Loneliness remains a significant global challenge, particularly among migrants adjusting to life in a new country. To address this, my team and I at Sheridan College designed GatherIn - an online platform that facilitates social and cultural integration for migrants.
Figma
Figjam
Adobe Premiere Pro
PROBLEM
Migrants worldwide struggle with social isolation and a lack of meaningful connections, making it difficult to fully integrate into their new communities.
SOLUTION
GatherIn helps migrants connect with local communities, discover events, and build meaningful relationships to foster integration and a sense of belonging.
Onboarding That Helps You Connect Easily.
A welcoming onboarding process where users set personal goals and share interests for tailored recommendations and a purposeful start.
Finding Events and Communities Your Way.
An interactive explore feature with map and list views that help users quickly find and filter communities and events, nearby or virtual, based on their interests.
Sign Up, Connect, and Belong.
A guided 3-step process that helps users understand the event and connect with the hosting community for deeper community engagement.
RESEARCH
Over 272 million migrants worldwide face challenges integrating into new communities, putting them at higher risk of loneliness.
How might we help them build meaningful social connections?
SYNTHESIS + DESIGN GOALS
Designing for Migrant Belonging with Omnicultural and Supportive Tools.
Based on our research, migrants need tools that not only make it easy to connect with diverse communities but also help them discover shared interests, deeper commonalities, and meaningful opportunities for interaction. To reflect these needs, we created three design goals that will ultimately help foster stronger bonds, encourage cross-community engagement, and create a more inclusive, welcoming environment for all.
IDEATE
Exploring Design Directions with Crazy 8s.
We used Crazy 8s to rapidly sketch and explore a wide range of ideas, from gamifying networking to simplified meetup experiences. This activity allowed the team to generate diverse approaches, broaden interpretations of the problem space, and identify potential directions for our solution.
PRIORITIZATION
Evaluating Ideas & Concepts.
With 32 diverse ideas, we needed a method to sort and select ones that would best help our solution. Thus, we plotted each of them onto several matrices based on innovation, feasibility, and user values that aligned with our initial research.
While each of our top-ranked ideas offered potential, from gamified virtual social spaces to pen pal-style connections, they were too diverse and lacked synergy as a cohesive solution.
To align our ideas and tackle migrant challenges in connecting with communities, we focused on building a meetup and events platform that prioritizes discovery and local community engagement.
IDEA REFINEMENT
Defining the Solution.
Based on our prioritization exercise and pivot, we defined the core MVP features that would help users discover local communities, connect with others, and receive personalized guidance, while keeping additional ideas in the backlog for future iterations.
DESIGN
Low-Fidelity Wireframes.
Based on our core features, low-fidelity wireframes were created to visualize the layout and experience of the application. With these wireframes, it helped us gain a basic idea and understanding of how our features worked together within the app.
MID-FIDELITY & USER TESTING
Refining & Testing Screens.
After testing our low-fidelity prototype with users, I identified key pain points and translated the findings into mid-fidelity designs. Below are examples of major iterations I created based on that feedback.
VISUAL DESIGNS
Visual Style Guide.
To create a welcoming and joyful experience, we developed a visual brand identity using colors, shapes, and fonts that reflect warmth, openness, and community.
DELIVER
Final Design.
