Quest.edu

Unlock the full value of your college experience, one QR code at a time.

The Problem

Students at Pitt and other universities do not 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.

Skills

  • UX Design

  • UX Research

  • Wireframing

  • Prototyping

Toolkit

  • Figma

Phase I: Needfinding

For this project, we interviewed three different people from three different backgrounds via Zoom. For our selection process, we were looking to find a current college student, a student who has dropped out, and someone who worked with students at a university/college.

Our Participants:

  • Michael: a supply-chain management student at Duquense University

  • Phillip: a dropout student who previously attended the University of Maryland and is currently a welder.

  • Akosua: a student resources officer at Nassau Community College.

During these interviews, we were looking to learn more about our interviewees’ backgrounds in education, whether they are students or staff. We learned that Michael and Phillip felt like their schools gave them resources, but no guide for them to access a lot of those resources. Whereas Akosua mentioned that a lot of colleges’ existing flows of information to students are not considerate of students’ intersectional experiences and needs. Overall, we learned that students struggle to locate the resources that could help them achieve success.

Phase II: POVs & Experience Prototypes

In this section, we created three POV statements to understand what some of our interviewees were looking for in a product like Quest.edu. Specifically, we honed in on what Michael and Phillip would have wanted to see as former and current university students.

The final three POV Statements:

  • Accessibility: College Student needs to judge if their resources and experiences in college are worth the financial investment because everyone’s accessibility to college is different, and it’s their judgment if they’re making the most out of their experiences and resources.

  • Experience: College Student needs to understand the field they aim to pursue and the subsequent value of real-world experience because this enables them to make well-informed decisions about their future as relates to their personal goals and ambition.

  • Value: A College Student needs to gain more hands-on experience in their field of study because, in doing so, they will find value in their decision to pursue higher education and their career path.

Following the creation of the three POV statements, my team and I began drafting “How Might We” (HMW) questions to help us reach the goal of each of these POV statements.

Below are the three HMW questions:

  • Accessibility: HMW gamify goal-setting to encourage students to explore underutilized campus resources?

  • Experience: HMW build a platform where students co-create projects with companies for hands-on learning?

  • Value: HMW build a feedback loop where industry experts review student work and suggest improvements?

Solution

Upon evaluation, my team and I took the time to brainstorm solutions for our HMW questions to help us reach our goal of the three POV statements we created.

  • Accessibility: HMW gamify goal-setting to encourage students to explore underutilized campus resources?

    • Scavenger hunt: learn about resources as you complete tasks to find new services on campus.

      • Website/Canvas-like module with clues

      • Input your answers into the website/module

      • Points awarded for exploring different resources

  • Experience: HMW build a platform where students co-create projects with companies for hands-on learning?

    • An application where students can be a part of real-world projects and learn actively with mentors - shows students’ determination.

      • Schools within a college can partner with companies to host a variety of projects

      • This would foster relationships, collaboration, opportunities, and resume-building.

  • Value: HMW build a feedback loop where industry experts review student work and suggest improvements?