Personal Project · 2024

SkillBuds

UX/UI DesignCommunitySalazar Award

A community platform that makes learning new skills affordable, trusted, and local.

Snapshot

Problem

Traditional classes are expensive, impersonal, and hard to trust — leaving most people stuck before they start.

Goal

Make learning a new skill affordable, human, and effortlessly local.

Challenges

What stood in the way.

High Costs

Quality classes price most people out before they start.

Lack of Trust

It's hard to know who's credible when meeting strangers offline.

Limited Options

Niche or local skills rarely show up on mainstream platforms.

Solution

How we solved it.

Discovery

Find instructors nearby through interest-first matching — see shared curiosities and goals before any pricing enters the picture.

Trust

Lightweight verification, mutual intros, and conversational profiles replace cold star ratings, so you know who you're meeting.

Booking & Motivation

Simple scheduling and gentle progress nudges keep momentum going from the first hello to the next session.

Design Highlights

Features that bring it to life.

BudsLocator

Map-based discovery tuned for walking distance, so every match feels truly local.

BudgetSkills

Transparent, fair pricing with skill-swap options to keep learning accessible.

ScheduleEase

Effortless booking that fits sessions into real life without the back-and-forth.

SkillHub

A central place to browse categories, track progress, and discover what's next.

Users

Who we designed for.

Karen

Mother, Pastry Chef

A pastry chef balancing work and family, looking for skating lessons for her son.

I want an affordable skating coach nearby for my son, just a few lessons.

Eilon S

First Grader

Loves sports, reading Dog Man, and wants to learn how to skate.

I want to learn how to skate!

Dina L

UBC Student

Studying brain science at UBC, working in a coffee shop, and skating since she was 10.

I want to earn by teaching kids what I love, while studying.

User Flow

A first session in two minutes.

Lisa just moved to a new city and wants to learn pottery without breaking the bank. She opens SkillBuds, sets her interests, and is matched with a local maker a few blocks away. After a quick intro chat, she books her first session in under two minutes — and walks home that evening with a small bowl and a new friend.

Research & Insights

What the research told us.

"I'd love to learn, but classes feel expensive and a little intimidating to walk into alone."

— Interview participant

Cost is the first blocker

Across interviews and surveys, price was the #1 reason people abandoned learning a new skill.

Trust beats reviews

Card sorting showed people prefer mutual intros and shared interests over star ratings.

Local matters more than expected

Walking-distance matches dramatically increased the likelihood of booking a second session.

By the numbers

What the research told us.

61.1%

Have kids aged 6–12

75.4%

Prefer email or app to communicate

7.4%

Unaffected by transportation

86.8%

Willing to pay $50 or less

83.3%

Want consistent weekly activities

75.9%

Prefer a variety of subjects

88.9%

Seek weekly after-school activity

22.2%

Prefer a structured setting

75.9%

Open to learning from community members

Information Architecture

Built to navigate and built to scale.

A flat, scannable architecture that lets people move between discovery, trust, and booking without getting lost — and scales as new skill categories are added.

Clear top-level navigation: Discover, Messages, Schedule, Profile.
Skill categories grouped by intent (Create, Move, Learn, Connect) rather than rigid taxonomies.
Built to scale: new categories and trust signals plug in without restructuring the IA.