Interaction Design Students Win 1st Place at FLUI Design Jam Hackathon
Congratulations to Gia Lotfi-Pour and Hannah Gagnon from IDEA School of Design’s Interaction Design diploma program!
Two of our students recently helped lead their team to 1st place at the 2026 FLUI Design Jam. During this student-run UI/UX hackathon, designers collaborate on real client challenges under tight time constraints.
The event brought together more than 100 designers to tackle a real-world problem for Dream Creatives, a Vancouver-based startup. After three days of intensive design work, rapid iteration, and late-night collaboration, the winning team delivered a solution that stood out among a highly competitive field.
Below, CapU students share their experience.
Gia Lotfi-Pour
I’m excited to share that our team was awarded 1st place 🏆 in the FLUI Design Jam Hackathon, where we worked through a fast-paced design sprint to solve a real client problem.
Our client Dream Creatives is redefining event photography through an AI-powered virtual photo booth experience, but their existing website didn’t clearly communicate the value of the product or support a smooth onboarding journey. Our challenge was to design an experience that helped users quickly understand the offering while building trust and reducing friction.
Through research, ideation, and rapid iteration we redesigned the homepage and key user flows to create a clear and engaging introduction to Dream Creatives’ immersive digital experience.
Behind the final designs were long days and late nights, 20+ hour Discord calls, and many… many… cups of coffee. The intensity of the sprint pushed us to iterate quickly, communicate constantly, and think strategically, making the final result something I’m incredibly proud of.
Huge thank you to our mentor Nikhil Kanda for the guidance, and to my teammates Hannah Gagnon, Ubin Jung, and Hidayat Patil for the energy, teamwork, and creativity that made this such an amazing experience.
Hannah Gagnon
I'm excited to share our team placed 1st at this year's FLUI Design Jam.
FLUI (For the Love of UI) is a student-run UI/UX hackathon where teams solve real design challenges for real clients. Ours had us redesigning a homepage and user flow with a focus on building trust and community through the experience.
A few days, a lot of iterations, and a final video presentation later—I couldn’t be more proud.
A huge thank you to my teammates Gia Lotfi-Pour, Ubin Jung, and Hidayat Patil for all your hard work and dedication. You made collaboration feel natural and the hard parts feel easy.
And a big thank you to our mentor Nikhil Kanda, whose support and guidance helped us grow throughout the process.
Program Perspective
Program coordinator Jai Djwa noted the significance of the achievement:
Over the past weekend, Hannah Gagnon and Gia Lotfi-Pour participated in the FLUI Design Jam, a student-run UI/UX hackathon where teams work with real clients on real problems. This year’s client was Dream Creatives, a Vancouver-based AI-powered digital photo booth experience founded by Michael Mau.
The team’s challenge was to redesign the company’s landing page and demo flow, with the objective of building user trust and improving conversion to the premium model through strategically integrated entry points.
After three days of intensive work, multiple iterations, and late-night refinement sessions, their team placed 1st among more than 100 designers. It was reportedly a very close competition, with a high calibre of work across teams.
The team consisted of Hidayat Patil, Ubin Jung, Hannah Gagnon, and Gia Lotfi-Pour, along with their mentor Nikhil Kanda.
It is encouraging to see our students competing at this level, engaging with AI-driven products, and demonstrating both strategic and executional design capability under pressure.
Congratulations to the Team
We’re proud to see our students applying their design skills in real-world contexts and succeeding in highly competitive environments. Congratulations to Gia, Hannah, Ubin, Hidayat, and mentor Nikhil on this outstanding achievement.
