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Hunt For Gold
Hunt For Gold
An interactive hybrid product structured as a competitive scavenger hunt where the visitors of The Olympics explore and learn about the host city.
ROLE
Lead Designer
DURATION
8 Weeks
SKILLS
Interaction Design
Interface Design
Visual Communication Design
SOFTWARE
Figma
Indesign
This project was made as a deliverable within a team Capstone project “NEW YORK 2028 OLYMPICS” created by Ava Maciulewski, Allison Thompson, Kalina Luong, Lea Hidaka, and Rose Hsiao.
As the only Interaction design student in a team of students from Visual Communication Design, I wanted to create a product that would make our hypothetical Olympics stand out from the rest and would be memorable and special to the fans attending.
problem
To attend the Olympic Games, fans spend lots of time and money on travel. Although, attending the games is the main reason for the trip, the visitors are missing out on being a tourist and getting to explore the host city while attending the games.
The fans are missing out on the tourism aspect while attending the Olympic games.
challenge
In order to improve the visitor’s olympic experience,
How might we encourage visitors to explore New York City while learning about the history and culture of the city during their time at the games?
solution
Hunt For Gold, hybrid product consisting of a mobile and physical passport where visitors are encouraged to explore the city to earn collectible stickers and collect memories and knowledge along the way.
features
Explore the city while completing tasks
Each borough has eight tasks that take the visitor on a diverse experience throughout the city.
Build community through friendly competition
The leaderboard page shows the current rankings for individual visitors and countries with the most stickers collected. Visitors can also represent a country of their choosing and contribute their earned stickers to the country leaderboard.
Variety of tasks ranging from iconic NYC experiences to unique hidden gems
Whether its visiting the Empire State Building in Manhattan or learning about the roots of Hip Hop in the Bronx, visitors can choose what kind of experience they’d like to have with Hunt For Gold.
Each borough has a theme that guides the chosen tasks to show how multifaceted the city is. (Manhattan: Explore, The Bronx: Culture, Queens: Food, Brooklyn: Art, Staten Island: History)
Create unforgettable memories
Whether its solo on in a group, visitors get to capture experiences that will last them a lifetime.
the process
Context
As mentioned above, this project is a deliverable within a group capstone focusing on creating the branding for a hypothetical New York 2028 Olympics.
Why New York City?
As the world in one city, it reflects everything the Olympics stand for: diversity, ambition, and coming together for something bigger.
Research
Secondary Research
Unfortunately, I’ve never attended The Olympics. Therefore, I gathered secondary research through blog posts, articles and video diary’s of other’s experiences at the games.
Credits: Sonya Mancauskas (Paris 2024), Anne S. Ditmeyer (Paris 2024), Agnes Groonwald (Paris 2024), Janice (Paris 2024)
What I discovered
The overall experience was generally very positive. The key points that stood out to me the most was that the visitors got to attend this iconic sports event, they felt the collective effervescence of the crowd, connected and met new people, and enjoyed the atmosphere outside the stadium while waiting for watch their events.
Since the takeaways were all positive, I wanted to take a step back from looking at their experience attending the Olympics and wanted to look at what was missing from their trip overall. I then realized that most fans travel very far and spend a decent amount for the games. Obviously, their main itinerary and reason for the trip is to attend the games but what's missing is their ability to explore the new country they’re in and experience the culture, people, food, architecture, sight-see and just be a tourist!
Goals, Insights + Ideation
Goals
I established three main goals for this project.
I want the visitors to...
learn about the culture and history of New York City.
Sightsee and explore New York City without interrupting their Olympic experience.
Build community through friendly competition.
"How Might We" Statement
How might we encourage visitors to explore New York City while learning about the history and culture of the city during their time at the games?
Insights
With the goals and HMW statement in mind, I created a list of insights I wanted in the visitors experience. Then, I grouped these insights into four general themes.
Ideation Methods
I used multiple methods to ideate including crazy 8’s, mind mapping, and storyboarding.
Direction + Refinement
Creating a Hybrid Product
Following the ideation stage, I wanted to create an experience that is a mi of a scavenger hunt and tourist guide. I decided to create a hybrid product with a mobile app and physical passport. The visitors would have the opportunity to complete tasks within the city to collect stickers from each of the five boroughs to put in their passport.
User Flows
COMPLETING A STICKER TASK
VIEWING THE LEADERBOARD
VIEWING THE PROFILE
Sitemap for App
The sitemap helped me structure out the necessary information within each page to help streamline the wireframing process.
Wireframes
Initial Wireframes
The homepage is what stumped me for a long time. I had many iterations and struggled to find the perfect balance and structure of making the page logically make sense for the user, displaying the necessary information and making it visualizing appealing.
More Wireframes
Branding Guidelines
During the wireframing stage, I received the final branding from my team. Here is the branding below.
VISUAL DIRECTION
Five Rings for Five Boroughs
Designed to reflect New York’s borough-based pride while channeling the timeless unity of the Olympic Games. Five Rings for Five Boroughs celebrates the individuality, uniqueness and history of the boroughs through distinguishable, playful storytelling.
