The Spot Dashboard
Your all-in-one hub that seamlessly organizes the essential platform features right at your fingertips!
The Community Board
A vibrant and collaborative haven crafted by creative minds, bursting with inspiration at every turn!
Spot
Brand Design
Collaboration
Mentorship
Networking
Year
2023
Duration
8 Weeks
Team
2 People
What?
Spot is a web-application
that facilitates connections between UX design students and industry experts.
Why?
It serves to bridge the gap between academic study and professional practice
in UX design.
How?
Spot allows UX design students to upload projects for AI analysis, refine their concepts, present them to industry experts, and receive feedback through discussions.
Background
It has been observed that UX design students,
throughout their academic journey, develop robust, evidence-based projects that often challenge existing solutions and highlight gaps in their functionality.
Initial brainstorming session
(Left) Muskan Malik | (Right) Self
These projects, which have significant potential to generate profits for companies and create positive change for individuals, often remain tucked away in someone's portfolio instead of being shared with society.
Future-state Journey Map
During the journey of executing a creative idea, I noticed specific "delay states" where the platform was missing a clear purpose for people.
Delay between a creator publishing a project and being noticed by an investor.
Delay following a pitch presentation while awaiting investor approval.
Delay between collaboration success and market launch.
It got me thinking: how can I bring joy and creativity into these moments of delay?
Finalizing
Setup
Search
Investor
Creator
SPOT
The creator conducts a case study to generate an idea, seeks feedback from an industry professional, researches potential connections online, and discovers Spot to meet
all their needs.
Creators upload their pitch on Spot, which analyzes and optimizes the presentation. The platform suggests improvements and tags before publishing. When an investor shows interest, the creator is notified and receives an achievement, celebrating their work's recognition by an industry professional.
Upon pitch approval, the creator earns an achievement. The investor decides on collaboration type or idea purchase. Spot generates a mutually agreeable contract. When both parties accept, they receive congratulatory messages. Spot then facilitates project follow-ups, ensuring market readiness while keeping both parties informed.
Investors seek to expand their businesses by investing in research on their products, conducting tests, gathering feedback, studying the market, and comparing with competitors. A straightforward approach is to reference existing studies, which leads them to Spot, where they find a relevant case study on their own product.
Investors sign up, categorize their company departments, and use keywords to specify interests. The system matches relevant projects or case studies, displaying only headlines to generate interest. When an investor selects a project, the creator is notified of their interest.
If the pitch presentation is not approved, the investor can provide feedback, or the platform suggests ways to acknowledge the creator's work. The platform also recommends improvements based on investor feedback. Once the creator makes the necessary enhancements, the process repeats.
Identifying the players in the game
This platform was conceived as a multisided ecosystem addressing the needs of two distinct groups: those who
create products, referred to as creators, and those who invest in these creators to bring their ideas to fruition,
known as investors.
Primary Stakeholders | Creators
Design Students
This group consists of individuals actively studying UX design who seek feedback and real-world application of their skills through course projects.
Entry-level Designers
This segment includes recent graduates or entry-level designers eager to showcase their abilities and secure their first roles in the industry.
What creators have to say…
"
I actually don't know
how to assess the effectiveness of my projects. Like personally, I'm not able to assess that.
Challenges and Pain points
Frustration with networking and lack of responses.
Difficult to seek job opportunities from
industry professionals.Discomfort with in-person interactions.
Dependence on peer and professor feedback.
Goals and Needs
Desire for actionable feedback on projects.
Interest in potential employers.
Want to understand design impact post-implementation.
Seeking clarity on company expectations before applying.
Looking for a platform to share portfolios.
Secondary Stakeholders | Investors
Recruiters
Recruiters are professionals seeking talented UX designers
for their organizations. They often look for innovative portfolios and fresh perspectives to fill design positions.
Senior Designers
Senior designers are experienced professionals in the UX field who aim to mentor emerging talent, provide industry insights, and potentially discover collaborators for their projects or teams.
