Sonder Installation

Landing Page
Digital simulation of augmented mirror
Visualization of shredder room
Digital simulation of the shredder room
Visualizaion of reflection room
Visualization of drawer room
Hi-Fidelity design

Inspiration

We came across a Reddit thread during our research phase, discussing how our relationship with the internet has shifted over time. A reddit user mentioned that the Internet was once a place we’d go on to settle down and relax, but now it’s become something we need to take a break from. This sparked inspiration for us to create a physical space rather than a digital tool.

This led us to our driving question: How might we transform feelings of overwhelm in a physical space through a shared experience of understanding?

What it does

We designed The Sonder Installation, a space that transforms the invisible feeling of overwhelm into a tangible experience. It invites individuals to externalize their thoughts that are often kept bottled inside, whether it’s done consciously or unconsciously, and cognitively offload that noise to a tangible medium they can control, touch, and eventually destroy.

How we built it

Using software such as Blender and Figma, we created the walkthrough simulation of the installation, allowing individuals to experience the installation digitally and get a sense of how it would work in a physical space. With the help of AI tools such as Gemini AI and Notability, we were able to transform our large brain dump of chaotic post-it notes into actionable statements that gave us a clearer direction to follow. These tools also helped us organize and synthesize our ideas, especially when it came to simplifying research papers and extracting the most relevant insights to our design decisions.

Challenges we ran into

Choosing to design a physical space made it difficult to visualize how we would translate the experience into a working Figma prototype, as we had to represent 3D spatial interactions on a 2D plane. We had to imagine how users would move through and interact with elements on a screen rather than in person. While this did limit our ability to fully visualize the physical space, with tight deadlines, it pushed us to focus on key interactions rather than the full environment.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Overall, we are proud of the progress we made with our prototype and managing to work around complications with design tools, idea generation, and tight deadlines. Creating an experience for viewers to reconnect with themselves and process their emotions in a constructive way improves our own abilities to empathize and create digital experiences for others.

What we learned

In the process of creating The Sonder Installation, we learned that designing solutions doesn’t always require the creation of a digital tool. We spent a lot of time initally by over-analyzing app concepts, focused on trying to come up with the most novel idea, but realized that focusing only on digital solutions was only limting ourselves.

What's next for Sonder Installation

We plan to expand The Sonder Installation Simulation into a physical space; that way, individuals could fully interact with it. Our goal is to ultimately create an environment where individuals can freely process their emotions through both personal reflection and shared experiences with others. We want this installation to evolve into adaptable pop-ups in spaces like campuses, museums, or wellness spaces, increasing accessibility and allowing it to reach a variety of different audiences.