University event discovery and management platform
What's Clubly?
Clubly, released by Aggieworks in February 2024, is a platform that connects 35,000 + UC Davis students with 209 clubs while giving admins tools to manage profiles and cultivate year-round engagement.
As the sole product designer, I designed the events page on Clubly to let students find events that match their interests and schedules while reducing the barrier of attending alone, and to help clubs grow attendance and build stronger communities.
I led user interviews, prototyped in Figma, and ran usability tests to refine the design. Since January 2025, I've been working with 5 engineers and 2 product managers on this project.
PROBLEM
Existing ways to find and promote club events aren’t effective
Despite UC Davis’ abundance of clubs, students still struggle to find events, relying on word of mouth, flyers, or Instagram. This fragmented process wastes time, causes missed opportunities, and leaves many overwhelmed or missing out. Events can also feel less compelling when students don’t have friends to attend with. Meanwhile, club admins invest significant effort and resources, but low turnout limits impact and motivation.
SOLUTION and OUTCOMES
Club event creation and exploration on one platform
Clubly makes events more discoverable and personalized by aligning with students’ interests, schedules, and social circles. Students find events that matter to them and bring friends along, while clubs see higher turnout and stronger fundraising. We launched the first version of our website, and following our marketing push, 20+ events were posted within the first week and we have nearly 400 users.
DECISIONS
Converting findings and insights into features
To better understand the current experience that students and club admins have with club events, we interviewed a total of 8 students and 12 club admins to identify pain points and refine gesture requirements. From our user interviews, I synthesized and ideated:
Designing around familiar mental models
The tools club admins already use (such as social media, Canva, and Google Workspace) informed how I structured interactions. By matching familiar patterns such as button order and form creation, I aimed to reduce friction and make the new flow feel intuitive.
"Mac Published"
Supporting multi-day events
Some events, like Design Interactive’s annual Davis Design Fest, spanned multiple days. To accommodate these, I designed an “add another day” option, letting admins customize times for each day.
Initial version:
"Mac Event Creation Form V2"
Final version:
"FOR REAL Mac Create Event Form"
Expanding awareness with filters
Club admins struggled to attract members outside their immediate networks (e.g., it’s difficult to get non-tech students to attend events by tech clubs). Students also worried about missing out on interesting events they didn’t know about. To address both, I integrated filters by category, date, and “extras” (free food, merch, rides, raffles) to improve discovery and attendance.
"FOR REAL Mac Events -- FEATURED"
Club admin event card layout
Initial version:
Doesn't display club(s) involved
Visually dense
Divergent button order
"ROW PUBLISHED"
Final version (or not…):
"ROW V2 PUBLISHED UPCOMING"
Student event card layout
Initial version:
"COMPUTER Event Card"
Cuts off graphic
Isn't very distinguishable from club cards
Difficult to accommodate longer event information
Final version (but highly prone to more iteration):
"ROW V2 ALL EVENTS TWO COLLABORATORS"
REFLECTION
Next Steps
Immediate
Continue finalizing features for second launch in Fall
Conduct usability testing on the student view side
Short-term
Design and implement placeholder images for clubs without custom visuals
Market our feature digitally and in person
Long-term
Develop a user dashboard where students can save and manage their interests
Create an analytics page to track RSVPs
Takeaways
Technical feasibility
I initially focused only on UI implementation and overlooked broader technical requirements. In future projects, I’ll aim to holistically collaborate more closely with engineers from the beginning to align on technical scope and constraints (I realized that gradient borders were not fun to code and we weren't able to include the design 😢).
Collaboration
Working with PMs, engineers, and graphic designers expanded my understanding of cross-functional teamwork. It was both insightful and rewarding to contribute to a shared vision while learning from my teammates’ expertise.
After securing the $5 pizookie deal team dinner at BJ's
Cooking in the first year dorm's kitchen for End of Year Banquet
Post-launch of the events page celebration