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ILLUME

A peer-to-peer credential system that lets people prove their identity and qualifications after a global data blackout designed and built in under 48 hours

Team

Timeline

Role

1 Designer + 4 Developers

16th May 26’ - 17th May 26’

(48 Hours)

I led the UI/UX design for Illume, translating a complex, three-layer trust system into a single, scannable, easy-to-understand interface in just under 2 days.

ILUME

ILLUME

BRIEF

At the GDGC UoA Hackathon, teams were challenged to solve the "Blackout" scenario: a global solar flare wipes out all data worldwide, leaving professionals unable to prove their identity or qualifications; imagine a doctor who can no longer get into a hospital, because the ID that proved they were a doctor no longer exists.

The goal of this project was to design a system that replaces institutional records with something that can't be wiped out: biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification.

This project was completed as part of a 4-5 person team, where I led UI/UX design end-to-end.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

From unpacking the "Blackout" brief, my team identified the core issues a solution needed to solve:

no institutions, servers, or centralised records to verify identity against

no way to prove qualifications without certificates or transcripts

credentials needed to come from something unforgeable, not a database

the system needed to be trustworthy enough for real, high-stakes decisions, like letting a doctor into a hospital

These issues shaped Illume: a peer-to-peer credential system built on biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification.

"How does a doctor prove they're a doctor, when the only proof that ever existed is gone?"

PROBLEM SPACE

Professionals needing to re-establish their identity and qualifications in a post-blackout world.

They needed to:

prove who they are with no ID

prove what they can do with no certificates or transcripts

do both in a way trustworthy enough for someone to act on immediately

TARGET AUDIENCE

People in high-stakes professions where credentials matter immediately and getting it wrong has real consequences, starting with cases like medical professionals needing hospital access.

OPPORTUNITY

How might we help someone prove their identity and skills using only what can't be erased: their body, their community, and what they can demonstrate live?

MOODBOARD

PROCESS

Rapid Ideation Given the time constraint, I kicked off with a rapid ideation exercise, each team member had 3 minutes to generate 3 ideas, which we then narrowed down together. This surfaced a strong direction quickly and aligned the whole team on the concept before any design work began. One of the ideas I contributed was using biometric patterns as the core of the identity layer, which became central to grounding Illume's trust system in something genuinely unforgeable.

Design & Iteration From there, I moved into an iterative design process, prototyping and gathering feedback from my teammates at each stage. Given the system's complexity: biometric registration, a web-of-trust network, and live skill verification via video interview, I focused on distilling each layer into a clear, low-friction UI so a user could understand their credential status at a glance.

Team feedback led to two key changes:

an adjustment to the colour palette to better align with the product's tone (Blue → Yellow)

a revised hero page graphic to more clearly communicate what Illume actually does at first glance

I refined the interface through several rounds until the flow felt intuitive and cohesive across all three trust layers.

Colour Palette Change

Revised Hero Page

FINAL DESIGN

A single, scannable credential card Distills biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification into one clear view; a user's entire trust status readable at a glance. (requires Gemini API tokens to generate, so it isn't viewable as a screenshot or in the live demo)

Landing page Introduces Illume and the trust system at a glance, before a user goes any further.

Scan + Verify Where a user actually goes through identity scanning and verification — the core interaction of the whole system.

Biometric registration and web-of-trust are best seen in the live demo below, since they weren't accessible as static screenshots. Live skill verification also requires Gemini API tokens to run, so it isn't viewable as a screenshot or in the live demo.

TRY IT YOURSELF

Illume runs on live Gemini API calls for parts of the experience (like the video-based skill verification), so not every screen will show up.

Note: usage runs on Gemini API tokens, so functionality may be limited depending on availability.

RESULT

The team placed 3rd overall. My design gave Illume's technical concept a clear, usable interface, turning a fairly abstract, multi-layered trust system into something a user could navigate simply, via a single scannable credential card.

