Emotional patterns become visible
05
Archive becomes a keepsake
Revisit, reflect and pass on
DESIGN ETHIC
The goal was not to diagnose, fix or optimise emotion. It was to create a low-pressure way for pregnant individuals to notice, preserve and return to meaningful moments on their own terms.
REFINEMENT EVIDENCE
The decisions were tested, then refined.
4 prototype testing sessions helped refine the final interaction details. I synthesised the written session notes into patterns, then translated each pattern into a specific design change.
Testing showed capture needed to feel simpler
Decision 01: One clear capture point
Testing showed reflection language felt too measured
Informed Decision 02: feeling over statistics
Testing showed breathe mode needed more user control
Informed Decision 03: pacing, one step and a clear exit
Testing showed the Worry Stone felt disconnected
Informed Decision 04: connected status and guidance
DESIGN DECISIONS
Four design decisions, each traced back to research.
01
GOAL: LOW-FRICTION CAPTURE
Reduce friction in emotional capture.
BEFORE
Competing capture actions
AFTER
One clear capture point
INSIGHT
Participants had limited cognitive and emotional capacity during moments of overwhelm. Multiple entry points created unnecessary friction at the most vulnerable moments.
DECISION
Removed competing capture actions and consolidated emotional capture into one clear entry point: tap to record a moment.
INTENDED IMPACT
Designed to make the home screen calmer and simpler, reducing cognitive load at the most vulnerable moments.
02
GOAL: SELF-RECOGNITION
Shift from statistics to feeling.
Language carries meaning, not numbers.
BEFORE
Activity stats
AFTER
Emotional reflection
INSIGHT
The archive needed to reflect emotional meaning, not music activity. Measuring songs played made the feature feel performative rather than reflective.
DECISION
Reframe the wrapped view from music statistics to emotional reflection. Language shifted from "songs played" to "moments captured."
INTENDED IMPACT
Designed to reframe the archive as a record of emotional experience rather than a stats dashboard, so reflection feels personal, not performative.
03
GOAL: EMOTIONAL REGULATION
Make regulation feel controlled.
BEFORE
PROTOTYPE RECORDING
Starts immediately
No visible exit
Low user control
The Breathe Flow was tested as a paced interaction, not a static screen.
The redesign introduced a countdown, one instruction at a time and a visible exit to preserve user agency.
AFTER
PROTOTYPE RECORDING
Countdown
One step at a time
Clear exit
INSIGHT
A regulation feature that starts abruptly or removes user agency can increase anxiety rather than reduce it. People needed to feel in control of the interaction, not subjected to it.
DECISION
Introduce pacing through a countdown, one instruction at a time and a clearly visible exit, so the interaction feels chosen rather than imposed.
INTENDED IMPACT
Designed to give users more control over a sensitive interaction through pacing, one instruction at a time and a clear exit, so regulation feels chosen rather than imposed.
04
GOAL: FUTURE INHERITANCE
Make the physical object part of the system.
01
Low-friction capture
One tap on the stone captures the moment.
02
Embodied memory
Holding the stone ties the object to the moment.
03
Future inheritance
The NFC chip seals the archive into the object.
INSIGHT
The Worry Stone was central to the concept, but the app treated it as peripheral. There was no acknowledgement of its presence and no explanation of its role.
DECISION
Surface the Worry Stone's connected status and interaction guidance in the app, making the physical object feel like an integrated part of the archive rather than a separate accessory.
PROTOTYPE RECORDING
The Worry Stone as part of the archive system
INTENDED IMPACT
Designed to connect the physical and digital layers into one keepsake system that can be revisited and passed on, rather than an app with a detached accessory.
MY CONTRIBUTION
What I researched, translated and shaped.
My role focused on translating research into experience direction, helping shape the concept, key flows and decision-making across the team.
01
RESEARCH
Prepared semi-structured interview questions
Conducted 2 participant interviews and 2 prototype testing sessions
Coded qualitative notes and participant feedback
02
SYNTHESIS
Synthesised findings from 10 participant interviews
Contributed to 6 theme clusters through affinity mapping
Translated quotes into emotional regulation, cultural connection, support gaps and music-use themes
03
DESIGN
Mapped insights to experience goals and design iterations
Refined the Home screen, Archive, Breathe Mode and Worry Stone experience
Used feedback from 4 total prototype testing sessions to reduce friction and clarify emotional capture
04
ALIGNMENT
Kept the concept grounded in emotional safety and low-pressure reflection
Helped align final decisions with research themes and team critique
Ensured the physical and digital layers served the same emotional purpose
KEY TENSIONS I DESIGNED AROUND
Capture vs Burden
Preserve meaningful moments without making reflection feel like another task.
Reflection vs Measurement
Reveal emotional patterns without making people feel tracked or analysed.
Digital vs Tactile
Make the Stone feel part of the experience, not a disconnected accessory.
REFLECTION
Designing for emotion, not just usability.
REFLECTION
01
I learned that emotional design is about understanding what people are already trying to hold, process or preserve.
02
Small interaction choices shaped the emotional tone of the experience. Timing, friction, language and physical touch determined whether the product felt supportive or intrusive.
03
Echo Archive taught me to design for meaning, memory and lived experience, not just task completion.
WHAT I TOOK FROM IT
Design around existing behaviours.
Build on what people already do, rather than asking them to create new rituals.
Low friction can be emotional care.
In sensitive contexts, reducing effort is not just a usability goal.
Physical and digital should carry the same meaning.
A hybrid system only works when the object and interface feel emotionally connected.
Research synthesis is where design begins.
The most important decisions came from interpreting emotional patterns, not just designing screens.
KEY TAKEAWAY
The most meaningful design decisions were not the most visually complex. They were the ones that helped participants feel seen, supported and able to preserve something of themselves.