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A participatory, sound-driven narrative bridging mobile interaction and spatial experience through a cross-device design.

WHISPER + THE ECHO CARRIAGE

“WHISPER + THE ECHO CARRIAGE” began as an exploration of how sound can transform everyday routines into moments of connection. The idea was inspired by my daily subway commutes spaces where people share time and presence, yet remain strangers. I wanted to reimagine this ordinary experience as a shared, reflective journey shaped by collective voices and memories.

ROLE - UI/UX Designer/Researcher · Interaction Designer · Technical Artist

SCOPE - Conceptual UI/UX Case Study · Original Product & Game Experience Exploration

OVERVIEW

DURATION

TOOLS

5 MONTHS

Unity, Blender, Figma, After Effect, Photoshop, MIRO

PROJECT TIMELINE

Project Planning

Identifying the problem
Concept ideation

Research

Research and findings
Observations

Information Architecture

Userflow
System flow

High-Fidelity Design

Implementation & Development in Game engine

Usability Testing & Iteration

01 SOCIAL CONTEXT & RESEARCH

Modern loneliness is increasingly recognized as a public health issue, especially among younger generations. Despite living in dense cities and shared spaces, people often feel emotionally disconnected. Commuting, in particular, amplifies this quiet isolation—crowded yet solitary.

DATA & RESEARCH

Which age groups are most affected by loneliness?

Dimensions & Causes

67%

No meaningful groups.

65%

Disconnected from others.

57%

Don’t really share true self with others.

Making Caring Common (2024). Loneliness in America: Just the Tip of the Iceberg?

FIELD NOTES: THE ANATOMY OF A COMMUTE

Rather than relying solely on existing research, I began this project by closely observing my daily subway commute, treating the train car as a shared social space shaped by sound, proximity, and unspoken behavior. Through repeated rides, several recurring patterns emerged.

The Headphone Shield
Passengers often use headphones to create a small, invisible boundary around themselves that construct a private auditory territory within a crowded public space. Sound becomes a tool for withdrawal rather than connection.
Transient Intimacy
Small audio moments, such as an overheard sigh, a muffled phone call, quiet laughter briefly connect strangers who will never speak. These ghostly connections dissolve as quickly as they appear, often disappearing at the next stop.
Collective Silence
Despite being surrounded by people, the train car remains emotionally quiet. Many passengers share physical space without acknowledgment, carrying their own thoughts, fatigue, and emotions in parallel.
Unnoticed Soundscapes
The commute is filled with rhythmic audio textures: train doors, rails, announcements, footsteps, but most passengers tune them out. These sounds form a shared environment that is experienced collectively, yet rarely noticed consciously.

REFLECTION ON EVERYDAY COMMUTING EXPERIENCE

Public spaces feel shared physically but not emotionally
Commuters use headphones to isolate themselves.
The train car is filled with micro-moments (laughter, sighs, phone calls) that go unnoticed.
Train rides create a natural rhythm of sound, but people tune them out.
People bring traces of their day into the train( fatigue, mood, stories) in silence.

These observations shaped my decision to use sound as the primary design medium. Not as background, but as a way to surface the quiet presence that already exists within shared spaces.

WHY SOUND AS THE CORE MEDIUM ?

Sound became the foundation of WHISPER because it captures presence in a way that is intimate yet anonymous. Unlike visuals, sound seeps in from the periphery that it holds memory, emotion, and atmosphere without revealing identity.

Everyday commuting is shaped by these unnoticed audio textures: footsteps, announcements, quiet conversations. These small fragments contain traces of human life, even among strangers.

Research indicates that auditory experiences such as music or ambient sound are strongly tied to memory, emotion, and social bonding. For example, the activation of oxytocin and endorphins through group musical experiences suggests that sound alone can create feelings of connectedness and presence.

The transformative power of music, Frontiers in Neuroscience (2023)

By using sound as the primary input, WHISPER transforms ordinary moments into a collective environment. It allows users to contribute authentically, without performing, while giving the train world a spatial richness that visuals alone could not achieve. Sound becomes the bridge between real and virtual, between individual presence and shared memory.

WHY THE SUBWAY?

The subway is often described as a “non-place”, which is a space of transit where people are physically close yet socially distant. It efficiently moves bodies through the city, but rarely facilitates emotional connection.

I chose the subway as the setting for WHISPER not because it is inherently communal, but because it is collectively experienced. Every passenger shares the same movement, rhythm, and soundscape, while remaining largely anonymous. This tension between shared presence and personal isolation made the train a compelling site to explore how sound might bridge emotional distance.

Rather than forcing interaction, WHISPER overlays this non-place with traces of human presence, allowing the subway to function as a temporary, anonymous community shaped by listening rather than speaking.

02 PROJECT OVERVIEW

Rooted in the growing public health concern of modern loneliness, the project explores how shared sound and memory can create subtle forms of connection between strangers.

WHISPER: THE ECHO CARRIAGE grew out of this concern. Using the tools I knew about world building, interaction, and spatial design—I hope to create a shared space where people could feel connected through small traces of everyday life.

The project takes the form of a cross-device experience between a mobile app and an interactive Unity environment. Through this system, Whisper bridges real-world moments and virtual space through participatory sound. The goal is to evoke shared empathy and a quiet sense of presence, reminding users that even in solitary routines, they are part of something larger and human.

03 DESIGN PRINCIPLES

The experience should feel quiet, reflective, and exploratory.
The train environment grows from many voices, not centered on any one user.
The system treats mundane recordings as meaningful fragments of presence.
User contributions must remain anonymous yet emotionally meaningful.

