Auri
Have you ever received a text and told yourself you’d respond later but then forgot?
Have you ever missed an important message because of it? We have. All the time. We found out that many others face this problem too.
In Winter 2025, my partner and I set out to create a unified hub for all your unread communications. This is Auri, a desktop application concept created for ART 488: Interaction Design III.
TIMELINE
Winter 2025
7 weeks
ROLE
Designer
DISCIPLINES
UX Design
UX Research
TEAM
Valerie Legates
TOOLS
Figma
FigJam
Illustrator
What is Auri?
Auri is a cross-platform message management hub that integrates with different communication apps, allowing people to handle all their unread messages in one place.
INTRODUCTION
Uncovering Communication Challenges
3.3 b
Messaging App Users Worldwide
In 2021, 3.32 billion people worldwide (almost 42% of total population) used at least one messaging application
121+
Emails Per Day
On average, each person will receive 121 notifications on just emails alone in a single day, sometimes more in professional or business settings
Defining our challenge
In the early stages of our project, we knew people were struggling with messages but needed to understand exactly how and why. Before we could even draft a problem statement, we had to explore the communication landscape.
Starting the process
After exploring the messaging problem, we developed several key hypotheses about what might help people manage their communications better:
OUR CORE NEED
Given that people struggle with managing their incoming messages across multiple platforms, leading to missed and delayed responses…
How might we help overwhelmed individuals to respond to messages so that they can maintain timely connections in their personal and professional lives?
RESEARCH
Examining existing solutions to understand the market landscape
Getting to know our users and their messaging habits
We created four user personas to understand how different people handle their messages. These helped us spot common struggles and patterns, so we could design solutions that work for everyone.
When managing messages across multiple platforms, staying on top of communications should be simple, but for many busy people, it's not.
Some end up missing important messages and damaging relationships, while others struggle with prioritizing responses and maintaining timely communication.
To better understand these struggles, we spoke with two typical users:
One who finds it overwhelming to manage notifications across multiple apps and platforms
Another who often delays responses until they pile up, creating anxiety and strained connections.
Afterward, We asked each person to walk us through their process of managing expenses during a trip, from booking accommodations to splitting meals. Based on their responses, we created an empathy map to highlight the challenges they faced.
How do people feel about managing and responding to messages across multiple platforms?
We surveyed 50+ working professionals and students to explore the challenges they face when keeping up with communications in their personal and professional lives.
SAMPLE SIZE
50+
HOW DO UNREAD MESSAGES MAKE YOU FEEL?
uneasy busy overwhelmed anxious stressed annoyed
59%
Missing Important Messages
59% of participants said that they sometimes miss an important message, with 6% of these saying they often miss important messages
69%
Leaving Messages Unread
69% of participants said that when they leave messages unread, it is because they are too busy to reply immediately
Our solutions
IDEATION
JOURNEY MAPPING
DEFINING THE USER FLOW
For this design, we decided to focus on the task of processing and responding to all pending messages from a unified inbox
After gathering our initial insights, we created a journey map to understand exactly how users would interact with Auri. This crucial step helped us visualize the complete user experience from first download to regular usage
DESIGNING
Since we only has such a limited amount of time, we didn’t go into depth with the lo-fis as much as we would have liked. Before designing my screens, I worked on mid-fidelity wireframes to plan the layouts of the main group balance and transaction request screen.
MID-FI
DESIGN SYSTEM
Components & Styleguides
* The workspaces color palette is for presentation purposes, since the concept for the web app is for all workspaces to be fully customizable :D
OUR SOLUTION
Can’t remember which app has that important message you need to reply to?
No problem. View, sort, and respond to everything with Auri
Dashboard
See eveything in a glance and with customizable widgets
Workspaces
Enhance Replies with AI
With prompted and tone sensitive suggestions
Toolbox
Streamline the reading and response process, toolbox changes as according the context of the conversation
Cross-Platform Support
AI-Assistant
TAKEAWAYS
Message management seems straightforward in theory, but in practice, the tiny details and interactions are endless.
Future improvements
This prototype represents our initial vision, but with an extended timeline, we would have had more opportunities to sharpen our solution by:
01
Expanding the design
We had plans to add several customization options that we weren't able to include in this initial prototype
03
Validation & Iteration
Ensuring the product evolves based on genuine user experiences rather than assumptions
02
Usability testing
Observing how the solution performs under real-world conditions with variable message volumes and time constraints