CONTEXT: Graduate Design Project

TIMELINE: January 2024 - ongoing

ROLE: Interaction Design, Information Design, Construction, Partnerships Liason, Content Creation

TEAM: Emma Brigaud, Erica Fink, Harsha Pillai

PARTNERS SO FAR: Flatiron NoMad

How might we foster simple moments of interaction, collaboration, and joy in public spaces?

The Love Note Exchange is a public installation that invites passersby to collaborate on letters of love.

Project Overview

The Love Note Exchange is a public installation that invites passersby to collaborate on letters of love. The exchange follows a “make one, take one” model. To make one: write the contents of a love note and leave it on the board. To take one: browse the board’s notes for one that resonates and deliver it to someone or keep it for yourself!

Our first pop-up with the Love Note Exchange took place in Flatiron Plaza and drew in over 500 people in one afternoon. Strangers shared notes of encouragement with one another, wrote love letters to the city, and stepped out of their regular commutes for a moment to smile and share in a laugh.

We intend to continue running pop-ups in different contexts to explore how we can bring this exchange of love to more communities.

How it works

Fill out a note, mad-libs-style, and add it to the pegboard.
Browse notes written by other New Yorkers.
Select one that resonates with you.
Keep it for yourself or deliver it to someone in your own life — be it a loved one, coworker, favorite barista, recent acquaintance, or someone on the subway!

Love Note Exchange in Action

During our first pop-up on April 16th in Flatiron Plaza, 500+ people shared their creativity with one another, talked to new people, took photos, brought back friends and coworkers, and walked away with a memory.

Testing the Interaction: Observations & Insights

~ 25% of people left “to/from” blank and filled out “written by” (our intended interaction)

~25 of people wrote them to “you” from twrote them to “you” from them (unanticipated but works well).

~25% left all fields blank (semi intended - knowing some people may not be comfortable writing their names).

~25% filled out all fields in a way that makes the card more of social art versus a functional exchange for a newcomer to take and address to someone else.

Notes: People enjoyed moments to write and share their love note, even if they didn’t get the “third” part of the exchange (i.e. Clara wrote a letter to Josh and put it on the board, even though Josh won’t receive it and no one can really address it to someone else now). Some of these unintended uses could be attributed to us not placing instructions at the very start. But in the end, humans will do what they want to do.

Moving forward: If we don’t include “to/from” and only use “written by” then it can have less room for error. Or, if we put “to/from” on the back, that could help. Do we keep “written by” even though some people may leave it blank?

Front to back: Erica, Emma, Harsha

Learnings: What Makes A Good Public Intervention?

We studied under Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger of Antenna Design, exploring the ingredients for a good public intervention. Beyond designing a worthwhile activity, how do you: capture someone’s attention in a public space and help them successfully navigate through an activity unattended? Speaking of unattended, the intervention must also be fail-proof.

When trying to capture someone’s attention in public space, you’re up against a lot of competition — especially in New York. In the precious seconds during a person’s glance, you must strike the perfect balance of intrigue and clarity.
Our title “Love Note Exchange” provided that intrigue while “Make one, Take One” is an interaction that is easy to understand.
After several iterations and testing, we designed the cards themselves using a mad-libs format to make the next steps clear and straightforward.
Public spaces can range every square foot in terms of how level the ground is, how strong the wind can get, and the bumps along the way to access it.
We have reinforced and triangulated our structure for stability. We also designed it to be easily deconstructed / reconstructed on site so that the structure’s integrity holds during transit.
Expecting the unexpected in public space can look like monitoring the content but also allowing for new nice things to unfold, like when a woman widened our love exchange to not just notes; she brought a plant and placed it on the counter for someone else to take home.