Information
My Role
UI/UX design lead
I led the design process and taught my team to use Figma for prototyping. We created an intuitive platform through multiple iterations, coordinated user research and testing sessions, and refined the final design based on student feedback.
Team members: Leah Ryzenman, Taylor Doyle, Christine Lee, Blake Croft
I led the design process and taught my team to use Figma for prototyping. We created an intuitive platform through multiple iterations, coordinated user research and testing sessions, and refined the final design based on student feedback.
Team members: Leah Ryzenman, Taylor Doyle, Christine Lee, Blake Croft
Project Context
Date: April 18 - June 01, 2023
Setting: Design Thinking & Doing, Final Project
Tools: Figma
Setting: Design Thinking & Doing, Final Project
Tools: Figma
Challenge
Event discovery at Northwestern University is disjointed, leaving students struggling to engage with campus life. When students ask "What's going on this weekend?", they face a fragmented landscape: event information is scattered across Wildcat Connection, social media platforms, and physical flyers. While off-campus parties often find their audience, student organization activities often go unnoticed, buried in this digital noise.
Despite Northwestern's vibrant event ecosystem, there is no unified hub where students can discover and engage with campus activities. Current platforms either focus too narrowly on specific event types or present information in ways that make discovery difficult. This fragmentation leads to missed opportunities and a diminished sense of campus connection.
How might we create an accessible event discovery platform that empowers students to connect with Northwestern's diverse campus activities, fostering a more engaged university community?
Action
Working closely with my team, we began by interviewing diverse Northwestern students to understand their event discovery challenges. Our research revealed three key pain points: fragmented information across multiple platforms, lack of personalized event recommendations, and limited community engagement opportunities. These insights led to five guiding "How Might We" questions that shaped our approach:
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How might we replicate the connection of personal invites?
- How might we make event discovery flexible to students' schedules?
- How might we curate events based on individual interests?
- How might we ensure the platform is intuitive and easy to navigate?
- How might we create a platform that feels inclusive for all students?
As the design lead, I took on learning Figma to create our prototypes and taught my teammates how to use the tool effectively. Our first iteration was a simple digital bulletin board, but user testing showed issues with navigation, organization, and readability.
Drawing inspiration from Northwestern's familiar Salad.nu course registration platform, we pivoted to a calendar-style interface that allowed students to filter and RSVP to events based on their interests and availability.
Through multiple rounds of user testing and refinement, we developed a platform that combined Salad.nu's intuitive interface with Wildcat Connection's comprehensive event listings. I led the design iterations in Figma, coordinated user testing sessions, and worked with the team to implement feedback. The result was an accessible platform that simplified event discovery while fostering a more connected campus community.
Result
An event scheduling platform for Northwestern students to discover, share, and plan for university-affiliated events.
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