Vivid - Increasing Life Luminosity

Inspiration

We were inspired by a simple yet powerful observation: most adults feel that time speeds up as life becomes routine. Years blur together, weeks feel shorter than they are, and even days slip by unnoticed. Research in chronoception, the brain’s perception of time, revealed that novelty drives memory segmentation, which makes moments “stick.” This led us to ask: what if we could make time visible, measurable, and designable in everyday life?

What it does

Vivid is a companion app that makes your perception of time visible. It tracks novelty signals from daily activity, estimates temporal richness, and helps users:

Reflect: See which moments were actually encoded as memories.

Plan: Introduce small novelty interventions to make routine days feel richer.

The goal is simple: stop losing life to autopilot and start experiencing it vividly.

How we built it

Prototype-first approach: We designed all flows in Figma, embedding interactive Reflect, Plan, and Insights use cases.

Temporal richness model: Conceptual model combining movement, location, and environmental novelty to estimate memory density ​ Visual language: Memory nodes glow like lights in a garden, representing moments your brain actually remembers, while dark areas represent routine.

Use cases: Demonstrated three scenarios showing autopilot detection, behavior nudges, and long-term impact.

Challenges we ran into

Translating abstract cognitive science concepts into intuitive visuals.

Communicating invisible phenomena like perceived time compression.

Limited time to build fully functional prototypes, so we focused on three compelling use cases.

Making the system feel realistic without hardware.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Created three full interactive use cases showing reflection, planning, and behavioral change.

Built a unique visual language for memory vs routine, making temporal richness intuitive at a glance.

Positioned Vivid as distinct from existing tools like mood or productivity trackers.

Conceptualized an app ecosystem that bridges neuroscience and design.

What we learned

Visual metaphors are critical to make abstract concepts tangible.

Small, actionable nudges can meaningfully change behavior without forcing willpower.

Prototyping in Figma allows judges to experience interactions, which is more impactful than just presenting ideas.

Defining a new metric like temporal richness creates a clear innovation narrative.

What's next for Vivid - Increasing Life Luminosity

Refine the temporal richness algorithm with real-world sensor data.

Explore personalized behavioral nudges for different user types.

Expand the visual language and interaction patterns to cover longer-term memory and life chapters.

Conduct user studies to measure perceived time expansion and validate impact.

Built With

• figma
• figmamake