Using play, feedback, and choice to transform high-friction virtual classroom
Improved student engagement by 60% with Gamified Zoom redesign
With the global shift to online learning, Zoom has become essential, yet student engagement remains a significant challenge. This project aimed to redesign the Zoom experience, transforming passive learners into active participants through detailed user research and innovative gamified interactions.
Passive Interfaces Led to Passive Participation
As learning moved online, Zoom became a default classroom. But for students, it felt transactional, isolating, and boring. For instructors, it lacked cues to student comprehension and participation.
How might we transform passive virtual lectures into dynamic, engaging learning environments?
Began with Deep Empathy
Research Methods
User Interviews
Captured firsthand experiences from instructors and students globally.
Affinity Mapping
Organized and synthesized research findings into patterns of disengagement.
Key Research Questions Asked
For instructors
Could you share any training or resources you've received for teaching online?
How do you keep students engaged online?
Could you describe a recent challenge you faced with Zoom and how you resolved it?
Could you walk me through how you typically prepare for an online class?
For students
When you think about online classes, how would you define engagement?
Could you tell me about an online class you particularly enjoyed? What about it made it enjoyable?
What challenges have you faced in online classes
In what ways do you typically participate or interact during an online class?
I independently mapped 60+ student and instructor pain points to uncover patterns that shaped our final design direction.
Connected Virtually, Disconnected in Reality
The synthesis revealed one converging outcome: a breakdown in meaningful participation on both sides of the classroom.
From Patterns to Personas
Three personas emerged from our synthesis, each revealing different challenges in how students and instructors experienced virtual classrooms.
Insights That Revealed the Opportunity Areas
These insights pointed toward three opportunity areas:
Make Engagement Visible
Students wanted acknowledgment. Instructors needed cues.
Motivate Through Play
Gamification done right could spark joy.
Lower Social Risk
Fear of speaking up was real. Interfaces needed to reduce friction.
While designing interaction for both, we decided its best to narrow down and cater to first to the students as the pain points indicated if students were involved and participated the professor would be automatically resolved. So our focus was on students first though interface was for both.
Voices That Reflected Core Frictions
Turning Pain Points Into Play Points
The final solution featured an engaging interactive platform explicitly designed for student experiences, including:
How We Reimagined the Classroom Experience
These ideal task flows were built from real user pain points and mapped to reflect the behavior shifts our design aimed to support.
Student (Max) Task Flow
Max logs into his virtual classroom, greeted by a row of classmate’s avatars. His avatar’s Cubs hat sparks conversation with other baseball-loving classmates. As class begins, the chime of awarded points for attendance excites Max. This also motivates him to engage in class more. As the lecture progresses, Max pins his doubt in hopes that the professor can give him clarity on the topic. A few minutes later, the professor answers his query and launches the interactive quiz.
With his doubt resolved, Max feels confident he will do well on the quiz. Although he gets the third-highest score, he feels incited to do even better next time. At the end of the class, Max receives a summary of the points he earned. He is satisfied with the points and is excited to continue engaging in this format.
Instructor (Dr. Sheffield) Task Flow
Dr. Sheffield sits down at his desk to plan his class for tomorrow. He uploads his presentation to ‘Zoom Classroom’ and picks two activity templates to create short quizzes. The next day, he’s glad to see his virtual classroom full of avatars greeting him. Thanks to their unique looks, he instantly recognizes most of the student’s avatars.
As the class continues, he notices question marks pop up. This prompts him to glance over the cluster of doubts pinned on the class timeline. After addressing the doubts, Dr. Sheffield launches his pre-made quiz and gets live feedback on class performance. At the end of the class, he reviews the comprehensive dashboard that displays trends in attendance, engagement, and progress tracking. He is content that the class performance is improving when compared to previous classes.
Bringing It to Life: The Interaction in Action
From timed quizzes to randomized topic wheels, each screen reflects how gamified UX principles were applied to drive motivation, clarity, and participation.
Testing Uncovered 3 Key Friction Points
60% of users found the experience highly immersive, yet testing revealed three usability gaps that were critical to address.
We tested the in-class activity flow with 5 university students familiar with Zoom and other video platforms. I independently moderated and facilitated 2 of these sessions end-to-end. We tracked behavioral cues, post-task feedback, and engagement scores using a 13-question User Engagement Scale.
Insight #1: Users Tried Clicking the Wheel (Not the Button)
The button was redesigned with stronger contrast and a timed tooltip triggered after 5 seconds of inactivity.
Insight #3: Avatars Distracted During Focused Tasks
Avatars were hidden during quizzes to reduce cognitive load and minimize visual distraction.
