IDEALIZE
IDEALIZE
Connecting Ideas Across Campuses
Connecting Ideas Across Campuses
At-A-Glance
At-A-Glance
Idealize is an open-source platform for Hochschule Heilbronn where students, lecturers and researchers can post their projects and send collaboration requests. It works like a project-focused social network: users can present ideas, search and join projects, comment, share updates, and build teams across faculties and campuses.
Idealize is an open-source platform for Hochschule Heilbronn where students, lecturers and researchers can post their projects and send collaboration requests. It works like a project-focused social network: users can present ideas, search and join projects, comment, share updates, and build teams across faculties and campuses.
MY ROLE
MY ROLE
End-to-end UX/UI design
End-to-end UX/UI design
TEAM
TEAM
Team lead, a professor, frontend developer, backend developer and students
Team lead, a professor, frontend developer, backend developer and students
Timeline
Timeline
4 months
4 months
The Problem
The Problem
At Heilbronn University, great semester projects kept vanishing at semester’s end and I was brought in to design an app to fix it; below are the causes stakeholders pointed to:
At Heilbronn University, great semester projects kept vanishing at semester’s end and I was brought in to design an app to fix it; below are the causes stakeholders pointed to:
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE
Four campuses (Bildungscampus, Sontheim, Schwäbisch Hall, Künzelsau) made collaboration across locations difficult.
LACK OF INTER-FACULTY COLLABORATION
Faculties such as Business, Engineering, and Computer Science worked in silos with little exchange of ideas or shared visibility.
PROJECTS END WITH THE SEMESTER
Numerous innovative ideas and projects that are not pursued after the end of the semester
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE
Four campuses (Bildungscampus, Sontheim, Schwäbisch Hall, Künzelsau) made collaboration across locations difficult.
LACK OF INTER-FACULTY COLLABORATION
Faculties such as Business, Engineering, and Computer Science worked in silos with little exchange of ideas or shared visibility.
PROJECTS END WITH THE SEMESTER
Numerous innovative ideas and projects that are not pursued after the end of the semester
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE
Four campuses (Bildungscampus, Sontheim, Schwäbisch Hall, Künzelsau) made collaboration across locations difficult.
LACK OF INTER-FACULTY COLLABORATION
Faculties such as Business, Engineering, and Computer Science worked in silos with little exchange of ideas or shared visibility.
PROJECTS END WITH THE SEMESTER
Numerous innovative ideas and projects that are not pursued after the end of the semester
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE
Four campuses (Bildungscampus, Sontheim, Schwäbisch Hall, Künzelsau) made collaboration across locations difficult.
LACK OF INTER-FACULTY COLLABORATION
Faculties such as Business, Engineering, and Computer Science worked in silos with little exchange of ideas or shared visibility.
PROJECTS END WITH THE SEMESTER
Numerous innovative ideas and projects that are not pursued after the end of the semester
——
EMPATHIZE
I first quantified the hunches with a 10-professor survey:
I first quantified the hunches with a 10-professor survey:
From the survey’s open question (“What do you want this platform to do for you?”), answers converged on four essentials: one durable home for projects (with an archive), fast discovery of people and work (search, tags, AI matching), effortless cross-faculty/industry collaboration and a lightweight social layer for commenting and sharing.
From the survey’s open question (“What do you want this platform to do for you?”), answers converged on four essentials: one durable home for projects (with an archive), fast discovery of people and work (search, tags, AI matching), effortless cross-faculty/industry collaboration and a lightweight social layer for commenting and sharing.
Then I used Ice-breaker Workshop to elicit honest input and expose true workflow gaps from students and professors.
Then I used Ice-breaker Workshop to elicit honest input and expose true workflow gaps from students and professors.
Key exercises included:
“I have ever…” → surfaced memories of good interdisciplinary experiences.
Breakout challenge → participants combined study courses to imagine synergy.
Silent work + voting → collected requirements and frustrations visually.
Key exercises included:
“I have ever…” → surfaced memories of good interdisciplinary experiences.
Breakout challenge → participants combined study courses to imagine synergy.
Silent work + voting → collected requirements and frustrations visually.
——
IDEATE
With user research results in hand, I led fast ideation sprints within the team to explore best-practice solutions to the problems discovered from the workshop and survey:
With user research results in hand, I led fast ideation sprints within the team to explore best-practice solutions to the problems discovered from the workshop and survey:
After ideation produced too many good ideas, I defined an Is/Isn’t Map to focus the MVP and prevent an “Everything App”.
After ideation produced too many good ideas, I defined an Is/Isn’t Map to focus the MVP and prevent an “Everything App”.
I mapped how users switch hats, so I could drive tags, search and smart recommendations, without new roles or UI.
I mapped how users switch hats, so I could drive tags, search and smart recommendations, without new roles or UI.
