Designing a mobile app that helps first-year students find their people
Design Dash
2nd Place
TIMELINE
March 2026
(4 hours)
THE TEAM
2 Designers
TOOLS
Figma, Perplexity, Gemini & Canva
KEY FEATURE
Group-first connection & Social friction reduction
THE OVERVIEW
Young adults are one of the loneliest demographics and it hits the hardest especially if you’re a first-year student entering university for the first time.
Campus Connect is a mobile app that reduces social friction by enrolling students into group chats with their classmates, using icebreaker prompts to make introductions happen without anyone having to make the first move.
THE PROBLEM
First-years are surrounded by hundreds of people yet still feel disconnected and alone
Campus is huge. Hundreds of students attend and leave lectures immediately. Connecting with others, especially one-on-one is intimidating enough all while having to deal with academic stress.
Concept Strategist & UX Designer
Brainstormed concepts and sketched multiple iterations of mobile app wireframes.
Synthesized primary and secondary research into a document, establishing main pain points needed to be addressed.
Implemented interactive features onto our Figma prototype.
Communicated our thinking and design process in front of industry judges.
MY ROLE
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Connection doesn't fail because students don't want it. It fails because the environment never sets it up.
Forming social connections are a direct contributor to mental health outcomes, and students report that finding friends in shared courses is a key way they cope with academic and emotional stress.
Group chats that segment students by shared interests also tend to feel more intimate and are more effective at building lasting communities. First-year classes are the perfect common ground, but we needed to design around it.
USER FLOW
CORE FOCUSES
01: Reframing loneliness as a normal part of starting over
The jump from high school to university is a massive shift. Loneliness isn’t a personal issue, it’s a widespread, expected part of the transition that deserves to be treated as one.
02:
Built for first-year students, not "students in general"
First-years share a unique common ground: everyone is starting fresh. This gives them a natural excuse to reach out and make connections that feel less forced and more inevitable.
03:
Low stakes connections that don't feel like work
One-on-one outreach is intimidating. Group-based interactions reduce that pressure, allowing students to show up, observe and contribute at their own pace without feeling put on the spot.
How do we reduce social interaction friction amongst students in a seamless way?
THE QUESTION
01: Matching users to their classes
CORE FLOWS
By logging into the app via their school email, users are auto-synced with their courses and are given the ability to manually verify and edit the list if necessary.
02: Big group chats & icebreakers
Before entering a group chat, users are prompted with an icebreaker to reduce social friction amongst their peers.
03: Create a study group
A low-risk, low-commitment feature to encourage users to connect in person and focus on shared academic goals.
Went from a vague idea to an interactive prototype and complete pitch in 4 hours
We gained invaluable feedback and suggestions from industry judges and got the chance to view other teams' creative solutions. Overall, we won 2nd place out of 7 teams.
Pretty sweet for my first ever design-dash!
THE OUTCOME
What Campus Connect is…
A group-first social tool meant to provide first-year students with a low-risk and low-commitment environment to nurture connections with similar students.
What Campus Connect isn't…
Another social media platform where you interact with other people's content and have one-on-one social interactions.
WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENTLY
01: Integrate with other support systems
While Campus Connect alone won’t end the loneliness crisis that new students face, it can drive deep impact when combined into a bigger support ecosystem (peer mentoring, counseling, academic aid).
The winning team didn’t just have a great solution, but a great package. They built context around their user persona, bringing the audience along the journey before revealing the product.
02: Lead with stories, not just slides
Photos
…and though I intend on doing many more design competitions in the future, this one will always be my favorite :)
Shoutout to the ICCIT council for taking these photos!