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Graduates
Hannah Block
BS in Interaction Design — Interaction DesignCourse:
Interactive Prototyping 3
Faculty:
Justine Esquivel
Term:
2025 Fall
Echo
The design brief for this project was “Design a web app for online communication using weekly prototyping and user testing to drive your explorations, ideations, and refinement.” This was my solution-Online communication today is fast, efficient, and emotionally clumsy. most platforms are built to move information. tone, intent, and emotional context are often lost or misread. echo tackles this by treating communication as an emotional experience, not just a technical one. This is a personal project where I was the sole designer end to end.
Process:
Guided by the brief to use weekly prototyping and user testing, I designed Echo! Echo is a web app that makes online communication an emotional experience. As the sole end to end designer, I ran iterative design cycles involving multiple rounds of user testing with 5–10 people each. Their feedback directly shaped every stage, from initial explorations and ideation through to final refinements, ensuring the solution addressed the common loss of tone and emotional context in digital conversations. It was important that I ran small scale user testing as this concept is made based on emotion.
Learning Outcomes:
- Mastered rapid iteration through weekly user testing with 5–10 participants, using feedback to drive continuous refinement of the product.
- Deepened my expertise in emotional UX design by creating a communication platform that prioritizes tone and emotional clarity over pure efficiency.
- Strengthened my skills as an independent designer by managing all aspects of the project, from concept to final design.
Developed confidence in user-centered decision making by letting real user insights shape every stage of the design process.