Health Quest
Health Quest is a gamified health education app that integrates with school curricula to make mandatory health courses engaging by rewarding students with cafeteria perks for completing lessons on topics like food allergies and mental health.
01
Problem Statement
Health education often overlooks students’ real-life needs and fails to connect with them on a personal level.
When students learn about health in school, the material can feel dry, overwhelming, or irrelevant to their daily lives. Topics like allergies, nutrition, and mental health are critical, yet many educational platforms present them in ways that lack engagement or personalization. This disconnect can prevent students from taking these topics seriously or from retaining important information. How might we design a solution that makes health education more approachable, engaging, and tailored to the student experience?
01
The Solution
An interactive health education app that connects school curriculum with real-world rewards and personalized learning paths.
Health Quest uses gamified learning, visual storytelling, and curriculum-aligned lessons to make health education fun and memorable. By integrating rewards, flexible formats (like transcripts or quizzes), and relevant topics (like food allergies), the app empowers students to learn at their own pace—making vital health knowledge more inclusive and impactful.
Meet Health Quest
Jump back in where you left off and explore curated health topics.
The Home screen offers a quick view of ongoing lessons, sorted by category (e.g. Allergy, Substance, Reproductive). Students can easily resume progress and discover new courses in a familiar, feed-like layout.
Track your learning journey through structured modules.
Each health course is broken into color-coded lessons with estimated time and completion bars. This helps reduce cognitive load and lets students know exactly what to expect as they work through each topic.
Filter lessons by interest or urgency—learn what matters most to you.
The Course screen allows students to browse recommended and popular courses by topic and time. Whether they’re interested in food safety or stress management, it’s easy to find relevant content at a glance.
Watch, read, or test yourself—your choice.
This screen features timestamped video chapters, transcripts, and attachments. Students can consume content however they prefer and then test their knowledge with a quiz—all in one seamless flow.
Trade stars earned from lessons for
real-life cafeteria rewards.
Health Quest turns learning into a game by letting students earn stars and redeem them for snacks like chicken nuggets, Coke, and ice cream—bridging academic growth with immediate gratification.
Update your profile, manage your courses, and
explore support.
The Profile screen gives students access to account settings, course history, and app support. It’s designed to be simple and student-friendly, with everything housed in one place.
01
Secondary Research
Health education in schools often fails to address real-world issues students care about—leading to low engagement and limited retention.
To better understand the gap between health curricula and student needs, I reviewed educational studies, health policy papers, and behavior research around learning. While schools provide general health education, topics like food allergies, mental health, and nutrition are often oversimplified or outdated. This disconnect contributes to student disengagement and prevents the development of lifelong health literacy. Research also shows that personalization and relevance are key to helping students retain information—especially when it relates to their day-to-day lives.
"Only 19% of U.S. high school students say they feel health class has helped them make better personal choices."
CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey
"Students retain 90% of information when they learn through active, experiential formats—compared to just 10% from reading."
National Training Laboratories Institute
"Young people with food allergies often lack confidence in managing them due to limited education and emotional stigma."
Journal of Pediatric Psychology
02
Insights
Making health education more personal and effective...
While researching health education, I realized that the biggest challenge isn’t just access to information—it’s student motivation. Most students aren’t engaged with health topics because the content feels disconnected from their reality. Traditional classroom settings rarely adapt to individual learning styles, and students often miss out on the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned to real life.
Relevance is the key.
Since large-scale curriculum reform is difficult to achieve quickly, I focused on what can be done at a personal level. I hypothesized that a more effective solution would be to make health education feel relevant to students’ lives—through choice, personalization, and small, meaningful incentives that motivate consistent engagement.
03
User Interview
Students shared that health education feels disconnected—it’s either too vague, too clinical, or not applicable to their real lives.
Building on insights from my secondary research, I conducted interviews with 6 high school and college students to understand how they experience health education. Most participants felt that health topics in school were overly simplified or didn’t address practical, everyday issues like food allergies, mental health, or nutrition. Many admitted they often forget what they learned shortly after class ended. From these conversations, I created an affinity map and a user persona to highlight key frustrations and opportunities for engagement.
Relevance & Retention
What health lessons do you remember from school? Why did those stick with you?
Real-Life Application
Have you ever used something you learned in health class in your real life? How?
Personal Health Topics
What health topics do you wish were taught more clearly or more often?
Rewards & Motivation
What makes learning feel fun or worth your time—especially for something like health?
Relevance & Retention
Learning Preferences
Do you prefer learning through reading, videos, conversations, or something else?
Barriers
What makes you tune out or stop caring about a lesson in school?
04
Affinity Mapping
06
Persona + Empathy Map
07
User Insights
When learning about health, many students felt confused, anxious, or detached—especially when they couldn’t relate to the content.
Although some students shared that health lessons helped raise awareness, most expressed feeling overwhelmed, bored, or unprepared when faced with real health situations. These negative emotions often came from a disconnect between what was taught and what students actually face—like food allergies, mental health, or nutrition challenges. Several students also reported feeling like school didn’t provide clear steps for what to do in real-life emergencies.
08
Design + Ideation
What is the "right" solution for health education?
For weeks, I wrestled with this question:
How might we help students feel more prepared, engaged, and confident when learning about real-life health topics?
I initially explored the idea of a simple educational app, but quickly realized that repeating classroom content wasn’t enough. Most students already tune out health class—so I needed to create something different. Something that felt relevant, interactive, and motivating.
That’s when I pivoted to a gamified learning model—an app that rewards students for exploring real-world health topics like allergies, nutrition, and mental health in a way that suits their learning style.
09
User Stories
Motivation, relevance, and choice help students feel more in control of their health.
After synthesizing interviews, I returned to user stories to define the MVP. The answer wasn’t just more content—it was giving students agency. A tool that makes learning feel worth it and connected to their reality.
As a student, I want to learn about health topics that actually affect my daily life, so I can feel prepared and informed.
As a student, I want the option to read, watch, or take quizzes, so I can learn in a way that works for me.
As a student, I want to earn rewards for completing lessons, so I stay motivated to keep going.
As a student, I want quick summaries and tools I can use in emergencies, so I feel less anxious in real-life situations.
A personalized health app that empowers students to learn, stay safe, and build healthy habits—one relevant lesson at a time.
10
Conclusions + Things to Improve on
After months of interviews, iteration, and late nights figuring out Figma auto-layouts, I’m finally wrapping up Health Quest! It’s been incredibly rewarding to work on a project that feels meaningful and rooted in real-world impact. I want to thank all the students who shared their honest thoughts during interviews and testing—it completely reshaped the way I approached this app. Here are a few reflections and takeaways I’m carrying forward:
The most important voice is the user’s: Early on, I spent too much time asking, “Does this make sense?” or “Would this feature work?” But the real turning point came when I started asking, “Does the user actually need this?” That simple shift helped me cut features that didn’t serve a purpose and focus on designing with empathy and intention.
Progress matters more than polish: I often got caught up in fine-tuning every detail—from button spacing to microcopy. But what helped most was testing fast, learning from users, and iterating quickly. Done > perfect, especially when building for real needs.
Design for accessibility from day one: In my first round of hi-fi designs, I overlooked contrast ratios and font sizing. Once I tested for accessibility, I had to redesign several components to meet WCAG guidelines. Next time, I’ll prioritize inclusive design earlier in the process—not just as a checkmark at the end.