A Hug in your Pocket
A Hug in Your Pocket, stylized as HiP, was born from the question, “What do you do when you need a hug, but can’t get one?” In moments of stress, uncertainty, and sorrow, kindness - whether in word or action - from friends, family, or strangers can make a difference in conquering despair. A word of support from a parent before a job interview, a hug from a friend after a breakup, or a heartfelt “hello” from a stranger on the subway all have the simple yet profound power to transmit strength; an uplift that allows a person to conquer fear, achieve success, or just make it through the day. However, what happens when we’re alone? When there is no one around to provide the boost? While we’re not always near friends or loved ones, there is one object usually with us, right in our pockets: phones. While phones do connect us with loved ones, isn’t it sometimes hard to ask for the kindness we need? What if there was an easy way to access the world of kindness in our pockets?
These seeds became the basis for A Hug in Your Pocket (HiP), a digital platform for giving and receiving kindness among friends, family, and strangers. If you need kindness, take out your phone and request a digital Hug from someone in your social network, or from a stranger in the larger pool of HiP users. The application facilitates requesting and exchanging Hugs in various digital forms (images, gifs, memes, video or audio clips, hyperlinks, text messages) with the aims of: facilitating and expediting the giving and receiving of kindness, reducing stress or hesitation that stems from asking for kindness from others, and promoting digital human communion, thus using technology to satisfy real-life, human, emotional needs.
While many phones offer text, image, and voice messaging features, HiP offers a specific platform, helping make communities and kindness accessible for exchange, irrespective of the operating system or phone model. HiP distills the nebulous potential for exchanging kindness through phones into a concrete, centralized program; it makes the digital world of kindness accessible. There are many pre-existing mobile applications that support similar exchange, a handful revolve around random acts of kindness, tracking charities, sending inspirational quotations and other motivational media, or sharing positive news among users. In addition, social media platforms such as Instagram, GroupMe, WhatsApp, and iMessage allow users to form groups and exchange conversations. However, we believe that HiP, just like hugs in our physical world, benefits from its separation other social media programs that dilute or complicatethe experience the d eluge of options, features, and networks. HiP facilitates the giving and receiving of kindness within an intimate group setting.
This project, curated at Harvard University's T550 coursework under Karen Brennan, proposes the design of HiP, suggesting how it could look and work. Before we approached the graphic design and physical layout, we conducted The Kindness Survey to gather data about the ways in which people engage with kindness in everyday life. Next, we led a trial simulation of the giving and exchanging of digital hugs among a group of friends. Results from the survey and trial simulation informed our drafting of the application’s design and layout.
Team Members: Roma Kalani [Research & Design], Sarah Pease-Kerr [Research & Documentation]
Concept Video
Demo Video
Salient Features
Hug of the Day
Give a Hug
Request a Hug
Universal Pool of Kindness: The Globe icon takes the user to the Universal Pool of Kindness (UPoK), which displays Hugs from users in the global HiP network. It’s important to note that not all Hugs are displayed in the UPoK, only Hugs that users choose to share with the HiP community. Users can scroll through all commonly shared hugs in UPoK. This feature is meant to be a repository of Hugs that any user can access at any time.
Interaction with a hug: Favorite, reAct, reHug, Save.
