circle — Reciprocal Prompts for Closer Friendships
A daily question for the people you already care about — answer first, then see.
circle is a private-circle app where you answer one daily question before you can see anyone else's answer, grounded in a psychology technique for building closeness through structured self-disclosure. A two-week field test suggested it sparked deeper conversations than weekly meetups or group chats.
Overview
Mainstream social media optimizes for reach and passive scrolling. circle does the opposite: small private circles answer one curated question a day, and you only see others’ answers once you’ve shared your own. In a five-person team, I led project management, UX research, and concept formalization.
The Concept
The rule is simple — answer first, then see — grounded in Aron’s closeness-generation model, a psychology technique for building closeness between people through structured self-disclosure.
Field Test
A two-week field test with five students and one couple suggested that even short daily exchanges sparked deeper conversations than weekly meetups or WhatsApp, often carrying over into offline talk.
