PennPlace: Helping People of All Levels Enjoy Building 3D Models Together
Penn's first collaborative 3D construction platform attracting 300+ users and 30000+ interactions. Awarded as the 'Best Project' of the semester at Penn Saprk.
PennPlace is Penn’s first-ever live 3D construction platform, designed to make 3D modeling accessible, collaborative, and fun for all skill levels. Built by a student-led team at Penn Spark in just three months, the platform achieved 30,000+ creations and engaged 300+ active collaborators, earning recognition as the ‘Best Project’ of the semester. Through a focus on usability, collaborative workflows, and thoughtful mode-switch interaction, it offers a seamless experience across both web and mobile.
3D modeling is a powerful medium for creativity and collaboration, but existing tools are often too complex, inaccessible, or designed for professionals. Beginners struggle with steep learning curves, while teams lack simple ways to collaborate in real time. At Penn, students needed a tool that could make 3D creation approachable, social, and fun, without sacrificing usability or functionality.
The current 3D creation tools are too complicated
Our goal was to make 3D creation simple, social, and accessible for everyone.
To deliver PennPlace within just three months, our team adopted an agile workflow that emphasized speed, alignment, and iteration. We held weekly standups and sprint planning sessions, tracked tasks in Trello, and broke down features into achievable milestones. This approach not only kept everyone accountable but also allowed us to quickly adapt to feedback, prioritize the MVP, and ensure on-time delivery of core features.
Planned Timeline
Weekly Meeting
Trello
Pain Point Uncovered
In early usability testing, users accidentally placed cubes while trying to view the model.
Pain Point Uncovered
To solve this pain points, we proposed two solutions:
Exploration 1: Tested multiple interaction schemes—complex and hard to remember.
Exploration 2: Introduced a “Build / Move” toggle, exploring different UI treatments for clarity.
Exploration 1
Exploration 2
Final Interaction
Build Mode: Users select colors and place cubes.
Move Mode: Users rotate, zoom, and view the model via mouse and keyboard.
Build Mode
Move Mode
Further Refinement
Automatically switch to Build Mode when a user taps the color palette—reducing friction and making the flow intuitive.
Before: Move mode → Switch to build mode → Choose color → Build
After: Move mode → Choose color → Build
Since students often switch between laptops, tablets, and phones, it was essential to make PennPlace accessible across devices. I designed a responsive interface that adapts seamlessly from large desktop screens to smaller mobile layouts, without sacrificing usability or collaboration features. By prioritizing scalable components, touch-friendly interactions, and consistent visual hierarchy, we ensured that students could create and collaborate anytime, anywhere.
View the Model
Color Palette
Recommendation for PC use
Beyond the product itself, I also contributed to marketing design efforts that helped introduce PennPlace to the Penn community. I created visual assets, event posters, and social media graphics that aligned with the product’s brand identity, ensuring a consistent and engaging look across all touchpoints. These designs not only built excitement before launch but also helped attract 300+ active users and 30,000+ creations, amplifying the platform’s visibility and adoption on campus.
Marketting Design
