Designing the Conversation No One Wants to Have
An independent student UX project completed at SCAD.
COMPANY
Ciel
ROLE
UX Designer
EXPERTISE
UX/UI Design, Research
YEAR
2026
Project Description
A 20-week student project exploring how AI can serve humanity at its most vulnerable: the intersection of death, family, and the assets people leave behind. Our team designed Ciel, a digital estate planning service that pairs a physical product with a web interface to make end-of-life asset planning accessible, secure, and human.
Timeline
Early-stage research through final tested prototype, all in 20 weeks.
Background
Death involves everyone, yet estate planning remains one of the most under-designed spaces in technology. Traditional wills and trusts are expensive, inaccessible to many families, and entirely focused on physical assets which leaves digital accounts, memories, files, and social media in legal and emotional limbo. Existing digital estate platforms have begun to fill that gap, but none address both physical and digital assets together or have built the experience around the emotional reality of what families are actually going through. Ciel was designed to close that gap. By pairing a physical product with a guided web interface, we created a way for families to plan together, protect what matters most, and approach a difficult conversation with clarity.
Process
The team and I conducted three research methods to gather initial insights into public perceptions of the digital estate planning ecosystem among adults ages 18–65. Our goal was to understand how people across diverse demographics (i.e; age, race, income, occupation, and level of technological proficiency) approach estate planning, what they value when planning for their families, and the challenges they currently face throughout the process. We dove into secondary research, surveys, and participant interviews with legal representatives and cybersecurity experts to help us understand the current state and capabilities for our design.
Research & Planning
Our surprising statistic is that less than half of the American population has a proper will set in place. The sum of initial secondary research consisted of over 175 article reviews and an analyzation of 27 competitors, leaving us to identify 15 trends. Our initial primary research consisted of 90 survey respondents and 8 interviews. With the number of uncovered digital assets increasing annually, our goal became designing for Millineals and Gen Z, so when they hit the age of 40+ they have substantial knowledge and guidance on what to do to protect their newly equipped assets and ensure it's being passed on to the ones they love.
Design & Prototyping
Our first usability test consisted of participants deliberately ranging from 18 to 65 years old across to ensure the products worked across ages, hand sizes, and levels of legal jargon. We achieved a successful System-Usabilty-Score of 71 against a target of 68, with an average Human-Error-Probability score of 20%, identifying specific interaction points still in need of refinement.
Our guiding principle in designing was awareness at every step for the asset holder and executor: we knew that some asset holders may be entirely new to estate planning and that our executors may be grieving or overwhelmed after the asset holder passes so the design had to meet them where they were in the process of using the device and interface.
Testing & Optimization
The Lune, our physical product, was central to creating this experience. As a customized biometric authentication and localized storage device, it ensures that updates are intentional, secure, and verified by the individual whose assets are being managed. During testing sessions, participants interacted with the device by placing their thumbprint on the sensor, receiving immediate haptic and visual feedback, and progressing through the interface as one connected experience. By observing these physical interactions, we identified moments of hesitation or confusion and refined the experience to make the process feel more approachable, personal, and reassuring.
Development & Implementation
Every screen in the beginning of using the platform was built to provide guidance about next steps, clarity about legal obstacles, and frame the device set up as milestone the asset holder and executor completes together rather than a task an individual dreads alone. We recognized that conversations surrounding death, inheritance, and financial planning are often viewed as intimidating or emotionally difficult. So, our goal was to transform this traditionally daunting experience into a meaningful and empowering moment that encourages open family conversations, strengthens trust, confidence, and security about their shared future.
Solution
With our research findings as the foundation, Ciel was designed to make one of the hardest conversations in a family's life feel possible, and to make the process that follows it feel manageable.
Users Can Prepare Assets on Your Time
Asset holders can begin securing their physical and digital assets as early as they choose, developing instructions and assigning messages to each recipient at whatever pace fits their life. There is no deadline, no pressure, and no single sitting required.
Users Are Guided at Every Step
The system walks users through their documents, asset categories, and assignments with contextual guidance, so they always know what has been completed, what remains, and what to do next.
Uses Make Flexible & Secure Decisions
The Lune verifies authorized users at every meaningful decision point, ensuring that the asset transfer process is accurate, protected, and initiated only by the people who are meant to carry it forward.
Results
We measured what participants did inside the interface. Where they paused, what they reached for, and where they stalled confirmed what design decisions we made in response to our research findings had landed.
AI That Puts People First
Many people approach AI with fear about what it might take away. This project demonstrated what it looks like when AI is built to give access, clarity, and agency over decisions that affect the people you love most.
Clarity When It Matters Most
Participants who had personally navigated a family member's estate without a structured system recognized immediately what Ciel would have changed for them; straightforward guidance, visible progress, and clear next steps in a process defined by uncertainty.
Users learn better with an uninterrupted experience.
The executor's role is one of the most emotionally and logistically demanding experiences a person can face in grief. Participants who had lived that experience firsthand said Ciel would have made it significantly more manageable to deal with the chaos that compounds the weight of loss.
