The Problem
Bijoux was designed to help users preserve and share cherished memories through a digital locket. Users wanted a way to store and send meaningful photos in an intimate, personalized, and time-sensitive manner. The challenge was to create an experience that balanced emotional resonance, exclusivity, ease of use, and real-time connection. Modern technology often feels impersonal, and Bijoux sought to restore a sense of closeness and emotional connectivity through an interactive and meaningful design.
Our Solution
As the Product Manager and Lead Designer, I crafted a user-centered design focused on emotional connection, ease of use, and personalization. Through user research, competitive analysis, and iterative prototyping, I introduced key features to enhance intimacy and interaction:
- Schedule a Send – Allows users to schedule photos for meaningful moments.
- Send a Nudge – A tactile feature that creates playful, real-time connections.
- Notifications – Visual and haptic feedback make photo-sharing feel immediate.
- Customization – Personalized lockets reflect unique relationships and memories.
With a redesigned intuitive and engaging interface, Bijoux transforms digital memory-sharing into an intimate, heartfelt experience.
What is Bijoux?
Bijoux is a digital jewelry product designed to offer personalization and sentimental value, helping people stay connected to their loved ones regardless of distance.
We recognize that while calling, texting, and Facetime are common methods of long-distance communication, they often lack the depth and sincerity that our relationships deserve.
Bijoux aims to address this by providing a more meaningful and personal way to maintain these connections.
Research Goals
Our primary goal was to understand how technology can enhance emotional connectivity in long-distance relationships.
We found that calling, texting, and Facetime lack the ability to capture the depth and sincerity of our relationships.
“as many as 75% of college students have been in a long-distance relationship.” (Roberts and Pistole, 2009) People we know experience the lack of connection with their loved ones when they are away. Anyone can send a text message or make a video call and thus lacks genuine connection and personal touch
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Competitive Analysis
In our competitive analysis, we carefully selected companies that represented different facets of digital and emotional connectivity, including Lovebox, Bond Touch, and the Apple Watch.
Lovebox demonstrated the appeal of tangible notifications in a home setting, while Bond Touch captured the intimacy of sharing biometric data, though it lacked an interactive display. The Apple Watch offered extensive features but its broad focus diluted the personal touch we aimed to emphasize.
By examining these competitors, we identified gaps in the market for a more personal and wearable device that combines the strengths of these products while focusing exclusively on enhancing emotional bonds—leading to the unique value proposition of Bijoux.
Value Flow
In our competitive analysis, we carefully selected companies that represented different facets of digital and emotional connectivity, including Lovebox, Bond Touch, and the Apple Watch.
Lovebox demonstrated the appeal of tangible notifications in a home setting, while Bond Touch captured the intimacy of sharing biometric data, though it lacked an interactive display. The Apple Watch offered extensive features but its broad focus diluted the personal touch we aimed to emphasize.
By examining these competitors, we identified gaps in the market for a more personal and wearable device that combines the strengths of these products while focusing exclusively on enhancing emotional bonds—leading to the unique value proposition of Bijoux.
Interviews
Key insights led to significant design decisions:
1) Insight: Users valued the emotional resonance of receiving timed photos
Reccomendation: implement a scheduling feature for sending images at meaningful moments.
2) Insight: Users preferred an intuitive digital interface over physical buttons.
Recommendation: Adopt on-screen controls to enhance the user experience.
3) Insight: Users wanted exclusivity to maintain personal and intimate interactions with the locket.
Recommendation: Allow users to limit connections to ensure a more private experience.
4) Insight: Users wanted a physical response to create a more tangible and immediate sense of connection.
Recommendation: Implement a Send a Nudge feature, allowing wearers to send a tactile signal to a paired locket. If both users send a nudge simultaneously, their lockets respond with a special animation and vibration, fostering a playful and intimate interaction.
Features
These features were carefully chosen to foster an emotional link between users, making each interaction feel more significant and heartfelt. By focusing on these personalized and interactive elements, Bijoux aims to capture the essence of emotional connectivity that modern technology often
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Schedule a Send
Users can choose to schedule a photo to be sent at a specific time, rather than immediately. This feature is designed to accommodate those with strict daily schedules, preventing disturbances. It also allows the sender to provide timely encouragement, such as sending extra encouragement before a loved one's big presentation at work.
Send a Nudge
This feature enables wearers to send a tactile 'nudge' to a paired locket. If both users send a nudge simultaneously, their lockets respond with a special animation and vibration, creating a playful and intimate way to feel connected.
Notifications
Users can send photos to each other's lockets, which notify the wearer through both visual and haptic feedback. This feature transforms the locket into a private and continuous sharing space, making the interaction feel more immediate and personal.
Customization
Allowing users to customize their locket display with photos stored on onboard memory gives a personal touch, making each Bijoux locket a unique reflection of its wearer’s relationships and memories.
Reflection
Early in this project, my team was hyper-focused on solving a problem but overlooked the business perspective—how to make the product not just useful but also marketable and unique. Through iteration, we learned that balancing usability, innovation, and viability is key to success.
Because this proposal was developed using UC San Diego resources, the university retains the rights to the startup, so I was unable to pursue it further. This experience reinforced the importance of intellectual property, ownership structures, and strategic planning.
In the future, I would focus on launching a lean MVP to validate the core value proposition quickly. This would allow for faster testing, iteration, and user feedback before committing to full-scale development.
