Biomate

Inspiration

43% of Australians aged 18–25 report some level of loneliness, and 15% experience it persistently (AIHW, 2024; Ending Loneliness Together, 2025). At the same time, research shows shared outdoor activity, especially hiking, builds real friendship and improves mental wellbeing (Nugraha et al., 2024; Wolf & Tomasello, 2025). We wanted to combine the two, use the outdoors as the setting for the connection young people are missing.

What it does

Biomate is a digital biome expert that guides hikers before, during, and after their journey: Skill Evaluation rates readiness, PreTrail Checks confirm gear and prep, OnTrail provides live navigation with hazard, and PhotoScan captures the potential danger faced in the hike. A social layer sits on top, Community for group hikes, HikeMatch, plus gamification shown to boost retention 22% and activity 27% (Hansen et al., 2026). It also has a light/dark UI that syncs to time of day for outdoor visibility.

How we built it

Designed as a high-fidelity, fully clickable Figma prototype covering the full core journey and social features, with the design choices grounded in usability heuristics and research

Challenges we ran into

Backing every feature with real research took more time than expected. As all of us in the team are inexperienced with Figma, onboarding the functionality of Figma over the last 2 days proved to be a challenge too.

What we learned

The principles of UI UX design, the importance of prototyping using Figma.

What's next for Biomate

Expand beyond the Outback to other biomes, integrate wearables alongside OnTrail and PhotoScan, and move from prototype to a functional build

Built With

• figma