A custom photo/microblog for an around-the-world journey, created in collaboration with karkkikammo. Exploring the modality of 'instant messaging' in its aesthetic, brb.email turns the medium into a one-way stream.

Juxtaposing the one-to-many type communication that a blog affords with the visual look of a daily use many-to-many -communication platform aims to create a sense of familiarity and comfort in the interface for readers while not requiring as constant interaction/attention from the content creators a real instant messaging platform would. In order to still allow readers a form of communicating back a reactions-system was designed to allow instant feedback and notification of presence that does not require immediate reaction from the part of the content producer. A map feature was added as a context specific aide to communicate current location that could be updated on an even more real-time basis than the image/text feed.

Familiarity of the user interface and web-basedeness ensured the success of brb.email: Keeping stress-levels for both readers and content producers while effectively communicating the progress of the journey (Thanks mum, for all the weird emoji!), and functioning as a live documentation that one does not have to scourge through WhatsApp-logs to get back to.

Check it out.

Process:

• Concept design
• User experience modeling, interviews
• Visual design
• Development as a PWA-app using Angular + Firebase + Cloudinary + Mapbox