A job board that helps Georgia Tech students get started in extended reality, or go further in it.
ROLE
Product designer: Figma, research, writing
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TEAM
5 designers, Human Computer Interaction Course
​TIMELINE
10 weeks, Spring 2026
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TOOLS
Figma, Qualtrics
DELIVERABLES
Clickable web and mobile prototypes
Fixed Screens
Interactive Embedded Prototype Below
01
THE PROBLEM
Georgia Tech has a lot of extended reality (XR) work going on, but students interested in it fall into two very different groups, and neither has one clear place to go. Today, Students typically find XR opportunities by attending events and happening to run into professors, or by cold emailing professors. Cold emailing is unreliable, as professors get many emails daily, and may miss one. Approaching professors at events can be intimidating, especially for students who are new to XR.
AUDIENCE 01
XR Interested Students
Curious about XR but unsure where to start, what skills to learn, or which labs would take them.
AUDIENCE 02
Experienced Students
Already building XR projects and looking for more research and paid opportunities to put those skills to use.
How might we give both groups one place to find their next step in XR?
02
RESEARCH
Our team ran 10 semi-structured interviews with students, club leaders and a faculty member.
FINDING 01
Connections decide who gets in.
Students active in the GTXR club found research roles through peers and referrals. Students without those networks relied on cold emails, which often went unanswered.
FINDING 02
There's no central place to look.
Students pieced opportunities together from lab websites, research papers, club meetings and cold emails. That's a lot of work, and it discourages the students who are least connected.
FINDING 03
Students rule themselves out too early.
Many believed they needed advanced Unity or Blender skills before applying. Experienced members said professors care just as much about genuine interest, visualization skills and empathy for users.
03
DESIGN
I led the design work in Figma, creating both a website and a mobile app. The prototypes are clickable and cover the core flows: discovering opportunities, browsing research openings and building a profile.
Interactive Embedded Prototype
DASHBOARD
A starting point that knows where you are
Lab openings are matched to your profile, and a badge tracks progress through XR foundations. Beginners get a clear next step, and experienced students see roles that fit their skills.
RESEARCH OPENINGS
Opportunities you can compare at a glance
Each listing shows a match score, the lab, required skills and whether it's paid, for credit or volunteer. Filters for major, skill and pay make it quick to narrow down.
design direction:
04
ITERATE WITH FEEDBACK
We explored three design directions and scored each against our requirements. Every teammate rated each design on their own, then we averaged the scores. The web platform scored highest (4.03) for helping students discover research, but the mobile concept was best for communication and ease of learning. ​​​​​​​​​​​​
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Rather than drop it, we carried its two strongest ideas into the final design: tap-to-connect for meeting people in person, and tap-to-check-in for GTXR events. Feedback after that round showed a gap: we had designed only for students, even though faculty are half of the matching problem. We added a faculty flow for posting listings with clear skill requirements and reviewing applicants, plus a GTXR Recommended tab so faculty can spot candidates the club trusts.
a specific change after a qualtrics survey:
almost all surveyed stated they didn't understand how to get to endorsements/the star was for endorsements. After adding a simple label, that problem was fixed.
05
WHAT I LEARNED
Something that feels like an obvious affordance to me isn't obvious to everyone.
The only way to know is to put the design in front of real people and listen. If I revisited this project, I'd refresh the visual design to feel more modern, then test again to see how it changes the experience.