Interaction - Bachelor

Reef Link

ReefLink is a gamified mobile app that motivates young Australians to build sustainable habits through interactive eco-missions. By turning everyday actions—like short showers or reusable cups—into “Coral Points,” users can adopt and track real corals, bridging personal behaviour with tangible reef-restoration impact.

Kwong Chi Chan (Darkness)

Project Overview

Overview

ReefLink is a gamified mobile experience designed to reconnect young Australians with coral conservation through everyday sustainable actions. The app transforms real-world eco-behaviours—such as taking four-minute showers and using reusable cups —into “Coral Points.” These points can be redeemed to adopt and track real corals in partner restoration programs on the Great Barrier Reef.

The design draws on behavioural-change and gamification principles to foster long-term engagement with environmental care. Through playful digital missions, social sharing, and a Coral Garden collection system, ReefLink turns sustainability into an interactive challenge that encourages collective impact. Users can visualise their coral adoptions, share achievements, and explore educational stories about reef species, helping them see their positive influence in tangible form.

The Problem

Coral reefs are disappearing at alarming rates due to climate change and human impact, yet for most people, this crisis feels distant and abstract. Many individuals struggle to understand the causes of coral bleaching or feel powerless to help. Existing environmental campaigns often lack emotional engagement and fail to sustain long-term participation. There’s a need for an experience that makes reef conservation tangible, relatable, and rewarding — helping people see how small daily actions can create real ecological impact.

Insights

To understand how people connect daily eco-actions with reef conservation, I conducted a survey with 17 participants. The findings revealed strong interest in earning rewards for sustainable behaviour and highlighted four key insights that guided ReefLink’s design. Participants showed high potential for behaviour change through incentives, and the “Adopt a Coral” concept strongly resonated as a meaningful way to visualise real impact. Clear priorities such as real-time progress tracking and engagement drivers like gamification and emotional connection shaped the final experience design.

Core Flows

Flow 01: Onboarding & Home

The onboarding flow welcomes new users and introduces ReefLink’s core features — Eco Action Reel, Your Impact, and Coral Garden Rewards. It guides users through account creation, email verification, and profile setup, including username, location, and profile image. By the end of onboarding, users clearly understand the app’s purpose and are ready to begin their first eco-friendly actions.

Flow 02: Your Impact

This flow demonstrates how users engage with eco-missions to earn Coral Points. It guides them through viewing mission details, understanding environmental benefits, and submitting photo evidence for verification. Users can take a new photo or upload from their gallery; successful submissions reward XP and Coral Points, while failed attempts provide clear feedback and a retry option. This flow reinforces positive eco habits, builds a sense of progress, and motivates continued participation toward coral-adoption goals.

Flow 03: Coral Garden

This flow demonstrates how users interact with their adopted corals and redeem real-world rewards. In the Coral Garden, users can view their coral collection, track adoption dates and reef zones, monitor growth status, and personalise coral names. The Reward Store features three categories—Coral Adoption, Travel Discounts, and Eco-Friendly Vouchers—each guiding users through redeeming Coral Points for tangible rewards. This experience builds a clear connection between digital eco-actions and physical impact, strengthening motivation and fostering a sense of ownership over reef restoration.

Flow 04: User Profile

This flow demonstrates how users view and manage their personal progress, achievements, and rewards. The Profile section includes an Impact Breakdown by mission category, a Completed Missions list for reviewing past eco actions, and a My Vouchers area for redeemed rewards with usage details. Users can also access account settings to manage privacy and notifications. This flow centralises all personal data, giving users a clear overview of their eco journey and motivating continued engagement with the app’s mission and reward systems.

Promotion Video

Reflection

ReefLink successfully demonstrates how gamified design can make sustainability more engaging and emotionally rewarding. By linking eco-actions to tangible coral adoption, the project encourages users to recognise the real impact of their daily habits while fostering a deeper connection to marine conservation. Through this process, I refined my skills in user research, behavioural design, and storytelling through interface systems. It also reinforced my belief that design can drive meaningful environmental change when empathy, data, and creativity work together.

Kwong Chi Chan (Darkness)

Darkness Chan is an experienced designer from Hong Kong with a strong focus on UI/UX and user-centered design. His career began in graphic and multimedia design and has expanded across industries including urban development, interactive media, and telecommunications.