Hand Holding App; Product Design

User Interviews

Couples like to feel close, connected. From wearing similar clothing, to similar hair styles, to jewelry. Think about it, married couples wear matching rings as a symbol of their bond.

Even without the symbols, couples will fill that desire to be connected. Giving your partner a piggy back ride, lift them up in the air, a hug, cuddling, and holding hands. It’s a connection that fulfills something in us to feel that connection.

Even outside of a couple in a relationship, holding hands is a connection that helps someone when they need it. Such as guiding them across a street, showing them support to face a fear, or to show someone gratitude when you shake their hand.

So what happens when people are unable to reach each other physically? Technology attempts to step in. From friendship lamps, to hand held devices that communicate pressure to each other. It’s all cute, but I’m already holding a phone most of the time, why not just use that? That’s my idea, but what do others feel?

I took my question to the public, some friends I have, and people I know around me. I targeted people of adult age, who are in a current relationship, and have had some long-distance experience. While data from people who have had relationships prior could be valuable, I wanted to be able to hear feedback about potentially cutting edge technology.

I asked how they met their significant other, I was curious to see if they met using apps, and if they continued to use those apps after meeting each other. But in all of my interviews, they had all met in person first. The one couple that met over Tinder dropped the app shortly afterwards.

So then I asked how they regularly communicate with their significant other when they were apart, both in the present, and how they did using past technology. Most of the answers are centered around apps designed for communication. Such as the modern Discord, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat, to the older Skype, and a couple niche uses of direct messages over Twitter and DeviantArt.

When asked the question, what they enjoyed from one app over the other, there was no real reason to choose one app over another. One person enjoyed the stickers on FB to share how they feel, but they have since adapted to using gif search services to be used across any app they’re communicating with. Apps with both Voice and Video options are a nice feature, but not an everyday occurrence to warrant the exclusive use of that app over what they normally use. The question of which was their app of choice was met with the answer of convenience. It was an app, or website, where they already spent much of their time, in a community they already were a part of, or an app they both already own.

I probed further to ask if there were any new features they wished these apps could do for them. They all agreed that Video, and Voice can only do so much. A comforting touch, or a hug, was too far away. One idea came to a potential user from the show ‘Orange is the new Black’ where communication with a partner on the outside was only limited to the meaningful things they wanted to share. All of the daily communication about each others day made couples feel less connected. They wanted a way to fill in that information, when it couldn’t be communicated manually.

Overall, there does seem to be a need from other users who could find the app I have in mind rewarding. One interesting detail to note in these interviews was that a couple who were long-distance over a week or less were perfectly fine. It’s only in the long-term cases where the desire to feel connected grows enough to need fulfillment in both the relationship with a partner and one with a close friend or family. While the app I have in mind would help those in a relationship, I can’t help but see an untapped need for individuals who are less intimate with each other. It’s something that our app wouldn’t satisfy.

Competitive Analysis

What does the current market for our app look like? There are two other products currently available on the market with similar functionality. One is the Long-distance Friendship Lamp ‘Filimin’. With a price tag of $85–170. It simply plugs into your router and wall outlet. Connectivity is easy, and is already setup if they were purchased together.

And then there is the Frebble, a kickstarted project with a price tag of 76 euro, or roughly $84 USD. There are cheaper do-it-yourself versions available. But throws convenience out the window to 3D print and assemble yourself. The devices require a bluetooth and shared internet connection to create the functionality.

Given a competitive landscape, you can arrange the items by price, with our app product being on the cheaper end. Far, far cheaper. But I want to show a landscape on the subject of portability. The Filimin stays at home, not just at home actually, but connected via ethernet cable to your router. The Frebble can be charged and taken with you. But since its connectivity is granted through your phone, you’re likely to have one hand on your phone, and the other on the device. It’s portable, but you’re carrying around a device throughout the rest of your day that doesn’t serve any other use. And while it would still be on par with the portability of our phone app. The Frebble hasn’t seen any updates since last year. Which leaves their users welcome to enter into our own market.

a PEST Analysis of our product opens up several unintended possibilties that could become positive influencers.

