Project
UX Design (personal project)
Client
University of Texas at Austin
Hookd: Student Services App
College, Demystified: Building a Peer-Powered Campus App
Hookd is a digital Q&A experience that connects and engages new students with experienced peers of the Longhorn community. This project is a proposed digital experience for UT Austin, designed to be introduced to incoming students during orientation week.
It will serve as a supplemental resource alongside existing campus services, supporting both students seeking guidance and those eager to share advice. The experience must thoughtfully address the needs of both groups to foster a helpful, peer-driven community.
01
Research
Identifying Needs
Questions regarding campus life can range from all different categories. Likewise, information regarding campus life is strewn all over the web – official UT sites, student organization websites, Facebook pages, Reddit threads, and more.
Whether it be questions regarding which classes to take or which student organizations to join, this platform must organize and centralize this information in a user-friendly manner.
User Interviews
To gain a holistic understanding of the situation, I interviewed peers from different backgrounds and grade levels and gathered the most compelling quotes below.
User Needs 📍️
An interesting common theme emerged from these user interviews: the value of personal peer reviews.
While basic questions regarding dining hall hours and available classes to take can be answered with a quick Google search, it’s the hidden insights that experienced students have that provide the most untapped value.
Emergent Needs 📍️
We want to build a platform that turns word-of-mouth and personal stories into a meaningful digital experience.
This space should empower students to ask and answer questions with honesty and transparency.
In other words: No BS.
02
Strategy
Defining Goals
Based on the interview insights, I defined holistic goals for the solution I was about to create and framed them as 3 simple objectives.
Solution
Adjusting to college is a long-term journey—one that can’t be solved in a two-day orientation. At the 7th largest university in the U.S., there’s no shortage of questions being asked.
Instead of designing a one-time experience, my goal is to create a platform that stays active and relevant throughout the entire school year, offering ongoing support when students need it most.
At its core, I want to create a mobile app solution that will allow:
New students to ask questions that aren’t easily accessible through Google searches or school administration, and
Experienced students to provide answers with transparency and personal insight
03
Lo-fi Designs
Sketches & Wireframes
I began the ideation phase with low-fidelity sketches to map out the core user flow and key functionalities. These included submitting and responding to questions, browsing by topic, and enabling peer-to-peer messaging. This early exploration helped validate assumptions and identify potential friction points before moving into higher-fidelity design.
04
Final Solution
App Overview 🤘
Hookd is divided into 5 primary functions, as designed in the bottom navigation.
Home
Browse
Post
Notifications
Profile
Onboarding 📲
Every new UT student receives a Hookd account at orientation, active through graduation. Access requires a third party UT EID verification to ensure only registered students can use the app.
The onboarding process is straightforward, allowing new students to set up their profiles and personalize their interests for a more tailored experience.
Home 🏠
The homepage displays a centralized feed of Q&A’s tailored to the user’s interests and can be organized by recency and popularity. This open forum allows students of all types to connect in an accessible manner.
From there, students can view questions, bookmark them, and provide answers with personal insight and transparency.
Browse 🔍
As students spend more time adjusting to college life, their interests will inevitably expand. The Browse page allows students to diversify their interests and explore Q&A’s by category.
Students can then browse categories by popularity or relevancy and follow interests that were not originally added during the onboarding process.
Post & Notifications 🔔
While the Post feature is primarily for new students to ask questions, everyone has access to utilize it as well as Notifications to keep track of post activity.
To foster a safe and inclusive environment, students can post anonymously, though hate speech and harmful content are prohibited under UT guidelines. Flagged posts will be reviewed by UT administration, who can identify users and take disciplinary action if needed.
Profile & Messages 💬
The Profile page is divided into 3 features:
Activity: Where you can track all recent activity on the app
Saved: Where you can access all bookmarked posts, thereby centralizing all relevant information to you
About: Where you can keep track of your personal information and interests
At the top, users can also access Messaging, where students are able to connect in a more personal manner.
This enables digital socialization and creates an interactive environment where students with similar interests can find one another through public posts and provide personal mentorship.
