Overview

This project was carried out over six weeks as part of my studies at Hyper Island. In a team of four, we conducted qualitative user research through eight interviews with participants from our target group. We also combined our insights with findings from another team working on the same brief to gain a more comprehensive perspective.

From this research, we developed user archetypes and a user journey map. Building on this foundation, I then independently designed a solution, which I later tested and refined through iteration.

The Challenge

Gen Z audiences are curious about local history and community stories but rarely engage with public broadcast archives or traditional media formats. Existing content often feels static, inaccessible, or disconnected from their everyday digital habits, leading to brief or passive interactions. Sweden Broadcasting 1 holds a rich but underused archive of hyper-local history and folklore that is largely locked away in outdated formats.
 
The challenge is to understand how young, digitally native users can be motivated to actively discover, interact with and contribute to local history through playful, exploratory experiences embedded in their physical and digital environments.

User Archetype

The Social Discovery Seeker

Social, experience-driven users who enjoy discovering places with others. They value atmosphere, aesthetics, and shared moments more than factual depth.

Needs & Motivations

• Discovery that feels spontaneous and social

• Visual, short-form stories

• Easy ways to share or compare experiences


Frustrations

• History feels dry, distant, or school-like

• Traditional archives feel lonely and passive

• Too much text or explanation kills interest

  
  

Hypothesis

We believe that socially-driven explorers want to discover fun, interesting places, but lack engaging, visual ways to encounter local historical stories, which leads to history feeling distant and irrelevant and that if we tried a social, map-based discovery experience with fun, shareable moments, it would lead to more spontaneous exploration, stronger emotional connection to local culture, and increased sharing of historical stories. 

Solution

Hidden Stories is a playful, location-based mobile app that helps young people rediscover local history by turning the city itself into an interactive archive. Instead of searching through traditional historical collections, users stumble upon short, engaging stories while moving through real places.

The app reframes history as something social, fun and experiential, making it feel alive, relevant, and personally meaningful especially for young people.

User testing showed me that the core idea worked. They appreciated having a curated and engaging way to explore local history, and the social, game-like map experience made discovery feel spontaneous and easy to share.

By iterating based on the user insights, I created an app that feels clearer, more intuitive, and more engaging, while strengthening the features users found most motivating, such as gamified exploration and social interaction.

Here you can see the final prototype.