What is SpaceLab?
SpaceLab is a non-profit people incubator, creating opportunities for early career STEM projects, with a focus on minority groups and career switching adults.
What did we do?
I had the opportunity to be part of 2 teams; the About Page team focused on a re-envisioned website, and the Exoplanetarium team working on the UI for a 3D app in the vein of Night Sky or 100,000 Lights.
Key Points:
- Both projects required heavy research on how to visually display information in a modern, clean fashion.
- The About Page originally showed History as a long downward scroll section, and we wanted to make it easier to scan and more attractive at the same time.
- When designing the sliding side panel for the Exoplanetarium UI, I wanted to ensure the imagery was still fully visible. Comparable projects often used a transparent overlay to partially obscure what was shown, and I wanted to avoid that.
- Working with this team was a new challenge. There were many styles for how to use Figma and how to design, as well as new leadership for both projects. I really had to push the team to standardize in order to make forward progress.
- The Exoplanetarium required numerous adjustments to merge the main UI with the expectations of the side panel I worked on, and those in turn fed our ideas on the tutorial. Working with the different designers to bring those aspects into harmony was a major learning experience.
My Contributions:
- The UI shown for the Exoplanetarium, highlighting information about a given exoplanet
- Creating the idea of the "system map" for the Exoplanetarium, to facilitate moving between related planets
- Major research and inspiration for the About Page
- The History section design, as well as the overlay for the Team section
