Role
Interaction Designer & Researcher
Four birthdays, one week, four different outcomes.
Four remote coworkers had birthdays in one week. One got a slide in a team meeting. One got a last-minute group text. Two got nothing. When our manager wanted to send gifts, we only had addresses for two of them — left over from a Secret Santa exchange months earlier. Nobody wanted to be the one who asked the other two where they lived.
The challenge isn’t just about remembering dates—it’s about helping people feel valued, connected, and celebrated in a way that strengthens relationships without creating discomfort or obligation.
Timeline
Jan – Mar 2025 (10 weeks)
Tools
Figma, Claude Design, Miro, Google Forms
Missed Milestones
Not everyone cares about missed birthdays, but when people forget often or celebrations feel impersonal, it creates distance.
Workplace Interactions
Qualitative interviews uncovered that what feels like genuine recognition to one employee can feel like a forced obligation to another.
Genuine Connections
Surveying 50+ respondents proved people value being remembered over gifts, yet generic posts or transactional items fail to make them feel truly valued.
Friction & Privacy
Tracking down home addresses feels awkward and ruins the whole surprise. Flipping control to the recipient fixed that and reduced perceived anxiety by half during testing.
Setting up how you want to be celebrated
Signing up means telling Celebrate who's in your life and how you actually want to hear from them — import contacts or connect LinkedIn, then sort people into groups instead of one flat list. I chose to split permissions by group after realizing a single privacy setting couldn't hold two true things at once: someone wants gifts and messages from their close circle, but only a message from coworkers, no gift. A relationship isn't one setting, it's several.
Sending a gift, without breaking your flow
Celebrate embeds directly into retailer checkout flows—like Target—allowing users to send gifts seamlessly without leaving the site or downloading a separate app.
Based on user research highlighting privacy concerns and checkout friction, I designed the flow to hide the recipient's shipping address from the sender, passing it securely and directly to the retailer.
Receiving one, without pressure
The recipient gets a text in whichever channel — app or SMS — matches their own settings, not whichever was easier to build. I chose to make that text an invitation rather than a delivery notice: someone new to Celebrate can sign up to view the gift and accept it, or decline if a gift from that person, or gifts in general, isn't something they want.
“My friend Jacky moves so often it’s hard to remember which is her current address. I’d love to just send something to her phone number and she can choose where to have it delivered.”
Lucia
34, Remote Coworker
“I wanted to surprise my out-of-state cousin with a flower delivery for her birthday. I don’t know her address, but I have her phone. This would’ve been cool to not ruin the surprise. I ended up sending a gift card”
John
28, Remote Family
“I personally don’t like gifts. I feel like I have to gift something back. Setting my preferences for messages or cards is nice.”
Carlos
Age 34
ADHD + Anxiety Diagnosis
Connection doesn't need an address. It needs a little intention.
© 2026 Maryel Enriquez Moreno
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