Turning vision into impact for the future workforce

Designing for real-world impact

HopeSt began as a bold idea: an app that could help students make sense of their future, not with static advice, but with intelligent, evolving conversations powered by AI. At Studio66, we entered the project at its earliest stage, translating raw ambition into something tangible. A tool students could turn to, not just once, but often.

What we built wasn’t just a product, it was a framework for possibility and opportunity.

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Clarity through iteration

With no existing design system or interface in place, we started from scratch; sketching, wireframing, testing. Working closely with a high school in Northern California, we shaped the app around the students who would actually use it. Every screen, interaction, and feature was refined through feedback, and rethought based on behavior.

We introduced a personalized mentor model, replacing the scroll-and-select approach with something more immediate and meaningful. We reimagined onboarding as a built-in discovery process and designed the UI to feel approachable, yet scalable, and something students would return to.

Built to connect

Beyond functionality, our focus was engagement. Early testing revealed that students wanted more than one-off conversations. They wanted presence, progression, and connection, so we layered in social features, progress tracking, and rewards that made exploration feel rewarding, not routine.

Our most valuable insight didn't come from metrics, but from the students themselves. Listening to how they navigated the app, what confused them, what clicked. That was the real design work and it showed.