Result
Sēntio is a wearable product and app system that lets partners share their heartbeat and emotional state through a self-chosen color. The experience uses light, haptics, and sound to create a multi-sensory connection. The project included research, product and app design, branding, motion graphics, 3D modeling, and user testing.
industry
Communication technologies
My role
Branding, UI, UX, motion, 3D modeling
client
University project
Duration / year
7 weeks / 2025
Challenge
Design new ways to foster remote emotional connection using more than just text or visuals—going beyond screens and into the sensory realm.
Outcome
Sēntio is a pair of connected devices for long-distance partners. Users record their heartbeat and choose a color that reflects how they feel. The partner receives this heartbeat through sound, light, and vibration. Each color becomes a part of their shared emotional language. Partners can also respond through the app by sending a heartbeat back or performing acts of care—like sending food or music.
Project timeline
O1/
Empathize
Desk research
Explored the impact of the heartbeat on the human sense of connection.
Key insights
Heartbeat-sharing fosters emotional closeness
Heart rate can synchronize in close relationships and co-sleeping
Hearing a heartbeat evokes a similar closeness as eye contact
Survey
Focus on understanding communication habits, emotional needs, and frustrations in LDRs. The goal was to understand more about how couples in LDRs communicate and what they are missing in their current tools.
Key insights
Participants missed non-verbal intimacy, especially at night
Strong desire for “feeling presence” without constant communication
Situated design
Team members tested sharing heartbeats with both partners and acquaintances.
Key insights
Interviews
The goal was to go beyond survey responses by asking deeper, open-ended questions and exploring emotional reactions. During the call, participants listened to a recorded heartbeat and were asked to imagine it belonged to their partner, helping us understand the impact of this sensory experience.
Key insights
Participants valued portability, subtlety in the design, and for the device to be quick and easy to use.
Heartbeat considered highly intimate; most preferred a headphone jack
O2/
Define
When people are apart, staying emotionally connected becomes harder. We wanted to offer the users a presence from a distance.
We decided to focus on couples in long-distance relationships looking for a deeper, more emotional connection that transcends texts and calls.
03/
ideation
Generating ideas
Brainstorming
Reverse brainstorming (bad ideas)
Outcome - problem - why
Benchmarking
Exploring heartbeat technologies
We first aimed to share a partner’s heartbeat through light, but sound proved more powerful for forging intimacy, evoking stronger emotions and responses. Because a heartbeat alone cannot reveal specific feelings—research confirms emotion can’t be determined solely from heart rate—we added a color‑coding system to communicate emotions.
Final concept: Sēntio
The device
Using the device, each partner can record their heartbeat and select a colour representing their emotional state. The receiver hears the audio through their device and sees the corresponding colour lighting up to the beat of the recording, together with haptics vibrating to that same beat. They can respond via a heartbeat of their own or perform small acts of care through the accompanying app.
The app
We included an app to support the different love languages and give the users a way to act on the heartbeat and feelings sent through the device.
The app’s features are minimal, focusing all primary interaction through the physical device. This reinforces the value of tangible emotional presence over screen-based communication.
Pair devices
Choose meaning of emotional colors
Acts of care: send music, food, or plan a date
Light/dark mode based on partner’s timezone
Countdown to reunion
User journey
04/
Design
Form & ergonomics
Identical shapes to symbolize equality
Designed to be held in one hand (like a stone or a palm-sized heart)
Magnetic connection to symbolize physical reunion
Portable like a keychain, but large enough for tactile interaction
Branding
The name Sēntio, meaning “I feel” or “I perceive,” reflects the emotional and sensory nature of the product. The logo, inspired by two interlocking forms, symbolizes connection and unity between partners.
The brand tone is intimate and delicate, reinforced through packaging that resembles a wooden box with a glass cover and soft velvet lining, emphasizing that Sēntio is something precious and to be handled with care (just like a heart). This design approach expresses the brand’s core values of intimacy, transparency, fragility, and the gentle nature of human connection.
Id sint nostrum id repudiandae quasi est quisquam consequatur vel quae beatae eum voluptatibus error non accusantium?
Concluding Remarks
What I Learned
Working on this project taught me to trust my team, value testing early ideas, and recognize the emotional power of subtle sensory feedback. What started as an abstract idea of “sharing a heartbeat”, which later became one of the most intimate experiences I’ve ever helped design.
