UX was Here
Increasing user retention through interaction & gamification.
Industry: Education, Health & Wellness, Children's Entertainment
Researching & designing interactive mobile features to improve UX was Here's user retention.
✦
Role:
During this 3-day long hackathon project, I was responsible for the user research, synthesis, content, and copywriting, in addition to being solely responsible for the client-facing pitch deck presented to judges.
✦
Achievements:
Selected as a winning team, we presented our solutions during the closing ceremony of the hackathon; Eunoia UX 2024.
Team:
Neharika Sidda (UX Research & Pitch)
Hinata Nozawa (UX & Videography)
Royce Malonzo (UI Design)
Dabin Yu (UI Design)
Client:
Timeline:
March 2024, 3 days
Deliverable(s)
UI Prototypes
Client-Facing Presentation
Pitch Video
Overview
UX was Here currently faces a problem of high turn rate and low usage rate with its current user base.
Over the course of 3 days, my team researched, synthesised, designed, and presented our findings to support solutions proposed to help UX was Here's user base stay on the platform & continue using it.
Our Solution(s):
Encuraging interaction to 'UX was Here' through mobile app features;
Weekly UX design challenges
Inspiration boards
Ability to share and receive feedback
Discover
Challenges and opportunities for current & future users.
Goals:
Explore how physical forms influence spatial reasoning in children
Translate historical design methods into playful, research-backed learning tools
To begin ideating, I first took a look at existing UwH users.
Posts with mentions of what current users wanted/wanted to achieve through the platform gave us an idea of what some of the current and potential future user goals were and how they were trying to attain them.
Using this information we shifted our focus on the goals and motivations of users, leading our direction for user research.
User Research
I collected user research through a short survey with 4 multiple choice questions, inquiring about participants career and educational goals and what resources would help achieve them.
Collected insights from 38 individuals helped gain a better idea of the features that would best help UwH address users' pain points.
Define
From data to insights
Research Foundations:
Study from Mind, Brain and Education: Block play helps children understand concepts like over, around, through
Survey Questions
Q: What are your current/future educational and career goals?
Asked to: Gauge what users may want from an app like UX was Here
Q: What would help you achieve your goal(s)?
Asked to: Understand what users are currently lacking, that can be targeted through new features
Q: What are some platforms that have been of help in achieving your goals?
Asked to: Gain inspiration for features through precedent research; other similar well known applications
Key Insights
Educational/career goals users wanted to achieve:
Key Insights
How users believed they'd achieve these goals:
Understand
Developing user personas across varying UX experience levels.
The user research went into making 4 personas, to identify and gain a better understanding of UwH’s current & potential future users.
All personas were seeking a combination of:
Skill development
Portfolio growth
Feedback and inspiration
Sense of community
I covered a wide range of factors as per the data collected during our initial platform, competitor, & user research; factors covered include:
Outcome(s)
Our outcomes come as solutions, directly addressing some of the persistent pain points experienced by current and potential users.
Using precedent research, user research, & personas, we conceptualised a mobile application for UX was Here.
In addition to our 3 main conceptual solutions (explained below), our outcomes included the following:
Mobile Application
Interactive prototypes showcasing key user flows, interactions, and visual direction for the proposed mobile features
Pitch Slide Deck
Client-facing presentation articulating the problem, user insights, design rationale, and business potential of our solutions
Video Pitch
Short, engaging video summarizing the app’s features and value proposition for stakeholders (& hackathon judges), accompanying our final presentation
Solution 1
Improved Onboarding
Clarifying the goal of the 'UX was Here' app was central to our first solution. As it is a fairly new organisation, UX was Here has had a hard time honing in on specific features and identifying what sets it apart from its competitors.
Pain point:
Lack of value proposition & poor sign-up
Supported by:
Observations & competitor analysis
Solution:
Designing a clear & engaging onboarding process
By bringing these features to light and highlighting its uniqueness through the onboarding process, users will be able to understand and control their usage of the application much better.
Solution 2
Gamified UX
By introducing collaborative, game-style UX projects, users are able to challenge their UX skills while also creating a business opportunity for 'UX was Here' by inviting new users on to the app in order to participate.
Pain point:
UwH's need to differentiate & establish themselves as a platform
Supported by:
Competitor analysis & user research insights
Solution:
Unique interactive features; UX challenges
Solution 3
Inspiration & Feedback Board
Gain inspiration, share work, give & get feedback through UX was Here's third feature. A place for users to look through past challenge solutions, others' UX work, and share feedback in a positive, UX focused space.
Pain point:
UwH does not cater to what users wish to gain from it
Supported by:
User research insights & 'existing user' observations
Solution:
Address what current and potential users would want from the app; to gain inspiration, share work, give & get feedback
Constraints
Given the 3-day hackathon timeline, we prioritized time and visuals over depth
While our research yielded strong directional insights, we had limited time to test our concepts with real users or explore business goals/strategies further. Despite this, we managed to deliver compelling solutions grounded in real user needs.
Constraints reliant on the limited timeframe we had to work with, include;
Reflections
Out of 43 teams and nearly 200 participants, my team managed to win first place.
This project was built in collaboration with client, UX was Here, a global UX platform founded by Matt Karakilic, during a hackathon-style design jam organised by Simon Fraser University, Eunoia UX 2024.
In just three days my team and I managed to conduct user research & synthesis, UI concepts & designs for individual screens, working prototypes, and a client-facing presentation.
We had the chance to present our proposed solutions during Eunoia UX's closing ceremony in April 2024.
This experience was a challenging but rewarding opportunity to broaden my understanding of UX through business goals, and has helped me gain a better understanding of how to apply user research to craft solutions.
© 2025 Neharika Sidda
Made with ♡ in Vancouver, BC