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# Project Description TopArts Haocheng Zhang Summary Final work I am a designer whose work explores the emotional and systemic forces that shape how people learn, create, and connect. Moving between UX, service design, and critical experimentation, I build experiences that reveal the invisible structures behind everyday interactions. My practice focuses on how systems guide, pressure, or transform individuals—often through tools that appear helpful, seamless, or intuitive on the surface. Through simulation, storytelling, and interface-based research, I aim to open space for reflection, discomfort, and new possibilities of agency within complex environments. I am a designer whose work explores the emotional and systemic forces that shape how people learn... College London College of Communication Course MA Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures Graduation year 2025 TopArts is a satirical simulation that exposes how the portfolio-tutoring industry shapes design students’ identities, behaviours, and ambitions. Framed as a seamless “application assistant,” the system invites users to complete tasks, unlock packages, collect scores, and follow an increasingly persuasive path toward a promised future. Its smoothness is intentional—revealing how efficiency, guidance, and care can quietly become mechanisms of pressure and compliance. By reenacting the emotional journey of overseas design students, TopArts makes visible the hidden labour behind “success”: creative fatigue, self-doubt, institutional expectations, and the subtle loss of authorship. Instead of offering solutions, the project uses simulation as critique, turning system logic into an experience that questions who truly benefits from this streamlined pathway. TopArts is not a tool to help you get in. It is a mirror—reflecting how the system gets into you. Final work TopArts- Introduction Video TopArts is a satirical product-experience that imitates the structure of a portfolio-tutoring app. Presented as a polished, commercial-style introduction video, the work walks viewers through a fictional system that evaluates students, assigns tasks, recommends paid packages, and ultimately turns users into new tutors — highlighting how the creative-education industry reproduces itself. The project uses the familiar language of efficiency, guidance, and progress to reveal the pressures, expectations, and emotional labour hidden beneath these systems. By simulating a seamless and persuasive service, TopArts exposes how ambition is shaped, monetised, and standardised. Rather than offering solutions, it invites viewers to question the machinery behind design success. TopArts-Poster This promotional image introduces TopArts, a satirical simulation app that critiques the commercialised ecosystem of portfolio tutoring. A hand holds a smartphone displaying the app’s dense, hyper-commercial interface—packed with rankings, banners, and case profiles—evoking the pressure and industrialisation of design education. Below the phone, the English name “TopArts” sits in deliberate tension with the app’s Chinese name, “不做设计,” which translates to “Don't Design.” This contradiction highlights the project’s central irony: while the system promises to optimise users toward elite success, it simultaneously exposes how such structures can drain creativity, agency, and the desire to design at all. The contrast between the polished gradient background and the chaotic interface underscores the duality between branding gloss and systemic critique. TopArts- Tutoring Video This video guides viewers through the full experience of the TopArts simulation system. It begins with entering the platform and setting an application budget, followed by selecting academic background, application direction, target institutions, and uploading previous works. The walkthrough then demonstrates how the system generates evaluation results and recommends upgrade packages, including AI-generated personal statements, premium guidance, school-selection suggestions, and interview coaching. As the user progresses through tasks and paid services, the system calculates an increasingly accurate prediction score. Once the score meets the simulated admission threshold, the user receives an “offer” and is immediately invited to become a new portfolio tutor — revealing the self-reproducing cycle at the core of the fictionalised industry. Presented step by step, the video illustrates how the interface orchestrates a complete pathway from applicant to mentor, mirroring and critiquing real educational mechanisms. Share this project TopArts is a satirical simulation that exposes how the portfolio-tutoring industry shapes design students’ identities, behaviours, and ambitions.Framed as a seamless “application assistant,” the system invites users to complete tasks, unlock packages, collect scores, an... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Digital Experiences Identity Politics Realities Social Justice Interface ServiceDesign Simulation Speculative UX
# Links ## Official page - https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/686856/cover ## External - https://www.linkedin.com/in/haocheng-zhang-7001b2270/ - https://www.instagram.com/har_rison0525 - https://haocheng-zhang.com/en/ - mailto:zhanghaocheng0525@gmail.com - https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F686856%2Fcover&text=TopArts - https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F686856%2Fcover&media=https%3A%2F%2Fportfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F11%2F15150414%2F10-dark-light-color-1.png&description=TopArts