The Loneliness Project
Passion Project
The Loneliness Project is a passion project I created to collect, showcase, and archive peoples’ stories of loneliness. Anyone can submit their story (I have received over 2000) and new stories are shared on the site every week.
Loneliness is a thing we don’t talk about, but what this influx of stories has shown me is just how universal it is. It’s very human to experience loneliness at times but it doesn’t need to be as isolating as it is. Our stories have tremendous power, and in starting conversations about loneliness we can combat isolation and cultivate compassion – for others and for ourselves.
The Loneliness Project started small. With no proof of concept other than a Facebook post and a Google submission form, I started asking people for their stories. I had no idea what kind of a response – if any – I’d get, and was shocked to receive over 100 stories before the project was even live. They were coming in from all over the world, from people of all ages and all walks of life.
Loneliness makes the world feel cold and uncaring, so the site is designed to be the opposite – illustrated by hand, it feels human and warm. The apartments reflect loneliness itself: everyone is alone in their own unit, unaware that others are so close by, doing the exact same thing.
It was important to me that this feel like a real city (albeit with windows chosen by the world’s most indecisive architects!) I took hundreds of photos of Toronto’s windows, many of which were adapted into windows on the site.
The site’s structure is informed by my initial decision to incorporate apartments, which naturally lent themselves to a long, scrolling page that users can explore. Made into an immersive world by incorporating ambient sound, detailed micro-interactions, and delightful animations, the user is invited to get lost in the stories, closing the gap between storyteller and reader.
Tools like Hotjar allowed me to test how individuals interact with the site, identifying and resolving pain points in a user’s experience. For example, heat maps and user recordings showed me that users were having a hard time accessing the About page. I switched the two menu icons, prioritizing the About page and making it easier for users to find.
The site launched in October 2017, and the project started growing rapidly. The site had over 5,000 visitors in its first week. I’m proud to say The Loneliness Project has been covered by media including Buzzfeed, The Walrus, The Toronto Star, The Guardian, and more. It has also been named a 2018 Webby Award Nominee.
To date, the site has had over 45,000 visitors and has received 1400+ stories (and counting) from 60+ countries, from Canada to France to Syria to Thailand to New Zealand to the USA.
You can submit your own story here.
(P.S. There’s an easter egg somewhere on the site. Email me for a prize if you can find it.)
