MDIA290 Collaborative Environments / 2025
Building a Digital Third Space for Gen Z
Case Study
Web Design
Game Design
UX
Role:
UX Designer/
Project Manager
Duration:
3 months
Tools:
Figma
Figjam
Canva
NapkinAI
Overview
I’VE is an interactive website designed to provide a comforting, nostalgic online space for university students struggling with their social life. Our goal was to design a product that encourages empathy, reflection, and belonging — not by forcing social behavior, but by providing a safe, engaging space where users are reminded: “I’ve been there.”
Design Challenge
How might we create a digital space where students who struggle with social confidence can feel comfort, nostalgia, and a sense of belonging — while also encouraging reflection and openness to connection?
Key problems:
Students often feel isolated in social settings.
University environments can amplify stress and reduce opportunities for meaningful connection.
Existing resources focus on “fixing” behavior rather than meeting users where they are.
Design Thinking Process
Empathize
We began with secondary research and personal reflections, identifying university students (ages 18–24) as our primary demographic. We empathized with introverts, overthinkers, and culturally diverse students who may feel unseen in a large university environment.
Insights:
Nostalgia can lower social resistance by recalling the joy of childhood play.
Students aren’t receptive to prescriptive advice — they want recognition and reassurance.
Storytelling and interactive design can build emotional resonance.
Define
We framed the challenge as:
Students need a way to reflect on their social experiences in a safe, engaging format so they feel less isolated and more confident navigating transitions in university life.
Our design goals:
Recreate nostalgic experiences to rebuild comfort.
Foster empathy through relatable narratives.
Provide interactive choices that encourage reflection and agency.
Ideate
We brainstormed interactive features that could bring these goals to life:
Buzzfeed-inspired personalized quiz to guide entry into the experience and generate a unique experience.
Mini games and puzzles to engage users playfully.
Narrative anthology with multimedia elements including a short video and a podcast
I’VE Inspiration Board
Prototype
Using Figma, we designed UX/UI mockups that balanced playful, retro aesthetics with open, sandbox-style gameplay -- allowing the user to choose what to explore in this digital world.
Key elements:
Landing quiz directing users into a personalized experience
Interactive mini-quests to unlock narrative elements.
Engaging animations to guide user flow.
Test
Using Figma, we designed UX/UI mockups that balanced playful, retro aesthetics with open, sandbox-style gameplay -- allowing the user to choose what to explore in this digital world.
We ran informal peer testing with classmates, and their feedback helped us refine:
Simplifying the onboarding quiz for accessibility.
Balancing nostalgia with modern UI for relatability.
Ensuring consistency across multimedia (photo essays, video, podcasts).
Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3
Outcome
Delivered a functional website prototype
Established a consistent brand kit to unify the multimedia elements.
Created a nostalgic and interactive digital space that encourages reflection and reminds students they are not alone.
to navigate prototype
R
to restart
Macbook Air
Reflection
This project gave me the opportunity to apply the full design thinking process in a collaborative, interdisciplinary setting. I learned to:
Balance emotional storytelling with functional UX design.
Use Figma prototyping to create interactive, multimedia-driven experiences.
Collaborate across diverse roles (narrative, design, research, development) while aligning on user needs.
Most importantly, the project showed me how empathetic design can empower users not by changing them, but by meeting them where they are and validating their experiences.
