ROLE
Project Lead &
Product Desiger
TIMELINE
24 hours
SKILLS
Prototyping
Visual Design
Interaction Design
COLLABORATORS
Rachel Chen
Valerie Irawan
Tiffany Zheng
Between Us
A digital letter-writing experience that reintroduces emotional depth to online communication.
Between Us is a mobile-first digital platform that brings the intimacy of handwritten letters into a digital space. Created in under 24 hours during the CreateSC Designathon, the product allows users to craft multimedia messages with photos, voice notes, drawings, and mood customization, and time-lock them for future delivery. It’s a slow, intentional form of communication in contrast to the constant feed of traditional messaging apps.
🔗 View Devpost submission here.
🔗 View Figma prototype here.
Problem Space
What if digital communication felt less like a notification, and more like a memory worth waiting for?
The theme Digitizing Tangible Experiences challenged us to transform everyday physical experiences into innovative digital interfaces.
Social media platforms prioritize speed, performance, and curation. This often leaves little room for vulnerability, creativity, or emotional nuance. As college students studying far from home, my team and I found it hard to maintain meaningful friendships while managing time zones, school, and life.
Inspired by the intimacy of handwritten letters and how time capsules preserve moments of reflection and care, we wanted users to slow down and be intentional, with their words and with each other.
Solution
Between Us emulates the tactile joy of sending and receiving letters, digitally.
Try out our Figma prototype here!
Key Features
Time-Locked Letters
delivered on special dates or moments (“when you’re feeling low”)
Reflective Prompts
Prompts inspired by We’re Not Really Strangers to encourage depth in writing
Multimedia Messages
Attachable voice notes, drawings, and photos
Envelope Customization
Custom stickers, stamps, and visual mood palettes
Interaction Design
Bringing the Tactile Experience to Life
💌 Checking Inbox
Flip through new letters sealed with care and waiting to be opened.
✍️ Writing & Sending a Letter
Compose a heartfelt message with voice notes, doodles, photos, and personalized stamps. Choose when it’ll be delivered: now or later.
📬 Opening a Letter
Open a digital envelope to reveal a full-screen letter, designed to slow you down and draw you in.
🗂️ Exploring the Archive
Revisit past messages in your personal archive, organized by date or sender, like flipping through a digital scrapbook. Or, let the app surprise you with a random letter when you need a moment of warmth.
Visual Identity, Branding Guide
My Role
Project & Product Design Lead
As Project Lead and Product Designer, I brought the team together, aligned our vision, and ensured the project stayed on track from ideation to submission.
My key responsibilities included:
Initiating and coordinating the project, setting internal deadlines, and managing final submissions
Leading the design process from low-fi wireframes to high-fidelity screens, including prototyping all interactions in Figma
Writing and refining all copy, including Devpost descriptions, feature explanations, and in-product letter examples to shape our brand voice
Owning the narrative, ensuring our concept was emotionally resonant and user-centered
Attending mentor sessions, collecting feedback, and translating it into actionable steps for the team
Committed the most time to the project due to teammates’ scheduling conflicts, maintaining momentum and quality through to the end
Reflection
Less is More, Build What Matters!
While we started with a wide range of feature ideas, we realized the importance of being more convergent in our thinking to thoughtfully narrow down what belonged in a meaningful MVP. We also discovered that time, space, and anticipation, when intentionally designed, can transform digital interactions into moments that feel personal, sacred, and emotionally resonant.
With that being said, we successfully created a full prototype in under 24 hours, complete with animated flows and thoughtful UI patterns. Beyond the hackathon, Between Us sparked conversations around mindful technology and the future of intentional communication design.
