05
Tell Me About You
TOols
Photoshop
Indesign
String
Nails + Hammer
Skills
Typography
Interaction Design
Data Visualization
Information Design
Timeline
Nov–Dec 2025
Dimensions
81' x 24'
Advised by
Audra Hubbell
overview
Visualizing relationships through interactive storytelling
As I prepared to leave home during my senior year, I found myself questioning how well I truly knew the people who had raised me. A quote I came across—"it's parents' first time living too"—shifted my perspective. Rather than seeing my parents only as caregivers, I began wondering about the dreams, fears, and experiences they had before I was born.
I wanted to create a graphic design piece that didn't simply tell people this idea, but allowed them to discover it for themselves through interaction.
Challenge
How can I design an experience that encourages people to question how deeply they know their parents and inspire more meaningful conversations afterward?
Conversations with parents often stay within familiar routines, leaving meaningful stories and personal experiences unexplored. This project investigated how thoughtful interaction design could inspire curiosity, spark reflection, and help people connect with their parents on a deeper level.
process
Initial exploration
Instead of jumping straight into string, I explored multiple ways of visualizing personal data.
The biggest question became: How can people's uncertainty become visible without me explicitly telling them what the outcome should be?
Material exploration: why string?
String became the strongest solution because it functioned both symbolically and visually. It represents connection while simultaneously becoming the medium that records every participant's responses.
Rather than every participant leaving behind isolated answers, each person contributes another layer to a growing collective visualization.
Building the system
three levels
Rather than organizing questions randomly, I intentionally structured them into progressively deeper layers of intimacy:
The Surface
Observable habits and everyday traits.
Personal history
Experiences that shaped who someone became.
deeper emotions
Thoughts, fears, hopes, and internal experiences rarely discussed in everyday conversation.
This progression gradually increases emotional vulnerability while allowing participants to realize where their own understanding begins to break down.
"i don't know"
Every question ends with "I don't know." Placing this option consistently at the bottom creates a shared destination across every question. As participants move into more personal topics, strings naturally begin converging downward. Rather than displaying statistics or percentages, uncertainty becomes physically visible through the accumulation of thread.
Visual design
Color
Soft gradients represent emotional depth rather than rigid categories. Instead of using harsh separations between sections, colors blend gradually to reinforce the idea that relationships aren't divided into fixed stages.
Typography
Large vertical titles establish hierarchy from a distance and invite viewers into the installation before they understand its purpose. The body copy remains light and spacious, encouraging slower reading and contemplation rather than overwhelming participants with information.
Layout
The installation unfolds horizontally like a conversation. Participants begin with instructions, move through progressively deeper questions, and only discover the project's intent after completing the interaction. This sequencing allows reflection to emerge naturally rather than being predetermined.
Takeaway cards
Rather than ending with reflection alone, I designed three takeaway cards corresponding to each level of intimacy. Participants choose the card that reflects where they felt they stopped knowing their parents, leaving with conversation prompts that encourage them to continue building that relationship beyond the installation.
Final results
↓
Over three months, hundreds of interactions transformed the initially minimal composition into a dense network of thread. As more participants reached emotionally difficult questions, the visualization increasingly accumulated around the "I don't know" responses—revealing a shared pattern without requiring explanation.
This project taught me that graphic design can extend beyond communication into behavior. Rather than persuading people through words, carefully designed interactions can allow audiences to arrive at their own conclusions—and those conclusions often linger far longer.