Contents
Introduction
Mystery Quest was an experiment in designing for the real world.
I founded and led Mystery Quest to explore whether a hybrid digital-physical experience could create deeper engagement than traditional entertainment formats like escape rooms, treasure hunts, or purely digital games. The product combined mobile UX, narrative design, and location-based mechanics to encourage people to explore real places while solving puzzles and progressing through a story.
This case study focuses on product strategy, UX design, real-world validation, and the trade-offs involved in building a zero-to-one platform under startup constraints.
The challenge
Local entertainment options were declining, repetitive, or difficult to scale.
Existing alternatives fell into two camps:
Physical experiences offered immersion but were operationally heavy and hard to iterate.
Digital games scaled easily but lacked emotional connection to place, people, and community.
The challenge was to design a product that:
Encouraged outdoor exploration and social play.
Scaled beyond one-off events.
Balanced narrative depth with usability in uncontrolled environments.
Could be commercially viable, not just novel.
My role
As founder and product lead, I owned the end-to-end lifecycle of Mystery Quest:
Defined product vision, positioning, and roadmap.
Designed all core UX flows across mobile, web, and physical touchpoints.
Led brand, narrative, and experience design.
Planned and conducted private and internal testing in controlled real-world scenarios.
Collaborated with external developers and creative agencies.
Oversaw delivery, QA, and iteration cycles.
Managed business, legal, and operational considerations.
Team
2 x F&F Investors
2 x Angel Investors
2 x Developers (External Partner)
1 x Marketing Agency (External Partner)
Product strategy & direction
The early product strategy focused on validating one core hypothesis:
Key strategic decisions included:
Location-first design
Real places drove the experience, not AR gimmicks.
Narrative as structure
Story provided motivation and pacing, not just flavour.
Progressive rewards
Small wins throughout the journey to reduce abandonment.
Focused scope
Early development prioritised core gameplay and navigation, while more speculative features (AR, multiplayer, community creation) were deferred.
Brand & creative direction
Brand and narrative were treated as functional UX components, not surface decoration.
The brand needed to feel:
Inviting, not intimidating
Playful, but credible
Inclusive across ages, abilities, and experience levels
I led brand exploration and development by setting creative direction and quality standards, including:
Defining the overall brand vision, tone, and positioning
Producing early sketches, ideas, moodboards, and references
Guiding logo, illustration, character, and iconography exploration
Shaping narrative tone and storytelling principles
Designing the experience
Designing for the real world introduced constraints rarely present in controlled digital products.
Other considerations:
Variable lighting and weather
GPS accuracy and signal loss
Physical safety and accessibility
Cognitive load while moving
Device battery consumption
The core journey included:
Discovering and selecting a quest
Onboarding into narrative and rules
Navigating between real-world locations
Solving clues and challenges sequentially
Receiving feedback, rewards, or hints
Completing (or abandoning) the quest
Each step was designed to minimise friction while maintaining tension and intrigue.
Wireframing & early prototyping
Early work focused on flow clarity rather than visual polish:
Low-fidelity wireframes mapped end-to-end journeys
Edge cases were identified during design and resolved through targeted technical and UX solutions (e.g. degraded play when GPS was lost, hints for unclear clues, and controlled pause mechanics)
Failure states were treated as first-class scenarios
These wireframes were used in walkthroughs and early tests before committing to full UI design.
UI Design & iteration
Version 1
The first UI pass prioritised:
Clear navigation
Strong narrative framing
Visual differentiation between map, clue, and reward states
Private and internal testing revealed issues with:
Information density while on the move
Over-reliance on visual detail in bright outdoor conditions
Insufficient feedback when players were stuck
Development difficulty engineering overly complex UI
Version 2
Design changes included:
Simplified layouts and hierarchy
Higher contrast modes for outdoor use
Clearer progress indicators
Improved hint visibility and pacing
This iteration significantly reduced confusion and abandonment during private and internal testing.
Accessibility & inclusion
Accessibility was considered from the start.
Key considerations included:
WCAG AA-aligned design system
High-contrast UI for sunlight visibility
Identified during play-tests but not included:
Quest difficulty and accessibility ratings
Terrain and mobility indicators
Marketing website
The marketing website was explored conceptually but never built.
Early wireframes and content design were used to:
Clarify the value proposition for investors and partners.
Test narrative framing and positioning.
Align brand, product, and commercial messaging.
Delivery & technical reality
I worked closely with external developers to translate UX intent into a scalable platform.
Key constraints that influenced design:
Cross-platform delivery using a single codebase.
Backend-driven quest logic and content management with micro-services.
Performance and battery considerations for location tracking.
Business & startup foundations
Alongside product and UX work, I was responsible for establishing the legal, structural and financial foundations of the business.
Working closely with a law firm we prepared:
Shareholders’ agreement.
Memorandum and articles of association.
Working independently, with support from mentors and structured online training:
I prepared and iterated on multiple versions of the company’s financial model, covering:
Revenue assumptions across different quest types and pricing models
Cost structures including COGS, SG&A, and platform operating costs
Investment cash inflows and runway modelling
Profit and loss statements
Cash flow forecasting and scenario planning
Testing & validation
Mystery Quest was validated through:
Private testing sessions.
Internal playtests.
Paper play-tests with stakeholders.
Outcomes & reflection
Mystery Quest was not just a startup. It was a real-world product lab.
It strengthened my ability to lead ambiguous work, design complex systems, and ground UX decisions in real human behaviour beyond the screen.
What Worked
Strong engagement during guided experiences.
Appetite for narrative-driven, location-based play.
Validation of hybrid digital-physical mechanics.
What Didn’t
Iteration speed under startup constraints.
Proprietary tech-stack and vendor lock-in.
Early over-investment in brand, platform robustness and advanced features.
Key Learnings
Mystery Quest fundamentally shaped how I approach:
Lean UX and fast validation.
Designing for uncontrolled environments.
Balancing ambition with delivery reality.
Product-market fit under uncertainty.