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ILLUME

A peer-to-peer credential system that lets people prove their identity and qualifications after a global data blackout designed and built in under 48 hours

Team

Timeline

Role

1 Designer + 4 Developers

16th May 26’ - 17th May 26’

(48 Hours)

I led the UI/UX design for Illume, translating a complex, three-layer trust system into a single, scannable, easy-to-understand interface in just under 2 days.

ILUME

ILLUME

BRIEF

At the GDGC UoA Hackathon, teams were challenged to solve the "Blackout" scenario: a global solar flare wipes out all data worldwide, leaving professionals unable to prove their identity or qualifications; imagine a doctor who can no longer get into a hospital, because the ID that proved they were a doctor no longer exists.

The goal of this project was to design a system that replaces institutional records with something that can't be wiped out: biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification.

This project was completed as part of a 4-5 person team, where I led UI/UX design end-to-end.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

From unpacking the "Blackout" brief, my team identified the core issues a solution needed to solve:

no institutions, servers, or centralised records to verify identity against

no way to prove qualifications without certificates or transcripts

credentials needed to come from something unforgeable, not a database

the system needed to be trustworthy enough for real, high-stakes decisions, like letting a doctor into a hospital

These issues shaped Illume: a peer-to-peer credential system built on biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification.

"How does a doctor prove they're a doctor, when the only proof that ever existed is gone?"

PROBLEM SPACE

Professionals needing to re-establish their identity and qualifications in a post-blackout world.

They needed to:

prove who they are with no ID

prove what they can do with no certificates or transcripts

do both in a way trustworthy enough for someone to act on immediately

TARGET AUDIENCE

People in high-stakes professions where credentials matter immediately and getting it wrong has real consequences, starting with cases like medical professionals needing hospital access.

OPPORTUNITY

How might we help someone prove their identity and skills using only what can't be erased: their body, their community, and what they can demonstrate live?

MOODBOARD

PROCESS

Rapid Ideation Given the time constraint, I kicked off with a rapid ideation exercise, each team member had 3 minutes to generate 3 ideas, which we then narrowed down together. This surfaced a strong direction quickly and aligned the whole team on the concept before any design work began. One of the ideas I contributed was using biometric patterns as the core of the identity layer, which became central to grounding Illume's trust system in something genuinely unforgeable.

Design & Iteration From there, I moved into an iterative design process, prototyping and gathering feedback from my teammates at each stage. Given the system's complexity: biometric registration, a web-of-trust network, and live skill verification via video interview, I focused on distilling each layer into a clear, low-friction UI so a user could understand their credential status at a glance.

Team feedback led to two key changes:

an adjustment to the colour palette to better align with the product's tone (Blue → Yellow)

a revised hero page graphic to more clearly communicate what Illume actually does at first glance

I refined the interface through several rounds until the flow felt intuitive and cohesive across all three trust layers.

Colour Palette Change

Revised Hero Page

FINAL DESIGN

A single, scannable credential card Distills biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification into one clear view; a user's entire trust status readable at a glance. (requires Gemini API tokens to generate, so it isn't viewable as a screenshot or in the live demo)

Landing page Introduces Illume and the trust system at a glance, before a user goes any further.

Scan + Verify Where a user actually goes through identity scanning and verification — the core interaction of the whole system.

Biometric registration and web-of-trust are best seen in the live demo below, since they weren't accessible as static screenshots. Live skill verification also requires Gemini API tokens to run, so it isn't viewable as a screenshot or in the live demo.

TRY IT YOURSELF

Illume runs on live Gemini API calls for parts of the experience (like the video-based skill verification), so not every screen will show up.

Note: usage runs on Gemini API tokens, so functionality may be limited depending on availability.

RESULT

The team placed 3rd overall. My design gave Illume's technical concept a clear, usable interface, turning a fairly abstract, multi-layered trust system into something a user could navigate simply, via a single scannable credential card.

