Tether

concept

How does Tether help noise fade into connection?

about tether

Tether is used when you're preparing for or navigating a difficult conversation—whether you're addressing a conflict, opening up about a sensitive topic, or reaching out to a friend who's struggling.

What can users accomplish?

Prepare for vulnerable conversations by setting intentions, aligning expectations, and practicing gratitude.
Access structured prompts to guide communication before, during, and after the conversation.
Reflect afterward to process the experience and strengthen future communication.

Process

Tether was a step by step journey full of curiosity, iteration, compassion...and more iteration. Look back with us!

Needfinding

This presentation covers our needfinding interviews — through open-ended questions and non-judgemental listening, we uncovered emotions and pain-points relevant to the loneliness epidemic.

slides (pdf) slides (pptx)

Experience Prototypes

We defined our problem with "Point of View" statements and solutions using "How Might We" statements. Then we prototyped the ideas behind our solutions.

slides (pdf) slides (pptx)

Concept Video

We captured our app's idea through a creative concept video that features several user task flows and the essential use cases of our app.

Video (link) Video (mp4) slides (pdf) slides (pptx)

Low-Fi Prototyping

We sketched realizations of Tether and created a paper prototype of the first iteration of our UI. We then conducted usability testing with specific metrics and filmed the process.

slides (pdf) slides (pptx)