Designing the visual experience for a student-driven college festival
A rundown of the steps used to create the visual designs for Ureckon, one of the biggest college festivals in East India.
Beginnings: my start in UX/UI
Like many engineering rookies, I began honing my UX/UI skills by volunteering at the campus festival. My seniors noticed my interest in design and invited me to join the Ureckon team, which creates visuals for our college’s technical festival. It was my first time working on a team with developers or other designers, so this was a great opportunity. 💫
About Ureckon
Ureckon, founded in 2018, is one of East India’s largest college events, attracting students, professors, and eminent guests from across India.
5000+ participants in 30+ events each year! 10+ Workshops and 15+ Eminent Guests round out the festivities.
The “Design” Cast
- Suvra Shaw — Website and Graphics Team
- Kaustav Roy — Website Team
- Nilesh Chaturvedi — Graphics Team
- Trishita Biswas — Website Team
- Ananya Pal — Graphics Team
Objective
My goal as the head of the Ureckon design team was to create an impactful identity and visual resources for the technical festival, which was reprising after the pandemic.
How can we improve usability and minimize confusion?
“Double Diamond” applied to an Agile project
Our approach entailed delving deeper into the design requirements (divergent thinking) before taking specific actions (convergent thinking).
“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
― Albert Einstein
Once the design team had converged on a solution, it moved to the Agile method of working, which began with execution, like when developers received high-fidelity mockups to work on for their next task.
stage 1: Discover
Who are our customers? How do they perceive Ureckon’s existing online presence? — These were some questions we had to answer…
- Began delving into the visual languages and patterns used in previous Ureckon editions.
- Studied the design and tone of other festivals with a similar format: a few days of intense events, then a few events that spread all over the year.
- Spoke with the Ureckon organisers to learn about their event vision and goals, as well as the creatives.
We identified challenges that existed —
- Low levels of brand recognition on various social media sites.
- Poor social media-to-website conversion rates.
- Very low engagement rates rom visitors to the site.
- A number of inquiries were made about the website or mobile app.
We also drew inspiration from our alumnus Gazi Taufiq’s work on the Ureckon logo when exploring keywords for the visual content.
stage 2: Define
Based on the insights from the discovery phase, we identified these keywords as starting points for potential solutions.
Attributes — Innovation, Future, Technology, Unity
Next, we outlined the two major problem scopes we had:
- Create appealing visual content for the social media campaigns and print media assets that appeal to an array of audiences. The goal of these promotional pieces was to generate hype for the event while also providing details on activities and workshops.
- Redesign the festival website (and mobile app) to create a organised platform for information distribution and marketing. The goal is to provide a user-friendly experience that communicates event details, simplifies registration, and reflects the festival’s unique identity.
Problems that we had to improve—
- Prior social media visuals lacked proper framing and aesthetic appeal.
- For optimal brand visibility with attendees and sponsors, physical assets must adhere to Ureckon’s visual style.
- The previous site lacked a unified CMS for updating contact details.
stage 3: Develop (& Design)
While iterating the design solutions, we had to work with a variety of different people from the festival ecosystem —
- Festival planners: Getting final approval on deliverables.
- Individual event organisers: Collect content and requirements.
- Social media team: Obtain specifications and timelines for online campaigns.
- Developers of the website and mobile app: Understanding technical constraints for a quick and developer-friendly handoff.
Some primary atom-level components used across all visual assets —
1️⃣ Logo Iterations
We built variations of the Ureckon logo for light and dark backgrounds, coordinating with the main sponsor & the edition’s date and tagline. We also created similar iterations for Ureck-a-Thon, the flagship hackathon held as part of the Ureckon festival.
2️⃣ Typography
Gotham, a geometric sans serif typeface popular during Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, was chosen to provide a sharp and vibrant contrast for the wordmark. Other font styles with a similar essence were used as secondary and body fonts on the Ureckon website each year.
3️⃣ Icons for Event Categories
Ureckon is a multifaceted festival that has kept expanding since it began. Existing icons were out of date, and new ones were needed for fresh events added each year from various college departments.
stage 4: Deliver
We prioritised usability and user experience in this round so that the end result met the design scope and stakeholders’ expectations. If issues arise, we return to the “Develop” phase and iterate until we find a solution.
Kaizen (Japanese: 改善, “continuous improvement”)
1️⃣ Sponsorship Brochures
The festival and the Ureck-a-Thon hackathon each had their own brochures that provided sponsors with vital details about audience statistics, scope, and benefits.
2️⃣ Promotional Banners
The banner is put up all over Kolkata, serving as a major promotional tool and the first point of visual contact for an array of potential attendees.
3️⃣ Individual Event Posters
Every Ureckon poster takes a unique approach due to the artistic liberty given to their designers, as well as its distinct theme and content, but all adhere to the framing and asset guidelines.
4️⃣ Team Identity Cards
Ureckon ID cards serve as a keepsake for each edition, reinforcing team spirit and the festival’s branding.
5️⃣ Attendee Certificates
I do think event certificates are motivating for students, as I received one after winning Ureckon in an earlier year (Read my case study on that!), which inspired me to explore and hone my skills.
6️⃣ Website and mobile app Interfaces
Each year, the festival has a different theme that is reflected in its website, decor, and designs. Based on the theme, we created colour schemes and swatches before settling on a colour hierarchy. We followed Material Design for the UI guidelines.
Ureckon 2022 “Dream. Reckon. Conquer.”
This project centred the value of information architecture. The website stored every necessary detail, but the layout could be simpler and less puzzling. We did a Content Audit Log on the website to improve navigation and offer direct access to departmental event pages.
Ureckon 2023 “Experience Limitless”
Ureck-a-Thon 2023 Flagship Hackathon — Experience Design
Schedules, rules, judging criteria, and FAQs must be shared with students during hackathons. The hackathon’s sponsors also sought to connect with tech-savvy youngsters and chose a focused environment over the broader Ureckon site.
Impact
Many students were drawn to the website’s user interface (UI). The new website is clear, and technical and department events are divided.
After graduating from college, I spent some time documenting 📄 every detail of the project and experience in this article!
Time to wrap up the case study
I hope you find this article informative and creative. If you have any questions, suggestions, or opportunities for me, please contact (my LinkedIn). I would be delighted to have a conversation with you.
