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General User Guide
Everything you can do as a General User on DoCurious.
The General User is the default role on DoCurious. It represents anyone who signs up and uses the platform in a personal context -- no school affiliation, no vendor account, no linked children. If you have additional roles (teacher, parent, vendor), you still have access to everything on this page whenever you switch to your Personal context.
What You Can Do
- Browse and search the full challenge catalog
- Start challenges, track progress through milestones, and complete them
- Create Track Records to document what you did
- Build and curate a personal Bucket List of challenges to try later
- Join and participate in communities -- post Track Records, Bucket List items, and discussion threads
- Earn XP, level up, collect badges, and maintain streaks
- View your position on opt-in leaderboards
- Gift paid challenges to other users or invite them to do challenges together
- Use Dealer's Choice to get a random challenge recommendation
- Manage your profile, privacy settings, and notification preferences
Getting Started
After you create an account, you land on the General User Dashboard. DoCurious does not force an interest survey during registration -- instead, you pick your interests the first time you visit the Explore page. From there, the recommendation engine learns from your behavior over time.
For a walkthrough of the first-time experience, see the Onboarding Flows page.
Your Dashboard
The General User Dashboard is your home screen in the Personal context. It is organized into the following zones:
| Zone | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Welcome Bar | Personalized greeting, current streak indicator, level badge, and XP progress bar |
| Active Challenges Strip | Horizontal row of challenges you are currently working on, with progress indicators and a "Continue" button on each |
| Recommended For You | 4--6 challenge cards selected by the recommendation engine based on your interests, history, and trending content |
| Recent Activity Feed | Chronological list of your recent events -- completions, verification results, community interactions, gifts received |
| Stats Card | Challenges completed (all time), categories explored, monthly trend, current and longest streak |
| Community Highlights | Recent posts from communities you have joined |
| Dealer's Choice CTA | "Deal Me In" button for a random challenge, or your active Dealer's Choice challenge if you have one |
The dashboard also provides Quick Actions in the sidebar for fast navigation to Explore, My Challenges, and Communities, plus a Badge Showcase displaying your earned badges and a Leaderboard with XP, challenge, and streak rankings.
Key Features
Exploring Challenges
The Explore page is where you discover new things to do. Browse by category, difficulty, cost, location, and rating. Use the map view to find challenges near you, or the calendar view to find time-sensitive ones. The recommendation engine personalizes results based on your interests and activity history.
Challenges & Bucket List
When you find a challenge you want to try, you can start it immediately or save it to your Bucket List. Active challenges track your progress through milestones. Your My Challenges page organizes everything into In Progress, Completed, and Bucket List tabs.
Track Records
After completing a challenge (or along the way), you create a Track Record -- a multimedia journal entry with photos, videos, text reflections, and optional location data. Track Records are the core artifact of DoCurious. They earn you XP, can be shared to communities, and build your permanent portfolio on the Journey Map.
Communities
Communities are shared spaces where members post Track Records, Bucket List items, and discussion threads. DoCurious supports six community types (interest-based, geographic, challenge-specific, school, class, and custom). You can browse public communities, request to join private ones, and create your own.
Gamification
DoCurious rewards real-world activity, not screen time. The gamification system includes:
- XP earned from completing challenges, milestones, Track Record entries, community participation, and more
- 15 levels with named titles and visual progression
- 7 badge categories with collectible achievements
- Weekly streaks that reward consistency
- Journey Map visualizing your exploration across categories
- Leaderboards (opt-in) ranked by XP, challenges completed, or streak length
- Dealer's Choice for random challenge recommendations with a cooldown timer
Gifting & Invitations
You can gift paid challenges to other users by purchasing materials through the vendor's storefront and attaching claiming information. You can also invite anyone to do a challenge together -- free or paid -- with coordination details like timing and logistics. Recommendations and shares are lighter-weight options for simply pointing someone to a challenge.
Permissions Summary
| Action | General User |
|---|---|
| Browse and search challenges | Yes |
| Start and complete challenges | Yes |
| Create Track Records | Yes |
| Manage personal Bucket List | Yes |
| Join and post in communities | Yes |
| Create a community | Yes |
| Gift paid challenges | Yes |
| Invite others to challenges | Yes |
| Earn XP, badges, and levels | Yes |
| Use Dealer's Choice | Yes |
| View/opt-in to leaderboards | Yes |
| Moderate a community (if owner/mod) | Yes |
| Assign challenges to students | No |
| View child account activity | No |
| Manage school roster or classes | No |
| Create or manage vendor listings | No |
| Access platform admin tools | No |
Upgrading Your Account
Your General User account is the foundation. You can add additional roles without losing anything:
- Become a Vendor -- Apply through the Vendor Portal to list your own challenges on the platform. Your personal challenge history stays intact; you gain a vendor context to manage listings, analytics, and payouts.
- Link a School -- If your school uses DoCurious, enter a school code or receive a teacher invitation to add a student context. See School Administration for details.
- Become a Parent -- Link your account to a child's account to gain oversight of their activity. See Accounts & Authentication for the parent linking flow.
- Context Switching -- Once you have multiple roles, use the context switcher in the global header to move between your Personal dashboard and any role-specific dashboards. Your personal data, XP, and badges travel with you across all contexts.