Invisible Threads
Macro UX • Week 1
Brief: Create a storytelling method that facilitates heartfelt & engaging communication over time, at distance & at scale
Research Methods: Icebreaker Games, Love and Break-up Letters, Affinity Diagramming
Team: Diya • Mustafa • Rachel • ShanShan • Jeanne • Emilia • Asli • Grania • Izzy • Karolis • Wanrui
As a part of our Macro UX unit, we worked in partnership with &Us, a London based consultancy that partners with organisations to drive innovation.
Our brief, and thus the team was called the Hive.
In a world where technology is increasingly shaping how we communicate, the Hive brief presents an emergent challenge:
How might we craft a storytelling tool that doesn’t just transmit information but immerses people in shared experiences?
The magic of real-life interactions is the embodied experience; movement, presence, and shared energy. And digital interactions often feel flat and reductive, lacking warmth and spontaneity (Montagud et al., 2021). To bridge this gap, we need to reimagine digital spaces that breathe and respond like real-world interactions (Finck, Loureiro & Guerreiro, 2024). Multi-sensory technologies, from haptic feedback to spatial interactions, can help restore this lost dimension (Zhao, Zhou & Yu, 2024). A system that balances solitude and togetherness could help remote collaboration feel more natural, ensuring distance doesn’t mean disconnection (Swart, Bond-Barnard & Chugh, 2022).
So the task is not about restoring the depth of human interaction in a space where it often feels hollow. The future of storytelling is about emotional resonance (Brodsky, 2025).
Secondary Research
We began with a literature review, and Chowdhury and Ramadas’ (2022) exploration of cybernetic hive minds stood out to me. Their study examines feedback loops, algorithmic amplification, and decentralised coordination, showing how these systems can drive both collaboration and disinformation.
What spoke to me was analysis of the QAnon phenomena as an Alternate Reality Game (ARG), where participants engage in puzzle-solving, narrative interpretation, and collective storytelling to “decode” hidden messages embedded in real-world events. QAnon operates as a participatory mythology, where users actively contribute to and evolve the storyline.
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I believe ARGs can be a powerful tool for storytelling. If designed with care, this can bring people together through interactive narratives, building collective experiences.
Breaking the Ice
We played ice-breaker games to study how people form connections. This method worked on two levels for me; working with most of the teammates for the first time, I was slightly hesitant in my demeanour, so the icebreakers did help to get to know everyone better and establish a tone of communication for me, and again, having the lens of almost a stranger to most of the group, I was able to approach this study from a genuine lens.
This hinted that connections form through shared nostalgia, playfulness, and social validation.
Primary Research
We then delved into primary research, with Love and Break up letters as the first in our arsenal. We conducted this within the team, to unearth revelations surrounding ‘Digital Interactions’.
Digital interactions fail to replicate the social fabric of in-person ones because there is no incentive to nurture relationships in a medium that feels temporary, transactional, and emotionally distant.
Digitally, connection feels optional rather than inevitable.
Feedback
We took these learnings into our first feedback session. We were advised to focus on a specific project context. While our ‘icebreakers’ study utilised quantitative data to evaluate game effectiveness, this approach was critiqued for potentially leading to ‘horizontalism’; a broad, surface-level analysis. We were encouraged to adopt a qualitative approach, delving deeper into understanding the nuances of meaningful connections.
Our next step was to break into smaller groups focused on workplaces, educational institutes, and personal relationships; conduct directed storytelling to explore meaningful connections.
In Retrospect
A key insight from the letters is that people often personify digital interactions, letting platforms shape their emotional landscapes, behaviours, and connections. Traditional UX emphasises usability, efficiency, and accessibility; however, the Hive brief challenges me to move beyond functionality, designing instead for emotional engagement and digital intimacy.
I’m grateful to &Us for providing this unique opportunity, excited to explore how digital spaces can foster deeper human relationships, and eager to embrace this journey both as a designer and digital native!
Reference List
Chowdhury, A. and Ramadas, R. (2022) ‘Cybernetic Hive Minds: A Review’, Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy, 3(2), pp. 1–16. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-2688/3/2/27.
Finck, N., Loureiro, A. and Guerreiro, T. (2024) ‘Beyond trust: exploring contextual influences on embodiment in digital interactions’, Learning, Media and Technology, 49(1), pp. 1–16. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439884.2024.2449466.
Montagud, M., et al. (2021) ‘Analyzing and understanding embodied interactions in virtual reality environments’, Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences, pp. 1–6. Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3524273.3533928.
Swart, K., Bond-Barnard, T. and Chugh, R. (2022) ‘Challenges and critical success factors of digital communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing in project management virtual teams: a review’, Case Studies on Governance, Economics, Finance, Performance, and Management, pp. 1273–1278. Available at: https://www.ceocongress.org/files/E-Book/Book%2027.pdf.
Zhao, Y., Zhou, X. and Yu, H. (2024) ‘Haptic Sensing and Feedback Techniques toward Virtual Reality’, Research, 2024, p. 0333. Available at: https://spj.science.org/doi/10.34133/research.0333.
