Kishor Aproduct designerAvailable for work
BackHackerKID01 / 11

Designing a coding app kids come back to, and parents trust

Show a nine year old a real code editor and they leave. My job was to make them want to return tomorrow.

The HackerKID landing page
The HackerKID feed on a phone
Role
Product design and content
Company
GUVI
Designed for
Kids and their parents
Reach
About 600 real kids

Designing a daily loop, so coming back is the default

See where you stand, finish the work, earn the streak, see the club move. Every step ends with a reason for the next.

  1. Me
    The student profile: coins, XP, rank and recent achievements
    My profileCoins, XP and rank, the first thing a kid sees.
  2. Do
    Assignments due for the next session
    The assignmentDue before the next session.
  3. Earn
    Consecutive sign in award: 3 days, next at 7
    The streakThree days, and the next award in sight.
  4. Belong
    The club leaderboard
    The clubFriends, ranked, one tap away.

Rewarding every right step, because coding is full of small failures

A kid feels slow progress as boredom. So a streak shows how far they are and how close the next award is.

Consecutive sign in award: three days done, the next award at seven
Profile, awards

Borrowing what already keeps kids hooked, following Jakob’s law

Patterns from Duolingo, Khan Academy Kids and Scratch, adapted to coding without turning learning into a slot machine.

Ranks and coins: the club leaderboard and the student’s place in it

Answering doubts inside the club, so one reply helps every kid

A doubt asked in the club chat is answered where the rest of the club can see it, and learn from it too.

Club chat: replying to a doubt

Giving the parent a calmer voice, because the phone is theirs

The screen time belongs to the parent. Their view of the same work is quieter than the bright one built for the kid.

Assignments, as the kid sees them
Kid
Assignments, as the parent sees them
Parent

600

real kids used the platform

With parents who stayed bought in.

Showing parents what their kid made, so pride brings the kid back

Kids make something, parents show it off and encourage the next one. A view of progress turned monitoring into trust.

A parent’s view of their kid’s game stats
Parent, game stats

Asking the parent first at signup, because they decide

The parent’s details, then the kid’s, then a thank you that points straight at the first lesson.

  1. Step 1
    Submit your details: the parent’s name, phone and email
    The parentName, phone and email.
  2. Step 2
    Submit your details: the student’s name, grade, city and course
    The kidGrade, city and the course.
  3. Step 3
    Your submission has been saved, with Try HackerKID now
    SavedThen straight into it.

Selling each course by what a kid gets to make

Games, apps, websites and AI, each on its own page, written to the parent and pictured for the kid.

  1. Course
    The game development course page
    Games
  2. Course
    The app development course page
    Apps
  3. Course
    The web development course page
    Websites
  4. Course
    The AI course page
    AI

Next time, I would measure the confetti

I would track where rewards stop motivating learning and start motivating collecting.

Next caseZenClassReplacing four tools with one class platform, built around two seats
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