Samaritan
Duration: 6 weeks
Key Area: UX Research [Speculative]
Project Type: Academic
Redefining currency through care, connection, and community values
Role: Individual researcher and designer
Tools: Figma, Miro,
Methods: Secondary research, 10 user interviews, futures forecasting, persona building, wireframing
Guide: Mansi Parikh, Saurabh Srivastava
Project
Context
In a world where traditional currency often overlooks the true worth of personal, social, and ecological contributions, communities are beginning to seek new ways to define and exchange value.
Designing a Speculative Value Exchange System for Hyper-Local Communities.
In response to the erosion of personal, social, and ecological value in today’s economic systems, I designed a future-facing value exchange platform that replaces traditional currency with care, trust, and reciprocity. The 6-week UX research project explored alternative economies through qualitative research, futures thinking, and iterative design.
Design
Process
The design process involved a series of steps which can be summarised by this diagram. Most of all, it involved extensive research, ideation and back & forth reasoning to derive results.
Secondary Research
The research was conducted in various phases to understand currency and it's various aspects.
Brainstorming & Mindmapping
A visual extrapolation of terms associated with currency. This was one of the initial steps taken to explore and understand the topic further.
Understanding the meaning of the term 'Currency'
The term 'Currency is generally understood as money in the local context. But money too in its own forms is understood in various terminologies.
Understanding Global Currency trends in terms of Value exchange
Primary
Research
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Primary research insights relating to 'Currency'
To know more about how people in general looked at currency as a whole, primary research in the form of personal interviews was conducted.
The responses were synthesised in the form of actionable statements that could be used later in persona building.
Age Group - 25 to 35
No. of Respondents: 10
Students, working singles, banking employees
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Addressing Key insights from primary interviews
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Psychological Insights
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Behavioural Insights
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Through the Futures Lens
Defining
Focus Areas
After going through a lot of trends and forecasts about what the future of money might look like it was essential to narrow down the focus areas for the project and define project goals.
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Would there be a different market for cashless economies?
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Can the idea of 'reciprocity' be monetized in the form of a new currency? Would exchange of value be the new form of payment in order to reduce micro transactions?
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The money experience - how different genders view money? Would a unilateral sense of money develop in the future where the priorities to spend would not be differentiated by genders or what people identify with.
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Project Goal
How might we design a system that allows communities to exchange value based on trust and care—rather than money—in a hyper-digital future?
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Speculative narrative
In a world where people have now digitized everything, any form of value exchange now requires a digital transaction. These digital transactions are now performed by the means of facial recognition, where you have to attach your facial recognition details to your payment methods. The society has truly become cashless. The surveillance state is now a reality. But the catch here is the amount of small scale transactions that are happening which deplete people of the money that they earn.
To counter it all, there have been communities of individuals propping up who wish to follow a much more holistic lifestyle. They chose to lead an alternative lifestyles where physical work is more valued than cognitive work. These communities are individuals / families who are looking for different avenues to spend time with the people who live in the vicinity.
A few of them like to live an off the grid lifestyle, which makes it harder to connect through online messaging platforms. As most of the service based platforms have become paid, they wish to have an avenue that is central to their vicinity.
User
Personas
Since the project focuses on a speculative future based narrative, the user persona should reflect a lifestyle that is a bit futuristic. But by futuristic here we mean a lifestyle which is much more human and technology is not that intrusive.
01 User Persona
Sayi represents a user segment that emerged during my primary research: single parents—especially mothers—seeking emotionally safe, non-transactional support systems in their communities. Through interviews, several participants expressed deep distrust in formal caregiving services and a strong desire for judgment-free, values-aligned local networks.
Design Impact
Sayi’s needs directly informed the decision to:
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Remove reputation systems or payment structures from the caregiver discovery flow
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Prioritize proximity-based, trust-anchored discovery features
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Include emotional context (e.g., “what kind of support do you need today?” prompts)
02 User Persona
Arjun represents a younger demographic identified during my research—teens living in intergenerational households with limited autonomy and emotional outlets. His persona is based on real interview themes around emotional isolation, suppressed independence, and the therapeutic role of animals or hobbies in young people's lives.
Design Impact
Arjun’s persona helped shape design choices such as:
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Enabling interest-based community groups (e.g., “pet-lovers” circles) to foster non-transactional belonging
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Designing low-friction engagement features for young users to connect safely and meaningfully (e.g., request calm spaces, animal care time)
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Ensuring that requests for support don't feel like burdens—but contributions to a circular, caring network
User Journey Mapping
To better understand how users might interact with the platform in real-world scenarios, I mapped a detailed user journey. This helped me identify key emotional states, touchpoints, and opportunities where intentional, non-transactional design could build trust and reduce friction.
Information
Architecture
Wireframes
& Prototypes
The initial design iteration for the product screens was done through paper sketches. It gave a clear idea as to how we could integrate features, prompts and overall design of the product.
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Low - Fidelity Wireframes
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High - Fidelity Wireframes
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Scope & Integrations
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The product can be further iterated and built upon to add elements of everyday life.
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Categories can be expanded further and built upon
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Physical interactions can be added to the product.