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
Nobody finds out on time
First-year and international students face a challenge when arriving at a new school and new city. Here were some common constraints we gathered from data..
60%
of students report lack of companionship
61%
18-25 year olds feel "serious loneliness"
37,737+
students at Boston University face this issue
SOLUTION
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.
Custom profile
See friends on the map and host your own event - public, or private to people you invite.
DESIGN SYSTEM
Design Decisions
The map is the home screen, not a list. A list tells you what exists; a map tells you what's fifty feet away
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
Fast paced project environment and utilising AI
MVP was live on BU Spark! Demo day.
Most durable lesson was about the value of design-first development. Having a visual reference before writing any code kept the product consistent and gave everyone a shared task and goal: targeting students find the community with the help of AI