I mapped everyday moments into personas so that the team and I could replace assumptions with empathy and specific contexts.
I mapped everyday moments into personas so that the team and I could replace assumptions with empathy and specific contexts.
As User research and the Ideation, gave us a crowded wishlist, I mapped it into Must/Should/Could/Won’t to prioritize the features and keep the team (and me) focused.
As User research and the Ideation, gave us a crowded wishlist, I mapped it into Must/Should/Could/Won’t to prioritize the features and keep the team (and me) focused.
To enhance user experience, me and my team defined a lightweight tag-based recommender (exact + adjacent matches) so that user are presented personalized content, enhancing user experience.
To enhance user experience, me and my team defined a lightweight tag-based recommender (exact + adjacent matches) so that user are presented personalized content, enhancing user experience.
And finally, last but not the least, to stop everyone pointing to different maps, I built one “what lives where” information architecture.
And finally, last but not the least, to stop everyone pointing to different maps, I built one “what lives where” information architecture.
——
PROTOTYPE AND TESTING
Low Fidelity Usability Test: I pressure-tested the navigation in lo-fi, so hi-fi wasn’t guesswork:
Low Fidelity Usability Test: I pressure-tested the navigation in lo-fi, so hi-fi wasn’t guesswork:
Now I was ready to start designing the experience:
Now I was ready to start designing the experience:
Onboarding
Students enter their name, study program, and interests to get curated suggestions from day one.
Students enter their name, study program, and interests to get curated suggestions from day one.
Homepage
Cards show trending, latest, and favorite projects.
The layout is intentionally “light academia”: clean whites, subtle navy, and soft yellow accents.
Cards show trending, latest, and favorite projects.
The layout is intentionally “light academia”: clean whites, subtle navy, and soft yellow accents.
Project Profile
Acts like a micro-community space:
Users can comment, react, and join projects without awkward email threads.
Acts like a micro-community space:
Users can comment, react, and join projects without awkward email threads.
Add Project
Step-based creation with validation at each step: title → description → tags → members → cover image.
Step-based creation with validation at each step: title → description → tags → members → cover image.
Profile
A crisp snapshot of each user’s academic identity; projects, interests, and fields of study.
A crisp snapshot of each user’s academic identity; projects, interests, and fields of study.
Chatbot
To help users find relevant content faster, I added a conversational assistant. The chatbot fetches projects and people, not just keywords.
To help users find relevant content faster, I added a conversational assistant. The chatbot fetches projects and people, not just keywords.
High fidelity usability test mainly passed ,8/8 finished tasks; just had to tweak some icons/labels and then we were good to go for shipping the design for development and deployment ✅
High fidelity usability test mainly passed ,8/8 finished tasks; just had to tweak some icons/labels and then we were good to go for shipping the design for development and deployment ✅
——
IMPACT AND REFLECTION
Impact:
Impact:
Behavior in 6 weeks after deployment was positive: people didn’t just join; they started projects, tagged them for discovery, and engaged through join-requests, favorites, and discussion.
Behavior in 6 weeks after deployment was positive: people didn’t just join; they started projects, tagged them for discovery, and engaged through join-requests, favorites, and discussion.
Campus tests at scale: pop-ups, classroom sessions and faculty summits showed strong reception (4.4/5 satisfaction, 82% intent, NPS +36)
Campus tests at scale: pop-ups, classroom sessions and faculty summits showed strong reception (4.4/5 satisfaction, 82% intent, NPS +36)
What I took with me:
What I took with me:
Krebsberatungs-App (my other project) taught me that the quality of design depends on honest, first-hand input, so I brought that lesson into Idealize and put extra focus on running research with users so that I hear unbiased truths first, then design. In early mixed workshops at the university, students held back around professors and professors softened their own struggles. I shifted the format to level the room with simple ice-breakers and anonymous inputs so everyone was just a person trying to start a project. Once titles disappeared, the real obstacles surfaced. The takeaway is simple: Research comes first.
Krebsberatungs-App (my other project) taught me that the quality of design depends on honest, first-hand input, so I brought that lesson into Idealize and put extra focus on running research with users so that I hear unbiased truths first, then design. In early mixed workshops at the university, students held back around professors and professors softened their own struggles. I shifted the format to level the room with simple ice-breakers and anonymous inputs so everyone was just a person trying to start a project. Once titles disappeared, the real obstacles surfaced. The takeaway is simple: Research comes first.
Krebsberatungs-App (my other project) taught me that the quality of design depends on honest, first-hand input, so I brought that lesson into Idealize and put extra focus on running research with users so that I hear unbiased truths first, then design. In early mixed workshops at the university, students held back around professors and professors softened their own struggles. I shifted the format to level the room with simple ice-breakers and anonymous inputs so everyone was just a person trying to start a project. Once titles disappeared, the real obstacles surfaced. The takeaway is simple: Research comes first.