QUESTION

How can participatory sound design turn ordinary recordings into a collective environment that fosters presence and connection?

THE CONCEPT

WHISPER approaches connection not through direct interaction, but through shared presence. Instead of asking users to speak to one another, the system invites them to contribute small traces of everyday life (sounds, thoughts, and moments) that accumulate into a collective environment. By treating sound as both input and medium, Whisper transforms anonymous, individual experiences into a shared emotional landscape.

Part 1 : Mobile - WHISPER

The Whisper mobile app lets users capture fleeting sound moments from daily life and pair them with short reflections. Each recording is customized through color and motion, forming a unique “whisper” that later shapes the shared train world in The Echo Carriage.

Part 2 : GAME - THE ECHO CARRIAGE

Built in Unity, The Echo Carriage places players in a first-person train environment that evolves through sounds contributed via the mobile app. Players move freely between dimly lit carriages, using a handheld tuner to scan hidden frequencies and reveal passengers formed from real-world recordings—each a “Whisper.”

The experience unfolds through observation rather than objectives. As the train gradually fills with anonymous presences, their murmurs blend into a collective memory. Players listen, tune, and reflect, stepping away whenever they choose.

04 USER & SYSTEM FLOW

USER

SYSTEM

USER

04.1 SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE/ TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION

To bridge the gap between mobile input and spatial output, I designed a technical pipeline using Firebase as a real-time bridge. This architecture ensures that user-generated audio and its unique 'visual DNA' (encoded as metadata) are dynamically instantiated within the Unity-based game environment.

05 WIREFRAMES - Low-fidelity prototype

06 KEY DESIGN

RECORD

REFLECT

UPLOAD PORTAL – RECORDING

“Capturing real-world moments”

This is the heart of Whisper’s mobile experience. Recording a sound is the core action that produces the “whisper” in the game.

STEP 1

Single-action record button to reduce friction and encourage spontaneous use.

STEP 2

STEP 3

Lets users shape how their whisper will appear inside the Echo Carriage and communicate the “personality” of it

RESHAPE

These features allow the app to function as a personal diary, helping users record and reflect on moments from their day - no matter meaningful or random.

REVISIT

PAST RECORDINGS + PLAYBACK

Helps users see their journey over time.

List of past recordings gives users a sense of timeline and memory accumulation.

07 MOBILE - FINAL DESIGN

ONBOARDING

PAST RECORDINGS
+
PLAYBACK

MEMORY CHAMBER

TRAIN MAP

UPLOADING PORTAL

RECORDING

REFLECTION

CUSTOMIZATION

08 GAME UI & INTERACTION DESIGN

A TRAIN FILLED WITH "WHISPER"

Players use a handheld tuner to scan frequencies, gradually revealing the presence of a whisper. As the signal strengthens, sound, text, and visual cues emerge, it invites the player to pause and listen.

TUNNING TO A "WHISPER"

09 KEY BREAK DOWN

1) Navigation & Discovery — Discovering whispers

This screen introduces the exploration state of the Echo Carriage. The tuner device acts as the player’s primary interaction tool — instead of buttons or menus, discovery is driven through diegetic interaction, making the experience feel embodied and intuitive.
This screen establishes the tone of Whisper: quiet exploration and gentle discovery.

[POINT 1]

Subtle cues for nearby whispers: Markers on the map tab of the device pulse lightly, prompting players to investigate without overt markers.

[POINT 2]

Diegetic tool instead of UI overlay: The tuner device sits in the player’s hands as an in-world object, reducing traditional UI clutter and reinforcing immersion.

2) Passenger Interaction & Tuning - Listening to whispers

This screen transitions the player into the focused listening state.
Each passenger embodies a transformed “whisper” — seated or standing figures with distinct, abstract head designs shaped by the sound’s characteristics and the user’s chosen customization.  By holding the tuner close to a passenger, the user actively “tunes in” to their whispers, blending interaction, sound, and text visualization to reveal a personal fragment.

[POINT 1]

Visual differences between passengers:

Each passenger’s form will change based on the audio parameters (volume, texture) & customization in app, giving each whisper a distinct identity and making the space feel alive.

[POINT 2]

Progressive disclosure:

Sound and text emerge gradually as the tuner aligns with the passenger’s frequency — reinforcing effortful discovery rather than instant playback.

10 FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS & REFLECTIONS

While Whisper explores connection through shared sound, it also raises important questions about the ethics and limitations of participatory systems in public spaces:

Privacy & Anonymity: The "Bystander" Problem

A key design challenge was the ethics of public recording. How do we differentiate between a private 'whisper' and the ambient privacy of bystanders?

Inclusivity: Beyond "Visual Pulses"

Because sound is not universally accessible, Whisper pairs audio with visual pulses and text fragments, allowing participation beyond listening alone and opening space for future multimodal accessibility.
But for users with hearing impairments, could the 'whisper' be felt as a vibration pattern through the phone, maintaining the tactile intimacy of the experience without relying on a screen?

Digital Accumulation & Noise

As contributions grow, a system built on “whispers” risks becoming overwhelming or cluttered. Whisper intentionally favors subtlety soft processing, gradual discovery, and spatial dispersion, but this remains an ongoing design tension between richness and restraint as it builds up.

11 CONCEPT & IDEATION

The title Whisper draws inspiration from sound sequences and frequencies, reflecting the game's core mechanic—where players traverse the world using a handheld radio device to catch "whispers."

REFERENCES & MOOD

12 VISUAL & MOTION EXPLORATION

MOTION DESIGN

SCENE LIGHTING EXPLORATION