Project Resonance for Graduate students

Inspiration

This project was inspired by a tension we see in everyday life: technology has made us more connected and more stimulated, but often less self-aware. So much of the digital world is built to capture attention, pull us outward, and keep us reacting. We wanted to explore the opposite idea — what if technology could help people turn inward instead? What if it could help them notice what they are feeling before they rationalize past it?

That question felt especially relevant for graduate students, who are often navigating stress, ambition, loneliness, identity shifts, and constant performance all at once. In that environment, many important decisions are not just intellectual — they are deeply emotional and physical. Our inspiration for Resonance was to imagine a future where technology does not only make us faster or more productive, but helps us become more aware of ourselves.

What it does

Project Resonance is a wearable and app concept for graduate students that amplifies interoception, the body’s awareness of its internal state. Using signals like heart rate variability, skin conductance, and voice patterns, it translates subtle physiological changes into simple qualitative reads such as Opening, Holding, Contracting, or Settling. The goal is not to tell users what to do, but to help them notice which people, spaces, and experiences make them feel more like themselves, so they can make more informed and aligned choices in their academic, social, and personal lives.

How we built it

We built the project entirely in Figma Make and iterated on it from start to finish within that workflow. We used different models available in the tool, including Sonnet, Opus, and Figma Auto, depending on the kind of design or iteration support we needed. The process was highly iterative. We kept refining the product concept, interaction flow, interface, and storytelling through repeated prompts and adjustments until the experience felt coherent and believable as a future-facing product.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was running out of AI credits after many rounds of iteration. We had explored and revised the concept enough times that we eventually had to rely on teammates’ remaining credits to keep going. Another challenge was the limited control over individual interface elements. While the system was strong at understanding overall intent, it was sometimes harder to make small, precise adjustments exactly the way we wanted. Even so, the process remained relatively smooth and allowed us to move fast.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we were able to take an abstract idea like interoception and turn it into a product concept that feels tangible, human, and relevant. We are also proud of the framing: instead of using technology to capture more attention, we explored how technology could help people become more self-aware. We felt that was a meaningful and different direction. We are also proud that the final concept connects advanced sensing technology with a very real and relatable audience problem for graduate students.

What we learned

One of the biggest things we learned is that future technology does not always have to be about efficiency, speed, or optimization. It can also be about reflection and awareness. In a world where so much technology contributes to distraction, it was interesting to imagine the opposite: technology that helps people slow down and better understand themselves. We also learned how powerful rapid prototyping tools like Figma Make can be for exploring early product ideas, especially when the goal is to quickly test different ways of expressing a concept.

What's next for Project Resonance for Graduate students

The next step for Project Resonance would be to make the concept more concrete through deeper testing and validation. That could include talking directly with graduate students about moments where they feel misaligned, stressed, or unsure of themselves, and understanding whether this kind of tool would genuinely help them. From there, the concept could evolve into a more realistic prototype with clearer sensing flows, stronger privacy controls, and more detailed use cases around academic, social, and emotional wellbeing. Longer term, we see potential for Resonance to become part of a future where technology supports people not just in doing more, but in understanding themselves better.