Questo – Queensland University of Technology

QUT identified a gap in the student experience: while a range of support services exists, many students were not aware of or unable to easily access assistance in personal, academic, and financial areas. Students reported difficulty identifying and accessing the right support at the right time. Pathways into services could feel fragmented across departments and platforms, often using institutional language and systems-focused structures that felt impersonal or overwhelming. For students experiencing issues such as housing insecurity, mental health challenges or financial hardship, the lack of a clear entry point made it harder to seek help early.

We created Questo, a student support guide that places the student at the centre of the support experience, providing clear, tailored pathways to access support at the right time. It supports a range of student needs, from everyday guidance through to directing students to appropriate services when more urgent support is required. Informed by QUT-led user research and insights into student needs, Questo was refined through UX research, user testing and scenario mapping. It embraces plain, people-centred language, contextual guidance and proactive prompts, giving students tailored results they can review at their own pace with clear next steps.

By introducing Questo, we created a powerful, guided way for students to find and access support at QUT, shifting the tone of help-seeking away from administrative complexity toward empathy, simplicity and student empowerment. Although launched only in June 2025, feedback is promising: students feel more confident navigating support options, with Questo helping them feel more comfortable asking for help. Students describe it as intuitive and less overwhelming, and value that it informs them about what they want to know rather than just providing search results. As a digital presence, Questo reinforces QUT’s commitment to wellbeing and encourages earlier help-seeking.

The development of Questo was informed by QUT-led user research and insights and shaped by broad consultation and direct input from students and staff, ensuring alignment with student needs and university priorities. Cross-university input from Student Services, Student Success and Teaching Advancement, HiQ, Student Administration, Marketing and Student Recruitment, Digital Business Solutions, Oodgeroo Unit and faculty support teams. Formal student research (current and alumni) surfaced key issues, including confusion, overload and missed opportunities for timely support when it was most needed. The Questo launch campaign is a high-impact, multi-channel plan designed to drive awareness and utilisation of QUT’s new student support guide. It spans key digital and physical touchpoints, including on-campus presence through Welcome Week (orientation) activation and a large-scale digital signage takeover in Week 1 to capture continuing students, including the Sphere, Data Wall, digital walls and screens across both campuses, integration into HiQ and the Digital Workplace, and integration into student and staff lifecycle communications and intranet content, including web messages, banners, student and staff email newsletters, Welcome to Semester emails, and ongoing digital signage across campus, and social media amplification via QUT’s official channels across the student lifecycle.