Back To Top

Home

About

Posters

Projects

Contact

Back

ILLUME

A peer-to-peer credential system that lets people prove their identity and qualifications after a global data blackout designed and built in under 48 hours

Team

Timeline

Role

1 Designer + 4 Developers

16th May 26’ - 17th May 26’

(48 Hours)

I led the UI/UX design for Illume, translating a complex, three-layer trust system into a single, scannable, easy-to-understand interface in just under 2 days.

ILUME

ILLUME

BRIEF

At the GDGC UoA Hackathon, teams were challenged to solve the "Blackout" scenario: a global solar flare wipes out all data worldwide, leaving professionals unable to prove their identity or qualifications; imagine a doctor who can no longer get into a hospital, because the ID that proved they were a doctor no longer exists.

The goal of this project was to design a system that replaces institutional records with something that can't be wiped out: biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification.

This project was completed as part of a 4-5 person team, where I led UI/UX design end-to-end.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

From unpacking the "Blackout" brief, my team identified the core issues a solution needed to solve:

no institutions, servers, or centralised records to verify identity against

no way to prove qualifications without certificates or transcripts

credentials needed to come from something unforgeable, not a database

the system needed to be trustworthy enough for real, high-stakes decisions, like letting a doctor into a hospital

These issues shaped Illume: a peer-to-peer credential system built on biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification.

"How does a doctor prove they're a doctor, when the only proof that ever existed is gone?"

PROBLEM SPACE

Professionals needing to re-establish their identity and qualifications in a post-blackout world.

They needed to:

prove who they are with no ID

prove what they can do with no certificates or transcripts

do both in a way trustworthy enough for someone to act on immediately

TARGET AUDIENCE

People in high-stakes professions where credentials matter immediately and getting it wrong has real consequences, starting with cases like medical professionals needing hospital access.

OPPORTUNITY

How might we help someone prove their identity and skills using only what can't be erased: their body, their community, and what they can demonstrate live?

MOODBOARD

PROCESS

Rapid Ideation Given the time constraint, I kicked off with a rapid ideation exercise, each team member had 3 minutes to generate 3 ideas, which we then narrowed down together. This surfaced a strong direction quickly and aligned the whole team on the concept before any design work began. One of the ideas I contributed was using biometric patterns as the core of the identity layer, which became central to grounding Illume's trust system in something genuinely unforgeable.

Design & Iteration From there, I moved into an iterative design process, prototyping and gathering feedback from my teammates at each stage. Given the system's complexity: biometric registration, a web-of-trust network, and live skill verification via video interview, I focused on distilling each layer into a clear, low-friction UI so a user could understand their credential status at a glance.

Team feedback led to two key changes:

an adjustment to the colour palette to better align with the product's tone (Blue → Yellow)

a revised hero page graphic to more clearly communicate what Illume actually does at first glance

I refined the interface through several rounds until the flow felt intuitive and cohesive across all three trust layers.

Colour Palette Change

Revised Hero Page

FINAL DESIGN

A single, scannable credential card Distills biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification into one clear view; a user's entire trust status readable at a glance. (requires Gemini API tokens to generate, so it isn't viewable as a screenshot or in the live demo)

Landing page Introduces Illume and the trust system at a glance, before a user goes any further.

Scan + Verify Where a user actually goes through identity scanning and verification — the core interaction of the whole system.

Biometric registration and web-of-trust are best seen in the live demo below, since they weren't accessible as static screenshots. Live skill verification also requires Gemini API tokens to run, so it isn't viewable as a screenshot or in the live demo.

TRY IT YOURSELF

Illume runs on live Gemini API calls for parts of the experience (like the video-based skill verification), so not every screen will show up.

Note: usage runs on Gemini API tokens, so functionality may be limited depending on availability.

RESULT

The team placed 3rd overall. My design gave Illume's technical concept a clear, usable interface, turning a fairly abstract, multi-layered trust system into something a user could navigate simply, via a single scannable credential card.

