The room
nobody
was designing
for
Loneliness
Group capstone project, team of 6 · UX Interaction Design, final year
Nomi
Tasks
Design lead
Prototype direction
Document Design
Final presentation design
Directing the interaction model prototype and unifying individually-developed widgets into a cohesive interface
Home
A digital family board, mounted on the wall as a piece of furniture, built for older adults living alone. Designed for Murrindindi Shire Council as part of a brief to support ageing in place community, either as a feature built into new housing developments or as a standalone product sold on its own. Most existing solutions on the market handle physical safety. We chose to build for the gap: loneliness.
Tools
Figma
Photoshop
InDesign
Miro
Problem
Most assistive tech for ageing in place handles physical safety like fall detection, medication reminders, emergency alerts. Necessary, but it only covers half the problem. The other half is mental & loneliness, and it's the half people don't talk about. Strong social ties can extend life expectancy by 50%, and weak ones carry health risks comparable to smoking. Yet admitting you're lonely can feel like admitting you're a burden, so older adults living alone tend to hide it rather than name it, even from the people who'd want to know.
The
Idea
Pronounced "know me" The name speaks the idea: staying known to the people who you love and love you, even when you're not in the same room. It also draws from "Naomi" (Hebrew, "pleasant, beautiful") and Japanese readings of the same sound that fits a product meant to live in someone's home, not announce itself as "smart tech"
Why Nomi:
All the platform just got the same top 10 list city dinner. I already know those places and they're always crowded
Research speaks:
Understanding the player and the city
Five Melbourne locals joined a focus group to talk about how they move through the city at night and the pattern was consistent. Most nights felt predictable, cycling through the same bars and the same routines, even in a city with as much to offer as Melbourne's CBD. That familiarity was the gap the design needed to fill.
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All 5 agreed clues needed to be short and poetic. Long text could kill the mood but if a story worth following, They'd stay for that.
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70% raised safety and walkability unprompted, which shaped every location choice toward central, well-lit, familiar streets.
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4 out of 5 responded positively to digital collectibles like a photo strip, a fortune cookie, a bookmark for something to hold onto after it ended
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All 5 saw it primarily as a date activity, though most said they'd try it with close friends too.
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All 5 were already confident navigating the CBD on foot, which meant clues could stay subtle and poetic. The city could do the work.
Design Challenge:
Empathise with
the users
User interviews and testing revealed a clear pattern, people knew Melbourne city had more to offer, but routine kept pulling them back to the same places. Most location-based apps weren't helping, either too guided or too game-like to feel like a real night out.
The real problem was how to build something with all the structure of a game without it ever feeling like one? The interface had to stay invisible enough for the story to breathe, but clear enough that people knew what to do next. The writing had to earn the walk. And the locations had to do emotional work, not just serve as coordinates.
The wider literature on locative media focuses almost entirely on museums and tourism. There was almost no guidance on designing for night-time urban exploration, or for storytelling that is intimate rather than educational. That gap was the opportunity.
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Construction
Early brainstorming
Design process
I began by mapping how stories could live in real places. Early brainstorming linked Melbourne’s hidden corners like bookshops, rooftops, laneways to emotional moments of a fleeting night encounter. From there, I developed several mind maps and storyboards to connect each location to a narrative clue, visual tone, and potential reward.
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Secondary research into locative storytelling, Melbourne’s night culture, and mobile interaction patterns helped refine the concept and define my target audience, people who already move through the city after dark but seek something more meaningful than nightlife.I also tested early ideas with a few participants from this audience group, walking through proposed locations to evaluate atmosphere, accessibility, and story fit.
These findings guided the structure of the narrative and established the emotional rhythm of the treasure-hunt journey.
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How might we transform familiar Melbourne night streets into an interactive story that feels nostalgic, mysterious, and worth uncovering?
"
Tonight Again
A story-driven app that invites people to see Melbourne after dark in another layer as more than somewhere to get wasted.
The quieter side of the night, through an early - 2000s romance. Users piece together where each moment happened, then use in app navigation to reach the location, unlock rewards, and the next part of the story.
A different kind of night out
where Melbourne becomes the story.
Visual identity
that designed for a night-time interface : dark minimal paired with orange, just enough contrast against city night while keeping the focus on clues and journey.
JetBrains Mono reads as output rather than design. In Tonight Again, that's the point, the interface isn't guiding the user through a story, it's surfacing a record of one.
Usability testing
Field observations, key findings and design responses from real-world testing
Seven participants, 22–30, all regular CBD night visitors. Sessions ran across six real Melbourne locations between 6:30–9:30 pm. Participants used their own phones; the facilitator accompanied crossings for safety. Think-aloud feedback and post-session reflection were recorded on a secondary phone.
What I found :
Participants responded strongly to the story's intimacy and the feeling of rediscovering familiar spaces they already knew
I felt like going through someone's diary, not just a game that we just wanna win over. Interesting.
Quiet locations like The Paperback Bookshop created genuine immersion people paused, slowed down , read, and enjoy the vibe
Long text make me stop walking.
The app works better as a pair activity: Participants felt safer and more engaged with a companion.
It'd be fun doing this with my besties, we get to discuss and hob around
Coupon and collectibles landed as meaningful, not transactional. Participants described the photo strip and poetic notes as things they'd keep and share.
Iterations :
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Scroll cue added to clue and story pages
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Greeting text increased in size and contrast
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Clue text shortened for in-motion readability
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Venue hours shown in navigation so no one arrives after close