TYPE
COLOR
#FFD739
#FF79E9
#C0FD79
#FF5324
#4076FF
#C0FD79
Each color represents one of the five boroughs
PHOTOGRAPHY
PRIMARY LOGOS
SECONDARY LOGOS
MASCOTS
PICTOGRAMS
Wireframes Continued
Updating with the Final Branding
Now that the branding was finalized, I had to make some adjustments to make sure my work was following the branding guidelines set by my team.
Simplifying the Homepage
I realized that I was adding too much to the homepage. There was lots of visual clutter and too many interactions which made the experience unclear. Through critique and reflection, I understood that the answer was simple, I just needed to simplify. I then referred back to the sitemap, HMW statement, insights and goals to help me reground before redesigning. I got rid of unnecessary information and anything that made it look too busy.
The solution was to separate the boroughs into slidable sections within the homepage to still keep all the info on the correct page without having to click and open another page. The final outcome has a clean, sophisticated look that ties in the playful, bold colors that represent the five boroughs.
The Exhibition
Building the Exhibition
We were given a 9x9x1 ft. structure to display our many deliverables. Wanting elements of interactivity, we created a tangible tennis ball cube, highlight reel and stickers and postcards to take home. It was lots of fun being able to work with our hands and design physically. It was also a nice break from working on a laptop.
Displaying the Product
I created a product video for Hunt for Gold as well as a walkthrough of the app which followed the user flows. I also created the physical passport, filled with some of the collectible stickers and displayed it for viewers to interact with.
Final Exhibition
Hunt for Gold and NEW YORK 2028 OLYMPICS was displayed at the 2025 University of Washington Design Show in the Jacob Lawrence Art Gallery during June of 2025.
Conclusion
What I Learned
This was my first high fidelity solo project while in the program and it was a big learning curve. My two biggest takeaways were the importance of critiques and being assertive/self-advocacy. Unfortunately, our class was very poorly structured, we only had one class a week, no critique during class and no work time. Because of this, I had to take initiative with getting crit from peers outside of class and from other professors. I also felt it was necessary to express my concerns and address the issues within the class structure and how it's impacting the students to not only help my experience but also so future students can avoid this issue as well.
A Bittersweet Ending
I'm so proud of the finished product as well as being proud of how I've grown while working on this project. I want to thank my team for their support with this project. I wouldn't have been able to do it without their critique, collaboration, trust and great vibes :)
View more projects
UW Design Show 2025 Website
Graphics
Oops…
Mobile version is still in the works. Please hop on a larger device to view!
Hunt For Gold
An interactive hybrid product structured as a competitive scavenger hunt where the visitors of The Olympics explore and learn about the host city.
ROLE
Lead Designer
DURATION
8 Weeks
SKILLS
Interaction Design
Interface Design
Visual Communication Design
SOFTWARE
Figma
Indesign
This project was made as a deliverable within a team Capstone project “NEW YORK 2028 OLYMPICS” created by Ava Maciulewski, Allison Thompson, Kalina Luong, Lea Hidaka, and Rose Hsiao.
As the only Interaction design student in a team of students from Visual Communication Design, I wanted to create a product that would make our hypothetical Olympics stand out from the rest and would be memorable and special to the fans attending.
problem
To attend the Olympic Games, fans spend lots of time and money on travel. Although, attending the games is the main reason for the trip, the visitors are missing out on being a tourist and getting to explore the host city while attending the games.
The fans are missing out on the tourism aspect while attending the Olympic games.
challenge
In order to improve the visitor’s olympic experience,
How might we encourage visitors to explore New York City while learning about the history and culture of the city during their time at the games?
solution
Hunt For Gold, hybrid product consisting of a mobile and physical passport where visitors are encouraged to explore the city to earn collectible stickers and collect memories and knowledge along the way.
features
Explore the city while completing tasks
Each borough has eight tasks that take the visitor on a diverse experience throughout the city.
Build community through friendly competition
The leaderboard page shows the current rankings for individual visitors and countries with the most stickers collected. Visitors can also represent a country of their choosing and contribute their earned stickers to the country leaderboard.
Variety of tasks ranging from iconic NYC experiences to unique hidden gems
Whether its visiting the Empire State Building in Manhattan or learning about the roots of Hip Hop in the Bronx, visitors can choose what kind of experience they’d like to have with Hunt For Gold.
Each borough has a theme that guides the chosen tasks to show how multifaceted the city is. (Manhattan: Explore, The Bronx: Culture, Queens: Food, Brooklyn: Art, Staten Island: History)
Create unforgettable memories
Whether its solo on in a group, visitors get to capture experiences that will last them a lifetime.
the process
Context
As mentioned above, this project is a deliverable within a group capstone focusing on creating the branding for a hypothetical New York 2028 Olympics.
Why New York City?
As the world in one city, it reflects everything the Olympics stand for: diversity, ambition, and coming together for something bigger.
Research
Secondary Research
Unfortunately, I’ve never attended The Olympics. Therefore, I gathered secondary research through blog posts, articles and video diary’s of other’s experiences at the games.
