BU SPARK X SHIPPED 2026
Neary
Neary puts campus events on a live map, filtered to your interests, so a first-year can find something to go to tonight without knowing a single person yet.
Context
BU Spark! Project
January 2026 - May 2026
Contribution
Lead UI/UX Designer
Collaborators
Ibrahim Alburi - Technical Teammate
Abdul Hamdi - Technical Teammate
Skills
Visual Design
Prototyping
AI
PROBLEM
People don't know what is happening near them
First-year and international students face a challenge when arriving at a new school and new city. Here were some common data we gathered from BU student community.
60%
of students report lack of companionship
61%
18-25 year olds feel "serious loneliness"
37,737+
students at Boston University face this issue
OPPORTUNITIES
I came up with three main feature areas to solve this common problem
Based on the potential opportunites from the market research, I mapped this to several features focused on personalization:
AI powered interest filter
The AI feature helps filter out your interesta and finds interests nearby you
Live tracking of events
The AI feature helps filter out your interesta and finds interests nearby you
Event Host
Host events and track who is coming to your event
EARLY CONCEPTS
I created the early stages of the three main features
Similar to the style of other community-based tools, like Figma Community, I was encouraged to explore a customizable marketplace for data visualizations. After creating several iterations, I rethought about the connection between
Heat Map of events that are near you with the more saturated red being where more people are present at
The feature allows users to input their interests before signing up for an account. This filters out events based on the inputs.
Popup modal showing full description of the event that you have selected
USER FEEDBACKS
Students and falculty members were advocating for more variety and safety
Insight
Users don't need less information. they need clearer visual hierarchy and security. Students don't want to be seen on live location. They also want to have friend features
Final iteration
Find the best events near you with your friends!
Utilize AI to filter out activities near you based on your interests
Designed to type in your personal interests when signing in for AI to filter out and show events based on your interests on the map.
Easy flow to view who is attending the event
See who else is going before you commit. In interviews this was the thing that decided whether someone actually showed up.
Live location of types of events near you
Save an event straight from the map. Each event type gets its own pin, so the map reads at a glance instead of by tapping.
Be the host and save events
See friends on the map and host your own event - public, or private to people you invite.
DESIGN SYSTEM
Designing the Logo
Nearygle - Mascot and logo inspired by golden eagle as we want our app to be easy and recognizable. Eagles are known to be very aware of their surroundings
REFLECTION
Using AI in fast paced student environment
MVP was live on BU Spark! Demo day.
Most durable lesson was about the value of AI and its fast problem solving abilities. With the trend of AI startups, the idea of using an AI API to help a student community was the best solution. Especially in a fast working environment, I had to think of how can AI help students efficiently find the events nearby? How can AI help students settle in the community as soon as possible?