Resona - Making Emotions Visible

Inspiration Human environments are filled with invisible emotional signals. In classrooms, offices, and social gatherings, people constantly influence each other's mood, energy and stress levels. However, these emotional atmospheres are difficult to perceive and even harder to measure. Our team began wondering: What if emotional environments could be sensed and visualized the same way we track physical health or environmental data? This idea inspired Resona, a system that transforms invisible emotional signals into meaningful visual insights. By combining wearable sensing with a mobile interface, Resona aims to help people better understand the emotional dynamics of shared spaces and make healthier, more empathetic decisions. The goal is simple: turn emotional awareness into an actionable experience.

What it does Resona is a wearable and mobile application system designed to sense, visualize and respond to emotional atmospheres in shared environments. The system consists of two main components:

Resona Wearable A wristband equipped with sensors that collect signals such as: • heart rate patterns • movement and activity levels • behavioral indicators These signals help estimate emotional intensity and environmental energy.
Resona Mobile Application The mobile app transforms sensor data into visual insights, including: • emotional atmosphere dashboards • emotional heatmaps and pulse graphs • AI-generated insights and predictions • wellness tools such as breathing exercises and calm soundscapes Together, the wearable and the app help users understand emotional dynamics and take actions to improve well-being.

How we built it Resona was designed as a conceptual product ecosystem combining physical product design and digital interaction design. Our process included: Product Concept Development We first explored how emotional environments influence productivity, stress, and social interactions. This helped define the problem space and the value of emotional sensing technology. Experience Design We designed the mobile application to visualize emotional information through intuitive formats such as: • emotion maps • pulse graphs • predictive insights • guided wellness tools These visualizations translate complex emotional signals into easy-to-understand experiences. Interface Design Using Figma, we created a full mobile interface including: • onboarding flows • emotional dashboards • insights and analytics screens • intervention tools • profile and settings screens Prototyping We developed interactive prototypes that simulate how the wearable and mobile application work together. These prototypes demonstrate the complete user experience from sensing emotional signals to providing actionable insights.

Challenges we ran into Designing Resona involved several challenges. Visualizing abstract emotions Emotions are complex and subjective, so one challenge was designing visual systems that represent emotional states without oversimplifying them. Balancing technology and empathy We needed to ensure the system felt supportive rather than intrusive. Emotional sensing must be ethical, private and respectful of personal boundaries. Integrating physical and digital products Creating a seamless relationship between the wearable device and the mobile application required careful thinking about data flow, interaction design and user experience. Designing meaningful insights Instead of overwhelming users with data, we focused on presenting insights that are clear, useful and actionable.

Accomplishments that we're proud of We are proud of several aspects of the Resona project. • Designing a complete product ecosystem that includes both wearable hardware and mobile software • Creating 40+ mobile interface screens that demonstrate a full emotional sensing experience • Developing clear emotional visualization systems such as atmosphere maps and emotional pulse graphs • Building a concept that explores the future of emotional awareness technology Most importantly, we created a project that encourages people to think about emotional environments as something that can be understood and improved.

What we learned Working on Resona helped us learn important lessons about design and technology. We learned how to: • design experiences that visualize intangible human emotions • create cohesive product ecosystems across physical and digital platforms • balance data, privacy, and emotional well-being in a meaningful way • communicate complex ideas through clear visual interfaces The project also helped us better understand the role of design in shaping empathetic technologies for the future.

What's next for Resona - Making Emotions Visible Resona opens possibilities for many future applications. In the future, the system could expand to environments such as: • classrooms and educational spaces • workplaces and collaborative teams • public spaces and social events With further development, Resona could integrate advanced technologies such as: • AI-driven emotional prediction • spatial emotion mapping • immersive AR/VR emotional visualization Our vision is to create tools that help people understand emotional environments and build healthier human interactions. Resona represents a step toward a future where emotional awareness becomes part of everyday technology.