IBM: DeveloperWorks

DeveloperWorks is IBM's online resource center where software developers, IT professionals and students network to hone their tech skills, solving problems and collaborating with other members.

This project was a pie-in-the-sky project where we could redesign the site and find a solution to improve the site's traffic of user interaction. One of the goals was to apply gamification characteristics to the UI.

This design implements skills ratings, badge collecting and experience points as part of its gamification aspects. Users gain points for each project that they complete. Once they have achieve enough experience points, they will "level up". Depending on their level, they have a chance to earn a badge. The badge designs were inspired by army rankings. This inspirations comes from the popularity of military games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Metal of Honor, etc. Once a project is complete, users can add and rate skill sets for that particular project.

Other UI components encourage social interaction, such as new feeds, notifications, messages and suggested connections. The news feed contains only projects of others that the user is connected with. The suggested connections compare skills and levels of every user and notify suggestions, promoting networking and meeting new users.

The video in this project is a draft UI. My partner Lara Kozak and I worked on the idea and concept.