America On Tech Hosts its Summer 2021 UX Design Demo Day for NYC Students

On Thursday, August 18, 2021, America on Tech (AOT) hosted a Demo Day showcase and competition for students who participated in the 2021 UX Design Bootcamp. The UX Design Bootcamp is a 6-week program that teaches students the fundamentals of User Experience Design. In this course, students completed the entire cycle of user experience design beginning with understanding users and product issues and ending with a market ready, clickable design prototype that they are able to add to their professional portfolio. AOT is grateful to Blackstone Charitable Foundation and Samvid Ventures for sponsoring the program and providing volunteers to work with our students. ​

The 39 students who graduated from the course worked in groups of three or four to create mobile and web app prototypes for mock business clients, and the winning six groups from a preliminary competition presented at the Demo Day. Apps ranged from baby gear reseller sites to video game purchasing apps to an image sharing community for artists. After each presentation there was a question and answer period for each group to share more with the judges about their research in user trends, testing process, and monetization strategies.  

The winning app was Baby Boutique, designed by Amy Chen, Jiayi Liu, Sonam Tsering, and Dehemiah Vanderhorst. Baby Boutique is a location-based mobile app that enables parents to find other parents in the area to exchange or buy and sell second-hand baby gear. Judges were impressed by the app’s color choice, interface, and incorporation of user feedback. As first place winners, the group was awarded a $2,275 prize.  Check out the winning team’s project here!

Special thanks to all our judges who joined us from Blackstone:
​Zanele Mahlangu, Business Analyst
Jair Martinez, Head of Procurement SD & P2P Group, AVP
Andrea Romero, Application Support Specialist
Chuck Stern, Assistant Vice President

Congratulations to our winning team and  all of the other students who participated!

To view a recording of the full event click here.

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Congratulations to our winning team Baby Boutique!