Pendulum
Keeping the spirit of global unity alive long after the Olympic flame fades.
TIMELINE
Jul - Nov 2024
TEAM
2 Students
TOOLS
Figma
Figjam
DISCIPLINES
UI Design
UX Design
Product Design
BACKGROUND
For this project, our team was challenged with designing a solution within the scope of Lifestyle, Leisure & Entertainment, using the Olympics as a source of inspiration.
So how did we tackle this? We found that:
We recognised that the powerful sense of global unity inspired by the Olympics is often short-lived, quickly fading once the torch is extinguished. That insight led to Pendulum — an app designed to carry that spirit forward. Pendulum transforms the fleeting camaraderie of the Games into everyday acts of kindness and connection. It celebrates the lasting beauty of human connection, uniting people around a shared sense of purpose well beyond the closing ceremony.
The Results?
A final grade of 92.75%, and a concept that continues to resonate with those who believe the Olympic spirit shouldn’t end when the Games do.
Home Page
Task Page
Sponsored Tasks
Community Page
Profile Page
🎯HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW
Let's Dive In…
🚨 THE PROBLEM
The Olympics unite the world in a powerful display of shared humanity, creating lasting bonds among spectators.
Yet, once the Games end, this sense of connection often fades.
🔎 DISCOVER
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1
2
3
4
We began our deep dive by:
👩💻
Surveying 37 spectators
💻
Online Ethnography w/ 50+ Forums
📝
Co-design Worshop w/ 8 Participants
Our mountain of data…
This unconvered some significant findings. Some notable ones in:
Our survey findings revealed that:
81%
Our online ethnography revealed that:
Proof? Here's what Olympic Watchers Said across Reddit, Twitter & Youtube
Our workshop findings revealed that:
88%
But to gain deeper, and more nuanced insights - we needed to synthesise this data!
⭐ OUR FINDINGS
First, the themes (pink stickies!)
Then, we grouped the themes together to find our insights (green stickies!). This led to 4 significant findings:
1
2
3
4
From our insights - particularly 3, we refined our problem statement to explore how we could allow spectators to partake in "profound and lasting experiences that connect them to a greater purpose":
🚨 DEFINING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
How can the shared spirit of humanity, experienced during the Olympics, be sustained long after the Games are over, fostering a continuous sense of global connection and cooperation for spectators?
📖 DEFINE
Out of the three personas, we identified Fiona, as our main target demographic.
🔨 DEVELOP
With our refined scope, we began to ideate solutions, and came up with two design ideas that could potentially address our problem space:
REVERSE THINKING
This method encouraged us to consider a focus on intrinsic motivation over extrinsic rewards. Reverse thinking highlighted the potential for unique user experiences that prioritise connection, empathy, and Pay it Forward communal responsibility over traditional competitive elements.
CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS
Through challenging assumptions, we open up new possibilities and potential solutions by questioning ingrained beliefs about how kindness and goal-oriented social apps should function. This method allows us to envision a more diverse, inclusive, and innovative user experience that doesn’t rely solely on conventional wisdom:
LOW-FIDELITY SKETCHES
DECISON MATRIX
To decide on the final concept we used a Decision Matrix, which helped us prioritise potential features. While "Impossible Goal" scored higher in some categories, "Pay it Forward" had a more balanced score across all factors, particularly in the areas of Accountability and Community Benefit.
"Pay it Forward" scored higher on the decision matrix, and we then tested this against users to gauge their thoughts through a series of methods:
Social Debt Tracking
(HIGH Priority)
2.0
errors/avg
60% Completion Rate
1:34.49 Completion Time
Paying it Forward
(HIGH Priority)
1.6
errors/avg
100% Completion Rate
1:53.12 Completion Time
Current Kindness Task
(Medium Priority)
1.2
errors/avg
100% Completion Rate
1:01.26 Completion Time
Kindness History
(Low Priority)
1.0
errors/avg
100% Completion Rate
1:20.29 Completion Time
Finish Task
(Medium Priority)
0.2
errors/avg
100% Completion Rate
0:32.21 Completion Time
From the findings, high error rates helped us identify areas where users struggled most. Additionally, by ranking issues based on frequency, severity, and relevance to user goals, we developed a list of high-priority design updates. This included revising our ‘social debt tracking’ feature, and reframing how users can ‘pay it forward’ - two core functions of our application.
POST-TEST QUESTONNAIRE
The post-test questionnaire llowed us to collect quantitative data that highlighted areas needing further refinement.
