Everwood

Prototype link: Figma

Describe your project

Across generations, meaningful stories are often lost—not from indifference, but from distance, uncertainty, and unasked questions. Everwood creates a shared, open space where those stories can be told, discovered, and carried forward.

Users of all ages contribute memories, photos, voice notes, and reflections drawn from their lives and histories. Younger and older generations share side by side, shaping an ever-growing archive built on lived experience. From stories about immigration, traditions, everyday moments, identity, and lessons learned, Everwood preserves stories as they grow. Each contribution adds a new ring, helping bridge generational gaps while leaving space for future voices.

Describe your research process and findings.

Our research process consisted of surveys and secondary research, designed to better understand the current situation of intergenerational connection. Our goal was to identify user behaviors, key pain points, and feature needs that could make information more accessible and meaningful. We distributed an online survey to participants between the ages of 18 and 50 to capture different perspectives across generations:

Key Questions:

1. What barriers have prevented you from learning/sharing about younger/older generations?
2. What features would best help preserve generational stories?
   • Audio/Video Recording
   • Photo Digitization
   • Writing
3. Which description best aligns with the experience you want users to have?
   • Personal Journal
   • Social Platform
   • Media Library

Through our survey, 68% of our participants had two dominant barriers preventing them from learning or sharing stories between generations: language barriers and discomfort in sharing.

Many respondents replied that communications gaps often result in information being lost or oversimplified, slowly being forgotten (“Language barriers—many idioms and humor don't translate well across languages, especially where limited language proficiency exists. This makes connection a bit more difficult at times.”).

Additionally, some participants expressed discomfort in traditional formats (“There’s also a bit of a generational gap in communication styles, which can make it awkward to know how or when to bring things up.”)

Survey results showed a high interest in experiences framed in personal journals or media libraries rather than solely social platforms. This was largely due to participants’ desire for privacy and comfort when reflecting on experiences. In a design context, for features that would best preserve generational stories, respondents showed a preference towards multimedia tools. Audio and video recording are most desired, followed by photo digitization and writing. This highlighted the importance of allowing users to choose how they want to share, based on their comfort level. The results reinforced that preservation relies on flexibility and various forms of expression.

After gathering the information from our users, we conducted secondary research on data of cultural loss via Unesco and competitive analysis on existing platforms, such as StoryCorps and Telloom. Unesco states that “no less than 40% of some 6700 languages spoken nowadays are in danger of disappearing.” Languages carry vast amounts of knowledge, history, worldviews, and cultural practices, so when a language is endangered, that knowledge is also at risk. StoryCorps provided guided prompts and archival storage, while Telloom offers a private family hub of video-based storytelling. However, both platforms are limited in scope: they support one-way storylines, lack reciprocal sharing between generations, and do not offer support for multimedia types nor language accessibility.

Through this research, we identified a clear gap in existing solutions: there is no platform that enables two-way multimedia cultural exchange across generations. These insights informed our design direction, emphasizing multilingual support, flexible sharing formats, and an experience that balances personal reflection with cultural preservation.

Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions?

Single Interface for All Users: We wanted to give people of all ages the ability to access our app. Rather than having a different interface for the younger or older generations, we made the UI as simplistic and clean as possible to minimize confusion and hesitation when using our app.

Multimedia Forms: Everwood supports photos, text, and voice notes as forms to upload stories. These various methods of capture reduce barriers and honor different comfort levels. While older individuals may prefer speaking, younger generations might prefer texting.

Public and Private Controls: Our research found that some generational stories can be difficult to share with others, so we wanted to ensure the comfort of our app’s users through privacy controls. Users can mark individual posts as private for personal documentation or use the Journal mode for a completely private reflection that never enters the community archive.

Built-In Translation: We discovered that a large factor in the barrier between generations is the language barrier, so we included built-in translation for both text and voice transcriptions. It preserves the original language recording while providing translated text, maintaining authenticity while enabling access.

Built-In Accessibility: Users can choose from four font sizes, enable high contrast mode and screen reader support, and adjust UI density to reduce visual clutter or increase information displayed. By designing for older generations first, Everwood becomes more usable for everyone.

If applicable, describe how you utilized AI in your design process in detail.

AI played a support role through our design process, primarily with research and testing inclusivity across languages. Early in the project, we utilized Claude.AI to generate a broad list of companies and platforms related to our core idea of intergenerational journaling and preservation. This generation allowed us to quickly survey the landscape and identify relevant products that may not have surfaced through manual searching alone. From this list, we selected platforms such as StoryCorps and Telloom for deeper competitive analysis.

AI was also used to help with prototyping multilingual content. Since our research revealed language barriers as a major obstacle to intergenerational connection, we used AI-powered translation tools to generate sample stories and transcripts in multiple languages. This allowed us to explore how conte could be understood across generations who may not speak the same language fluently. For example, while designing a storytelling feature, we used AI to translate the story into Spanish, seeing how the translation fits within the interface.

Overall, AI enhanced our workflow by assisting in research and prototyping. Rather than replacing human insight, AI served as an assistive tool to amplify user-centered thinking and ensure accessibility.

Built With

• clipchamp
• figma