We embarked on creating the UT Austin's major Year of AI collaboration with HackTX, Texas' largest student-led hackathon.
I was apart of the team Creative Team for Freetail Hackers (the org for HackTX) to build out the 2024 HackTX website from scratch. We created a fully developed platform alongside the tech team within 2 months.
How to create a fully-functioning website that maintains creativity, professionalism, and aligns with the 2024 theme?
Built out a successful site that was visiting/used by over a 1000+ users from across the world and was the main site for HackTX information.
We collaborated in weekly design meetings with the creative team to refine ideas and align on project goals. Our lead designer received final approvals and critiques from the directors, while also working closely with the tech team to ensure the design features were implemented as intended. Throughout the process, we maintained open communication to keep everything on track.
I contributed to design research, established the design system, developed wireframes, structured the site hierarchy, created final prototypes, conceptualized key interactions, and designed graphic elements.
we starting using Pinterest and chatted with peers to understand what the aesthetic of the site should look like.
We drew inspiration from other hackathon websites like TAMU Hacks, PennApps, and Waterloo Hacks to analyze their information architecture and understand the user experiences they offer.
After many meetings trying to decide on what colors and typography we wanted to use for the site's design language, we settled on colors that align with the key colors and styles in the arcade theme inspiration we found in the moodboards.
After understanding the standard information architecture of a Hackathon site, I got to brainstorming different sections the scroll page that include the homepage hero, schedule, prizes, about hacktx, and sponsors.
After multiple iterations with the tech and creative teams, I wanted to showcase the transformation from the hi-fid Figma prototype to the final coded site. The same design principles were seamlessly applied to the mobile version.
I gained valuable experience being part of such a collaborative and dynamic team! Working under a strict deadline also taught me the importance of effectively managing and distributing tasks over time, which was led greatly by our creative team director.
