Project lead: Lakshita Vij

Project description:

CuriouCity is an application that provides options of places you want to go to depending on how far you want to go, how much time you want to commit, what kinds of activities you want to do (prioritizing eating, or some cultural event, or nature-oriented activities etc) and then it gives you a number of options of places while accounting for your preferred travel method. This project aims to solve the confusion of not knowing where to go as a group and avoid going to only commonly frequented places and experiences! Ideally, CuriouCity would support small businesses as well to provide a wide range of options and help them out after the pandemic!

Who we're looking for:

- 1 frontend developer: Swift, React Native
- 1 designer: Figma

Project lead: Cami Chou, Vivika Martini

Project description:

An iOS based social-media platform for nature appreciation and mindfulness. The concept is for anyone around the world to share a picture or experience of nature around them accompanied by what they are contemplating or feeling at that moment in time.

While other social-media apps can result in self-comparison, FOMO, and information overload,  this app would be more focused on mindfulness, positivity, and appreciation of the world around us.

The app is very much centered around the Japanese concept of Ikigai which refers to your ‘'reason for being” or what brings you joy at a moment in time.

Who we're looking for:

Passionate individuals excited to join our team!

- 1 illustrator (experience in any graphic design software)
- 2 UI/UX Designers
- 3-4 Developers (1-2 ios developer with experience in Swift, 1-2 backend with experience with databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL)

Project lead: Chinmaya Vempati

Project description:

At some point in time, you’ve probably felt anxious or unsettled and found yourself opening Instagram, TikTok (or even LinkedIn) on pure instinct and starting to scroll, mindlessly and endlessly. Somewhere in your head you think scrolling might make you feel better - except it never does, and often you end up worse. Meet Ren, an interface design project that asks this: what if we could take this scrolling habit we’ve learned over years and repurpose it, creating a safe space where scrolling might actually help you feel better? Everything about Ren will be designed for tranquillity, from the positive messaging in the content you would scroll through (i.e. kindness scrolling) to a placid, calming aesthetic vocabulary - and over this quarter, the Ren project team will research, ideate and design what that vision might look like. Ren is more than just a design project, though - it’s an exploration of how and why we create UX as designers, and the difference between empathizing for compassion and empathizing to exploit.

Who we're looking for:

I’m looking for 4-5 designers of any experience stage (but some visual or UX design experience helps) who truly understand the spirit of the project, and can connect with why . If you’re up for some introspection and honest, compassionate design, I’d love to see your application!

Project lead: Lucy Huo

Project description:

A collaborative zine on the concept of alternate lives, tHe muLTiVeRse, and / or fig trees (look up "Sylvia Plath fig tree").

Although I'm actually very happy with how my life is going so far, there are so many cool things in the world to see and do that I basically have FOMO for everything I'm not doing. This project is my attempt to explore and express these feelings. I'm not sure if the end product will be printed, digital, or a mix of both, but I'm mainly just hoping to find other people who relate and make something cool together :-)

P.S. the new A24 movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" embodies this idea really well and is a super fun watch; highly recommend going out to see it!

Who we're looking for:

- artists + designers
- writers
- photographers
- people of any creative discipline lol… like if you’re a dev and want to make a little game or website that’d be cool