On March 8-9, 2025, SIGCHI hosted their 2nd annual Design Jam. The Association of Computing Machinery, Women in Computing Society, Ying Wu College of Computing, and Society of Musical Arts collaborated to make this event possible. Designers from all different skill levels and majors worked on creating an interactive prototype, using any platform or software of their choice, based on a specific theme. Since the event was beginner-friendly, it emphasized design creativity and presentation abilities rather than the software skills of the competitors.
This year’s theme was Cottagecore, a concept based on sustainability, nature, and cultivation of healthy and relaxing hobbies. Using the concepts which make up the theme, competitors were given 10 hours to work on the project. To kick off the 2025 Design Jam, SIGCHI invited Isaac Crayton, a Senior Product Designer at M&T Bank, to deliver the keynote speech.
On the second day of the Design Jam, the designers presented their interactive prototypes to a panel of five judges – Professor Adam Spryszynski, Professor Keita Oshiro, Dr. Eugene Snyder, Dr. Yvette Wohn, and Professor Mark Chuisano. The designers also had the chance to visit other presentations and observe the work of their peers, allowing for networking and advice for future careers. After listening to the presentations, the judges convened to make their final decisions on the top three teams. During this, the competitors were given the opportunity to hear from UI/UX designers through a Career Panel and gain career and portfolio advice.
As participants in the event, we were able to gain firsthand experience in UI/UX. We did not know what to expect entering the competition, as this was our first UI/UX competition, but we were happy to see that it truly was beginner friendly. We were able to improve soft skills such as creativity, teamwork, and communication, and combine our ideas to create a baking game prototype and present it to the judges. Although some of our majors were unrelated to UX/UI, we were able to learn a lot from the career panel, such as what to include in a portfolio and ways to present ourselves to possible employers. Overall, it was a great learning experience.
The winners were third-year Business and Information Systems major Eric Huang and third-year Human Computer Interaction major Jillian Andrea Juat for their prototype called “Wasteless.” Both team members were familiar with the UX/UI design process. Huang went into the Design Jam at an intermediate skill level, having completed the User Experience minor and competed in the Design Jam the previous year. This was Juat’s first time in the Design Jam, but she also had intermediate experience in UX design.
Huang reflected on his experience, saying, “[b]eing able to go from brainstorming to a completed prototype in just a few hours using everything we learned was satisfying.” Juat shared similar feelings, saying that “this was a great opportunity for [her] to challenge [herself] by creating something within a time constraint.” Their prototype was designed with the sustainability aspect of the Cottagecore theme in mind and was targeted mainly towards those who are environmentally conscious.
“Wasteless” was created in order for users to track their waste by using a streak system, similar to the one used in Duolingo, and allowing competitions with others. Their goal was to eventually promote users to reduce the amount of waste they produce. During the 10 hours, the team interviewed the public to get data on prospective user information to help with brainstorming and even received user feedback after creating their prototype. Both enjoyed the experience of working in such a creatively-charged space, with Juat saying that “[t]he overall environment of the event was so fun and supportive that the two days of the competition really went in the blink of an eye.” With their well-thought-out project and demonstration of the design process, they were able to earn themselves first place in the Design Jam.
SIGCHI is a special interest group on Human-Computer Interaction. Since this is the second year of the Design Jam event, we asked the board members Allison Gamarra (PR Manager), Yumery De La Cruz (Treasurer), and Sharon Oh (Secretary) about the various changes that have taken place since. The board members emphasized that there were more participants and judges. There was also more explanation about criteria and more connections and bonding between the participants. There are plenty of more community bonding events that will take place this year if you would like to join!
