Quest.Edu
A web application that creates Spotify playlists
based on your favorite media.
(2025)
Unlock the full value of your college campus, one QR code at a time.
Project Overview
A high-fidelity prototype created over the course of a semester for the course Human-Centered Systems at the University of Pittsburgh. We developed our problem and designed an opportunity to create our product through significant research, testing, and ultimately prototyping. We created pitches, presentation decks, and final reports.
Timeline: 16 weeks (2025)
My Role: Project manager, UX designer
Technology Stack:
Figma
design thinking
ui/ux design
user testing
high-fidelity prototyping
project management
Outcome: High-Fidelity Prototype
Outcome: Final Report and Presentation
Check out the first few pages of our final report and presentations. Follow along for the summary below.
Design Process
Unlock the full value of your college experience, one QR code at a time.
Our app gamifies campus life, helping you discover events, earn rewards, and see just how much your tuition already covers — all while connecting you to your community.
Problem/Solution overview
The Problem
Students at Pitt and elsewhere don’t have a consolidated source that inspires community action and involvement that also works for them and for faculty.
Our Solution
Quest.Edu is an app designed to help those in university communities-- students, faculty, and local residents-- make the most out of the resources around them by gamifying involvement and streamlining communication.
Needfinding & POVs
For this project, we interviewed three different people from three different backgrounds via Zoom. We synthesized our findings, and created HMW statements and experience prototypes for each of our user personas.
For this project, we interviewed three different people from three different backgrounds via Zoom. We synthesized our findings, and created HMW statements and experience prototypes for each of our user personas.
Our Solution
This mobile app enhances student engagement by gamifying campus and community involvement. Students participate in a GeoGuessr-style scavenger hunt (the “Quest”) using maps and QR codes, categorized into areas like campus culture, community service, academic events, and more.
The app tracks points and money saved, offering two modes: Campus Points (rewards-based) and Monetary Goals (visualizing the value of free resources). Faculty and administrators can also submit events via a simple form, making it a collaborative, ever-evolving experience.
Early Wireframes & Prototypes
Key Features
Gamification
Used a map-based scavenger hunt with QR codes to make campus exploration playful and rewarding. Points, badges, and progress tracking encourage sustained engagement without reducing participation to competition.
Consolidation of Information
Centralized fragmented campus resources and events into a single, browsable system. Category-based navigation reduces cognitive load and makes opportunities easier to discover. Designed to support both time-sensitive events and ongoing campus resources.
Community & Student Engagement
Designed for students, faculty, and local community members, extending engagement beyond the university bubble. Enabled faculty/admin event submission through a simple, validated form. Connected students to both campus and surrounding city spaces to reinforce place-based engagement.
Reflection
This project was my first sustained experience working through the Stanford design thinking curriculum, and was an incredible foundation moving forward in UI/UX. Moving systematically from needfinding to synthesis, prototyping, and evaluation taught me how to ground design decisions in evidence rather than intuition alone. Gotta do your homework!
From a project management perspective, I learned how to coordinate a team with different strengths, manage scope as ideas evolved, and get everyone on the same page after abstract brainstorming.
Most importantly, the project strengthened my design sense: learning to identify value tensions, respond to heuristic violations, and iterate with intention helped me see design as a process of judgment, not just creativity.