SMC GO Commencement
Santa Monica College Mobile App Module
Role
Student UX Designer
Timeline
April 2023 - May 2023
Collaborators
Liz Martinez
Tools
Modo Labs, FigJam, Adobe Creative Suite
Challenge
Celebrating the first in-person graduation event since the pandemic, our team was tasked with redesigning the commencement module for Santa Monica College’s mobile app, SMC GO.
Research
Competitive Analysis
We started by looking at other college mobile app experiences.
Design
Style Brand Guide
We used the college’s style guide and previous SMC GO branding to align our vision. Modo Labs was the platform the school used to build our UX experience in.
Home
Pearl GIF
Commencement menu image
For an engaging experience on the home page, we added a GIF of Pearl (our school’s mascot) celebrating the upcoming in-person event.
We updated the icons with more color and added 3 new pages to the graduation module:
Commencement 2023 - home page for all things graduation
Grad Events - in person events
Grad Profiles - highlighting fellow students who are graduating
We also combined the “Alumni” page with “After Graduation”.
Commencement 2023
Hero image
Page icon
Graphic
On the Commencement 2023 page we:
Created a hero image + new page icon
Added GIF stars under the hero image
Created a graphic with the date
Commencement Ceremony
Hero image
On the Commencement Ceremony page, we:
Created a hero image
Created a “Congrats GRAD” GIF
Added border to photos for cohesive branding
Live Stream
Hero image
On the Live Stream page:
Created a Hero image
On the largest graduation day ever at SMC, there was over 1,000 live streamers.
Graduate Profiles
Hero image
Page icon
Badge icons
On the Graduate Profiles page, we:
Created a hero image + new page icon
GIF image
Badge icons celebrating students’ achievements in graduation honors (Highest Honors, High Honors, Honors)
Designed a statistics chart
We created variations of badge icons.
As a team, we rated the designs and went with E since it was the most legible without a key and the thicker border emphasized the icons.
Grad Events
Hero image
Page icon
On the Graduate Events page, we:
Created a hero image + new page icon
Added more visuals to the accordion
Added section featuring the #SnapMyCap challenge for students to upload their submissions
GRAD-titude
Hero image
Page icon
On the GRAD-titude page, we:
Created a hero image + new page icon
Backgrounds for uploaded messages
Real-time form for family and friends to upload messages for our graduating students.
After Graduation
Hero image
Page icon
On the After Graduation page, we:
Created a hero image + new page icon
Added a “I (heart) SMC” GIF image
Graduation gallery allowing users to add their photos throughout the event
Final Design
Appademy Awards Winner
Our project manager submitted our design for the annual Appademy Awards, under the category - Traditional Event, competing against other universities and colleges across the nation.
We were selected as the 2023 Appademy Awards Winner for Best Traditional Event, Commencement. The annual competition recognizes universities and colleges for outstanding mobile app development in innovation, design, UX, and student engagement.