Startup Founders
Startup founders are entrepreneurs looking for cost-effective design solutions and fresh ideas to enhance their products or services, while also scouting for potential design
talent to join their growing teams.
Problem Statement
How might we create a platform that connects design students with innovative ideas to individuals and organizations with resources, enabling these changemakers to bring impactful solutions to life
and make a positive difference in the world?
Professional Networking
Access to Growth
Idea Execution
Ideation
Solution
Expected Impact
Spot will empower early-career designers by providing a platform to showcase their work to companies across domains.
For investors, the platform will offer thoroughly researched projects, enabling them to develop project roadmaps and enhance existing solutions.
Empowerment
Visibility
Innovation
Learnings
What worked
Uncover insights early to establish a clear vision
During the brainstorming phase, my team dedicated significant effort to analyzing the future-state journey map. This process uncovered potential stakeholder decisions and identified delay states, ultimately leading to the development of our unique selling proposition (USP).
Establish a compelling story hook to keep your audience engaged
In our final presentation to "creators" and "investors", we engaged the audience by introducing a compelling scenario as a hook. We revisited this hook at the end, highlighting how our proposition benefits both user groups and keeping the audience invested throughout the 30 minutes.
What did not work
Project enthusiasm can result in unmanageable scope
The future-state journey map revealed innovative opportunities but also expanded our project scope. Facing time and resource constraints, we learned to start small and strategically expand, rather than overextending and scaling back.
Standards provide a solid foundation but can limit your creativity
Our design approach focused on conducting a competitive analysis of industry-leading platforms to identify successful elements. However, this approach limited our creativity and might not have suited our brand. We found it more effective to experiment with modern design trends, apply them to existing platforms, and iterate continuously to determine what works best for us.
Credits
TL (Left to Right) Muskan Malik, Blake Hudelson, & Self | TR & B Presenting Spot to a panel of industry professionals.
If you think about it…
Academic projects share several similarities with hackathons.
Hackathons and academic projects both emphasize collaborative learning and problem-solving, bringing together participants from various disciplines to create innovative solutions within a set timeframe.
They foster skill development, require effective time management, and culminate in presentations showcasing the results of their work.
Image Creadits: Pablo Stanley for Lummi.ai
More than 80% of Fortune 100 companies utilize hackathons as a strategy to fuel innovation, with over half of these hackathons being recurrent events, signaling their effectiveness as an instrument for consistent creation.
Source: Laker, B. (2023, August 5). Empowering society through digital innovation: The hackathon trend. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/2023/08/05/empowering-society-through-digital-innovation-the-hackathon-trend/
If hackathons can be so profitable, why not tap into the similar potential of academic projects, creating a win-win scenario for both companies and students?
Wireframe
The wireframes were initially designed with specific 'jobs to be done' for both creators and investors across mobile and web platforms. It helped us visualize the platform's main features and get a rough idea of how they might look.
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Department 03
Department 02
Department 01
Department 04
Department 05
Search
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Jobs Stories for creators (top)
L
When I access my user profile, I’d like to see a list of all my uploaded projects, allowing me to choose which one I want to develop further before publishing.
R
When I upload my project, I'd like the platform to assess its potential to attract investors and offer suggestions to boost
my chances of getting noticed.
Jobs Stories for investors (bottom)
L
When I open Spot, I want to see a list of projects posted by creators for my company so I can easily choose the one I’m most interested in discussing further.
R
On my phone, when I view a list of projects, I’d like an option to save them for later so I can check them out when I have more time.
Given that students primarily work on their portfolios from their workstations, it was logical to develop a web platform for easy uploads.
The investors may not always have a workstation handy, and creating a mobile version allows them to quickly complete certain tasks without needing a powerful machine.
Unique Selling Proposition
Matchmaking
Creators can quickly find the right people to pitch their work to, while investors save time and resources by identifying gaps in their projects.
Synergy
Creators can concentrate on presenting their best work, while the platform offers investors valuable insights from projects that maximize their time.
