Excited for the games? We are too, check out our technology ideas and some free icon downloads too.
At Despark we're an International team of product innovators, with two of our own VC-backed tech startups. Both being ideas that originated from our curiosity and ambition.
We took the opportunity to experiment with our ideas around the upcoming Rio Olympics. This post takes you through some of the teams concepts:
Project 1: Cards App
By Lacho - Co-Founder of Despark
Lacho developed a concept for an Olympic app that provides the user with details about the games, and the athletes competing within them. The app has a bold design and a simple user experience.
In his own words:
“My concept was an Olympic app that provides users with information about the games, and the athletes associated with them.
A series of cards within the app give a statistical snapshot of the athlete and serves up related information. Each card is designed to suit the theme of the country the athlete is presenting.
For every finalist there is an extended profile that lets users access additional information about the athlete; such as their awards, achievements and physical data. Other features include a news feed and media gallery.
Project inspiration:
“Cards are a unique tool for communicating quick stories – which is exactly what you want to have as a user when researching and following the Olympics - key information, quickly.
A lot of bigger tech companies like Facebook & Google are using card designs in their apps. An idea originally inspired by baseball cards; where basic information about a player is contained on both sides of a small, simple card. So I tried the same principle here.”
We’ve shown a snippet of what the app would look like within the Athletics > Running > 100m final section.
Project 2: Olympic App
By Dani - Senior Designer at Despark
Dani created a concept for an app, which gives users access to the Olympic games program with details about the event. The app also has an intuitive, quick and easy ticket booking system.
In his own words:
“I wanted to design an Olympic app that presents sports fanatics with information about the event in an interactive and engaging way.
I reviewed the official app for the games and it seems very informative and straight forward, so I reworked the design to make it more attractive to users who are looking to immerse themselves in the events, whilst having a quick and intuitive experience.”
Design inspiration:
“The Olympic spirit this year will be even more vibrant than before and so I wanted to inject more of Rio’s culture into it. From a design perspective, that meant introducing the colours of and the cities landscape."
We’ve demonstrated how the simplistic user experience would work below.
Project 3: App
By Tiho - Senior Designer at Despark
Tiho created a concept for a desktop widget that is aimed at busy people, with a keen interest in sports. The widget enables users to subscribe for news and updates about the Olympic games. It also shows real-time results and videos of games/events right there on your desktop.
In his own words:
“There are many busy people, who work all day on a computer, sometimes with no time to check out the news, let alone watch the sports.
I noticed before that my colleague Ivo - an avid tennis fan - works on two screens, and whenever there was a match on he plays the live game on one of his monitors. At the time I asked myself, why you couldn’t have an interesting widget to control this activity? I thought it could be a collaboration with Euronews (for example).
With this widget busy people can subscribe to different sports news, and get results straight to their desktop. They can also watch the highlights of the day, or stream it live.”
Technology inspiration:
“I took inspiration from the notification sliders on Apple’s applications, which I really like. I thought it might be interesting to create something like that, but for people interested in sports.
Maybe there are other products like this on market, but I haven’t found any so far.”
What’s next:
“I don’t know what the future of this product is yet! This is just a prototype that hasn’t been evolved. I just need to find people that believe in my idea and make it happen!”
... Maybe it’ll be Despark’s next internal project Tiho! ...
Project 4: Icon packs
By Mitko - Lead Illustrator and Animator at Despark
Mitko created a vibrant pack of icons which are available for free to download in PNG, AI, EPS and SVG format. Mitko injected his amazing illustration skills and Rio’s culture into the icons – making them unique.
In his own words:
“To celebrate the Rio Olympics I wanted to create some culture inspired icons, which are a combination between the Rio Olympics and Rio the cities theme. I decided not to do sports icons because they already exist from the Rio Olympics brand.
I have used the official Olympics in Rio colour scheme to capture the brand and vibrancy. For me these icons are interesting as I got to try a new simple linear style by drawing complex objects from Rio. "
Design inspiration:
"I was inspired by the culture of Rio, aswell as the games themselves. The icons show objects like Christ the Redeemer, the mascots of the games, carnival dancers."
These beauties are available to download for free. Give them a try in the signup box below...
You can check out more information on the icons here or download them directly from this page in the box below. Don’t forget to share with friends!