Curious About Code
Project Context
We led the design efforts for this project, collaborating with a marketing specialist, art director, and developer from Cult Ideas to create a branded, gamified coding experience that engages both young learners and adults.
Our responsibilities included branding, logo design, UX, and UI, ensuring a balance between playfulness and professionalism. Inspired by Curious George, we developed a friendly mascot to serve as the face of the platform, fostering engagement and brand recognition. The interface focused on "no-think" navigation, allowing users to intuitively explore coding concepts without friction. A clean, modern aesthetic made the platform inviting, while gamified elements like badges, progress tracking, and interactive challenges encouraged continuous learning.
To support customer acquisition and retention, we designed a frictionless onboarding experience that introduced new users to the platform effortlessly. The experience was optimized for accessibility, with a responsive, mobile-friendly design ensuring seamless use across devices. Collaborating closely with the Cult Ideas team, we ensured that the UI was scalable, flexible, and built for long-term engagement, making it a powerful tool for both educators and students. The result was a visually compelling, intuitive, and gamified learning environment designed to spark curiosity and keep users coming back.
Role
Senior UX/UI Designer
Collaborators
Product Owners, Creative Director, Business Analyst, Developers, Subject Matter Experts
Project Timeline
10 months
Methods and Tools
Design Thinking, Design System, Figma, Miro, Microsoft, Adobe, Jira
Process
The Curious About Code project was designed to spark curiosity in coding through an intuitive, gamified, and visually engaging experience.
Research revealed that a low-friction onboarding process was key to user engagement, leading us to develop a mascot-driven experience inspired by the nostalgic charm of Curious George. The design prioritized "no-think navigation," gamification elements like achievement badges and progress tracking, and a clean, approachable aesthetic to sustain long-term user interest.
Through rapid prototyping and iterative usability testing, we refined interactions, ensuring seamless navigation and accessibility. Collaborating closely with developers, we optimized for mobile responsiveness, smooth animations, and an engaging user experience. The final product successfully blends education and entertainment, making coding accessible and enjoyable for a broad audience while fostering curiosity and long-term engagement.
Discovery
The discovery phase focused on understanding user motivations and barriers to coding, revealing the need for an intuitive, engaging, and gamified learning experience that appealed to both youth and adults.
The discovery phase for Curious About Code began with stakeholder interviews and competitive research to understand the motivations of both youth eager to explore coding and adults seeking an approachable learning tool. We identified key engagement drivers: curiosity, simplicity, and gamification. User research also revealed that many potential learners were intimidated by traditional coding platforms, emphasizing the need for a frictionless and inviting experience.
Design Requirements
Approachable Branding & Visuals
A friendly mascot (inspired by Curious George) was introduced to create a welcoming and playful identity, making coding feel less intimidating and more inviting.
Gamified Learning
Features like progress tracking, achievement badges, and interactive challenges were incorporated to sustain engagement, rewarding users for exploration and persistence.
Mobile-First Accessibility
Since younger users are often mobile-first, the platform had to function seamlessly across all devices, optimizing interactions for touchscreens and various screen sizes.
No-Think Navigation
The interface needed to be intuitive and self-explanatory, reducing cognitive load and ensuring a smooth user journey, even for those with no prior coding experience.
Multi-Generational Appeal
The design had to balance youthful energy with professional clarity to be usable by both kids and adults, ensuring accessibility without feeling overly juvenile or overly technical.
Fast Onboarding & Retention
A low-friction signup process and interactive tutorials ensured users could jump in quickly without feeling overwhelmed, encouraging long-term engagement from the start.
Use Cases
To ensure an intuitive and efficient digital experience, we conducted stakeholder interviews, user research, and workflow analysis to define key use cases. This process identified critical user journeys, accessibility requirements, and content needs.
Young Learner
Needs an engaging and interactive way to explore coding, solved with gamified challenges, achievement badges, and step-by-step tutorials that make learning fun.
Teen Explorer
Requires an easy-to-use teaching tool to introduce coding to kids, solved with structured lesson plans, guided tutorials, and progress tracking features.
Parent & Educator
Requires an easy-to-use teaching tool to introduce coding to kids, solved with structured lesson plans, guided tutorials, and progress tracking features.
Adult Beginner
Needs a beginner-friendly coding platform for career development, solved with bite-sized lessons, intuitive navigation, and personalized learning paths.
