Mobile app / social network
UX/UI design & illustration
This project consists on the design and prototyping of the different aspects of the Alina app. Alina is a social network that aims to promote artistic and design exchange between young people and students. This idea arises from the detection of a need among students from different branches of artistic education to develop more complete interdisciplinary projects, which help them to strengthen their skills and allow them to expand their portfolios and contacts before entering the world of work. Currently, there are no networks that are fully adapted to this new generation, who perceive existing networks such as Behance or InfoJobs as too professional and intimidating, and fail to meet their desires and needs. Alina is a project that offers a solution to this generation gap, and which adapts to the aspirations and demands, both formal and functional, of artists and visual designers in training, allowing them to find collaborative projects to join, or to pitch their own ideas.
Character design and illustrations
Although Alina is a character that has been designed for the app, she is based on a real person. Alina is a character that guides users through the app, and helps them navigate the app more easily. She is also in charge of establishing links between people, as she is the one who notifies you when you have a match, or a notification.
This character is so important that we wanted to give her a broader context, a story. The personification of Alina, and the knowledge of her context gives dimension to the character, makes her take on greater importance, and makes her not just another random illustration in an application, but one that transcends in the perception that one has of her, and adds emotional value and a poetic sense to the project.
In order to write this story, research on Germanic mythology and folktales has been carried out. In Germanic mythology, the presence of the "Morgenstern", which translates as dawn star or morning star, is repeatedly mentioned. This element is present in different regions and cultures, and represents, in different forms, a celestial body that guides both gods and humans in the right direction. It is also associated with the planet Venus, as it is the first light that appears in the sky at daybreak.
All this information has been synthesised and used as the basis for the story of Alina. The character is a "Morgenstern", a celestial body on a plane above the human world. Alina shows great interest in this world and its inhabitants, and constantly observes them. However, in this first part of the story, the world of humans lacks light, and they are individualistic and solitary creatures, unaware of how much they need each other. Alina, in one of her observations of the human world, peered too far, and ended up falling into it. With her fall, the human world was filled with light, and with light, colour. This meant that humans could finally see each other, and begin to connect and create.
All these elements have been taken into account in the graphic development of the application (for example, by placing a point of light on the head of the illustrated character of Alina, which refers to her origins, and can be interpreted as a halo, which differentiates her from the rest of the human characters illustrated in the application). Another nod to the story is the assignment of a bright colour to each mode profile, in reference to the second half of the story.
Although Alina's story is only present in the application in a conceptual way, and there are some graphic winks in it, such as those mentioned above, an audiovisual piece has been designed (in which the graphic resolution will be deepened) that tells this story, and can be used as a promotional clip for the application itself.
Again, it is important to emphasise that it is not necessary to know the story of Alina to know how to use the application, but the creation of this audiovisual piece that tells the story is an element that adds value to the project, and that allows us to demonstrate its versatility and the possibilities it offers when it comes to being transferred to other media.
ALINA - New Beginnings
This audiovisual piece narrates the story of the character Alina, who guides users through their experience as they discover the app. It was designed with the aim of expanding the possibilities and media in which the app unfolds, to complement the UX and UI design work, making it a more complete and human experience.
Screen architecture
Logo
