Strawberry

Inspiration

Inspired by typing out angry reddit posts to rant about guilt from something that seems impossible to be let go; doomscrolling through TikTok and finding comfort in shared struggles; journaling to close a old chapter in our lives; and the overall young adult experience of constantly reminiscing on our past memories, this project provides a calming ritual for releasing the thoughts that replay over and over in your mind, eating you up.

What it does

Ars Oblivion, a Latin phrase meaning "the art of forgetting.”

Send in your regrets or your "what ifs," into a living constellation of stars. Each submission becomes a shooting star, where you may make a wish for the future, taking the first step in moving on.

Afterwards, you are able to observe and reflect on others' regrets, curating this experience not only as growth within oneself, but also as a community: leaving all our regrets to disappear together.

How we built it

We began by brainstorming with Post-it notes, mapping out our own experiences with identity, memories, and culture. From there, we took turns with AI tools to help expand ideas, refine our concept, and explore different ways to present this ritual.

To better understand how people process regret, we conducted UX research through user interviews with peers about their thoughts and experiences with regret. These insights helped us shape the experience around vulnerability, reflection, and community.

We used Are.na to build our mood board and define the branding for this project. This helped us establish the colors, typography, visual style.

Finally, we designed and prototyped in Figma, testing around with low-fidelity flows before developing them into high-fidelity prototypes.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was the abstract nature of the project. Unlike traditional productivity or utility apps, Ars Oblivion is deeply personal, which made it harder to define clear features and outcomes.

We also struggled with translating such an intimate concept into a digital format. We wanted the experience to feel and ritualistic rather than transactional, which meant paying close attention to pacing, visuals, and small moments of interaction.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are especially proud of building a strong and cohesive brand identity for Ars Oblivion. From the name itself to visual identity and concept, every design decision was deeply considered and has a "why" to the "what."

We’re also proud of creating an experience that feels personal and relatable to young adults. Instead of solving a conventional problem, we designed a space for emotional reflection and quiet healing—something many people need but rarely find in digital products.

What we learned

We learned that designing for emotion requires a very different mindset than designing for efficiency. It taught us to think more deeply about how users feel at every step, not just what they are doing.

Most importantly, we learned how to create technology for for healing, reflection, and human connection rather than productivity: digital experiences can hold emotional weight and create meaningful moments of release.