Turning “we should hang out” into “see you there.” A social discovery and planning experience that helps friends find common interests, make plans, and spend more time together.
Company
Academic Project
Timeline
6 weeks
Role
Lead UI/UX Designer
Project Overview
Sync is a social activity discovery and planning app designed to turn “we should hang out” into “see you there.” Through a playful swipe-based experience, Sync helps friends discover shared interests, explore new activities, and turn mutual excitement into real-world plans. By bringing discovery and coordination into one space, Sync takes the pressure out of planning and makes it easier to spend meaningful time together.
Challenge
Despite being more digitally connected than ever, making plans with friends can feel surprisingly complicated. Between endless group chats, conflicting schedules, different interests, and the pressure of coordinating everyone, even the most exciting ideas often never happen. The challenge was to rethink the way friends make plans by reducing decision fatigue, simplifying group coordination, and creating a low-pressure experience that encourages people to move beyond the group chat and connect in real life.
01 / Problem
The Problem & Opportunity
Making plans should be easy. So why is it so hard?
We have endless ways to stay connected, yet getting together in person still feels unnecessarily complicated.
Plans get lost in group chats.
Choosing what to do becomes a group negotiation.
Everyone wants to hang out, but nobody wants to coordinate.
Plans don't always fall apart because people aren't interested.
Sometimes, making them happen is just too much work.
What if making plans actually worked?
How might we make it easier for friends to discover shared interests and turn them into real-world experiences, without the pressure of coordinating everyone?
02 / Research & Discovery
Research & Discovery
The hardest part of making plans isn't always finding time.
To understand why casual plans fall through, I conducted informal interviews about how people coordinate activities with friends.
Their experiences revealed three sources of friction.
01
Even saying yes can take effort.
One participant described leaving invitations unanswered because they wanted to research the suggested activity before committing.
02
Logistics get in the way of spontaneity.
Coordinating across different locations and busy schedules makes even casual hangouts complicated.
03
People don't always express what they actually want.
Different preferences and the desire to accommodate friends can make choosing an activity harder.
Visual: Your actual interview notes, arranged as a research collage with highlighted observations from Ken and Sarah/Liam.
A MOMENT THAT STOOD OUT
“I literally haven’t answered yet because I gotta look up the place and see what it is first.”
— Ken, interview participant · Excerpt
03 / Design Process & Iteration
Design Process & Iteration
What if finding common ground didn't require a conversation?
Instead of asking friends to collectively decide what to do, Sync lets everyone explore activities independently.
Discover activities you genuinely want to try.
Express interest with a simple swipe.
See when friends are interested in the same things.
EVOLVING THE EXPERIENCE
A match is a possibility, not a commitment.
As the concept developed, I recognized that discovering shared interests and committing to a plan needed to be separate interactions.
Matched: Friends have expressed interest in the same activity.
Planning: A time or place is being proposed, and friends can respond.
Confirmed: The plan is happening, and others can still join.
A KEY DESIGN DECISION
Not everyone has to say yes for something to happen.
Traditional group planning can make attendance feel like an all-or-nothing decision.
Sync takes a different approach:
Friends respond individually.
Plans can happen with whoever is available.
Nobody has to become the designated organizer.
Others can still join after a plan is confirmed.
The goal isn't perfect attendance. It's more time spent together.
04 / Solution
Final Solution
Less coordinating. More connecting.
Sync brings activity discovery, shared interests, and social planning into one experience, making it easier for friendships to move beyond the group chat.
01 / DISCOVER
Find something worth saying yes to.
Explore curated activities and swipe on what interests you, without the pressure of making plans right away.
02 / CIRCLES
Different friends. Different interests. More possibilities.
Organize friendships into circles and discover activities you have in common with each group.
03 / PLANS
Make plans without becoming the planner.
Turn matches into plans, see who's available, and keep everyone in the loop without chasing responses.
04 / PROFILE
Your interests. Your people. Your memories.
Personalize what you love and revisit the experiences that made it out of the group chat.
05 / Value
Value, Viability & Trade-offs
A social experience built around real behavior.
Desirability — Make connection feel effortless.
Interviews revealed friction around decisions, logistics, and social preferences. Sync explores a lower-pressure way to make plans with friends.
Feasibility — Build on familiar interactions.
Swiping, interest matching, circles, and RSVPs create a recognizable experience. Real-time coordination and activity data would require further development.
Viability — Connect discovery with action.
Bringing activity discovery and planning together creates opportunities to explore future partnerships with local venues and event providers.
06/ Reflection
Reflection
The best social technology helps us put our phones down.
Sync started as a behavior-change challenge and evolved into a social discovery and planning prototype.
Design for intention, not obligation.
Expressing interest should be easy, and committing should always be a separate choice.
Remove the pressure of group consensus.
Meaningful social experiences don't require everyone to participate.
Design for what happens beyond the screen.
The real goal isn't more swipes or matches. It's helping people spend time together.
WHAT'S NEXT
From prototype to real-world connection.
The next step is testing Sync's end-to-end experience with users to understand whether they can easily discover activities, recognize matches, and coordinate plans without additional friction.
Visual: A final, large composition of your strongest Sync screens, ending with the logo.
More “we did.” Less “we should.”
Because the best part of making plans is actually being there.