Back To Top

Home

About

Posters

Projects

Contact

Back

ILLUME

A peer-to-peer credential system that lets people prove their identity and qualifications after a global data blackout designed and built in under 48 hours

Team

Timeline

Role

1 Designer + 4 Developers

16th May 26’ - 17th May 26’

(48 Hours)

I led the UI/UX design for Illume, translating a complex, three-layer trust system into a single, scannable, easy-to-understand interface in just under 2 days.

ILUME

ILLUME

BRIEF

At the GDGC UoA Hackathon, teams were challenged to solve the “Blackout” scenario: a global solar flare wipes out all data worldwide, leaving professionals unable to prove their identity or qualifications; imagine a doctor who can no longer get into a hospital, because the ID that proved they were a doctor no longer exists.

The goal of this project was to design a system that replaces institutional records with something that can’t be wiped out: biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification.

This project was completed as part of a 4-5 person team, where I led UI/UX design end-to-end.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

From unpacking the “Blackout” brief, my team identified the core issues a solution needed to solve:

no institutions, servers, or centralised records to verify identity against

no way to prove qualifications without certificates or transcripts

credentials needed to come from something unforgeable, not a database

the system needed to be trustworthy enough for real, high-stakes decisions, like letting a doctor into a hospital

These issues shaped Illume: a peer-to-peer credential system built on biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification.

“How does a doctor prove they’re a doctor, when the only proof that ever existed is gone?”

PROBLEM SPACE

Professionals needing to re-establish their identity and qualifications in a post-blackout world.

They needed to:

prove who they are with no ID

prove what they can do with no certificates or transcripts

do both in a way trustworthy enough for someone to act on immediately

TARGET AUDIENCE

People in high-stakes professions where credentials matter immediately and getting it wrong has real consequences, starting with cases like medical professionals needing hospital access.

OPPORTUNITY

How might we help someone prove their identity and skills using only what can’t be erased: their body, their community, and what they can demonstrate live?

MOODBOARD

PROCESS

Rapid Ideation Given the time constraint, I kicked off with a rapid ideation exercise, each team member had 3 minutes to generate 3 ideas, which we then narrowed down together. This surfaced a strong direction quickly and aligned the whole team on the concept before any design work began. One of the ideas I contributed was using biometric patterns as the core of the identity layer, which became central to grounding Illume’s trust system in something genuinely unforgeable.

Design & Iteration From there, I moved into an iterative design process, prototyping and gathering feedback from my teammates at each stage. Given the system’s complexity: biometric registration, a web-of-trust network, and live skill verification via video interview, I focused on distilling each layer into a clear, low-friction UI so a user could understand their credential status at a glance.

Team feedback led to two key changes:

an adjustment to the colour palette to better align with the product’s tone (Blue → Yellow)

a revised hero page graphic to more clearly communicate what Illume actually does at first glance

I refined the interface through several rounds until the flow felt intuitive and cohesive across all three trust layers.

Colour Palette Change

Revised Hero Page

FINAL DESIGN

A single, scannable credential card Distills biometric identity, community vouching, and live skill verification into one clear view; a user’s entire trust status readable at a glance. (requires Gemini API tokens to generate, so it isn’t viewable as a screenshot or in the live demo)

Landing page Introduces Illume and the trust system at a glance, before a user goes any further.

Scan + Verify Where a user actually goes through identity scanning and verification — the core interaction of the whole system.

Biometric registration and web-of-trust are best seen in the live demo below, since they weren’t accessible as static screenshots. Live skill verification also requires Gemini API tokens to run, so it isn’t viewable as a screenshot or in the live demo.

TRY IT YOURSELF

Illume runs on live Gemini API calls for parts of the experience (like the video-based skill verification), so not every screen will show up.

Note: usage runs on Gemini API tokens, so functionality may be limited depending on availability.

RESULT

The team placed 3rd overall. My design gave Illume’s technical concept a clear, usable interface, turning a fairly abstract, multi-layered trust system into something a user could navigate simply, via a single scannable credential card.

Back To Top

Home

About

Posters

Projects

Contact