UX DESIGN, FRONT END DEVELOPMENT
Melting Pot
An all encompassing platform meant to inform, educate, and empower individuals from different cultures and promote diversity within one’s community.
My Role
Conceptualization, Design Strategy, User Research and Analysis, Wire framing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Brand Identity
Team
Kendall Arata, Faris Ashai
Tools
Figma
Atom
Adobe Illustrator
Duration
Quellie Hacks
48 hours
The Problem
Across the globe, there are thousands of different cultures that we have never experienced. Why should we have to be limited by our location when we are looking to expand our knowledge? We don’t have to.
Melting Pot is an idea that breaks down boundaries and enhances accessibility between cultures. This app promotes cultural fusion within your community, allowing you to learn, explore, and experience different cultures from your own. Simply select your location and the cultures that you are most interested in, and Melting Pot will generate a variety of cultural explorations nearby, from Japanese Obon festivals to Mariachi performances.
Melting Pot also connects you with people whose culture you would like to learn about, allowing you to create a network of individuals nearby who can guide you on your cultural journey. Whether it’s delving into the local cuisine or learning how to samba, Melting Pot ensures you encounter the most enjoyable and authentic aspects of your selected culture.
With Melting Pot, our location is not a hindrance, it is an opportunity for engagement, exploration, and education.
Mission
To stimulate and encourage diversity and the exchange of cultural ideals within one's community
Research
Survey
In order to learn more about our target audience’s lifestyle and pain points regarding cultural interest and exploration, we created a survey. We chose to use a survey due to the project time constraint (48 hours).
In total, we collected 15 responses from college students ages 18-22.
Key Insights
Cultural Interest
Personal Culture
-
In general, most individuals felt moderately connected to their own culture
-
40% of individuals thought it was very important to be connected to their culture
-
Most people who struggled to connect with their culture grew up in communities without many people of similar cultural backgrounds or were part of a family that had 3+ generations previously born in America.
-
People felt most connected to Food, cultural Holidays, Community, and Language within their own culture
Other Cultures
-
75% of individuals thought connecting with other cultures was somewhat important.
-
Many individuals took part in cultural events outside of their traditional ethnic culture, celebrating Holidays and and participating in Festivals
-
More than 50% of individuals did not feel like they knew a lot about cultures outside of their own
-
48% of individuals thought it was somewhat important to be able to connect with cultures outside their own
Prototyping and Wireframing
We implemented the feedback from the surveys and in-depth interviews that we conducted to create a rough iteration of wireframes. See below for rough wireframes. Because of the time constraint, we were only able to create one prototyped iteration.
Coding it
Over 36 hours, we were able to code functional main screens of the initial prototype, including a fully functioning sign-in page. While there is still a lot to complete design-wise, we feel that this was a good start.
See the rough website here
What's Next?
We want to add more informative and educational features like creating an algorithm that yields personalized culture and food recommendations based on your location and cultural interests, build a blog where users can freely post informative articles and blogs, and enhance the user flow of getting from the sign in page to user preferences.