PrepBox Product Design of Math Practice Applications
Product Design and Product Strategy
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Context & Challenge
Context & Challenge
Mathematics education often suffers from being overly procedural - memorization of steps without deep conceptual understanding. As digital tools proliferate, there's a risk students rely on rote learning without understanding why.
MGL Learning wanted to create a platform (mobile + iPad-optimized) that would do more than deliver content: it needed to adapt to each student’s learning path, encourage active reasoning, support scaffolding where needed, and offer feedback loops to reinforce understanding.
Goals
Goals
Create personalized learning paths for K-12 students that adapt to their strengths, gaps, and preferred features (AI + human tutor support).
Enable active learning: students should not just consume lectures but do work - write steps, solve problems, see where they error.
Deliver strong educational scaffolding: lectures, hints, solution videos, instant feedback, 1-on-1 or on-demand tutoring when needed.
Make the platform engaging and usable on iPads (widely used in target schools) - ensuring UI/UX is optimized for pen input, whiteboard-style work, etc.
Drive adoption, retention, and revenue — especially via premium AI plan, reduce friction in support, and scale to new users/countries.
My Approach & Design Process
My Approach & Design Process
User Research & Assessment
User Research & Assessment
Engaged with students, teachers, and tutors to understand pain points: where students get stuck, what feedback they need, how much human help vs. system help is useful.
Analyzed existing platforms and curriculum alignment (grade level, standards) to identify gaps and requirements.
Information Architecture & Learning Paths
Information Architecture & Learning Paths
Designed a flow where students begin with an assessment to benchmark their math skills.
Based on assessment, the system assigns learning resources (lectures, problem sets) tailored to their grade and skill gaps.
Enabled switching between assessment and learning so students can revisit concepts as needed.
Interaction Design: Doing, Not Just Watching
Interaction Design: Doing, Not Just Watching
Developed a whiteboard component: students write out full steps, show their reasoning, not just pick answers.
Incorporated tools like pen input on iPad, so the solving feels natural and hands-on.
Designed UI to support hints, scaffolded support, and feedback - lecture videos, solution walkthroughs, instant AI grading.
Scaffolding & Support Features
Scaffolding & Support Features
Layered support: small lectures, hints, full solution videos, and on-demand human tutor help.
Real-time feedback: instant scoring/grading from AI to help students self-correct.
Content monitoring: ensuring that video content, problem difficulty, and system suggestions map appropriately to student performance.
Iteration, Usability & Visual Design
Iteration, Usability & Visual Design
Created wireframes, prototypes, and tested them with students to ensure comprehension and ease of use.
Optimized for iPad usage: touch, pen, whiteboard interactions, screen flow.
Established visual consistency (typography, icons, spacing) and intuitive UI for navigation between content, assessment, feedback, and tutor support.
Key Design Decisions
Key Design Decisions
Whiteboard-style problem solving vs. multiple-choice / button-click only approach. This was to encourage showing work and deeper understanding.
Assessment first + adaptive path, rather than linear textbook progression, so each student gets what they need—not what the curriculum assumes.
Async + human tutor backup, so even when students are on their own, they’re not stuck indefinitely.
Instant feedback via AI, to tackle repeated mistakes quickly and reinforce correct reasoning.
Impact & Results
Impact & Results
Internal data shows 65% increase in revenue following the implementation of the mobile platform and its AI plan.
Strong growth in user base: 600,000+ new users after U.S. expansion - total reach grew to ≈58.25 million users.
8× increase in AI plan sales - indicating that users found value in the premium features (feedback / tutoring).
Raised $5M+ in funding, supported by improved product offerings & clearer product-market fit.
Reflection & Lessons Learned
Reflection & Lessons Learned
Personalization + feedback loops matter: letting students see where they failed, and giving them ways to correct in context, improves engagement and understanding.
Tool fidelity is important: when you allow natural input (whiteboard, pen, writing out work), you align closer with how students think and learn.
Balancing scale with quality: we needed to produce a huge amount of content, but always ensure it was scaffolded, clear, and useful—not just “more stuff.”
Team coordination & continuous iteration were critical — content, AI, UX, visual, and tutoring features all needed to evolve together as users used the product and gave feedback.
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