Platform Administrator
Requires data insights and system monitoring for a seamless user experience, solved with an admin dashboard providing analytics, user feedback, and performance tracking.
Community & Growth Manager
Needs to sustain user engagement and grow the platform’s reach, solved with gamification strategies, community-driven challenges, and targeted marketing campaigns.
Ideation
To create an engaging and accessible coding platform, the ideation phase was structured into three key working sessions that focused on brainstorming, rapid prototyping, and feature prioritization.
Brainstorming & Concept Mapping: The team—including UX designers, a marketing specialist, an art director, and a developer—gathered to define core goals, user needs, and engagement strategies. We explored themes of curiosity, playfulness, and intuitive learning, leading to the idea of a mascot-driven brand inspired by Curious George.
Lightning Sketches & Wireframing: Using quick, low-fidelity sketches, we mapped out user flows, onboarding experiences, and interactive elements that would make coding feel fun rather than intimidating. This step helped refine the "no-think navigation" principle, ensuring the platform remained simple and intuitive for all age groups.
Impact-Effort Matrix & Feature Prioritization: The team evaluated potential features based on impact and implementation effort. Core priorities included a gamified learning experience, mobile-first accessibility, and structured onboarding to increase engagement and retention. More advanced features, like community-driven challenges and social sharing, were considered for later iterations.
Prototyping
The prototyping process for Curious About Code was iterative and focused on refining usability before full development. It began with low-fidelity wireframes, mapping out core user flows and ensuring a logical structure.
Once validated, mid-fidelity prototypes were created to refine layout, navigation, and interaction patterns. These were tested with a small group of users, including both children and adults, to assess intuitiveness. Based on feedback, high-fidelity interactive prototypes were built, incorporating the final visual design, branding elements, and gamified features. The prototypes were continuously refined through usability testing, ensuring a seamless, engaging, and accessible experience before development.
Mobile screens of App showing key navigational and page details
Components of Marketing modules for mobile and desktop experiences
Curious About Code logo
Usability Tests
The usability testing for Curious About Code focused on ensuring an intuitive, engaging, and accessible experience for users of all ages.
Testing sessions were conducted with a diverse group of participants, including young learners, parents, educators, and administrators. Participants were observed as they navigated key features, such as onboarding, lesson progression, and gamified challenges, to identify usability pain points and areas for improvement.
Key testing methods included moderated task-based testing, A/B testing for UI elements, and surveys to gather qualitative feedback. Common areas of focus were ease of navigation, clarity of instructions, responsiveness across devices, and engagement with the mascot-driven gamification. Iterative refinements were made based on insights, ensuring that the platform remained fun, educational, and simple to use.
Findings
Seamless Onboarding
Users, especially younger learners, preferred a quick, step-by-step introduction with minimal text and interactive guidance. Simplifying account creation and tutorial flows improved retention.
Clear Navigation Reduces Friction
Both children and adults struggled with complex menus, emphasizing the need for a clean, no-think navigation system with clear icons and familiar UI patterns.
Content Needs to Balance Fun and Learning
While users enjoyed the playful branding, they also needed structured, goal-oriented learning paths. A mix of guided exercises and open exploration provided the right balance.
Gamification Drives Engagement
Progress tracking, badges, and small rewards significantly increased motivation. Users responded positively to the mascot-led challenges, reinforcing the importance of interactive learning.
Mobile Optimization is Essential
Many users accessed the platform from tablets and phones, making responsive design, touch-friendly interactions, and offline access key to usability.
Parents & Educators Need Admin Tools
Testers from the administrative side highlighted the need for simple dashboards to track learner progress, adjust difficulty levels, and manage multiple accounts efficiently.
Conclusion
The Curious About Code project successfully created an engaging, accessible, and intuitive learning platform that demystifies coding for users of all ages. By prioritizing a playful yet structured experience, we developed a product that encourages curiosity while making technical concepts approachable. The combination of gamified learning, seamless navigation, and mobile-first accessibility resulted in high user engagement and retention.
The success of Curious About Code highlights the power of intuitive design, gamified engagement, and strategic branding in driving adoption and learning outcomes, making it a standout project in digital education.
65% user retention rate
over the first three months
Over 10,000 active learners joining within the first six months
85% of users completed their first coding challenge within the first session
