LocalLinked – Student Engagement and Local Rewards Platform
Overview
LocalLinked was developed for Luca Frederick to encourage student engagement with local businesses and charities through a rewards-based platform. Intelivita developed Android and iOS mobile applications for students along with web-based administration systems for businesses and platform operators, enabling students to discover nearby partners, purchase meal deals, earn reward points through NFC validation, redeem discounts, and enter monthly prize giveaways while allowing businesses and administrators to manage offers, rewards, and platform activity.
The Challenge
The project involved 5 primary challenges.
Sustained Student Engagement
The platform required mechanisms to encourage continuous student participation beyond initial downloads.
Secure Offline-to-Digital Validation
Real-world purchases needed to be verified securely to prevent reward abuse or fraudulent activity.
Business Adoption
Local businesses required a simple system to onboard and manage offers without technical complexity.
Fair Prize Distribution
The platform needed a transparent system for distributing monthly prizes among participating students.
Multi-Stakeholder Management
The system needed to support students, businesses, and administrators through role-based access.
The Solutions
To overcome the challenges, five key solutions were developed and executed with precision.
Points-Based Reward System
Implemented a digital points system that rewards students for verified meal purchases.
NFC Purchase Verification
Integrated NFC tag scanning to link physical purchases with digital reward points.
Business Self-Service Dashboard
Developed a web panel allowing businesses to create deals, manage discounts, and contribute prizes.
Prize Giveaway Engine
Built a ticket-based monthly prize system using weighted random selection.
Centralized Platform Administration
Delivered an admin platform for managing users, businesses, subscriptions, and platform analytics.
Points Reward Tracking
Students earn and spend points for verified meal purchases while viewing a full reward transaction history.
Location-Based Business Discovery
Students discover participating businesses through a map-based interface showing location, opening hours, and available rewards.
NFC Purchase Validation
Students scan NFC tags after meal purchases to verify transactions and receive reward points instantly.
Business Web Panel
Intelivita developed a web-based business portal that enables local partners to manage business profiles, create meal deals and discount vouchers, contribute prizes, and monitor engagement activity.
Technology Stack
The Result
Intelivita delivered LocalLinked as a student engagement platform that connects university students with nearby businesses through rewards, discounts, and prize giveaways. The system enables students to discover local partners, validate purchases through NFC scanning, and earn rewards while providing businesses with a structured channel to promote offers and measure customer engagement.
