AI Powered Questions and Study Coach UX
Integrate AI generated questions into an ereader to create an enhanced experience.
Awards
2023 CODiE Award for “Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in Ed Tech”
2024 Learning Impact Gold Award
2025 Global Tech Award
My role on the team: Brainstorming, information architecture, iterative design, ux design, product design, user research
My deliverables: Low and high fidelity wireframes, workflow prototypes, complex feature prototypes
Status drive visual language for the AI generated questions
The initial design challenge was creating a unified experience across 15 distinct question types, each with unique functionality and multiple states of correctness. From a design perspective, this required developing a consistent visual feedback system that could handle diverse interactions without overwhelming the learner.
The same status driven visual language spans from the question feedback to the feature components integrated into the platform. This approach ensured consistency, reduced cognitive load, and made the interface more intuitive and easily learnable for students engaging with varied question formats.
Exploring various functionality options for the feature
Full width questions
Users are notified of questions appearing by full-width nudge at bottom of screen or card in gutter when expanded. Selecting either alert opens the question in full-width drawer
Usability goals an assumptions: Strategically placed question alerts will boost engagement while the spacious drawer design preserves gutter content and accommodates all question types.
Scrubber tracker & gutter questions
Users can track their question progress through the book using the icons in the scrubber. The user can see correct, incorrect and unanswered questions along the scrubber as a timeline for the entire book. When a user gets to a section in the book and the notes gutter is not open, the unanswered question icon will animate out to grab the users attention.
Usability goals an assumptions: The pop out alerts will drive student engagement and display questions inline in the gutter to enhance content comprehension. Indicators in the scrubber bar will highlight the additional interactivity and signal a distinctly enhanced experience.
Table of Contents question tracker & bottom expanding bar
Display question status indicators directly within each table of contents section, and the bottom bar expands up when a question is available, and question is displayed in a full-width drawer.
Usability goals and assumptions: We know TOC is one of the most actively used features in the reader, so we’re providing more value to the book by enhancing an existing feature. We want to provide an efficient and time saving study experience by enabling users to jump directly to questions from the TOC, increasing student engagement through a visual alert when questions appear
Chatbot
Student can interact with chatbot to answer questions throughout their study experience. Bot lights up when a question appears, encouraging the user to interact and user can scroll through chat history to see previous questions & progress.
Usability goals and assumptions: This feature would provide a conversational, interactive experience that boosts student engagement autonomously, adding a clear value beyond a standard etextbook title with a tutor and be a true differentiator in the space.
Scrubber tracker & gutter questions
Users can track their question progress through the book using the icons in the scrubber. The user can see correct, incorrect and unanswered questions along the scrubber as a timeline for the entire book.
Questions exist in the gutter right next to relevant parts of the book
When a user gets to a section in the book and the notes gutter is not open, the unanswered question icon will animate out to grab the users attention.
Iterating informed by usability testing
We conducted three rounds of usability research which directed the design decisions on how the AI generated questions displayed with the etextbook. Our findings directed the design to show the questions along side of the etextbook content so that the student could read the book and question at the same time. We talked to 24 unique users and tested 3 unique ux scenarios.
Impact
Within the first year of the feature roll-out there this feature has generated more than 2 million unique study questions and has been used by hundreds of thousands of students. The technology uses AI to identify important learning content, create relevant practice questions directly from the text, and place those questions alongside the etextbook in the reader. 95.9% of students who used the assigned practice found the questions helpful to their learning and preparation for assessments.
