A Yale student reimagining human-centered design, particularly in startups and Edtech.
Currently · Co President of Design at Yale
Currently · Lead UI/UX Researcher @ dbrand x YUCG
Summer 2025 · Lead UI/UX Designer @ Dayli, an AI-powered startup that simplifies group scheduling
Summer 2025 · Product Management Intern @ Yale University Press, conducting web usability testing
Spring 2025 · Project Designer @ Yale Intramural Sports x Design at Yale
Spring 2024 · Cram Presentation Designer (<10% acceptance) @ Fiveable, which has helped millions of students study for AP exams
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Yale IMs: Website + App Case Study
Overview
My Role: UI/UX Designer for Design at Yale (DAY)
Duration: September 2024 — January 2025
Tools: Figma
The Challenge: The website and app are designed for Yale students to quickly and easily learn about past game results, view their college’s current leaderboard standings, and sign up to compete in future intramural events. It is updated regularly to reflect live results. Our hope is that it will be eventually implemented into Yale’s official system.
What is Yale IMs? Yale Computer Society (YCS) reached out to us about their idea of designing a fully-fledged website and app for Yale’s popular intramural sports. A team of two other DAY designers and I collaborated on this project.
UX Research Plan
I. Understanding Research Goals
Before starting our prototype, we conducted preliminary meetings with a YCS member who was leading this project to understand their needs and vision for Yale IMs.
We discussed key features such as leaderboard tracking, game history logs, and a streamlined process for signing up for future intramural events. These insights helped shape the initial design direction, ensuring the platform aligns with both user needs and organizational goals. Above all, we wanted to prioritize usability and engagement for the Yale intramural community.
Our project goals: -
Create an intuitive and visually appealing platform that motivates Yale students to participate actively in intramurals.
- Simplify the process of signing up for events, viewing schedules, and managing team participation.
- Provide real-time updates on scores, standings, and game history to keep participants informed and engaged.
We also agreed upon a timeline of when our lo-fi, mid-fi, and high-fi prototypes would be completed.
II. Defining Research Questions
Next, we brainstormed several questions we had during this initial planning process, which would help inform our user research.
These questions aimed to clarify user needs, pain points, and expectations for the Yale IMs platform.
Key questions included:
What are the most critical features for managing intramural sports participation?How do students currently learn about and engage with intramurals?What challenges do users face in scheduling, finding results, or signing up for events?What motivates students to participate in intramurals, and how can the app/website encourage repeat engagement?
III. Ideating
Our team first devised a user flow and moodboard for Yale IMs.
The user flow mapped out the key actions a participant would take, from signing in via their Yale account to signing up for events, checking leaderboard scores, and reviewing game history. This helped us ensure a smooth and intuitive navigation experience from start to finish. It also provided us with a concrete information hierarchy to which we could refer when deciding what pages to design.
The moodboard captured the visual and emotional essence of Yale IMs, featuring bold school colors, dynamic sports imagery, and clean, modern UI elements. It aimed to evoke a sense of energy, competition, and community, reflecting the spirit of Yale intramurals.
We referred to examples such as the ESPN sports website and Olympics website for inspiration. Our team ended up making changes to some of these design choices in later prototypes, but the sense of a gamified user interface was still preserved.
User flow for Yale IMs
Moodboard for Yale IMs
IV. Low-Fidelity Wireframing
In the low-fidelity wireframing stage, we focused on translating ideas into simple, functional layouts. Using basic shapes and placeholders, we outlined the core user flows, such as navigating leaderboards, reviewing game history, and signing up for events. This process allowed us to prioritize usability and structure over aesthetics, ensuring that the platform's functionality met user needs. However, we also took this opportunity to experiment with freehand design, such as a drawing of a seal character on the Profile page.
As outlined in our ideation meetings, we prioritized the Homepage, Score History, Schedule page, About page, and Profile.
V. Mid-Fidelity Wireframing
During the mid-fidelity wireframing stage, we added more detail to the layouts, incorporating standardized components, grid systems, and clearer representations of content. This step brought the design closer to its final form by defining button placements, navigation flows, and user interactions. While still focused on functionality, we introduced some visual hierarchy and typography to better communicate the user journey.
At this stage, we had to make important design decisions as a team regarding the typography, color scheme, and overall aesthetic of Yale IMs. After testing out multiple versions and combinations, we agreed upon a satisfactory MVP that YCS approved of as well.
VI. Conclusion and Future Directions
The Yale IMs project transformed a conceptual idea into a user-centered platform that enhances how students engage with intramural sports. It allows users to view standings, check game histories, and sign up for events through a clean, accessible interface that reflects the energy and community of Yale intramurals.
Key Takeaways
Throughout the process, our team learned the importance of designing for clarity and engagement, especially for users with different levels of familiarity with intramurals. Regular feedback from stakeholders helped align design goals with user needs. Finding the right balance between a playful sports aesthetic and a professional interface was essential to our success.
Future Directions
Going forward, we aim to improve the Yale IMs platform through:
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Live data integration: connecting directly to Yale’s intramural systems for real-time score and schedule updates.
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Social features: adding friend lists, team pages, and communication tools to build stronger community engagement.
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Mobile optimization: improving responsiveness and adding notifications for upcoming games and results.
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User testing: conducting additional usability studies across colleges to refine navigation and accessibility.
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