requirements and challenges
As the UC Riverside Student Recreation Center grew in 2016, student frustration increased. Many arrived expecting to work out, only to find spaces full or unexpectedly closed, while other areas went underused due to lack of awareness.
Information about hours, capacity, classes, and events existed, but it was scattered across physical signage and quickly outdated materials. This disconnect led to confusion, inefficient use of the facility, and missed opportunities for engagement.
strategy and development
To ensure the experience reflected how students actually used the facility (and what they expected from a mobile app), I conducted informal case studies and interviews with select students to gather direct feedback on their pain points, habits, and expectations. Using these insights, I established a clear North Star to guide the product direction, shaping how information was organized, surfaced, and prioritized.
We prioritized features that students wanted:
- View open recreation times and facility availability
- Identify overcrowded or peak-use areas
- Discover upcoming classes, activities, and special events
- Register easily for programs and activities directly from their phone
We identified the need for a centralized, real-time system that could unify facility data and distribute it across multiple touchpoints. The solution needed to serve students both inside and outside the facility, meeting them on their phones while also reinforcing information through in-building displays.
The solution was a mobile app that served as a real-time gateway to campus recreation. Powered by live API data from both our current digital signage and real-time counts systems. I centralized scheduling, events, and facility information into a hybrid mobile app solution.
From sketches to systems
Early concepts were sketched and translated into low-fidelity wireframes using Balsamiq, allowing rapid iteration on structure and flow. These designs were then refined into higher-fidelity layouts and prototypes in Figma, helping align stakeholders and developers before implementation.
Once we received approvals, we built the app as a hybrid mobile application, allowing us to ship quickly across iOS and Android from a single codebase while still delivering a native-feeling experience. Development was managed in XCode, where the project configuration and feature modules were organized through JSON-based definitions, which included navigation structure, environment settings (dev/stage/prod), and mappings that controlled how data surfaced in the UI (hours and events).
This approach kept the build lightweight, repeatable, and easy to update as facility schedules and programming evolved.
Launch and Adoption Strategy
I led an integrated marketing campaign that brought together print, social media, and video to ensure the message reached students wherever they were. By coordinating creative, timing, and distribution across channels, the campaign increased awareness, reinforced key features, and helped position the initiative as a must-use resource rather than an optional extra.
Short-form video demonstrated the app in real use, showing how students could quickly check availability, discover events, and receive updates. Shared across social channels and in-facility screens, video reduced cognitive load by making the app’s value immediately clear.
Together, these efforts positioned the app as a practical response to a shared student frustration. By focusing on clarity and usefulness over promotion, the app built trust, reduced friction, and increased adoption.
Conclusion
By integrating digital signage and facility occupancy data through APIs, the recreation center created a unified source of accurate, real-time information for students. This reduced confusion, improved traffic flow across spaces, and increased visibility of previously underutilized areas.
The UCRSRC mobile app extended this impact by delivering timely updates across mobile and in-facility channels, reducing guesswork and helping students engage on their own terms.