Estimathon Portal
Timeline
May - June 2025
Members
Sole UX Designer with 3 Developers
Context
The Estimathison is Jane Street's signature mathematical competition: a high-stakes, team-based challenge combining trivia, game theory, and estimation skills. Teams have 30 minutes to solve 13 complex problems, with scoring based on interval accuracy and strategic risk-taking.
The Problem
A high-stake game, held through a…Google Form?
As the UW Data Science club's Estimathon competition grew from a small event to one of the most anticipated events for the data-driven students body at Waterloo, the technical demands became increasingly complex. The current Google Form wrapper solution doesn't support the real-time features and seamless experience that high-stakes competitions require — we need a unified platform designed for competitive flow states.
Understanding Two Different Journeys
The participants
Having never been or participated in an Estimathon myself, I set out to speak and surveyed with 14 past participants about their experience with the platform. Some guiding questions include:
"Walk me through your typical process for answering a question during the competition",
"Can you describe a moment when you felt frustrated during the competition?"
"Describe how you divided up the work among your team members."
"What would have made the competition feel more engaging or exciting?"
The Admin Team
Strategy & Prioritization
Together with the Tech & Development team, we prioritised the features that are essential for the product to function as intended and meet the MVP.
From features to flow: mapping critical moments
With priorities defined, I needed to understand how these features would work together in real user journeys. The challenge wasn't just designing individual features—it was orchestrating them into seamless flows for two very different user types operating simultaneously.
Low-Fidelity Exploration
For the admin, a dashboard approach made sense, but the challenge became: how do you provide minute-detailed control without creating information overload?
Using Lovable and Bolt, I rapidly prototyped different structural approaches to test information hierarchy and control placement. This allowed me to experiment with various layouts and combine the most effective elements
Time to ship!
Players, get ready
I had designed the entire competition experience from the ground up, from participant onboarding flows and real-time competition interfaces, to admin dashboards and comprehensive scoring systems. With the July launch approaching, the platform was ready to transform how participants would experience mathematical competition.
Don't forget mobile users!
During team discussions, a critical insight emerged: 60% of participants actually compete on mobile devices. I needed to design extra screens that would allow a complete and fulfilling participant experience with mobile-first interactions.
Consider all the edge cases
During live competition management, countless scenarios can derail an event. My admin dashboard designs had to account for every possible disruption: technical failures requiring time extensions, teams getting disconnected, scoring discrepancies, and the ability to pause or restart the entire competition if needed.
Measuring Success
Preparing for July launch 🚀
With the competition approaching, I've established success metrics that will validate whether the design solutions address the core user problems
Efficiency
✦ Reduce feedback time from 30-60 seconds to < 2 seconds
✦ Eliminate manual data entry errors
User Experience
✦ Increase participant satisfaction scores
✦ Reduce support requests during events
✦ Improve competition completion rates
Competitive Integrity
✦ Ensure consistent rule enforcement across all teams
✦ Provide transparent, auditable scoring system
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Key Takeaways
⛓️ Invisible connections of dual-user systems
Designing for multiple user types isn't just about creating separate interfaces, it's about orchestrating experiences that work in perfect harmony. The participant flow needed to preserve competitive focus, while the admin flow required comprehensive control. The real challenge was ensuring that admin actions (time extensions, question releases) translated seamlessly into the participant experience without disrupting their flow state.
🪄 Beyond Static Dashboards
This was my first time designing interfaces where data visualization directly impacted high-stakes decisions. Unlike static dashboards, the admin needed to make split-second choices about competition flow based on live participant data. I learned that effective data visualization is about enabling confident decision-making under pressure.
🚀 Elevating Brand Perception through UX
I realized that user experience design is brand strategy in action. Every interaction, from the moment teams register to receiving final results, either reinforces the competition's prestige or undermines it. A seamless, professional platform signals to participants that this is a serious mathematical competition worth their time and effort.
