Learning App Design: Insights and the Best Examples to Follow

Learning App Design: Insights and the Best Examples to Follow

Education is one of the many industries impacted by technology. Today, education apps are greatly advantageous to tutors and students. However, the software attaining its full potential depends on the learning app ui design, which can provide several effective tools. So, it is safe to say that the best education app design offers premium benefits to users. As you learn about the language learning app, you should use this article to get insights into app design and know fantastic examples to follow.

What are the Types of Educational Apps?

Before creating a learning app design, you need to figure out the type of app you want to build. The specificity of your idea determines what the design would be. Do you want to create a free or paid subscription app, a virtual classroom, a basic educational app, or an adult or a kid’s app?

So far, there are four types of educational apps based on three factors:

  • Monetization model: paid or free
  • Genre: subject-based, i.e., mathematics, language learning, or high education learning, online course platforms.
  • Audience: Adults or kids
  • Structure: Quiz-based, complex format, or virtual classroom

When you decide what type of app you want to build using these criteria, it shouldn’t be difficult to develop a design.

How to Create the Best UI Design for an Education App?

As aforementioned, the design of educational apps comes in different forms depending on the type. And with that being established, there are 9 different principles based on human psychology that you could try out to develop the best learning app.

Principle 1: Habit-Based

Familiarity is one of the attributes that makes it possible for people to use software or service. If you design an app based on habit, i.e., familiarity, you’ll find consumers use it without problems.

Principle 2: Minimal Effort

Like the habit-based principle, minimal effort takes the same path. Designing an app that provides users with an easy way to complete a task is always a win. The minimal effort put into UI design gives room for a better acquaintance with functions and features. For instance, if you design an app with a list of options or categories, search filters, or colors, it wouldn’t be hard to use it. Additionally, designing the app’s features to be adjustable or customizable makes it even more user-friendly.

Principle 3: Miller’s Rule

Miller’s Rule is a popular principle among developers. It is a concept based on the numbering of items or functions on the app. To improve a UI design that will be functional to anyone, you need to make sure you distribute the functions into groups. It would be best not to put all the functions on a single page because they cluster and become confusing.

Principle 4: Emotion-Based

Another way to design your learning app is based on emotions. Having your app recognize a user’s emotions can improve engagement. For instance, if a user is doing well, an emoji or mascot displaying the person’s emotion of success, i.e., happiness, would do. On the contrary, failures mean a sad face or mascot. Irrespective of the situation, displaying emotions would trigger the person to want to do better.

Principle 5: Social Acceptance

Many often, social acceptance facilitates the usability of an app. If the software can be integrated into social apps so that with the push of a button, a user can share experiences, successes, or results, it would be a good thing. Besides, it is an excellent strategy to promote the app to others.

Principle 6: Identity and Beauty

The principle of identity and beauty are also quite popular. It involves creating the software with specific features, such as characters, themes, awards, colors, logos, navigation tools, etc., to improve usability. These features will make it stand out from the competition. However, you should also leave room for updates but maintain the design to meet every user’s needs.

Principle 7: Error Avoidance

As perfect as technology seems, it has its flaws. The principle of error avoidance has been integrated into educational app design. It simply means giving users a chance to correct their mistakes easily. It could be with the press of a button or the highlighting of a section. You can also give users some autonomy by allowing them to respond to certain commands, such as blocking pop-up notifications. 

Principle 8: Perspective

An education mobile app design can also be based on perspective, i.e., learning progress. If a user finds an interface that gives full autonomy over their learning process, it will improve the software’s usability. Anyone would want to track their record and discover how far they have to go regarding a course or lesson.

Principle 9: Complete Focus and Ultimate Concentration

Finally, you can have an app design that guarantees full concentration. It involves removing distracting elements such as notifications, ads, or sounds. However, you can replace them with timers or scales to help users track learning speed.

The Best Education App Design Examples

Below are the top education app UI design examples.

1. Duolingo

  • Open-source language learning app
  • Over 500M users
  • Affordable
  • Unified style with interactive elements (streaks)
  • Simple interface
  • Lesson duration
  • Customized curriculum

2. CodeAcademy

  • Paid programming learning application
  • Over 45M users
  • Ergonomic UI design
  • Progress Tracking, Microlearning, and Rewarding
  • Gamification Tools, Progress display, and Streaks
  • Quiz/tests and Daily Flashcards

3. Udemy

  • Open-source + paid e-learning community
  • Over 52M users
  • Offers over 200,000 courses on programming, marketing, data science, etc.
  • Audio or Text Lectures
  • Quizzes
  • Subtitles
  • Live Classes and Teach Hub
  • Partnership Promotions
  • PDFs and Presentations

Conclusion

According to this article, if you are looking for the best education app design, you need to understand what type of software you want to build. It is the first clue to discovering the UI design. Once you do, you can now focus on using any or all the principles above to design your software. Regardless of what you come up with, it would help if you remembered to put the consumers (or target audience) first and develop better ways to improve their experience.