UI/UX CASE STUDY · CURIOUS KIDZ
Designer
Stephen Elufisan
Year
2024
Type
EdTech · STEAM · Gamification
Role
UI/UX Designer
Tool
Figma
This case study outlines the vision behind Curious Kidz and the challenges it aims to solve. It provides a clear understanding of the project's background, highlighting the limitations of STEAM education in Nigeria and how this platform bridges the gap through interactive learning.
Additionally, it establishes my role in designing a user-friendly, engaging, and accessible digital experience tailored to children, parents, and schools guiding the reader through the UI/UX process from research to final implementation.
Overview
Curious Kidz is an innovative educational platform designed to bridge conventional learning and the STEAM program. It engages young minds through interactive content like videos, games, and virtual labs, making education more exciting and effective.
The platform aims to spark curiosity and drive children toward high-paying, innovation-driven disciplines like aerospace, robotics, and computer programming.
What We'll Cover
Project Background
In Nigeria, the growth of STEAM education is limited by cost and environmental factors. Many schools lack the resources to provide hands-on learning experiences, making it difficult for students to explore advanced fields. Curious Kidz addresses this gap by integrating entertainment with research-based peer learning, offering a digital space where children can engage with educational content in an interactive and fun way. The platform also provides insights for parents and schools to track student progress and engagement.
The primary issue facing Curious Kidz is the difficulty in engaging young learners with traditional educational methods, particularly in the context of a developing country like Nigeria. Despite the growing importance of STEAM education, the platform must overcome several obstacles:
A Problem
Children in Nigeria struggle to stay engaged with traditional learning methods, leading to a lack of interest in advanced subjects like STEAM.
Problem Context
Due to limited resources and infrastructure, Nigerian students lack access to interactive learning that can inspire interest in fields like robotics, aerospace, and programming.
To design a user-friendly and engaging platform for Curious Kidz, we established clear objectives that align with the platform's mission:
Success Metrics
To measure the effectiveness of our design, we set key success metrics:
User Engagement Rate
Measures the average time children spend interacting with videos, games, and virtual labs.
Gamification Participation
Tracks the number of badges earned, leaderboard interactions, and progress tracking usage.
Dashboard Utilisation
Monitors how often parents and schools access analytics and student progress reports.
Curious Kidz primarily targets three key user groups:
User Personas: These personas help guide the design and functionality of Curious Kidz, ensuring the platform meets the needs of all key stakeholders.
Persona 01 — The Child
Amanda
The Curious Learner
"
I love learning new things, but I get bored easily.
"
Bio
Amanda is an energetic and curious child who loves learning about science and technology but often finds school lessons too boring. She spends her free time watching educational videos online and playing games.
Age: 10
Education: Primary School Student
Personality Traits
🎯 Goals / Needs
😖 Pain Points
🙈 Frustrations
💪 Motivation
Persona 02 — The Parent
Michael
The Concerned Parent
"
I want my child to have fun while learning, but I also need to track progress.
"
Bio
Michael is a busy working parent who wants to ensure his child is engaging with educational content. He values tools that allow him to track his child's progress and ensure they are learning effectively.
Age: 28
Education: University Graduate
Personality Traits
🎯 Goals / Needs
😖 Pain Points
🙈 Frustrations
💪 Motivation
Persona 03 — The School Administrator
Adewale
The School Administrator
"
We need better ways to track student engagement and learning outcomes.
"
Bio
Adewale works as a school administrator in a Nigerian middle school. She is responsible for overseeing student learning and performance across different classes.
Age: 32
Education: Degree in Education
Personality Traits
🎯 Goals / Needs
😖 Pain Points
🙈 Frustrations
💪 Motivation
Research is a critical component of any UX/UI project. It provides the foundation for understanding user needs, identifying pain points, and informing design decisions, through clear research goals, appropriate methods, and actionable insights.
User Needs
We aimed to understand what children, parents, and schools require from an interactive educational platform:
Interactive and Engaging Learning Content
Children need fun and interactive learning experiences, games, videos, and virtual labs to stay engaged and motivated.
Easy Progress Monitoring for Parents and Schools
Parents and schools need simple, clear tools to track student progress, engagement, and performance on the platform.
Gather Feedback
To ensure our platform effectively addresses user needs, we collected feedback through:
Research Methods
We used a mixed-method approach combining qualitative and quantitative research:
Key Pain Points Identified
Disengagement with Traditional Learning
Children often struggle to stay focused with conventional learning methods, making it harder for them to retain information.
Lack of Progress Tracking for Parents
Parents have limited insight into their child's learning journey and progress, making it difficult to provide support.
Complex Navigation
Young users find it difficult to navigate platforms that aren't intuitive or visually clear, leading to frustration and reduced engagement.
Difficulty for Schools in Monitoring Engagement
Schools face challenges in tracking student engagement and performance across different classes and age groups.
Detail Findings
These findings guided our design decisions, ensuring Curious Kidz provides an engaging, accessible, and effective learning experience for all users.
