4 Experts on the Future of London Tech
London has established itself as a global tech powerhouse. How will the city make the most of this movement to ensure prosperity for businesses and talent?
Demo Day is this December 4th and leading up to our student project showcase, we’ve taken a closer look at Revive, one of our top graduate design projects. Karina Bershteyn, now a Designer at GrowerIQ, designed the app, which lets users find environmental volunteering opportunities, as part of the UX Design Bootcamp…in just 12 weeks!
Bershteyn wanted her final program project to address the current climate crisis. So she posed the question: “How might we help urban millennials take environmental action?”
“It’s pretty clear that people are concerned and want to make changes and take action to clean up their acts. The idea for this app was to help make that connection between someone wanting to get involved with local environmental clean-up initiatives, and actually taking the step to get involved.”
Become a UX Designer in just 12 weeks!
BrainStation’s User Experience Bootcamp is a full-time, 12-week program that equips professionals with the skills and experience to start a new career in design.
Through user research interviews, Bershteyn found that her target audience was keen to get involved with environmental clean-up events, but “they didn’t know where to look or even find out about any events that are happening in their area.”
Revive solves this problem by connecting young people with organizations offering volunteer opportunities, making it a lot easier to find ways to take action.
Revive makes it possible to learn about nearby events, sign up for those events, and even invite friends to join them. “By building a community within the app, it would further motivate and encourage [users] to get involved in something they feel good about.
After developing user insights, Bershteyn got to work developing an experience map and wireframes. She found success in her first round of user testing, “in both rounds of testing, users were able to easily complete each task.”
The next step? Building a visual identity.
Her portfolio explains that the selected heavy use of images would resonate well with her target audience and evoke a sense of emotion in the user.
If the target persona sees an image-centric app “she may feel an elevation in mood without even realizing why. This spike in her mood will further excite and inspire her to follow through with signing up for volunteer events.”
Having previously worked in event planning, Bershteyn at first struggled with her field.
“The biggest challenge was getting over the self-doubt when approaching learning how to use design software, and translating the designs I saw in my head onto the screen.”
Many students come into diploma programs doubting themselves, but as this project shows, once you push past that fear and pick up the technical know-how, you can create something amazing.
“BrainStation really taught me to think like a Designer and to look at problems objectively,” Bershteyn shared. “The program taught me that there are many ways to solve a problem, and the more you listen and observe you’ll be surprised how creative your solutions can get.”