Political: I could imagine both government individuals and long distance business agreements going down with our app being used to shake hands remotely. It’s far fetched perhaps, but if app were easy enough to connect too while in a phone call, it could become an influencer. We could even store logs of the handshake agreement and allow users to tweet them out. ‘I shook the Queens hand!’

Economic: Winter Holidays and Valentines day will be a great opportunity for promotional offers.

Social: We’re creating connections in our inner social circles. With our partners, our friends and our family. Although our app is primarily designed for couples, it’s not required. Some cultures enjoy a friendly touch when they talk. Long distance social connections are exactly what we’re designing our app for.

Technology: The typical smart phone has a great deal of gyroscopic features that our app can instantly benefit from. But what about feedback? For a very long time in the video game world, realistic force feedback controls were behind an expensive patent. In modern times, we can use vibration technology to resemble the feeling of holding a box, with invisible ball bearings inside of it. By moving the box(controller), you can accurately predict the number of random bearings inside that invisible box. I’m talking about the game 1–2-Switch for the Nintendo Switch. Force feedback in phones are not up to par. But an app of this nature, given enough of the above influencers, could push the mobile market to integrate better force feedback technology. Which our app would benefit from. In the short term, I think we will look into developing our app to be available over the Nintendo Switch as well.

Product Design

I made this app for myself. My Girlfriend is my Best Friend. As much as we can text, talk, or video chat with each other over the phone. It doesn’t replace the physical connection of actually being together. Our app isn’t meant to replace physical touch. It’s meant to give us a physical connection that we can share with each other.

A voice is an audio connection. An image is visual. Video, is an even better visual connection. Playing video games together can fulfill a social connection. But none of these give us any physical feedback. There’s a lack of resources to fulfill the need for a physical connection.

Our app helps people have a physical connection with each other. It’s a toy, it’s something for fun. It’s something I can communicate through my smart phone by using the gyroscope and touch screen on my phone to communicate with my partner on a physical level. We can also use the app to pretend we’re holding each others hand. With a little bit of force feedback, we’ll be able to sway our arms in harmony as we walk together.

So what does an app like this look like? Using Wireframes we can plan out the user experience.

• I want to hold my girlfriends hand to feel connected.
  > Top left, This is the interaction screen. The app will have a tiny bar to display who I’m connected with, the session time, and a button for settings. The rest of the screen will be available to interact with, to pick up touches, swipes. The phone itself will be recording movement using its built in gyroscope.
• I want to add my family and friends so that I can connect to them.
  > Bottom left, This is the users profiles screen. A list of the profiles you have of people who also share the app with you, and can be connected with. The app will have the option to add additional connection profiles by selecting users from your contact list. If they do not own the app, they will be sent a request that you wish to connect to them using our app. This screen will also allow the user to select which profile they wish to connect with. When one user is connected, it will send a notification to the other users app. When both parties are connected, they will be taken to the interaction screen.
• I want to adjust how much my phone is allowed to interact with another person, because I want to preserve battery life.
  > Image Right, This is the settings page, a user will be able to scroll down a long list of various settings such as: To adjust if their device is allowed to run over 4G, or wifi. The app permissions that they have allowed. Type of notifications. Type of software updates. And other similar customization features.

Not shown is a user menu that would allow the user to select to end a session, go to their contacts, or settings page. This would be accessed by the small icon from the Interaction screen.

At this stage, we hope to build a Minimum Viable Product, and to test the functionality of its main feature, the interaction. And collect user feedback to develop a product that satisfies our desire to feel connected. Would it actually help? We don’t know, but the potential is there, and even if it doesn’t fully satisfy us, it’ll still be fun to play around with as a novelty that could find success in a market we weren’t aware of.