This idea came to me one day after leaving a hotel in Boston. I did not have any cash on me and I felt guilty I wasn’t able to tip the bellman. I later told a few friends of mine about this experience and how I wanted to create a new way to tip that did not involve the use of cash. I said, “Wouldn’t it be great to have an app that would allow you to directly tip someone digitally?” They loved the idea, and together we created etip.
My friends and I entered a competition held by The Ohio State University where we were students. The competition was sponsored through the entrepreneur program at the university and was called The Best of Student Start-ups (BOSS). We went to classes offered by the competition to learn about starting a small business, and lessons learned on launching a start-up. We then conducted research, and started the design phase for our app. Myself and another student who was studying graphic design worked on the wireframes. We discussed and brainstormed on the user interface and experience, and created images and flows for our pitch deck.
My team came in third in the competition, and won the people's choice award which was awarded to the initiative that received the most student votes. Afterwards, we continued to do research and I created a website and a prototype etip app. Unfortunately, due to busy schedules and our studies the company did not take off, but it was a great experience coming up with an idea, and working to have it come to life. I grew stronger in conducting research and how to manage working in a group. I learned how to create visually pleasing as well as informational presentations and this grew my interest in UX design. I really enjoyed thinking about how the app would look and function. That creative process was my favorite part of the experience.
I have since recreated the wireframes to my own vision with the tools and knowledge I now know, which can be seen below.
