Aina
For improving communication barriers in relationships.
Role: Concept, UXR, UI, MVP
Team: 1
Timeline: 1 Month
Context
Aina is a relationship-focused application designed to help individuals overcome communication barriers and build stronger emotional connections.
Inspired by the seamless coordination of biometric systems; where hardware, software, and users work together for accurate identification. Aina applies a similar approach to enable smoother, more empathetic interactions.
Through intuitive design, behavioral insights, and thoughtful system architecture, the app fosters clarity, understanding, and deeper emotional bonds between people.
Goal
Improve understanding of partner's emotional state and needs. Enhance communication within the relationship. Cultivate empathy towards partner's emotions. Increase frequency of loving gestures and expressions.
Problem Statement
"Poor communication due to insufficient comprehension of partner’ emotions & needs, coupled with a deficiency in empathetic gestures."
Solution
Giving the couple an icebreaker to talk further about their feelings and mood.
Through exploring the potential of biometric interfaces and emotional design.
Target Audience
22-35
More emphasis on emotional expression.
36-50
More emphasis on emotional expression.
50+
May struggle with expressing emotion openly.
White Paper Research
Why We Start Here?
Quantifying the Connection Gap
Communication breakdown drives up to 65% of divorces, with 53% citing it as the primary factor. The root issue isn't a lack of affection, but the inability to translate complex internal emotions into a clear, shared understanding.
Decoding the Non-Verbal Divide
Human communication is 93% non-verbal (55% body language/facial expressions, 38% vocal tone). When everyday interactions strip away these critical cues, emotional context is lost, making misunderstandings inevitable.
The Efficacy of Emotion AI
Affective Computing offers a solution. Multi-modal AI—analyzing face and voice simultaneously—detects emotions with >95% accuracy. Aina uses this to shift the heavy cognitive load of decoding non-verbal cues from the user to the system.
Data Sources
Government & Statistics
Academic & Behavioral
Primary Research
I validated my foundation by pairing quantitative survey data with qualitative user interviews. This mixed-methods approach allowed me to map large-scale communication breakdowns while deeply understanding the fear of vulnerability and "mind-reader" expectations driving them, grounding my biometric design in both hard metrics and genuine user empathy.
Quantitative Analysis
72%
The "Mind Reader" Expectation
Users expect partners to intuitively understand their emotions. Aina must bridge this gap by translating subtle biometric cues into clear insights.
68%
The Vulnerability Barrier
Users hide negative emotions fearing judgment or conflict. Aina must act as an objective mediator, providing a system-driven safe space for validation.
81%
The Appreciation Deficit
Small gestures often go unreciprocated. The interface must go beyond mood tracking to actively prompt mutual appreciation and empathetic gestures.
Qualitative Analysis
Tone > Words: Arguments escalate based on how things are said. Users welcome AI vocal tone analysis to remove the defensive "I wasn't yelling" bias during conflicts.
The "Big Boss" Hesitation: Users value privacy. To overcome surveillance fears, the design must emphasize local processing and frame scanning as a mutual "icebreaker" rather than constant monitoring.
Don't Just Tell Me, Guide Me: Merely stating a partner is upset causes anxiety. Users need actionable, system-generated gesture suggestions to reduce the cognitive load of fixing the mood.
The Generational Gap: Younger couples (22-35 yrs) embrace mood data, while middle-aged users (36-55 yrs) find it artificial. Positioning Aina as an intuitive assistant, rather than a clinical tool, drives wider adoption.
Data Collection
What We Actually Need
From Device Sensors
Facial recognition via Face ID to track expressions and mood.
Voice call monitoring specifically with the user's partner for tone recognition.
Typing pattern analysis tracking strokes, speed, pressure, frequency, pace, and keywords.
From System Integrations
Partner-specific chat environments that incorporate location data.
Calendar integration for overall schedule awareness.
Special care monitoring tailored for significant days.
From AI Processing
Emotion mapping and mood prediction algorithms.
Appreciation prompts that suggest specific gestures, like sending flowers, based on keyword analysis.
Personalized notifications and AI-driven personalization tailored to the relationship.
Biometric System
How it works?
System-Component Interaction
This encompasses how the biometric system communicates with its internal parts, specifically the hardware devices responsible for capturing raw biometric data, such as fingerprint scanners or facial recognition cameras.
Data Processing & Utilization
Once data is captured, specialized software processes it. These processed inputs are then integrated into the broader systems that utilize the data for the core functions of identification or verification.
User-System Interaction
This involves the user interface (UI) through which individuals engage with the system. It can be a physical interface (like placing a finger on a scanner) or a digital interface (like a login screen prompting a scan).
User Journey Map
User Personas
Navigation Flow
Information Architecture
Wireframes
Design System
Typography
Figtree
Aa
Font Weight
Regular
Medium
SemiBold
Bold
ExtraBold
Primary Color
#3422A8
Secondary Colors
#D8D4EE
#3422A8
#121212
#F2F2F2
High-Fidelity Screens
Prototype
Limitations
What we need to look out for?
The Contextual Nuance Gap
Emotion AI struggles with human variability, like smiling through anxiety or using dry sarcasm. If Aina misreads a neutral resting face as "angry," the system risks manufacturing artificial conflict instead of resolving it.
The Surveillance Stigma
Aina relies on highly intimate biometric data, mirroring controversial ad-tech tracking. If the interface feels invasive rather than supportive, this "Big Brother" hesitation will severely limit user adoption and trust.
The Empathy Dependency
Shifting emotional translation entirely to an AI risks eroding a couple’s natural communication skills. Aina must be positioned strictly as a temporary "icebreaker," not a permanent crutch that replaces genuine human intuition.
Feature List
Biometric Tracking
Facial Recognition
Voice call monitoring with partner for tone recognition.
Typing pattern analysis tracking strokes, speed, pressure, frequency, keywords, and pace.
System Integrations
Partner-Specific Chat environments linked with Location data.
Calendar Integration for schedule awareness.
Special Care monitoring tailored for Significant Days.
AI Personalization
Emotion Mapping and Mood Prediction algorithms.
Appreciation Prompts that suggest specific gestures, like sending flowers, based on keyword analysis.
Personalized Notifications and overall AI-driven Personalization.