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YUMI mobile application: Maintaining intimate relationships over long distances
Designing a social journaling app to help long-distance friends stay connected through shared daily experiences and meaningful conversations.
TEAM
2 Product Designers
ROLE
Product Designer
TIMELINE
Feb - May 2025 (4 months)
SKILLS AND TOOLS
Product thinking User Research Figma & Figjam Notion
BACKGROUND & CONTEXT
What inspired our project?
In high school, staying close to your friends is easy. You see them every day, sit in the same classes, walk the same halls. You know the little details of each other’s lives without even trying. But then college starts; and suddenly, you're in a new place, living a completely different life. The shared moments shrink. You’re not around for the inside jokes, the late-night talks, the random updates. And slowly, it starts to feel harder to stay connected; even with the people you care about most.
SOLUTION
Thats where Yumi comes in..
It’s a simple way to stay close to your people, even when you’re far apart. No pressure to perform, no need for long catch-up calls. Just quiet, meaningful updates that help you feel present in each other’s lives—even when you’re not in the same place.
PROBLEM DISCOVERY
Okay, so what exactly is the problem here?
More than 60 percent of Cornell students come from out of state. They leave behind friends, family, and routines they’ve known for years. And while the college experience is exciting, it also comes with distance, which makes it harder to stay in touch. Social media feels too performative. Texts get buried. Calls are hard to schedule.
The result? A quiet, growing disconnection from the people who once felt closest.
OUR SOLUTION?
yumi
SHARED EXPERIENCES
Make plans with friends, and share your reactions.
Share with friends you care about
Invite friends to do things with you as you would offline
Stay connected with friends through music, shows &games
SHARE MOMENTS
Journal authentically and share with your closest circle
Journal quickly and share feeling with your friends
Spark conversations through your entries
Stay connected through text, audio messages and calls
HOME
Get involved in the day to day of your friends’ lives
See what your friends are thinking and feeling
Follow your friends’ whereabouts and stay in touch
Spark conversations through what you see
USER RESEARCH
We talked to the users - here’s what they had to say.
We interviewed college students from 5 different cities about their friendship struggles, plus researched what experts in psychology and sociology have to say about these relationships. Here are our key findings:
Users are unable to share authentically in existing platforms
“I wanna share little thoughts from my day but feel weird posting them on ig”
Users did not have much in common to talk about anymore
“I am not living in their environment, so I don't know what they're going through at school and stuff”
Users appreciated low-effort ways to stay in touch with friends
“I love stalking Find My because I like knowing where my friends are and what they are up to”
Equipped with these insights, we took a dive into the market to see what is offered and what our value proposition would be.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
What’s already on the market?
We're obviously not the first ones to tackle long-distance friendships. So, we analyzed existing apps and platforms to see what they are do well, where they fall short, and most importantly—what gap we can fill.
Here's what we discovered about the competitive landscape and where our opportunity lies.
WHAT’S WORKING WELL
People stay in touch over long distances
There are nudges for connection
Know where your friends are at and what they are up to
WHAT COULD BE BETTER
Conversations tend to be superficial
many loose ties > a few deep bonds
Curiosity is displaced by social comparison
OUR VALUE PROPOSITION
Journal quickly & authentically
Map out daily moments
Plan a shared experience
INITIAL LO-FIDELITY SKETCHES
From abstract ideas to concrete visualisations
I went on good ol’ pen and paper and started visualising some of our ideas to get a feel of what they could look like. These features include a feed page, a map view, a page for shared experiences and a simple profile page.
Lo fidelity sketches of the feed, map, shared experiences and profile
DESIGN ITERATIONS
Figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
After we had a solid idea of what our designs could look like, we went to figma to bring our designs to life. This involved making a lot of design decisions of what our app should look like. Here are just a few those decisions.
Posts on the feed
The feed is the app's main page where users spend most of their time, so we were selective about how we display information and what features to include through several iterations.
For posts, I considered option 1 for its simplicity - users could quickly acknowledge posts when they don't have time for detailed responses.
I went with option 2 to avoid the social media feel of uninvolved reactions while accommodating different communication styles from our user interviews. This emphasises in depth responses and encourages actual conversation through calls and video calls.
Quick responses for users on the move
Replies likely to be superficial
Option 1
Factors in multiple communication styles
Requires users to pay full attention
Option 2
Posting an experience
For this iteration, we included both typing and voice input to accommodate different communication styles. This also accommodates for “in-the-moment responses”, in which users might not be able to type but can easily speak their thoughts.
I also updated the information hierarchy, moving Location to the top since it's one of the most important pieces of information users input, making sure it's prominent.
Less cognitive overload
Unclear Information Heirarchy
Add caption - How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?
