What we found
Serendipitous, informal encounters account for approximately 22% of all knowledge gained at in-person conferences.
yet,
7 in 19
attendees state that forming connections at virtual events is simply harder than in person,
and,
53%
cite a complete lack of spontaneous connection as their primary platform pain point.
The body of a virtual event is full of people wanting to meet. The problem is that no tool has ever existed to replicate the ambient, low-pressure social cues of a physical hallway.
Solution
Visual Identity
Hallway’s visual identity uses an inviting palette of soft purples, warm pink gradients, and clean, rounded container cards—designed to feel like an energetic, welcoming physical lounge, not a cold corporate database.
Feature #1: Onboarding that values your time
Browse first. Commit second.
Interest discovery and event exploration happen before the account wall. By utilizing progressive disclosure, the app gathers minimum intent data upfront and allows users to fully skip forms, entirely removing the friction that triggers registration drop-off.
Feature #2: Replicating the corridor conversation
Context-driven connection nudges.
No cold requests. The system surfaces subtle, real-time alerts grounded in shared behavioral signals—such as "You and Sarah both stayed in the quantum entanglement room"—giving users a warm, authentic icebreaker.
Feature #3: Lowering the initiation cost
Automated post-event follow-ups.
To sustain relationships after an event closes, the app triggers soft prompts at Day 3 and Day 7. Pre-populated with the person's name and shared context, users can continue the conversation or hand off to LinkedIn with a single tap.
Feature #4: Designing for diverse social dynamics.
Controlled networking and open conversation.
To support both formal events and casual mingling, the app segments spaces by creator permissions. Verified, paying users can launch gated Official Hallways to control attendee access and maintain exclusivity. For everything else, Unofficial Hallways remove all friction—allowing any user to instantly create a public room open to the entire community.
Key Takeaways
Structure kills spontaneity.
The hardest part of designing Hallway wasn't structuring the flat information architecture—it was creating an environment that allowed conversations to feel unforced. I learned that to engineer true serendipity online, an interface must prioritize shared emotional context and clear status transparency over rigid algorithmic constraints. Plain context and inviting visual design matter just as much as functional utility.
Navigating Global, Asynchronous Collaboration
Collaborating asynchronously with a global team across different time zones was an incredible learning experience. While it forced us to be highly intentional with our communication, it also highlighted two major shifts I would make in my future design process. First, we lacked a designated project manager, tracking timelines and managing tasks became a major challenge. Moving forward, I will prioritize establishing clear ownership and PM roles on day one to keep the team agile. Second, while the "Hallway" concept is strong, I want to integrate more inclusive design. In future projects, I aspire to advocate for accessibility concerns, like contrast compliance and screen-reader compatibility.
See Next
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Onsi University LMS
Transforming dense, mandatory legal compliance training into a production-ready enterprise learning management system built entirely from scratch.
UT Austin Postgraduate UX Capstone
Hallway: Reclaiming the Human Element in Virtual Networking
Role
Lead Visual & Interaction Designer
Duration
8 Weeks (April – June 2026)
Tools
Figma, FigJam
Bringing organic, serendipitous connection back to virtual conferences through context-driven design and progressive PWAs.
Mobile PWA
Professional Community
Where we began
He logged off the annual industry conference feeling completely drained, yet entirely isolated. He had spent four hours listening to brilliant presentations, but the "networking hour" was just a sterile chat room flashing by too fast to read, followed by a random speed-video pairing that felt artificial and awkward.
He closed his laptop without a single new contact, watching another set of potentially game-changing professional connections vanish into the digital ether.
This frustratingly common experience belonged to our target user archetypes, and it became the foundation of Hallway.
What is Hallway?
Hallway is a lightweight progressive web app that acts as a networking companion alongside major virtual event platforms like Zoom, Whova, and Cvent. It analyzes event participation to suggest meaningful connections, allowing attendees to transition digital event serendipity into lasting professional relationships.
My Role
As part of a five-person team, I contributed to early problem definition, desk research, and survey analysis. I then led the visual and interaction design of the entire app footprint—iterating from skeleton wireframes to high-fidelity components, micro-interactions, and notification logic across our core user flows.
Context
Developed as an 8-week capstone project for the UT Austin Postgraduate UX Design program, our team set out to tackle the isolation of remote professional events. While traditional platforms prioritize content delivery, we designed a standalone, platform-agnostic layer explicitly engineered to support the human connection layer that standard software ignores.