Hidden Gems is a discovery feature within iLancaster designed to help students explore university life in ways that feel relevant, timely and personal. It brings together trusted university information, community input and AI-supported recommendations across the Hidden Gems experience.
Hidden Gems is currently running as a Proof of Value project. The decision to continue or expand its use will be based on the findings during this period. Features and availability may change during this pilot phase.
This means the feature set may change as the university reviews:
Hidden Gems is organised into four main dimensions:
Discover places to study, pause, socialise or take a walk.
Spaces may include:
Students can browse, search and favourite spaces, and where available open navigation support through MazeMap.
For spaces, Hidden Gems aims to provide useful practical information to support decision-making.
Depending on the space, this may include:
Explore university, society and community events that may be relevant to your interests and availability. Authorised users are able to upload their events.
Students can:
Find student societies from across Lancaster University.
Hidden Gems uses society information from authoritative university-connected sources and helps students:
Campus Life shares practical tips, stories and guidance to help students navigate university life beyond formal information channels. Content is provided by students, for students.
This may include:
Hidden Gems is designed to answer a simple question:
“What is useful, welcoming or interesting for me, right now?”
Recommendations are shaped by:
The experience starts simply and can become more personalised over time.
Students can save items they want to return to later.
Favourites can be used across Hidden Gems content, including:
Saving favourites can also help improve future recommendations.
Hidden Gems is an iLancaster app feature, which can additionally be accessed through a web companion.
This means users can access the same core Hidden Gems experience across devices, whether they are using mobile or web.
Students can set preferences during onboarding to help shape their Hidden Gems experience.
These preferences may help Hidden Gems surface:
Where personalisation controls are available, students can update or reset them.
Hidden Gems includes community-informed elements to help keep the experience useful and relevant.
Depending on the phase of delivery, this may include moderated contributions such as:
All contributions are subject to moderation and governance processes.
As Hidden Gems develops, some spaces may include live or recent community signals to help students understand current conditions.
Examples may include:
These signals are intended to help students make more informed choices about where to go.
A personalised homescreen experience is planned to bring together recommendations from across Hidden Gems in one place.
This may help students see:
Any expanded personalisation features remain subject to PoV review and governance.
Future phases may include optional notifications to highlight content that is relevant and timely.
Currently, notifications provide alerts for newly uploaded spaces, societies and events.
Users can choose to opt out of default notification settings.
Hidden Gems is exploring a “Plan My Day” feature to help students turn discovery into action.
This feature is intended to help students:
Further development of this feature is subject to PoV review and governance.
Hidden Gems is being developed in line with Lancaster University’s Responsible AI principles, governance processes, and data protection standards.
Key points include:
