Developing a virtual badge tool for the European Commission to promote awareness of the Pan-European Hackathon's cause even after the event is over.

Year

Feb - June 2020

Client

European Commission

Role

Art Director
Product Designer

Work alongside Tech team

Deliverables

Branding
Product Design

Platform

Web App

About the project

In 2020, I was commissioned by the European Commission to be the Art Director for the Pan-European Hackathon (EUvsVirus) to develop innovative solutions for COVID-19 related challenges.

With the objective to promote the outreach of the mission beyond the duration of the hackathon, I developed and designed an automated virtual badge product, that invited participants to create and share their contributions on their social media in a seamless manner.

As the sole designer, I mapped the user flows, designed the user interfaces & badges, and worked closely with the engineering team of FutureNext, currently known as Virtualbadge.io, to bring the product to completion in 7 days.

Concept

Think trophies, medals and certificates:

They invoke a strong sense of pride and often form the benchmark behind our efforts since we were young. Not forgetting the generation of showcasing our achievements on professional networking channels, we decided to entice post-event social media sharing by giving participants a deep sense of appreciation.

Design

We created a virtual badge that was automated and personalized to every participant’s profile and expertise in the competition. Striking a balance between classic conventional and modern, the badge was designed to give a sense of prestige and be easily recognizable as part of the European Commission.

Results

The product resulted in a significant PR boost through organic shares on Twitter and LinkedIn, garnering 2,150 unique solutions to tackle COVID challenges over the entire project. The success of the initiative led to the evolution of the virtual badge into a SaaS product, currently known as virtualbadge.io.