Rooted.

1. Prototype link (Please submit a link to a playable prototype, not a link to your design file) Link

2. Describe your project (max 150 words) “What is being human?” Humans are animals that strive to live and co-exist together, finding meaning in humanly interactions. Being part of a community that resonates with our identity is a significant part of the human experience. Oftentimes, our fundamental sense of identity and origin come from our upbringing.

Previously, we had talked to a teacher who adopted her daughter from China. Her quote really inspired this project: "To be an adoptee can be very hard…They’ve lost a biological family. For a transracial adoptee, they’ve lost a culture. Studies have shown that adoptees struggle with significantly more mental health challenges compared to their non-adopted peers."

Reminded of the stories she shared, we designed Rooted to build a community for adoptees to share their experiences with one another but also provide answers and support for those wishing to know more about who they are and where they come from.

1. Describe your research process and findings. If you conducted any surveys or interviews, please include the survey form and/or interview questions here. If you conducted secondary research by pulling from online sources, please include a link to your sources. (Max 500 words) Due to the nature of our product, it was crucial to understand people who have been through the adoption process in childhood, as well as general users of online communities and resources. We focused on secondary research to learn about adoption experiences, behavioral trends of adoptees in adulthood, and challenges they face in reconnecting with their past. Given the time constraints of this hackathon, we also conducted an online survey to understand user behaviors related to reconnecting with past connections and the perceived value of these relationships.
   

Through secondary research, we found that most adopted children seek some level of reconnection with their birth parents, either out of curiosity about their adoption or to learn about their origins. This was true even for adoptees who were happy with their adoptive families. According to the American Adoption Congress, 72% of adopted adolescents want to know why they were adopted, 65% want to meet their birth parents, and 94% want to know which birth parent they resemble. Many adoptees also search for medical and family history records, often through adoption centers, as understanding hereditary health risks is a common motivation for reconnecting.

Our survey highlighted the barriers and motivations people experience when reconnecting with past connections. The majority of respondents wanted to reconnect but cited fear of awkwardness and difficulty finding contact information as the most common barriers. Social media was the preferred method for reaching out, but users found it invasive for distant or estranged connections. When asked about key factors for identifying a past connection online, respondents most frequently selected profile pictures, shared hometowns, and mutual connections. These findings reinforced the need for a designated space where users can proactively search for past connections and helped us determine what information should be available in our app.

Participants had mixed preferences regarding anonymity in online communities. While some were comfortable sharing their name, school, or hometown, others preferred limiting exposure to age or profile images. Under the premise of reconnecting, users were more willing to share identifying details but still valued privacy controls. Additionally, users were divided on whether sub-threads in online communities should be exclusive to identity-based groups or open to all, suggesting that both private and public connection features should be available.

These insights guided our approach in designing an application that balances privacy with meaningful connection. Our platform leverages AI to streamline adoptee searches by location and adoption center, facilitate contact with relevant organizations, provide helpful resources, and offer translation support. Features like anonymous browsing, selective identity exposure, and structured reconnection tools help mitigate the invasiveness of traditional social media.

By integrating these findings, our product aims to provide a safe and effective way for adoptees to find belonging—whether through birth families, shared communities, or mentorship from those with similar experiences.

1. Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions? (Max 500 words) From our survey and research, we were able to discover that most people prefer to be in an exclusive community with only those who resonate with their personal identities, rather than an open-to-all community platform. This became a large factor in our decision when creating the community sector of Rooted. We created the community dashboard feature on the product in hopes of users having a place to ask questions and receive answers, with their choice of being displayed as anonymous and identifiable. However, after our survey we realized people may want to also be in a more exclusive community, for a further sense of belonging. For this reason we created a feature where through verification, one can enter smaller communities within the app that resonate more with their identity of place of origin.

Instead of choosing a single dominating feature for Rooted, we decided to create both community and “Find people” features. This was because we did not want to assume that everyone wanted to find their birth parents, and also saw value in just having a safe space to talk about or discuss personal experiences. Through the past interviews and conversations we have had with adoptees, we also realized that their experiences with finding resources may be difficult, as there are not many spaces where such resources are centralized. So, we wanted to create a product that could be a one-in-all resource to adoptees, to make their experiences easier. That is why we also included a Resources tab, for it to be a hub of information that includes all kinds of helpful links and articles. For those who want to find their birth parents, we included resources that could lead them closer to finding them. For those who want resources to help sustain a more independent life, we included sections to many “How To:...” instructions. For those who want guidance or mental health assistance, a section dedicated to mental health resources.

We also decided to include AI, not replacing the human connection but to facilitate easier connections with family or past acquaintances. Where the goal is to reconnect with humans and find belonging in a community, AI is able to assist in aspects of finding those you wish to connect with. For example, we decided AI should be incorporated in the people searching service, suggesting people (whether it be family, friends, or community) based on the information given on the user’s profile (location, birth country, birth hospital, etc). In the case of initiating contact, from our surveys we found that people struggle with reaching out to past connections, as they are afraid of awkward interactions or do not know what to say. For this reason if the user wishes, AI can send them a message in a requesting format to reconnect. AI in the app will also be able to translate documents or conversations, in case of the user being a transracial or international adoptee. For a goal that is to enhance one’s humanly experience, AI can be used in different ways to assist, rather than dominate.

Built With

• figma