Understanding Our Users Deeply
Empathy maps helped us step into the shoes of each user group — capturing what they say, think, do, and feel when engaging with educational platforms.
For Children
Says
Thinks
Does
Feels
Empathy map for children: capturing emotional and behavioural patterns during the learning experience.
Platform Preview
Mobile app overview, curiosity missions & progress tracking
We followed a structured Double Diamond design approach across a 4-week sprint, with each phase clearly defined: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.
1st week
2nd week
3rd week
4th week
Empathize
Conducted interviews, surveys, and observations with children, parents, and teachers to understand pain points.
Define
Synthesised findings into personas, journey maps, and a clear problem statement.
Ideate
Ran brainstorming sessions to generate feature concepts and multiple design directions.
Prototype
Built lo-fi wireframes through to a high-fidelity Figma prototype ready for testing.
Test
Usability tested with real users, gathered feedback, and iterated on final designs.
To create an engaging and user-friendly experience for Curious Kidz, I followed a structured design process that ensured every decision was driven by research, user needs, and problem-solving. Below is an overview of my approach:
Research: I started by identifying the key challenges faced by children, parents, and schools in accessing and engaging with STEAM education. Through user research, I gathered insights that shaped the foundation of my design decisions.
Discovery: Key findings…
User Flow: To ensure seamless navigation and a logical user journey, I created detailed user flows. I mapped out key user journeys for:
Children
Exploring videos, playing interactive games, earning badges, and tracking progress.
Parents
Monitoring their child's learning activities and setting preferences.
Schools
Accessing analytics on student engagement and academic performance.
These flows ensured that each user could achieve their goals efficiently without unnecessary friction.
Information Architecture: The platform was structured into intuitive sections:
Site Maps by User Type
Three distinct information architectures were designed one for each user group ensuring that navigation and content are appropriately tailored to each audience's needs.
Kids — Information Architecture
Kids IA — 5 primary sections, each with 3 sub-pages covering all core learning and social features.
Typography - Barlow
Colour Palette
Primary Green
#1A9C5B
Dark Green
#0F6E3F
Mid Green
#2DB870
Green Tint
#E8F7EF
Foreground
#F0EDE6
Background
#0D0D0D
UI Components
The final high-fidelity designs cover three core experiences: the Child Dashboard (gamified learning overview), the Parent Dashboard (progress tracking), and the School Dashboard (class-wide analytics).
Feature 01 — Child Dashboard
The child dashboard surfaces learning progress, earned badges, current courses, and the class leaderboard in a single scannable view. Key stats — Hours to Go, Completed Videos, Mastery Stage, Victory Badges — are presented as colourful cards children can understand at a glance.
Feature 02 — Video Library
Curated video content organised by subject. Supports per-video progress tracking so children can pick up where they left off.
Feature 03 — Virtual Labs
Hands-on interactive experiments simulating real lab environments — covering robotics, physics, chemistry, and programming.
Feature 04 — Gamification System
Children earn badges for completing modules, watching videos, and hitting milestones. A class leaderboard drives friendly competition, while a personal level system (Explorer → Adventurer → Champion → Innovator) motivates long-term engagement.
Badges & Achievements
Earned by completing lessons and challenges
Class Leaderboard
Rank against classmates to stay motivated
Learning Gems
Virtual currency earned through activity
Feature 05 — Teachers Dashboard
Teachers can monitor student activity, assign modules, and view class-wide analytics — helping them integrate the platform into their teaching.
Feature 06 — School Dashboard
School administrators get a bird's-eye view of institution-wide performance, class progress, and platform engagement metrics.
Feature 07 — Kid-Safe Design & Privacy
The platform is built to comply with COPPA and other child privacy regulations. No third-party ads, no inappropriate content, and strict data protection controls ensure a safe learning environment.
COPPA Compliant
Child-safe design & data practices
Ad-Free Experience
No third-party ads, only learning content
Privacy-First
Strict data controls & parental consent flows
Feature 08 — Multilingual Support
CuriousKidz supports English, Spanish, and French from day one — with a flexible architecture that makes adding new languages straightforward.
Why this matters: In multicultural markets, supporting multiple languages increases accessibility and engagement, helping schools serve diverse student populations more effectively.
Feature 09 — School Admin Portal
Allows school administrators to manage classes, add students, and integrate the curriculum into their school systems.
Feature 10 — Student Data Management
A centralised view for managing individual student records, tracking progress milestones, and maintaining accurate academic data.
Feature 11 — Subscription Management
Schools can manage their subscription tier, upgrade plans, and review billing history — all within a dedicated portal.
Feature 12 — Support Centre
A built-in help and support hub giving students, parents, and schools access to FAQs, live chat, and guided troubleshooting resources.
Designing Curious Kidz highlighted the importance of balancing fun with functionality. While children need gamification and bright, engaging interfaces to stay motivated, parents and teachers require clear, data-dense dashboards to measure success.
Moving forward, the focus will be on expanding the virtual lab simulations and continuing to optimise for low-bandwidth environments, ensuring the platform remains accessible to all Nigerian students.
