Quelle Histoire Aventures
Designing a gaming application based on augmented reality and geolocation, to teach History to kids through digital adventures.
00. Context
This project was part of a collaboration between Gobelins, l’école de l’image (Paris) and Quelle Histoire, a French publishing company creating educational books and apps for children.
Our team of five product designers was tasked with exploring how augmented reality and geolocation could be used to teach History to kids in a fun, engaging way while encouraging them to engage with their physical surroundings.
Over several months, we worked closely with the client to imagine a playful mobile experience for families, blending digital storytelling, urban exploration, and historical discovery.
Client
Quelle Histoire
Team
Baptiste Bérenger
Mélanie Defrance
Marion Mouchet
Rémy Sclipa
Marion Caron
My role
As part of a team of five product designers, we collaboratively handled every stage of the project. I contributed to the exploratory research, helped define the product strategy and design principles, co-facilitated ideation workshops and worked on the UX and UI design of the mobile prototype. I also helped plan and run user tests and refine the product based on user feedback.
01. Digging into user behaviors
To design meaningful experiences for kids, we first invested time in understanding them.
Through online research, family interviews, and on-site museum observations (shadowing), we explored how children learn, play, and engage both with and without screens.
These insights led to the creation of tailored family personas that guided our design decisions throughout the project.
02. Finding our concept
After presenting our research, we transitioned into ideation through collaborative workshops. From initial sketches to structured brainstorming sessions, we refined our concept:
Quelle Histoire Aventures lets families step into history by exploring real-world locations through fun and immersive quests.
Each adventure is centered around a historical figure, guiding families through 6–10 quests where they complete challenges, collect characters, and uncover the story behind each of them.
03. Designing our test story : the Charlemagne adventure
To validate our concept, we created an interactive adventure about Charlemagne, the "father of school." We chose him because the St Paul neighborhood in Paris is filled with places connected to his story, making the experience easy to contextualize
After sketching low-fi wireframes, we built a prototype in Sketch and Invision — it was 2018! — with over 150 screens.
04. Crash testing the concept with families
We tested the prototype with five families (8 kids, 6 adults) during one-hour sessions in St Paul, Paris. They met six characters along the way, including Charlemagne himself. We observed, took notes, and captured their reactions using Lookback.
The test was a big success — both kids and parents were genuinely enthusiastic about the experience. Feedback was very positive, with participants highlighting how fun and engaging the adventure was.
Key learnings
• Add 2–3 more quests, as the adventure felt a bit short.
• Adapt difficulty levels to player age, with extra clues for younger kids.
05. Testing for clarity and usability
06. Results
The prototype we developed was key in helping Quelle Histoire secure both partnerships and funding to bring the mobile app to life.
It enabled them to move forward with creating digital adventures in several prominent locations, including the Louvre-Lens Museum, Paris and its surroundings, the Hérault department, and the city of Rueil Malmaison.
07. Personal takeaways
Participating in this project was a truly enriching experience — our team worked really well together and the client put a great amount of trust in us.
I believe three key aspects contributed to this project's success.
First, we took time to plan our research phase, which allowed us to collect strong insights on multiple topics quickly.
Then, we conducted real-time testing of the concept early in the process which allowed us to validate our concept and thereby strengthen our client's trust.
And finally, we genuinely had fun working together throughout the entire project!
