CARter Cote's DigitaL PORTFOLIO
Startup Exchange
STUDENT ORGANIZATION AT GEORGIA TECH THAT SUPPORTS PROSPECTIVE AND CURRENT STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS.

OVERVIEW
Known as Georgia Tech's largest entrepreneurship, Startup Exchange regularly hosts events that educate students about how to become involved with entrepreneurship, or to bring their startup idea to life.
Despite this objective, the organization lacked concrete transparency about their benefits for students, their target audience, as well as their mentorship program. Collecting user input affirmed these issues, as well as limited attendance for events.
By better defining the organization's brand and by redesigning the website's UI and information architecture, I solved those problems, yielding better event attendance and participation in the membership program, and attracting more sponsors.
ROLE
UI and Visual Designer
UX/UI design, Information Architecture, Brand Identity, Site Prototyping, User Research
TEAM
SOLE DESIGNER, 1 DEVELOPER, 2 PRODUCT MANAGERS
DURATION
MAY 2021 - JULY 2021
Students and sponsors are given a fresh look
THE PROBLEM
Startup Exchange lacked concrete transparency about their benefits for students, their target audience, as well as their mentorship program. Collecting user input affirmed these issues, as well as limited attendance for events.
Despite the 50+ startups that annually go through Georgia Tech's CREATE-X, an entrepreneurship coursework program, only 7 startup founders participated in Startup Exchange's membership program.
THE SOLUTION
I defined the brand's colors, logos, and typography and tweaked the organization's mission alongside other exec. board members.
Next, I redesigned the website via Figma, receiving design critique from the marketing director. My solution was implemented, and the entire site was rebuilt from the ground up.
Furthermore, I branded and defined event series to establish message retention about the type of events that the org offers.
UX Process
Why was attendance low? Do we need a fresh look?
USER
RESEARCH
RESEARCH ANALYSIS
DESIGN & DEVELOP
USABILITY TESTING
WEEK 1-2
Survey community about issues with our brand
Gain user feedback on our web platform
Discuss internally about brand identity
WEEK 3-4
Develop needs assessment
Consider different approaches
WEEK 5-6
Redefine brand identity guidelines
Design event series to create customer imprint
Redesign site UI
WEEK 7 & BEYOND
Cognitive walkthrough
Heuristic evaluation (meeting WCAG guidelines)
Design interation
Address inefficient user flows
Site Wireframes
Creating the site wireframe in Figma, I iterated through several versions of the user journey for placing an order. Ultimately, I was able to develop an easy-to-follow and simple process.
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Design
Colors & Typography
HEADER & SUBHEADER
DrukWide
BODY
NeueHaas
NeueHaas
UI ELEMENTS
#111111
#FFFFFF
#EAAA00
#003057
#A0A09F
TEXT
#303030
#8F8F8F
#FFFFFF
BUTTONS


PRIMARY LOGO
SECONDARY LOGO
