It comes as no surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic created a shift in the way students experience learning. Transitioning to a complete digital experience is no easy feat and the aspect of human interaction continues to be missed by students. However, amongst the adversities, one particular class of design students showed resilience these past few months.
The design talent from the user experience (GD304) class at the University of Fraser Valley, was the first cohort of students to navigate through the class in a digital format. For a course that thrives in collaboration, these individuals had to adapt to the current climate and create a term project that showcased their learnings they had gathered throughout the semester.
TTT takes pride in the work that we create for our clients. Beyond resolving business challenges with impactful solutions, we, as a team, also strive towards giving back to our community. Similar to our Afternoon T podcast, where the conversations aim to provide the new generation of entrepreneurs, our goal is to provide value to our community, regardless of the setting. Luckily, Mark Wilson, UX director, and Josephine Wong, VP of Design from our amazing design team were invited by Andrew McKinley, Design Instructor, to participate in his GD304’s final presentation last month. The goal was to provide feedback and direction on the student’s term-end presentations. TTT jumped on this opportunity to empower the students with the hope that they would pay it forward as they continue to grow in their professional journey.
Projects
A total of five pitches were made, in which the students were showing a potential app idea explaining why it would be successful. This is where the creativity and ingenuity of the class sparked. The ideas ranged from how to personalize wellness to be able to reduce household food waste, all of which provided a unique perspective on common social issues.
Alchemist
The app Alchemist emphasized helping users find recipes to cook while using ingredients that were already available in their fridge. The mission of the app is to reduce food waste and the overall stress of cooking a meal every day. With similar apps like HelloFresh and Chef’s Plate providing users with ready-to-make recipes and groceries, Alchemist shifts the focus on using ingredients that the user already owns.
Muse
While Alchemist focused on managing food waste, Muse, another potential idea, aims at helping users understand their dreams to become more in tune with their mental wellness. As discussed by the group members, although dreams may be considered just an afterthought when it comes to your sleeping experience, Muse wants to make it as important as the sleep itself. For certain individuals, the dream may be part of something bigger or more important, or for others, they’re interested in learning more. The Muse app brings everything together and creates a hub for people to document and explore their dreams.
Kolm
In a time where mental health is more essential than ever, Kolm is an app that aims to help you increase self-awareness and practice daily mindfulness through guided meditation, yoga, and fully customizable exercises. It’s important to understand that anxiety varies from person to person, ultimately making a blanket solution difficult to execute. Kolm’s goal is to solve the frustration of not being limited to certain time constraints and making wellness, not just a one-and-done activity. As anxiety fluctuates throughout the day, Kolm provides a variety of tasks and activities for the user to complete, therefore aiding in reducing task-crippling anxiety.
taskSPROUT
Distractions are a common occurrence in our day-to-day life, and taskSPROUT’s goal is to ensure that those distractions don’t impact your daily routine. Their solution is a modular app that helps facilitate task and time management abilities, with a target audience being the parental figure and their child. With the ability to fully customize the app’s interface; adjust schedules for targets, and have a wide range of avatar choices, taskSPROUT aims to create a tailored experience for the user that will impact their life for the better.
Sprout Sense
Plant care can be seen as a daunting task, and perhaps even stressful. Sprout Sense hopes to alleviate that stress by teaching current and potential plant owners how to best take care of them. The wellbeing of these plants could also translate to the wellbeing of the owner, ultimately creating a sustainable society where individuals engage in interior plant care and design improving mental health.
A Day in the Life of a TTT Designer
As a team, we were not only impressed by the work that the students had created but also the value that these apps could provide to users for their life, especially when it is quite applicable. Aside from the presentation, as a treat, we created a Day in the Life of a TTT Designer video to provide a tour (albeit virtual) of the amazing office space TTT has and to present the experience of being part of the company as a design student or a recent grad. At TTT we hire a variety of students and co-ops to provide them on-the-job experience to explore and accentuate their skills.
We would like to extend our appreciation to Andrew and the rest of the GD304 class for allowing us to participate in such a unique event, and we hope that we get to see some of your work come to fruition in the near future.
About TTT Design team
Our design team consists of individuals from a variety of backgrounds, that collaboratively combine to create impactful work. With Josephine steering the ship, she has led our design team throughout a variety of projects that all highlight the unique skillsets that our team can offer. Our design process begins with a purpose and with a user journey on top of the mind.
Although we are proud of the work we have done, we are also cognisant of the fact that we are always learning. This learning also reflects down to the amazing students that we bring onto the team, as either co-ops or designers who are just starting their careers. If you are interested in joining the TTT design team, we have a current opening for an intermediate UX/UI designer, we hope to see some of your portfolios soon!
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