UX / UI Case Study
Took a maths platform from a single-test-class prototype to a real classroom in three months — sole designer, OOUX methodology.
"Find the issues that could hurt the project before building — not when it blows up later."
I joined the Daily 10 project as the UX/UI designer after development had already been underway for two years. The platform was created by a high school teacher to improve student engagement, but many user flows required unnecessary steps and the interface lacked clarity. My goal was to modernise the experience while making common tasks faster and more intuitive.
Working closely with the client helped me understand both the educational goals and how teachers expected students to use the platform. Early on, I mainly implemented requested features, but I soon began proposing alternative solutions based on UX principles that better balanced user needs with the client's vision.
I simplified key user flows by reducing clicks and improving navigation. Here are some other key changes:
Difficulty selection changed from a dropdown to four visible buttons, so students start immediately — each one previewing the medals they could earn at that level.
I redesigned the streak to match the client's five-day school week — instead of a bare number, it shows the whole week at a glance, marking completed, current and missed days.
The old version sent users to a separate notepad screen — this was breaking the context of the question entirely. The new design keeps the calculator overlaid on the question. I researched existing calculators and found they all followed a similar four-column layout. To keep the experience familiar, I based the design on standard calculators, such as the iPhone calculator.
The Fifth Column
The focus should be on the maths and learning, not on a student scrolling a scientific calculator to answer a question. Each question needed different operations, so the fifth column populated dynamically. I confirmed with the programmer this was buildable before finalising.
A Disagreement, Settled By Testing
The client pushed back — she worried a purpose-built calculator would hand students the answer. A valid concern, but I was confident this was an improvement, so we let the students decide. The feedback was positive. The students found it easy, and it kept them focused on the maths instead of navigating the tool.
This first design held until the class actually used it — the layout problems that surfaced are further down.
A Setback Three Weeks In
When I first joined, the platform was being built as a native app. A few weeks into my work we learnt about an issue with the school's cybersecurity blocking access to the app. For The Daily 10 to be usable in high schools we would need to rebuild for web.
Converting An Oversight Into A Strength
A setback like this taught me the importance of finding the issues that could hurt the project before building, not when it blows up in our face later. This led me to learning OOUX, an object oriented approach to UX design which allowed me to map out a complex product and catch structural issues on the map, before they reached the build.
The original home screen was three buttons. It told you nothing about:
I redesigned it as a hub that surfaces classes, upcoming assignments, current topics, and quick access to all three modes, giving users a real overview the moment they land.
Through the map I had noticed the importance of Class, which wasn't being utilised. Class was just a label for a select group of students who would receive an assignment. The teacher connected straight to Students with nothing real between them. Making Class an actual object gave the teacher a per-class dashboard instead of one overloaded hub. This would make it possible for teachers to manage multiple classes at the same time.
Current Topic
Current Topic allows students to focus on the syllabus and tailors student dashboards to what's relevant.
Class Stats
Teacher monitors the class and ensures every student is completing their assignments and competent in each topic.
Adding a student to a teacher's class required our programmer to do it manually, which was fine for the testing run but wouldn't scale any further than that. This led me to creating an easy way for students and teachers to be connected in the app without any external involvement.
Teachers Create The Class
The teacher creates the class and generates a class code for the students to input.
Students Join Via The Code
The student inputs the code, sending a request to the teacher.
Teacher Approves Student
Once approved, the student is now added to the class.
Early on, my employer wrote the questions and I designed around them, but it became apparent that the platform only works if the questions work — which required us to all be on the same page. After chatting with the team I built a question creation process based on what everyone in the team needed, because without a shared vision the end product would suffer.
As implied by the name "The Daily 10," each subtopic has 10 questions. Each question in the set of ten has a purpose to help the student understand the problem.
Q1 – Q3
Establish
Concept introduced at base difficulty. Core skill only, no edge cases. Student should succeed if they've read the theory.
Q4 – Q7
Build
Complexity increases. Different angles on the same concept. Distractors start targeting common misconceptions rather than random wrong answers.
Q8 – Q10
Push
Edge cases, combined skills, higher-order thinking. A student who gets here has covered the subtopic from multiple directions.
The old app dropped students straight into questions. The new flow builds in preparation first — topic, subtopic, difficulty, worked example, then questions. Students know what they're doing before they start.
Learning Goal
Define exactly what the student needs to understand by the end of the subtopic.
Subtopic Theory
Decide what concept to introduce, in what order, and how best to deliver it.
Question Design
Each question has a stated cognitive intent and a deliberate position in the ten-question arc.
Worked Solutions
Every distractor maps to a real misconception; the solution addresses that specific mistake, not the general method.
Learning Path · 6 Screens
The feedback system has two states. The second one is the most important design decision in the product.
1st Attempt Wrong
A worked solution tied to the specific distractor chosen — not generic. If they forgot to square the base, that's what the solution addresses.
2nd Attempt Wrong
Same concept, different numbers. Still wrong? You move on.
Why This Matters
Generic feedback gets dismissed. Distractor-specific feedback forces students to actually engage with what they got wrong.
My employer tested the app at a high school in Port Hacking. Due to it being a school class I wasn't given the opportunity to go along to view, but I did get feedback through the employer. Regarding the quiz, students reported having problems with:
I created a three-column layout. The first column includes the equation — it's always at the top, so the user will never have it disrupted from view. The next section is the question and input field. The final section is the calculator for desktop, or the number pad for mobile.
The original assignment system was deeply embedded within the Learning Paths feature, meaning teachers could only create assignments through a learning path. This assumption proved limiting, as feedback from teachers showed they wanted the flexibility to create and manage assignments independently.
Refactoring the system was a significant technical challenge due to the existing codebase. We redesigned the assignment feature as a standalone system that could be accessed from anywhere in the app. Teachers can now create assignments from scratch via the Assignments section, or start from a Learning Path or Class, where relevant information is automatically pre-filled to streamline the process.
Students receive a notification when a new assignment is created (if notifications are enabled), and the assignment also appears prominently on their dashboard so it is easy to find at any time.
Teachers can manage assignments from a single, centralised view. Student progress is clearly displayed, with those who haven't yet completed an assignment automatically appearing at the top of the list, allowing teachers to focus on the students who need attention first.
More Work
