An adventure-based mobile app designed for young Filipinos to explore Philippine culture, cities, and language through gamified quests. Built to make every cultural lesson feel like a stage in the greatest game you've ever played.
"Learning Philippine culture shouldn't feel like a lesson — it should feel like an adventure." — Project Vision Statement
Generic travel and educational apps fail to make Philippine culture feel relevant to the mobile-native generation. Content is static, passive, and entirely misaligned with how Gen Alpha engages — through games, stories, and interactive discovery.
The result: young Filipinos growing increasingly disconnected from their own cultural identity — not out of disinterest, but because no platform has made it genuinely worth exploring.
The Engagement Problem
"Young Filipinos aren't disinterested in their culture — they're disinterested in how it's being presented."
User research, competitive analysis, and cultural deep-dives into Philippine city experiences — mapping how young Filipinos currently engage with travel and cultural content.
Translating insights into personas, user flows, and a clear app sitemap — designing how Mara's world would be structured for intuitive, age-appropriate navigation.
Rapid wireframing of core screens — map view, stage selection, collectible gallery, and streaks — testing structure and interaction logic before any visual polish.
Building the full MARA design system — illustrated characters, colour tokens, typography, and the earthy-adventure aesthetic that makes the app feel alive and distinctly Filipino.
Full illustrated hi-fi screens and a clickable Figma prototype — tested with players aged 10–14 across two usability rounds with real cultural content loaded in.
A/B tests and usability sessions with target users — refining interactions based on real player feedback and validating the final design for handoff.
Navigate through Philippine cities as game stages — each location unlocks cultural stories, mini-games, and achievements. Designed so every "level up" feels like a real discovery.
An illustrated world map of the Philippines where players see unlocked and upcoming stages at a glance. Exploration-first UI that makes the country feel like an open world waiting to be conquered.
Earn cultural artifacts, characters, and badges as you explore. Each collectible comes with a story — turning passive cultural information into something players actively want to find.
Daily quests and language modules woven into the adventure loop. Short, habit-forming content that keeps players coming back — and walking away knowing a little more of their culture.
LINKS
Figma File
