Lumilink: co-designing offline social engagement for adolescents

Overview

The mental-health impacts of adolescent social-media use are complex, with evidence linking use to increased anxiety, depression, loneliness, and self-harm, while also offering opportunities for connection among isolated youth. A central sociotechnical challenge is youth loneliness: online platforms may support well-being when they strengthen meaningful relationships, but may be detrimental when they displace in-person interaction.

Lumilink addresses this challenge through the co-design of a digital intervention aimed at promoting face-to-face social engagement among adolescents. Building on a youth-generated concept developed during a hackathon, the project translates an early-stage idea into a minimum viable system through user-centered design.

What the Digital Trails team is doing

• Systems analysis & user-centered design — goal definition, alternative generation and evaluation, and iterative prototyping with adolescent users.
• Behavioral grounding — targeted review of prior digital and behavioral interventions, anchored in behavioral activation, self-determination theory, and social support theory.
• Friendship-garden interface — core system features built around a metaphor in which peer connections are represented as entities that grow through shared, in-person activities.
• Youth co-design loop — iterative refinement through wireframing and feedback from a Youth Advisory Board (YAB).

Methodology

The project identifies three key behavioral targets for sustaining friendships: initiation, follow-through, and relationship deepening. These targets shape the design, which is iteratively refined through wireframing and feedback from a Youth Advisory Board (YAB). The prototype is designed to support intentional interaction, shared accountability, and sustained relationship maintenance — encouraging the kind of offline engagement that most directly supports well-being.

Platforms & design approach

Outcomes & current status

Ongoing work includes a feasibility and user-experience study with adolescents (target n=10) to evaluate usability, engagement, and potential for reducing loneliness. The project contributes a theoretically grounded, co-designed digital intervention and provides design insights for promoting offline social connection through technology.