High-fidelity mobile application prototype for creating and sharing student events. The app is built around a heat map, with brighter areas being more socially active. 'Hittari' is a play on the Swedish word 'hitta' (to find) and 'heat map', creating a fitting, catchy name for the app.
During the User-centered Product Development Project course, I was a part of an interdisciplinary team tasked with developing a product to address an issue facing students. The course focused on the key concepts and practices related to product and service development, and emphasized user requirements, iterative design, prototyping and stakeholder communication. To put course theory to practice, teams were tasked to brainstorm solutions and develop a concrete idea to solve the problem at hand.
Ultimately, our team settled on attempting to improve or enhance students' social life. Our goal for the project was to research pain points and come up with a service or product to tackle these in a meaningful way.
Conceptual design poster for Hittari
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Our team began by conducting user research through qualitative interviews. We explored various aspects of social life on and off campus, including event participation, peer relationships, leisure activities, and any related wishes or frustrations. Despite the vibrant social scene associated with Finnish student culture, several recurring issues emerged. Interviewees expressed a desire to spend more time with friends, keep track of current and upcoming events, stay informed about real-time campus activities, and have a lower barrier to spontaneous participation.
At Aalto University, Telegram is the primary tool for student communication. While effective for instant messaging, event information is often dispersed across multiple channels and group chats, making it challenging to stay updated on current happenings.
Event creation page
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Our team developed Hittari, a centralized, location-based social hub designed for real-time event discovery. The application lets users create events and add them to a shared heat map, with a particular focus on student organizations and guilds, allowing for short-notice invitations. Users can browse all ongoing events on the heat map and apply filters as needed. Each event includes tags, visibility settings, and optional time restrictions.
My role involved creating the visual design and branding for Hittari, as well as developing the mobile prototype for user testing. Utilizing Adobe XD, I built a high-fidelity UI/UX prototype featuring smooth, intuitive interactions and animations. In addition to the heat map, the prototype includes functionalities such as user login, friend addition, and explanatory onboarding.
Feedback from student user testing was instrumental in addressing frustrations and iteratively enhancing the prototype, adding new functionalities and improving the overall user experience.