Connection should not depend on chance encounters
Jamie values close friendships but relies too heavily on running into people to make plans. They need gentle reminders and a lightweight way to see availability without individually texting everyone.
NUdge
Helping Northeastern students turn shared availability into spontaneous time with friends
NUdge prototype:Making it easier to connect with friends
Making it easier to reconnect with friends who have drifted into the background
NUdge is a concept for Northeastern students who want to spend more time with friends they care about but do not see regularly. Academic demands, co-op cycles, study abroad, and changing housing arrangements make it easy for friendships to become infrequent—even when people live close by.
Our team designed NUdge to reduce the coordination required to make casual plans. Instead of texting several people to find out who is free, users can share availability at a level they control and receive a nudge when a friend is available to hang out.
~65%of college students worldwide experience loneliness
~20%of Northeastern students complete co-ops outside Boston
6 / 6interview participants said schedules inhibited socializing
Friendships do not disappear—but the time to maintain them does
For Northeastern students, demanding coursework, co-op, NUin, Global Scholars, and study abroad interrupt the routines and chance encounters that sustain friendships. The barrier was rarely a lack of interest; it was the friction of finding a mutually available moment and initiating a plan.
Understanding what prevents students from reconnecting
We interviewed six Northeastern students to understand their relationships with frequent and infrequent friends, their comfort with sharing availability, and the role that housing, co-op, introversion, and busy schedules play in social connection.
Students wanted connection to feel low-pressure and spontaneous. Current calendar tools felt too formal, while texting multiple people to coordinate was slow and uncertain.
Designing for connection without forcing social plans
Availability should not feel like calendar surveillance
Dani wants organic, low-effort connection but finds formal scheduling tools too clinical. They need to control what friends can see without exposing their full calendar.
Initiation—not interest—was the biggest barrier
After affinity mapping our interviews, we found that students wanted to maintain friendships despite busy and misaligned schedules.
Initiation is the barrier
Plans rarely start unless people happen to run into one another.
Current tools feel too formal
Calendar coordination feels like scheduling a meeting rather than making a casual plan.
Social rhythms are disrupted
Co-op cycles, travel, and changing schedules make proximity unreliable.
Testing the two paths that make NUdge useful
Task 1 · Sync and edit availability
A new user syncs Google Calendar, reviews the imported week, edits their availability, and confirms who can see it.
Task 2 · Act on a shared free moment
A user receives a notification that friends are free in an hour, reviews the available people, chooses who to contact, and starts making a plan.
Mapping the moment from notification to hangout
We created a hierarchical task analysis for finding someone to hang out with. It identified points where the experience needed to reduce uncertainty: knowing who is free, understanding whether the time is now or later, controlling visibility, and deciding how to reach out.
1
Notice
Receive a shared-availability notification or widget signal.
2
Explore
See who is free and decide whether to participate.
3
Choose
Select one or more friends, or hide availability.
4
Connect
Use native messaging to begin making a plan.
Low-fidelity testing exposed interaction ambiguity before visual polish
Participants liked importing a calendar, seeing friends’ availability in one place, and the idea of notifications. But testing showed that several core actions were unclear or required too much recall.
Make the action explicit
“Nudge” did not communicate that an action would open messaging, so we used clearer action language.
Show availability at a glance
People wanted to see who was free without clicking into individual time blocks or a carousel.
Separate editing from social actions
Combining availability editing and social actions in one time-block interaction caused confusion.
Make adding availability predictable
A plus button between time blocks felt ambiguous, so we moved it to a more central, fixed action.
Support group plans
Participants wanted to select multiple friends rather than contact one person at a time.
Translating tested paper flows into Figma
Turning low-fi findings into clearer flows
We changed the edit flow so users could use a meatballs menu to edit or delete an availability block rather than tapping the block and encountering mixed actions. We also added multi-person selection, more flexible availability hiding, and the ability to edit availability details from the notification flow.
Our revised task asked users to edit a calendar-imported availability block and make it visible to all friends, then schedule a hangout with both Amy and Lola after a shared-availability notification.
Validating hierarchy while refining clarity and control
Round-one testers found the UI clear, polished, and easy to navigate. The next round confirmed that hierarchy, grouping, and realism supported task completion—but also revealed three remaining clarity gaps.
Clarify the notification
Made the timing and purpose of the notification and drawer more explicit.
Strengthen visibility settings
Added clearer defaults and visual states for friends who were not selected.
Explain the drawer
Improved the title and supporting copy so people understood their next action.
A lighter-weight way to turn availability into connection
NUdge brings shared availability, privacy controls, and a familiar messaging handoff into one low-pressure experience. Rather than asking students to schedule a formal event, it helps them notice a free moment and take the small step that starts a hangout.
The project reinforced that designing against loneliness is not only about creating another social platform. It is about reducing the small moments of friction that keep people from acting on relationships they already value.