What is Design-a-thon?
Design-a-thon is a 3-day hybrid event where individuals or teams design a product based on this years theme, "True to You!" This event is hosted by Design at UCI, the premier student-run organization for graphic, UI/UX, and product design. This event is the largest collegiate design-a-thon in Orange County. Bringing together hundreds of student designers nationwide, it offers a unique opportunity to develop and pitch a product from scratch, enhancing both soft and hard skills in user empathy, goal setting, product development, and creative confidence. Design-a-thon takes place over a two day time constraint, so I took this challenge on with two other team members to divide and conquer the task!
This years theme was: “Design your own digital application or product hat fosters cultivation of creative expression to create a more inclusive and equitable society.”
Initial Wireframes
Our goal was to design an app that not only fosters personal growth and understanding but also contributes to a broader societal impact by promoting inclusivity and equity through creative expression. To achieve this, we incorporated a gamified approach, offering new exercises in each genre every week and daily challenges that users can share with each other. Aesthetically, we wanted to keep the design minimalistic but colorful and dreamy.
We set out to create an app that enables users to explore and discover new information about themselves and others through education, mental health, and creative activities.
Given the limited time, we couldn't conduct extensive research. However, we managed to gather valuable insights by creating a Google Form with questions such as "Do you like daily challenges?" This allowed us to quickly gauge user preferences and incorporate their feedback into our app design.