Recognition
Celebrating even small achievements, like getting noticed by an investor, is important as it shows the platform values and cares for its creators.
Execution
Ensuring that ideas reach the market involves monitoring progress and keeping both parties informed about the status and timeline.
UI Exploration & Visual Identity
My team spent over two weeks refining the logo and wordmark to align with our values and create a standout identity. We aimed for a short, memorable word that immediately conveys the essence of our platform.
We finalized the name "Spot" to highlight how your work gets the "spotlight." Our platform makes it easy for you to connect with collaborators and investors, helping you bring your ideas from your notebook into reality.
Design decisions taken along the way
We narrowed our focus to a web application, reducing some job stories to meet the project timeline.
This enabled us to create a viable MVP, with future plans to address additional job stories and the
mobile platform.
We referenced LinkedIn due to its overlap with our offerings, aiming to understand how its features integrate, as it serves as a powerful networking platform that aligned with our capabilities.
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My calendar
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UI improvement
Initiate dynamic enhancements to elevate web application performance.
Publish
Publish
Publish
Publish
UX research
Analyze data streams to identify insights for data-informed design improvements.
Product design
Reimagine the digital storefront experience for smoother user interactions.
Final_ultimateFinal_done_final
Conceptualize a support ecosystem via a digital presence.
Creator
Shubham Jumde
Instagroom Uni
Lagos, Nigeria
510
followers
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likes
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following
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Home
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A digital storefront experience for smoother user interactions
A new interface concept to adapt to varying user environments
Redefining brand identity
Optimizing user interactions with the software
Ergonomic and aesthetic upgrades for seating solutions
Series of compelling digital content for the latest features
Innovative sustainable packaging for product lineup
Optimizing user interactions with the software
Product Design
These are the latest developments made under this department by creators all over the world! Lets see which one grabs your eye...
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Muskan Malik
CEO, Goggle Inc.
Lagos, Nigeria
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following
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Aa
Heading
Comfortaa Bold
#5D5A88
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Nunito Sans Regular
Nunito Sans Semi-bold
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Challenges that we faced
As newcomers, we were learning to use design systems and standards. We referenced existing designs and chose a basic color scheme, but the final output felt flat and lacked a modern touch.
Unlike LinkedIn, Spot emphasizes values like inspiration, community, and growth. These core aspects were lost in visual design when we tried to adapt our concept to a platform with different intentions.
01
A fresh logo design
The new Spot logo showcases a balanced design with precise measurements. We created variations for its use as an app icon and favicon to maintain consistency across platforms. We also developed a wordmark to complement the logo.
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02
A revamped brand identity
The updated look of Spot features a darker primary background color for a more modern aesthetic, complemented by two highlight colors used for call-to-action buttons, selected button states, and other secondary visual elements.
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Comfortaa Semi Bold
#181F6D
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Nunito Sans Regular
Nunito Sans Bold
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PP Object Sans Regular
#121212
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The Spot identity is also featured on the landing page, guiding users through essential components such as the logo, color scheme, typography, and grid system of our design language, and illustrating how they work together to create
a cohesive web application.
Mockups allowed us to visualize how the wordmark and logo would look in real-life scenarios, such as on a building facade, signage, hoarding, business cards, or company swag.
03
The first touchpoint for users
The Spot landing page serves as the initial point of contact for users, enabling them to sign up for the platform and familiarize themselves with its core essence. Here, they can explore the brand values and offerings, read testimonials, and find resources tailored to their needs, whether they are creators or investors.
04
A dynamic community board
The community board functions as an inspiration hub designed to address the delay zones identified in our future-state journey map. Currently tailored for creators, it also serves as a prototype demonstrating how it could be adapted for investors in the future.
say something...
We often hear feedback about the importance of communicating design process through UX case studies. So for Post #1 – Let's
break down how to communicate using a design process through
the top 3 process dark patterns
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Read what members of the community are sharing, whether it's about their small victories or their aspirations.
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Meaning
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