Together Radio

🫶

Together Radio 🫶

What I built

I designed and built Together Radio, a speculative communication device that explored how anonymous support groups could use touch, not screens, to create a sense of empathy and human connection.

The working prototype combined tactile interaction, haptics, heat, audio, and inter device communication to explore what emotionally supportive technology might look like in the home of 2035

The opportunity

Support groups rely heavily on presence: being heard, feeling understood, and receiving reassurance from others who have shared similar experiences.

But in tightly connected communities, seeking that support can come at the cost of privacy. I explored a future in which increased connectivity could make support accessible to people who wanted to share their experiences while remaining completely anonymous.

The question became: could technology create a feeling of human presence without revealing who was on the other side?

Creating intimacy without identity

Traditional social experiences build connection through names, faces, profiles, and conversation. The challenge for Together Radio was creating enough presence for someone to feel supported while preserving complete anonymity.

Could touch become a language?

Rather than assuming haptics could communicate emotion, I tested it. I conducted tactile communication experiments with 26 participants across emotions including anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust, and sympathy. Remarkably, participants independently repeated the same gesture when communicating sympathy - giving me a behavioral foundation for the device's core interaction.

26 participants

6 emotions

1 repeated gesture for sympathy

Translating emotions into physical interaction

The experience had to feel comforting rather than technological. I iterated through physical forms, ergonomics, tactile surfaces, haptic patterns, heat, and feedback before building a working prototype using Arduino, servo motors, and inter-device communication.

Outcome

Recognized by the global interaction design community

IxDA Interaction Awards | Best Concept

Together Radio won the IxDA Interaction Award for Best Concept, recognizing the project’s exploration of anonymity, tactile communication, and new forms of human connection.

The project was featured in Discursive Design, placing Together Radio within a broader body of critical and speculative design work exploring how designed objects can provoke discussion about possible futures.