Until It Feels Right
Christie Kim
Advisor: Sarah Ibrahim
Until It Feels Right expands the practice of UX by using playful friction to design for moments that feel more human—welcoming humor and depth into everyday digital experiences.
Project Description
Until It Feels Right is a UX research and design project exploring how emotional nuance, intentional pause, and subtle friction can offer new ways to connect with users in digital spaces. Inspired by the philosophy of Chindogu—"almost useful" inventions—this work examines how non-optimized moments in user flows can deepen engagement, spark reflection, or simply offer a breath of fresh air.
Instead of treating emotional hesitation, uncertainty, or indecision as problems to be solved, this project treats them as signals: valuable parts of human behavior that are often smoothed over in pursuit of efficiency. Through interactive prototypes, Until It Feels Right experiments with small interface interventions that invite users to linger, laugh, or relate.
Each prototype is designed to last just 10–30 seconds, yet all are grounded in user testing and feedback loops. They live as a growing library that combines playful friction with emotional sensitivity.
Technical Details
Tools: Figma, After Effects, HTML/CSS/JavaScript (for interactive prototypes)
Format: Interactive prototypes, website archive
Research/Context
Much of today’s digital design focuses on creating seamless, efficient, and optimized flows. But real human behavior is rarely that linear. Inspired by Chindogu and informed by feedback from real users and design peers, Until It Feels Right explores how moments of pause, contradiction, or absurdity can create richer, more relatable interfaces.
Rather than seeing hesitation as friction to eliminate, this project frames it as a form of engagement. Informed by references like Emotional Design, Deliberate Friction and conversations with designers like Luna Maurer, Roel Wouters, and Yehwan Song.