FUSION ICS Project Competition • Best Overall ICS Project
MyBalikBox
A collaborative planning app that helps Filipino American families organize care packages sent to the Philippines (balikbayan boxes).
ROLE
Design Lead
TIMELINE
Jan 2026 -
May 2026
TEAM
5 designers
8 developers
TOOLS
Figma
PROMPT
How can we help Filipino Americans preserve, share, and connect with their culture?
Context
What is a balikbayan box?
A balikbayan box is a care package filled with goods, gifts, and daily essentials commonly sent by Filipino-Americans to loved ones in the Philippines.
Balik: to return. Bayan: homeland.
Together: balikbayan.
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While receiving one is joyful, preparing one often isn't.
Planning is fragmented across Messenger, Notes, calls, and spreadsheets.
Problem Statement
So we asked…
How might we help families collaboratively organize and thoughtfully plan Balikbayan boxes within one shared space?
User Research
3 User Interviews
Three pain points came up again and again.
01
Planning happened across conversations
Families coordinated through various means over a long period of time.
02
Every item came with tradeoffs
Limited space and shipping costs made every packing decision into a balancing act.
03
Planning relied on memory
Families relied on memory to keep track of purchases and packing progress.
Hover pain points to reveal key quotes
2 User Personas
Research revealed two distinct user roles.
Jacob Dela Cruz
28 · Filipino American · Graduate Student
"I'm always worried I'll forget something someone asked for."
GOALS
Send a thoughtful Balikbayan box
Keep family members organized
Stay within the box's budget and weight
Make sure nothing important is forgotten
FRUSTRATIONS
Requests scattered across chats and calls
Hard to track what's already been purchased
Unsure what will still fit in the box
Last-minute packing feels stressful
SENDER
Maria Santos
30 · Mother · Cebu, Philippines
“I want to share what we need without feeling like I’m asking for too much.”
GOALS
Receive items that support everyday needs
Clearly communicate requests
Feel heard throughout the planning process
Stay connected with family abroad
FRUSTRATIONS
Requests get buried across messages
Unsure which items will be included
Feels guilty asking for too much
Limited visibility into planning
RECEIVER
Design Process
Low-Fidelity
Designing the foundation.
Rapid low-fidelity wireframes transformed research insights into the foundation of the product.
Branding
Warmth at the heart of the brand.
Color Palette
#F2C572
#B58A5A
#8FACB8
#A03E3E
Inspired by the warmth and optimism of Filipino culture, the palette subtly echoes the Philippines' national colors through muted, earthy tones.
Typography
DM Sans
Clear, approachable, and built for readability.
Initial High-Fidelity Design
The product's fundamental screens.
The first high-fidelity wireframes established the essential screens and interactions.
7 Usability Testing Sessions
Feedback became the design process.
Four rounds of high-fidelity iterations challenged our assumptions and guided every major design decision.
Navigation bar lacked clarity
Users often misinterpreted the “+” button. One observer specifically noted that the “plus button is misleading since it feels like it adds items not boxes.”
Sender and receiver experiences felt too similar
Testers struggled to visually distinguish the two roles, noting that the interfaces looked the same and suggesting different colors between them.
Item management needed more control
Testers wanted the ability to adjust item quantities rather than simply adding an item once. This became a specific design priority after testing.
Actions needed clearer feedback
Users weren't always sure whether an action had successfully happened. One tester specifically suggested adding a confirmation after deleting an item.
Iteration
Testing revealed where our core experience needed more clarity.
Creating clearer visual distinction between roles.
Giving users more control over every item they add.
Final Solution
One box, two sides of the experience.
MyBalikBox gives senders and receivers a shared space to coordinate what goes into each box, stay aligned throughout the process, and manage the journey from planning to delivery.
For Senders — Plan with clarity from start to finish.
For Receivers — Share what matters from afar.
Contributions
What I brought to MyBalikBox.
As Design Lead, I wore a few hats—researcher, designer, mentor, and teammate—helping shape both the product itself and the process that brought it to life.
Key Takeaways
What MyBalikBox taught me.
Leadership is helping others grow.
Leading design taught me to delegate with intention rather than design everything myself. I focused on giving designers ownership of their work while keeping the team aligned.
Bring developers in earlier.
One thing I would change is communicating with developers much earlier and more often. Our team missed opportunities to catch technical constraints and shape solutions together.
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Sending love, one box at a time!
thanks for stopping by~
© emma narvaez 2026