Tasked with designing a concept for "human flourishing," I created a mockup of a positive social media app called Kudos. Popular social media apps today incentivize users to direct attention to themselves and to present their life as a hyperrealistic aesthetic. The idea for Kudos was an app that instead rewards users for positive social interactions and compliments. Kudos was inspired by a system by the same name that my freshman dorm at Stanford had where you could submit a compliment our shoutout (a “Kudo”) to be read aloud at our weekly gatherings.

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The mockup included a sketch of what the UI layout might look like and a manifesto supporting the goals of the app and how it promoted human flourishing. Pitching this idea to peers revealed important considerations of privacy, community values, and engagement that are essential pillars of any good social media app. This exercise was a taste of UI/UX and a chance to turn an idea into a tangible, presentable concept.

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