Team : 3 Designers
Role: Product Designer and UX Researcher
Prompt: Staying human in the age of AI
January 31st to Feb 2nd 2025
Figma
“What is being human?”
Humans are animals that strive to live and co-exist together, finding meaning in humanly interactions. Being part of a community that resonates with our identity is a significant part of the human experience. Oftentimes, our fundamental sense of identity and origin come from our upbringing.
Previously, we had talked to a teacher who adopted her daughter from China. Her quote really inspired this project: "To be an adoptee can be very hard…They’ve lost a biological family. For a transracial adoptee, they’ve lost a culture. Studies have shown that adoptees struggle with significantly more mental health challenges compared to their non-adopted peers."
Reminded of the stories she shared, we designed Rooted to build a community for adoptees to share their experiences with one another but also provide answers and support for those wishing to know more about who they are and where they come from.
Figma prototype link can be found here.
** My work only includes the Home Screen, Resources Screen, and the Profile Screen.
Devpost link can be found here.
Due to the nature of our product, it was crucial to understand people who have been through the adoption process in childhood, as well as general users of online communities and resources. We focused on secondary research to learn about adoption experiences, behavioral trends of adoptees in adulthood, and challenges they face in reconnecting with their past. Given the time constraints of this hackathon, we also conducted an online survey to understand user behaviors related to reconnecting with past connections and the perceived value of these relationships.
Through secondary research, we found that most adopted children seek some level of reconnection with their birth parents, either out of curiosity about their adoption or to learn about their origins. This was true even for adoptees who were happy with their adoptive families. According to the American Adoption Congress, 72% of adopted adolescents want to know why they were adopted, 65% want to meet their birth parents, and 94% want to know which birth parent they resemble. Many adoptees also search for medical and family history records, often through adoption centers, as understanding hereditary health risks is a common motivation for reconnecting.
Our survey highlighted the barriers and motivations people experience when reconnecting with past connections. The majority of respondents wanted to reconnect but cited fear of awkwardness and difficulty finding contact information as the most common barriers. Social media was the preferred method for reaching out, but users found it invasive for distant or estranged connections. When asked about key factors for identifying a past connection online, respondents most frequently selected profile pictures, shared hometowns, and mutual connections. These findings reinforced the need for a designated space where users can proactively search for past connections and helped us determine what information should be available in our app.