Our goal was to build a social space for middle school girls with focus in fields related to STEM to increase their awareness of the impact of STEM and generate their interest in STEM through creative collaboration and networking.

Using Digital Divas as a starting point, our team asked: How can we use social interaction design principles and patterns to make learning STEM subjects fun for girls in the target group of 11 to 13 years old? For the research phase, we received literature, researched apps, and interviewed two middle-school girls to understand the problem space.

Each team member produced low-fidelity prototypes, starting with sketches and ending with wireframes. We met frequently to discuss our ideas, compare sketches, and refine the concept for a mobile app. In development, we found several inspirational examples from existing systems, which would later inform our design.

Finalizing our sketches proved to be the most difficult part of this project. Each member contributed good ideas, but we had to agree on which features to include in the final deisgn. We arrived at a solution, divided the work by discrete areas of the application, and continued to collaborate as we produced the final functional prototype.

Sketching Board, Photoshop, Mockplus