The Diary

Academic • Mar-Apr 2025

Team: Sooa Mo, Yumi K., Joanne N.

0. Overview

As part of a speculative design course, our team created The Diary—an installation that challenges the illusion of digital erasure. Alongside the physical artifact, we developed a detailed design workbook that documents the conceptual development and design process behind the piece.

Fig.1: Showcase presentation of The Diary during the final exhibition.

1. My Role

Project Manager · Lead Researcher · Narrative Designer

I took the lead in coordinating the project, organizing weekly meetings, managing timelines, and keeping our team aligned. I also led the majority of the research, identifying academic frameworks, speculative precedents, and installation references to support our evolving direction. As the narrative designer, I created the fictional persona Sofia Alvarez and wrote over 80% of the diary entries.

Fig.2: Early-stage research that informed the project direction. Additional sources can be found in the full design workbook.

Fig.3: A selection of speculative precedents explored during concept development.

2. Design Decision

While another team member proposed the use of UV-reactive ink, I contributed by identifying how our project could meaningfully apply speculative design methods—such as Subversion and Materialized Stories. I helped shape the interaction conceptually, ensuring the diary served not just as a visual piece, but as a metaphor for unerasable digital traces.

Fig.4: Brainstorming sessions mapping how speculative strategies and methods shaped the direction of the project.

3. Iteration & Feedback

Early in the process, our concepts were criticized for being too abstract or overly broad. I took that feedback seriously and helped shift our focus from “digital legacy after death” to the persistence of everyday digital footprints—a move that made the project more immediate, emotional, and understandable.

Fig.5: Analysis of critical feedback that guided our project refinement.

4. Narrative & Persona

I developed Sofia Alvarez, a fictional persona inspired by real-world cases of cyber harassment. I wanted her voice to feel authentic—like someone you could know. Her diary became the emotional core of the installation, representing the lived tension between digital privacy and exposure.

Fig.6: Initial drafts of the diary content written to build emotional tone and metaphor.

Fig.7: Development of persona concepts and worldbuilding through collaborative discussion and iteration.

5. Takeaway

Through The Diary project, I learned that even minimal interaction can have deep impact—if the narrative is strong and the metaphor is clear. This project helped me grow not just as a designer, but as a storyteller who uses materials, metaphors, and mood to provoke ethical reflection.