Bondfire

Inspiration

Bondfire draws inspiration from card question decks such as We're Not Really Strangers, interactive online formats such as Jackbox Games, and BeReal, the daily update photo app. In different contexts, each has been successful in creating authentic connections, and bondfire incorporates aspects of each into its design: authentic questions, well-designed icebreakers, and low-stakes updates.

What it does

Making genuine connections you check back on consistently is hard to do through technology. Social networks which explicitly center on making friends often fail to gain traction. However, establishing long-term relationships is incredibly important, and we decided to tackle it here.

Although making friends is ultimately a spontaneous process, Bondfire does its best to remove barriers to the process. It acknowledges continual group effort through streaks, adapts to ask questions that feel appropriate, and uses low-commitment daily check-ins to spark curiosity.

How we built it

We created the design in Figma. For the graphics, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop were used.

Challenges we ran into

Settling on what we wanted to build was the hardest part. The whole hackathon was a brainstorming session, and we settled on a design prototype because we weren't sure what would work best. Initially starting as a survey app similar to Mentimeter that would group similar (or different!) personalities together, we transitioned towards a more general purpose app that would be suitable for both strangers and schools or universities.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Thoughts on our app and the problem as a whole:

The idea of grouping people by personality types and explicitly naming them to foster a sense of community makes sense in some contexts, but can cause problems in others. The MBTI personality test ("the adventurer", "the logician", "the defender") avoids negative labels, but fails to recognize the often fluid nature of personality as a whole.

There are significant differences between how people make friends: interests, personalities + gossip, and life events are all valid ways of forming connections. Roughly, these correlate to people who enjoy puzzles and games, personality tests, and messaging (intellectual, social, emotional), and so we incorporated all of them into bondfire. We tend to believe that these can all make sense for someone, but at different times, and based on time of day, time to response, and other variables, bondfire can adjust its future questions accordingly.

The idea of a social app that is very low-stakes, but still creates real connections is really promising. Strategies that could be employed for such an app include standard gamification ("streaks" for days which have two or more responses), sparking competition and group lore (games which come up every few days, and scoreboards along different axis), and foot-in-the-door notifications which leverage natural curiosity to promote engagement.

What we learned

We learned more about Figma, UI and UX design, and the process of understanding what works about other apps to create our own. We also learned about the different approaches people use to find connection, both online and offline, and some common pitfalls for similar apps.

What's next for Bondfire

Bondfire is a study of social media and how technology might be able to help mediate social connections. Because the problem itself is so difficult, the concept needs further development; however, we learned a lot by reflecting on the current limitations app-driven solutions face and thinking about where it might be extended.

Built With

• adobe-illustrator
• figma
• krita
• photoshop