Tritons Connected

January 2025 - March 2025

Lead Designer
User Researcher

Redefine what it means to be a Triton — connected, informed, and involved.

Imagine a digital hub where UC San Diego’s vibrant community comes together — a place to share events, spark conversations, and celebrate Triton pride.

Tritons Connected transforms the campus experience into an engaging, interactive space, bridging the gap between academic life and social connection.

What we built:

A redesigned UC San Diego student app that transforms the experience from a static resource hub into a dynamic, social platform for connection, discovery, and belonging.

Why it mattered:

Despite its academic excellence, UCSD has a reputation for being socially disconnected. Many students struggle to engage with campus life, leading to isolation, disengagement, and mental health challenges.

Who it was for:

Undergraduate students at UC San Diego navigating academics, social life, and resources on a large, often impersonal campus.

Biggest win:

We redesigned the app to become a student-centric ecosystem — aimed at helping users find events, connect with peers, and reduce feelings of disconnection on campus.

About the Project

Tritons Connected was driven by the need to reimagine the UCSD student app, which had become notorious for persistent glitches, outdated features, and a fragmented user experience. Our goal was to transform the app into something genuinely useful, engaging, and community-oriented—an experience students would actually enjoy using.

By applying user-centered design principles, modern UI patterns, and feedback from real UCSD students, we elevated the app into a platform that not only improved navigation and access to essential resources, but also fostered a stronger sense of connection and belonging on campus.

Goals

We set out to reimagine the UCSD app as:

  • A centralized platform for social engagement
  • A tool for event discovery and community building
  • A space that feels welcoming, intuitive, and relevant to students’ daily lives

Key goals included:

  • Reduce social fragmentation
  • Increase student engagement
  • Improve usability and speed
  • Provide personalized value to every student

Research

We surveyed and interviewed UCSD students to uncover:

  • Pain points with the current app: slowness, clutter, lack of relevance
  • Social needs: students wanted ways to meet people, explore events, and find shared interests
  • Emotional drivers: many students felt they were “just getting through the quarter,” disconnected from the UCSD community

We mapped these insights into personas and journey maps to highlight the emotional friction students experience daily.

The Challenge

The original UCSD app was underperforming: it was glitchy, visually inconsistent, and lacking in purpose. Many students avoided using it altogether, citing frustrating UX patterns, poor navigation, and a lack of useful features. It wasn’t just a technical issue—it was a missed opportunity to support student wellbeing and connection.

Through user research, we identified two core needs: [1] frictionless access to key resources like class schedules, event listings, and health services, and [2] a way to feel more emotionally connected to campus life. Many students, especially undergrads, reported feeling isolated or overwhelmed. We aimed to alleviate these pain points through functionality, intentional design, and social interaction features.

Design

We kicked off the project by conducting surveys and informal interviews with UCSD students to assess the app’s pain points and identify must-have features. These insights shaped our design approach across multiple areas:

Homepage Redesign
 We streamlined the homepage to feature the most-used tools—like schedules, health, and events—while removing visual clutter and reducing cognitive load.

Navigation Overhaul
 We introduced a clean, persistent navigation bar to ensure intuitive access to all key areas of the app without forcing users to dig.

“The Forum” Feature
 To address the need for campus connection, we created a social hub inspired by platforms like Reddit and Discord. The Forum allows students to join group channels based on interests, ask questions, share updates, discover events, and connect via DMs or public threads.

Visual & Emotional Design
 We chose a calming, modern visual language with warm blues and minimalist iconography to establish trust and reduce friction. Subtle microinteractions and welcoming prompts further humanized the experience.

Design Process
 We followed an iterative process—rapidly prototyping, testing flows with students, and refining based on direct feedback. This ensured that the app evolved in response to actual student needs rather than assumptions.

Reflection

Our final interactive prototype showcased a fully navigable, community-centric redesign of the UCSD app—renamed as “Tritons Connected.” Students reported significantly improved usability, better visibility of key resources, and high interest in the Forum feature. Feedback highlighted the appeal of being able to “see what’s going on on campus” and connect more easily with student groups. The project received positive responses from peers and design mentors, with next steps focused on user testing and institutional feedback for possible implementation.