HCI Course Project · Research to Prototype
UF Events
A centralized campus events hub designed to help students discover, save, and plan campus events across clubs, colleges, and departments without relying on scattered social posts and disconnected sources.
Student-Centered Discovery
Designed around the challenge of finding reliable campus events without juggling multiple sources.
Planning + Personalization
Focused on filters, favorites, reminders, and recommendations that help students act on what they find.
Research-Driven Interface
Used HCI research and personas to shape a more useful event-discovery experience for campus life.
Overview
What the project does
UF Events is a campus events hub designed to make it easier for students to discover and plan events across the University of Florida. Instead of relying on Instagram posts, flyers, student group pages, and crowded email inboxes, the platform brings event information into one place.
The concept combines searchable event listings, category filters, favorites, reminders, and calendar-based planning so students can find opportunities more easily and feel more connected to campus life.
Problem
Why students miss events
Students often want to be more involved on campus, but event information is fragmented across too many channels. Important details are easy to miss, hard to compare, and often discovered too late to act on.
- Campus event information is scattered across Instagram, flyers, websites, and email
- Students miss opportunities because discovery happens too late or inconsistently
- Existing sources are noisy, incomplete, or difficult to trust
- Students need better ways to filter events based on interests, timing, and relevance
The opportunity was not just listing events — it was creating a more organized, personalized, and actionable discovery experience.
Research
What we learned
Research showed that students do not lack interest in campus events — they lack a reliable and convenient system for keeping up with them. Discovery, trust, and timing all played a major role in whether students attended.
- Students miss events because they rely on fragmented and last-minute sources
- Instagram is common but unreliable for complete coverage
- Official event pages are inconsistent and email announcements are easy to ignore
- Personalized recommendations and reminders are valuable, but should not feel spammy
Our design pillars became fast discovery, trustworthy details, clear filtering, and light-touch reminders.
Personas
Who we designed for
We created personas to reflect different student event-planning behaviors and needs. These helped guide how the interface should support both highly organized planners and more spontaneous explorers.
Jasmine
Organized and schedule-driven. Needs clear event timing, calendar views, and easy planning support.
Sal
More exploratory and social. Wants an easy way to find what is happening and decide quickly.
Shared Need
Both benefit from centralized discovery, trustworthy event details, and less friction between finding and attending.
UX Decisions
How the experience was designed
The design focused on helping students move quickly from browsing to planning. Rather than treating event discovery like a passive feed, the product was structured to support searching, filtering, saving, and scheduling in a more intentional way.
Unified Event Listings
Brought multiple campus event sources into one structured catalog experience.
Category + Date Filters
Made it easier to narrow events by interest, timeframe, and relevance.
Save / RSVP Flow
Created a path for students to move from discovery to commitment more easily.
Calendar Planning
Added support for event planning over time instead of one-off browsing only.
Search Support
Included keyword-based discovery for students who already have event types or organizations in mind.
Low-Noise Reminders
Focused on reminder patterns that help students remember events without becoming another source of overload.
Flows & Wireframes
How we mapped the interaction
We used flows and wireframes to define how students would move from discovery to action. These artifacts helped us clarify what information needed to appear first and how event planning should feel lightweight rather than complicated.
- Discover → filter by category or date → open details → save or RSVP
- Search by keyword → view event details → add to calendar → receive reminder
- Support both exploration and direct event lookup
Solution
What the final concept included
The final prototype focused on making campus event participation feel easier and more intentional. It combined discovery, organization, and planning into one product experience.
- Centralized event listings with consistent, trusted details
- Search and filtering by category, date, or interest
- Favorites, RSVP-style interaction, and lightweight reminders
- Calendar integration and planning support
- Shareable event details for friends and group chats
Outcome
What the project demonstrated
UF Events showed how a better information architecture and more thoughtful student experience could reduce the friction around getting involved on campus. The project demonstrated a strong research-to-prototype process focused on real student needs.
- Delivered a high-fidelity prototype for evaluation and usability feedback
- Reframed campus event discovery as a planning problem, not just a listing problem
- Focused on practical student pain points around timing, trust, and overload
Takeaways
What this project taught me
UF Events reinforced how much value comes from organizing scattered information into a more usable experience. The most important design work was not adding more features, but making discovery feel clearer, more trustworthy, and easier to act on.
- Designing around fragmented information ecosystems
- Using personas and research to shape product priorities
- Reducing cognitive load through filtering and structure
- Designing lightweight reminder systems that support action without overload