From Inspiration to Collaboration: Welcome to Design Wrld
Each Team Member’s Name and Role(s)
Valentina Filizola — UI Design
Bethania — UX Design
Carla — Product Manager
Zohar Le — User Research
Problem Overview
Aspiring and early-career designers often face an overwhelming gap between learning design and stepping into the professional world. While traditional portfolio platforms highlight final outcomes, they rarely reveal the process, tools, or context behind the work, leaving learners without clear guidance on how to improve or where to focus their growth. At the same time, connecting with mentors or peers can feel intimidating. Many designers rely on cold messaging strangers on LinkedIn, which often feels impersonal and discouraging. There is a clear need for a more approachable and interactive space where designers can discover relevant case studies and build genuine connections with others on similar paths. Design Wrld aims to make learning from others and forming professional relationships more natural and engaging.
Solution:
DesignWrld is a community platform that brings together curated case study discovery and real-time social interaction in one cohesive space. Users can explore a wide range of design projects by filtering for tools, universities, and companies, allowing them to find relevant work that matches their learning goals or career aspirations. Alongside this, users create personalized avatars and move through a virtual world where they can connect with others, leave reactions, chat, and schedule meetings. This environment transforms the often isolating experience of portfolio browsing and cold outreach into something more natural, playful, and collaborative. Design Wrld makes it easier for designers to learn from real projects and build genuine relationships with peers and mentors.
Paper Prototype, Testing Process, and Results
Image showing a paper prototype layout on a table
To test our initial concept for Design Wrld, we created a paper prototype simulating two core tasks: browsing case studies and scheduling a meeting with another user. These tasks were selected to explore how users would interact with both the immersive 3D virtual world and a more conventional webpage layout, allowing us to compare usability across different interface models. We conducted usability testing with three participants of varying backgrounds: an engineering student, a psychology major with creative experience, and a sophomore with a new interest to UI/UX design. Each participant interacted with the prototype in quiet settings, while we observed how they navigated the interface and completed tasks without guidance.
One of the most salient insights was a recurring confusion between similarly placed UI elements such as “Browse” button and carousel arrows, prompting us to revise labels and improve visual clarity. Another key finding was that certain icons, like the full-screen toggle, lack affordance and were often overlooked. We also discovered that the calendar interface for scheduling meetings caused confusion due to unclear shading, leading us to add a legend. These results showed us that while participants enjoyed the playful model, clear navigation cues and feedback were essential. This testing helped refine DesignWrld’s usability, aligning the social experience with users’ expectations of functional, intuitive design discovery. In the final digital mock-up, we further improved the calendar experience by making selection states more visually distinct.
Digital Mockup
Combination of Figma frames together
Figma Prototype link: DesignWrld Prototype
During our time developing our design we mainly focused on accomplishing the design in order for our users to accomplish two tasks while also thinking back on the feedback we got.
- Browsing Projects for Inspiration
- Schedule a meeting
In order to accomplish this we started to adapt our design into a 3D world graphic for our landing page. As well as providing an alternative version that would turn into a 2D page. Ultimately, no matter the choice they would pick a portfolio to view which would take them to a screen showcasing their case study. In this screen users are able to book a meeting by clicking on the calendar icon.
Going from paper to digital prototype was hard, especially trying to develop a design in which our world looks 3D. Unfortunately we did have some setbacks due to this and this is why we pivoted into the idea of having to present both a 3D world and 2D design by letting users pick what they preferred. Other than this we were still stuck with the second task for the schedule meeting page. This was much easier to develop as we always imagine this page as a non 3D element and was quite straightforward. Other than this we felt that in our paper prototype we focused too much on the creativity and added more pages that were unnecessary for the main task we wanted to target (explore and schedule a meeting). This is why our paper prototype showcases things like profile and messaging pages and our digital prototype does not showcase this. The other pages may be implemented if we have time but are not our priority. And as of the 3D world we are still working on developing a better developed design before showcase.
Summary
Aspiring and early-career designers often struggle to find transparent, process-focused case studies and face anxiety around reaching out to mentors or building a network. Traditional platforms focus on polished outcomes and offer limited opportunities for meaningful interaction. To address this, we created Design Wrld, a platform where users can discover design case studies based on filters like tools used, universities, or companies, while also engaging in a virtual space through customizable avatars. Here, users can meet peers, chat, react to work, and book meetings without the pressure of formal networking. By making both learning and connection more approachable, Design Wrld aims to help designers grow their skills, confidence, and community in a way that feels intuitive and human.