The questionnaire gathered feedback on specific elements, such intuitivity, ease of use - conceptual questions such as whether “starting off with debt” was promising, or whether “paying off a communal responsibility” was motivating.
Our Post-Test Questionnaire revealed that:
60%
100%
UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Following the post-test questionnaire, unstructured interviews were conducted to gain deeper insight into the reasoning behind users’ responses. The interviews allowed the participants to elaborate on their survey answers, helping us as designers, to understand their motivations, emotions and interpretations that influenced their experience using the app.
By exploring responses to concepts such as “starting off with debt” we could assess whether these design choices resonated as intended, or whether there was any confusion, or disconnect. The unstructured format encouraged open dialogue, which provided qualitative data that revealed more subtle, and underneath the surface - user perceptions that informed potential improvements for a more intuitive, and engaging user experience.
💡 SOLUTION
A gamified platform designed to sustain the shared spirit of global unity after the Olympics ends. Build meaningful connection through acts of kindness, cultural exchange, and collaborative challenges, to sustain the Olympic values of friendship, respect, and excellence.
🚚 DELIVER
Below is an iterative timeline of our process. At each stage, we conducted user testing to inform our design decisions:
MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
80%
100%
To evaluate the wireframes, we used two methods:
SUS SURVEYS
Our SUS survey score of 83.75 indicates that we are moving in the right direction, but there still needs to be more work done as shown in our cognitive walkthroughs
COGNITIVE WALKTHROUGHS
For our cognitive walkthroughs, we assessed the new core features of our application:
Earning “Global Points”
The Interactive Globe on the Home Screen
The Community Tab
EARNING GLOBAL POINTS
Generally intuitive, with consistent labeling and clear action steps.
Areas for improvement:
New or novel interactive systems must include user guidance such as tutorials, hints or prompts
The labelling of screens must remain consistent to avoid confusion amongst users
GLOBAL VISUALISATION
The cognitive walkthrough of the interactive globe revealed several usability issues, that led to an ‘Action failure’:
Areas for improvement:
The lack of a title and context made it extremely unclear as to whether the globe was interactive. The purpose of the globe was unclear.
THE COMMUNITY TAB
Overall a success as:
The system's intuitive call-to-action prompts ensured that users can easily navigate to the community page, reducing cognitive load.
After performing the action, users received immediate and relevant feedback, confirming their progress.
Moving from wireframes to mockups, we also built out a design system to ensure consistency:
HIGH-FIDELITY MOCKUPS
This stage was broken down into 3 iterations, and we tested each using methods such as:
A/B TESTING
For A/B testing, we prioritised re-vamping the home screen, as it serves as the primary entry point and sets the tone for the overall user experience. The goal was to determine which home screen design is more effective at engaging users and encouraging them to participate in tasks.
By comparing the performance of each variant, we found that Variant C consistently outperformed the others.
HEURISTICS EVALUATION
To begin, we decided on 5 essential features to test, and broke them down into smaller tasks to guide the expert users through the interface.
SYNTHESISING THE FINDINGS
After completing individual evaluations, the experts' findings were synthesised by each group member, forming a preliminary list of usability insights. Our group then reconvened to discuss and consolidate these insights, ensuring that each issue identified was accurately interpreted and categorised into an affinity diagram
Errors were categorized into four levels of severity:
Cosmetic Issues
Minor Issues
Major Issues
Critical (Catastrophic) Issues
Our approach prioritized resolving the most severe issues first, starting with critical and major problems before moving on to minor and cosmetic concerns.
THINK ALOUD TESTING & LOOP11
A second round of think-aloud testing was conducted to assess whether revisions to features and messaging have successfully clarified and enhanced the user experience. We also conducted Loop11 testing to gather quantitative metrics, offering a data-driven basis for usability assessments
NOTABLE ITERATIONS
FINAL DESIGN
Main Features
Small actions, big impact.
Global Activities.
The Community.
💭 REFLECTION
🔄 Embrace Iteration (Even if it feels like you're going around in circles)
Design is not a linear process. Sometimes, it involves taking two steps forward - then one step backwards, sometimes two, or even three; right to the very beginning. Each time I revisited a piece of the design, I understood the user experience a little better. It was through these cycles that the concpet really came to life.
🎯 User Feedback Is a Goldmine
Gathering feedback from users was one of the most rewarding aspects of Pendulum. There were moments when users expressed emotions I didn’t expect, and it reinforced how deeply design can connect with people.
🔍 Getting Comfy with the Unknown in Design
I learned that embracing the unknown is essential for creativity. Sometimes, stepping away from safety nets and trusting your instincts can lead to the most rewarding results.