A short video telling the story of a troubling future for men through a fictional future user interface in an app for men only
Mobile App Design, Short Film, Speculative Design
2025
Description
A fictional social media app for men only, questioning developments in contemporary masculinity and feminism through speculative world-building.Research
The fictionalization of user interfaces to convey an investigative thriller narrative was inspired by the work of director Aneesh Chaganty in his movies Searching (2018) and its anthological sequel, Missing (2013).
The topic was based on how men struggle to form relationships with each other and often emotionally depend on the women in their lives as evident in their documented decreasing academic enrollment and weakening social networks (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study, 2009). Meanwhile, society is often uncomfortable with raising awareness to men-specific struggles for concern over perpetuating sexism as illustrated in the book, Of Boys And Men, by Richard V. Reeves (2024). Utilizing the "future cones" design tool in Speculative Everything by Dune & Raby (2013), this mobile app prototype asks what would happen if there was a widely-used virtual community for men only as they face theses societal struggles? Would they build stronger relational skills and heathier, feminist outlooks on society, or would they be radicalized into violence against themselves or others?
Interaction
The user watches a video walkthrough of the app where two actors using the user interface convey a narrative addressing masculinity and feminism
Process
Tools
Adobe Illustrator for designing visual assetsFigma for prototype development
Adobe After Effects for creating the video
Stages
Researched current struggles for men
Prototyped the app design in Figma
Created final assets in Adobe Illustrator
Wrote script for actorsDirected actors as they performed the script
Screen recorded the Figma prototype
Combined footage and created animations in Adobe After Effects
Reflection
This project introduced me to speculative design as a framework for addressing real-world challenges, such as struggles for men within modern-day gender dynamics. I wrote a script and directed actors which improved my ability to navigate film making as well.