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SPARKS Designathon 2023

I participated in a designathon for the very first time. Challenging but I'm very glad I took the plunge.

Project details:

SPARKS Designathon 2023 hosted by Wellesley in Product

April 14- 16 2023

My role:

One of the three UX designers ( all in different time zones)

Responsibilities:

Brainstorming, paper wireframing, storyboarding, prototyping, UI designs, attending workshops and meeting with a mentor, and constructing the contents for the summarized video.

The design challenge:

"Create Unexpected Moments of Joy"

The challenge was issued during the opening ceremony on 4/14. We had 40 hours to complete and submit it.

The submission:

1-2 minute video of explaining the design journey and the product prototyping. This is what we submitted.

Since it was a short-time project, we decided not to conduct any research. Along with the given challenge, we discussed our own experiences, came up with as many ideas as possible, and decided on "StarJar" which is a notification-free messaging app. Inspired by origami stars and the concept of filling a jar=joy.

Pain point: People are busy and current technology is too attention demanding to stay in touch in healthy way

StarJar is a voice messaging app. You record a message into an Origami star in color coordinated with emotion/feeling. You send it but the message stays low-key and can't expect it to be opened immediately. The recipient receives it but no notification. It stays in the jar until they opens it. It's spontaneous so that we believe that creates unexpected joy and also a solution to the pain point.

Storyboard

After having a meeting with a mentor, we confirmed the direction and went along with this scenario, for user flows.

Prototype

I'd call it mid-fidelity prototype as we prioritized finishing the flows with minimum functions.

Finished product

What I learned:

Since this was the very first project I worked on with others, even remotely, it was really a good experience for me. I committed to the team as much as my schedule allowed during the weekend. Since we come from different backgrounds, ideas were unexpected and inspired each other which was definitely one of the perks of teamwork.

FigJam was really useful to collaborate remotely, then working together on Figma while chatting on Discord felt close enough to working in person. We didn't win any placements but I had fun and gained so much experience through the project.

What's next:

We were short on time so had to rush to complete the video, so time control is the next assignment. Also, there were screens we created but couldn't include in the prototype due to the shortage of time so I'd like to complete it on my own someday.

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