Saturday, April 12 at 12:50 AM
Add title - What did you do?
Title this moment...
0/60 characters remaining
Add caption - How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?
Write your thoughts here...
Emotions
Happy
Sad
Sensitive
Angry
Location
Add location...
Post
New Moment
Option 1
Accounts for different communication styles
Unclear Information Heirarchy
Add caption - How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?
Saturday, April 12 at 12:50 AM
Add title - What did you do?
Sunset moment at beach
38/60 characters remaining
Location
Dana Point Beach
Share your thoughts - How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?
Type your thoughts...
Speak your thoughts...
Type your thoughts here...
Emotions
Happy
Surprised
Sad
Sensitive
Angry
Tired
Add Custom Emotion
Share Moment
New Moment
Option 2
Color of the app interface
For the interface's background color, we debated between two colors: a grainy background (hex #ECECEA) or a white background(hex #FAF96).
We considered option 1 because the grainy look felt more journal-like, which matched our app's feel and was easier on the eyes.
But we went with option 2 since users would mostly use the app while outside - a brighter screen is more readable in sunlight for better usability.
Journal-feel
Too dim for outside use
Add caption - How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?
Saturday, April 12 at 12:50 AM
Add title - What did you do?
Sunset moment at beach
38/60 characters remaining
Location
Dana Point Beach
Share your thoughts - How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?
Type your thoughts...
Speak your thoughts...
Type your thoughts here...
Emotions
Happy
Surprised
Sad
Sensitive
Angry
Tired
Add Custom Emotion
Share Moment
New Moment
Option 1
#ECECEA
Great for outside use
May be too bright for some
Add caption - How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?
Saturday, April 12 at 12:50 AM
Add title - What did you do?
Sunset moment at beach
38/60 characters remaining
Location
Dana Point Beach
Share your thoughts - How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?
Type your thoughts...
Speak your thoughts...
Type your thoughts here...
Emotions
Happy
Surprised
Sad
Sensitive
Angry
Tired
Add Custom Emotion
Share Moment
New Moment
Option 2
#FAF96
Iterations on the Profile Page
On the profile page, users can see their friends and past shared experiences. We considered option 1 for its cleaner look where names are easy to see and stand out.
However, we ended up going with option 2 since it's a more familiar design pattern that better differentiates between user profiles and the types of activities users can engage in
User names easy to read
Does not differentiate between user profiles and activity
Ready to share?
Snap a pic and add a few details
Share a moment
Share Moments
Start Something Together
Choose a person...
Cinnn
Wennyy
Jess bess
So Sunny
Naddi
Jayayay
See All Friends
Home
Share
Chat
Profile
Option 1
Common design pattern
User profiles harder to see and read
Ready to share?
Snap a pic and add a few details
Share a moment
Home
Share
Chat
Profile
Share Moments
Start Something Together
Choose a person...
Cinnn
Wennyy
Justina
So Sunny
Nadia
Jayayay
See All Friends
Option 2
Hey Justina, let’s...
Choose an activity
Watch...
Listen...
Play...
Avengers
Dune 2
Wicked
Peppa Pig
Jubilee Odd...
Solo Leveling
Custom activity
Surprise me!
Search titles...
Home
Share
Chat
Profile
Share Moments
Select this activity
This is what activities look like. Observe how the boxes are similar to option 1 (hence harder to differentiate)
USER TESTING AND FINALISING THE PRODUCT
Getting feedback and polishing the user experience
After developing our beta version, we released Yumi to a select group of users for testing.
During user testing, we noticed users were unsure if their posts had successfully gone through, so we added a confirmation feature.
Since feedback is one of Norman's key design principles, this was an important addition to ensure users felt confident using the app.
No feedback
Option 1
Successful share feedback
Option 2
FINAL PRODUCT
After hours of researching, brainstorming, prototyping, testing, and having lots of fun, we are honored to present..
yumi
Home : Toggle between Map view and Feed view
Do activities with friends
Journal authentically
REFLECTIONS
What building Yumi taught me...
Tell me, what is your value proposition?
My partner and I had to keep realigning on our value proposition since there are so many social media apps trying to connect people across long distances, busy schedules, and time zones. We had to deeply reflect on what we're uniquely offering that is not already in the market.
The greatest gift of design? Collaboration.
We were able to finish this project because of all the incredible feedback we got from our mentors, colleagues, and other designers. It's very tempting to think that the first solution you came up with is the best one, but as the law of large numbers suggests, the more people contributing to the product, the closer you'll get to the ideal solution - other people are always full of fresh ideas.
If we had more time...
...we would have liked to expand and flesh out our "shared experiences" flow since it's one of the biggest features of the app. We would also explore the role of notifications in encouraging users to journal and share their days.
