TRACE

TRACE is a connected physical–digital access concept designed to make permission, identity, and service interactions clearer across personal and organizational touchpoints. The experience connects a tactile physical object with individual and staff-facing digital interfaces, creating a coordinated system for access, handoff, recovery, and support.

Rather than treating identity verification as the end of the experience, TRACE separates recognition from authorization and creates a shared permission state across every touchpoint.

One system, multiple touchpoints

TRACE connects a tactile physical object with individual and organizational digital interfaces into one coordinated access system, spanning physical, digital, and service context.

The problem is not simply that existing products are inconvenient or inaccessible. Access depends on identity, authorization, permission, state, timing, and context — conditions that are not always equally visible or understandable to everyone involved, and accessibility has to be part of that system logic rather than a separate feature.

Ecosystem

TRACE is defined around roles rather than individual personas — the people and systems that participate in an access interaction, and what each of them needs from it.

End-to-end journey

The experience is described as a lifecycle rather than an app flow — the stages an access interaction moves through regardless of which touchpoint is in front of someone.

TRACE is designed as one permission system expressed through multiple interfaces. The individual and the organization interact with different tools, but every touchpoint references the same underlying shared access state.

Permission is treated as an explicit state that can be reviewed, paused, resumed, revoked, or closed—not as a one-time access event.

The physical product was not designed only as an identity object. Its form and interaction were developed to make permission feel deliberate, legible, and controllable.

Exploring Form Through Interaction

Loop, slide, and fold concepts explored different ways to express continuity, direction, and protection. Rotation provided the strongest balance of compact form, tactile feedback, and multi-state control, and became the clearest physical metaphor for changing state.

Physical interaction logic

The Credential was sized and shaped for comfortable one-handed handling, visible orientation, and easy placement into the Dock — front grip, side thickness, in-palm scale, and Dock placement.

Rotation itself creates a deliberate physical action that can communicate transition without requiring a screen.

Prototype & feasibility

The physical concept was explored through form, component, and interaction studies to understand how the device might move from visual concept toward a buildable system.

Material & production considerations

Material direction and component packaging were considered alongside the rotational mechanism and LED feedback, together with Dock relationship and physical scale. This remains a proposed development direction rather than a manufacturing-validated design.

TRACE extends the physical interaction into a role-based digital system. The personal app and organization dashboard provide different levels of visibility and control while sharing the same underlying permission and session states.

Personal app

The interface prioritizes making state visible — what is active, what is changing, what requires attention, and what can happen next. The screens below show the conceptual state progression; interface times and durations are illustrative rather than one exact recorded session.

Beyond the core flow

The root navigation connects Home, Access, Activity, People, and Profile. Within Access, Assets brings together connected services, systems, devices, credentials, and related permissions.

Experience in context

The same permission state is carried from the core interface into everyday use, helping active access and connected areas remain visible in context.

Organization access dashboard

The dashboard is the organizational side of the same access system, not a separate admin backend. While the individual controls what may be shared, staff need a clear operational view of requests, active sessions, exceptions, and access history.

Same system, different responsibilities

Three interactions carry most of the role-based experience: making permission visible at a glance, handing off session state between physical and digital touchpoints without losing context, and supporting assisted recovery when self-service is not enough.

Visual & Interaction System

The digital system uses a shared visual and interaction language to keep permission, session state, and feedback consistent across personal and organizational interfaces.

A permission system cannot depend on one interaction path or one ideal condition. TRACE explores alternate presentation modes, recovery states, and failure scenarios so control remains understandable across different users and contexts — accessibility is treated as part of the system logic, not as an added feature.

Accessibility states

Standard · High Contrast / Reduced Visual Load · Guided State

These presentations support conditions such as reduced visual dependence and assisted interaction, without depending on a single ideal interaction path.

Key edge cases

Each edge case is presented as a trigger, the resulting state change, the system's response, and the path back to a normal or closed state.

TRACE is designed to operate within a service ecosystem rather than as an isolated device. The same permission model connects the individual, service staff, organization interface, physical environment, and service workflow.

Private financial consultation

A client arrives for a private consultation. TRACE recognizes the client, but recognition does not grant access.

The advisor creates an access request. The client reviews the requester, purpose, requested information, and duration, then chooses what to share. Once approved, the session becomes Active across the Credential, Dock, mobile app, and organization dashboard. The client can Pause, Resume, or Revoke access while the advisor sees the same updated state.

When the session ends, access closes and the client receives an Access Record.

Recovery is part of the permission experience, not a separate support layer. When something changes, the ecosystem needs to coordinate a way back without silently restoring access.

Who's involved

A recovery scenario spans the individual, the physical product, the shared digital state, and organization or staff support — each seeing the same breakdown and recovery path rather than resolving it in isolation.

TRACE brings physical interaction, personal control, organizational visibility, and human support into one continuous access experience.

TRACE developed into a connected access concept spanning physical interaction, personal control, organizational visibility, and human support. By treating permission, state, handoff, accessibility, and recovery as shared system concerns, the project explores how physical and digital touchpoints can work together as one continuous experience.

The final system coordinates physical interaction, personal digital control, organizational visibility, assisted service, and edge cases and recovery.

Further development would focus on validating multimodal interaction, assisted recovery, and permission-state clarity across a broader range of real-world access scenarios.