During my Master’s degree in Design and Transculturality in Shanghai, I chose to focus my final project on the Chinese educational system. I was particularly interested in this subject as I wanted to compare it with the French approach to education.

In the context of an education system heavily focused on academic performance, where high school students face strong pressure from both their families and the national university entrance exam (‘Gaokao’), some students struggle to find their place once they enter university, as they must adapt to a new pace of life.

After discussions with two psychologists and several university students, it became clear that some students felt they had not found a purpose in their studies and struggled to adapt to independent living. This often led to anxiety and depression, causing this group of students to become withdrawn.

I created a physical activity schedule to encourage disengaged students to take part in activities they would enjoy. The concept was to have them complete one activity per week in exchange for a reward. The final idea was to provide a visual representation of their motivation progress on a weekly dashboard.

5 out of students were satisfied by the experience and felt fulfied by having done an activity they had difficulties to complete.

I ultimately designed an application to motivate university students to engage in social and physical activities, helping them discover new experiences and develop new skills.

With the app’s search and recommendation system, users can find information about nearby events and places to visit. Each event earns a certain number of points depending on the time spent and the type of activity.

Thanks to their code QR, users can scan it from app et receive a certain number of point that can be exchange next for money.

To make this app work, the idea would be to establish partnerships with various venues in Shanghai, give them visibility on the app among university students, and offer them the opportunity to provide discounts.