Students are disconnected
from campus life.
College should be one of the most socially rich times of a person's life — but many students, especially newcomers, struggle to find events, meet people, and build a sense of belonging. Existing tools are fragmented, broad, and built for everyone but them.
From research to hi-fi prototype
We moved through a structured UX process — grounding every design decision in real student needs, competitive gaps, and iterative feedback from both peers and industry experts.
Five features, one community
Each feature was chosen through team voting after filtering our ideation session against what would genuinely serve UMN students.
Screens that speak for themselves
Every choice had a reason
"Not just an event finder — a framework for belonging."
In its current form, GopherGather provides clear, organized access to campus events while layering in the social features that make those events worth attending. The streak and badge system adds motivation; the friends and attendees screens add safety; the interest-based onboarding adds relevance from day one.
Expert feedback from Dr. Cecilia X. Wang and Kellen Crosby (Senior Human Factors Engineer at Whoop) pushed us to think harder about badge visibility, privacy, user diversity, and what a real rollout would look like.
- →More social features — event comments, direct messaging, group chats
- →Collaboration with UMN's Student Union Activities (SUA) for official event data
- →Student-created events so the platform grows organically
- →Post-event photos, ratings, and attendance confirmation
- →Full accessibility audit and Android support