Credits: Sonya Mancauskas (Paris 2024), Anne S. Ditmeyer (Paris 2024), Agnes Groonwald (Paris 2024), Janice (Paris 2024)
What I discovered
The overall experience was generally very positive. The key points that stood out to me the most was that the visitors got to attend this iconic sports event, they felt the collective effervescence of the crowd, connected and met new people, and enjoyed the atmosphere outside the stadium while waiting for watch their events.
Since the takeaways were all positive, I wanted to take a step back from looking at their experience attending the Olympics and wanted to look at what was missing from their trip overall. I then realized that most fans travel very far and spend a decent amount for the games. Obviously, their main itinerary and reason for the trip is to attend the games but what's missing is their ability to explore the new country they’re in and experience the culture, people, food, architecture, sight-see and just be a tourist!
Goals, Insights + Ideation
Goals
I established three main goals for this project.
I want the visitors to...
learn about the culture and history of New York City.
Sightsee and explore New York City without interrupting their Olympic experience.
Build community through friendly competition.
"How Might We" Statement
How might we encourage visitors to explore New York City while learning about the history and culture of the city during their time at the games?
Insights
With the goals and HMW statement in mind, I created a list of insights I wanted in the visitors experience. Then, I grouped these insights into four general themes.
Ideation Methods
I used multiple methods to ideate including crazy 8’s, mind mapping, and storyboarding.
Direction + Refinement
Creating a Hybrid Product
Following the ideation stage, I wanted to create an experience that is a mi of a scavenger hunt and tourist guide. I decided to create a hybrid product with a mobile app and physical passport. The visitors would have the opportunity to complete tasks within the city to collect stickers from each of the five boroughs to put in their passport.
User Flows
COMPLETING A STICKER TASK
VIEWING THE LEADERBOARD
VIEWING THE PROFILE
Sitemap for App
The sitemap helped me structure out the necessary information within each page to help streamline the wireframing process.
Wireframes
Initial Wireframes
The homepage is what stumped me for a long time. I had many iterations and struggled to find the perfect balance and structure of making the page logically make sense for the user, displaying the necessary information and making it visualizing appealing.
More Wireframes
Branding Guidelines
During the wireframing stage, I received the final branding from my team. Here is the branding below.
VISUAL DIRECTION
Five Rings for Five Boroughs
Designed to reflect New York’s borough-based pride while channeling the timeless unity of the Olympic Games. Five Rings for Five Boroughs celebrates the individuality, uniqueness and history of the boroughs through distinguishable, playful storytelling.
TYPE
COLOR
#FFD739
#FF79E9
#C0FD79
#FF5324
#4076FF
#C0FD79
Each color represents one of the five boroughs
PHOTOGRAPHY
PRIMARY LOGOS
SECONDARY LOGOS
MASCOTS
PICTOGRAMS
Wireframes Continued
Updating with the Final Branding
Now that the branding was finalized, I had to make some adjustments to make sure my work was following the branding guidelines set by my team.
Simplifying the Homepage
I realized that I was adding too much to the homepage. There was lots of visual clutter and too many interactions which made the experience unclear. Through critique and reflection, I understood that the answer was simple, I just needed to simplify. I then referred back to the sitemap, HMW statement, insights and goals to help me reground before redesigning. I got rid of unnecessary information and anything that made it look too busy.
The solution was to separate the boroughs into slidable sections within the homepage to still keep all the info on the correct page without having to click and open another page. The final outcome has a clean, sophisticated look that ties in the playful, bold colors that represent the five boroughs.
The Exhibition
Building the Exhibition
We were given a 9x9x1 ft. structure to display our many deliverables. Wanting elements of interactivity, we created a tangible tennis ball cube, highlight reel and stickers and postcards to take home. It was lots of fun being able to work with our hands and design physically. It was also a nice break from working on a laptop.
Displaying the Product
I created a product video for Hunt for Gold as well as a walkthrough of the app which followed the user flows. I also created the physical passport, filled with some of the collectible stickers and displayed it for viewers to interact with.
Final Exhibition
Hunt for Gold and NEW YORK 2028 OLYMPICS was displayed at the 2025 University of Washington Design Show in the Jacob Lawrence Art Gallery during June of 2025.
Conclusion
What I Learned
This was my first high fidelity solo project while in the program and it was a big learning curve. My two biggest takeaways were the importance of critiques and being assertive/self-advocacy. Unfortunately, our class was very poorly structured, we only had one class a week, no critique during class and no work time. Because of this, I had to take initiative with getting crit from peers outside of class and from other professors. I also felt it was necessary to express my concerns and address the issues within the class structure and how it's impacting the students to not only help my experience but also so future students can avoid this issue as well.
A Bittersweet Ending
I'm so proud of the finished product as well as being proud of how I've grown while working on this project. I want to thank my team for their support with this project. I wouldn't have been able to do it without their critique, collaboration, trust and great vibes :)
View more projects
UW Design Show 2025 Website
Graphics