EDTECH · MOBILE · CONSUMER

Avanti Gurukul App

Avanti Gurukul App

Turned a 2-year solo study grind into a daily habit, gamified mobile learning for IIT-JEE aspirants, built on research rather than assumptions.

Turned a 2-year solo study grind into a daily habit, gamified mobile learning for IIT-JEE aspirants, built on research rather than assumptions.

My Role

Product Designer
End-to-end, sole designer

Scope

Research · UX · Gamification
Mobile design

Brief Vs. Reality

3 months · Discovery to delivery

Client

Avanti Learning Centres · IIT-JEE Coaching · Mobile App

Core screens

The Problem

Three reasons students stop showing up, even when they want to succeed.

IIT-JEE preparation spans two years across Physics, Chemistry, and Maths, one of the most competitive entrance exams in the world, with roughly 1.2 million students competing for 16,000 seats. Existing EdTech platforms delivered content but didn't address why students disengaged from it.

IIT-JEE preparation spans two years across Physics, Chemistry, and Maths, one of the most competitive entrance exams in the world, with roughly 1.2 million students competing for 16,000 seats. Existing EdTech platforms delivered content but didn't address why students disengaged from it.

Discovery identified three distinct failure modes: no feedback loop to make study feel productive, no visible milestones to sustain motivation across two years, and no structure to tell students what to study on a given day.

Discovery identified three distinct failure modes: no feedback loop to make study feel productive, no visible milestones to sustain motivation across two years, and no structure to tell students what to study on a given day.

User Journey Map (Left) | User Personas (Right)

WHAT I DID

Explored > Test > Deliver

Made gamification inseparable from the learning, not layered on top.

Credits are earned through demonstrated understanding (test performance), not passive activity (time spent). Topics unlock after passing a test, not after watching a video. The reward is tied directly to comprehension, so students can't skip ahead and the system can't be gamed by leaving a lecture playing.

Built the Home screen as a daily anchor, not a dashboard.

Every element on the home screen either surfaces a pending task or rewards a completed one. Continue Learning is the most prominent feature, picking up exactly where the student left off with no navigation required. Credits are always visible. Subject coverage is at a glance. The goal: reduce the activation cost of starting a session to near zero.

Designed a Weekly Planner with smart calculations, turning intentions into diaried commitments.

The planner automatically calculates how much content needs to be covered per day based on exam date and current progress. Students set specific daily goals within the planne, those goals surface on the home screen, closing the loop between planning and doing. Contextual notifications (missed slot, streak at risk, session reminder) are triggered by planner state, not scheduled blasts.

The Result

Study. Test. Earn. Unlock.

Every study session ends with visible progress, a topic unlocked, credits earned, a planner slot marked done. The grind became measurable.

Every study session ends with visible progress, a topic unlocked, credits earned, a planner slot marked done. The grind became measurable.

76%

76%

Students surveyed who explicitly wanted a reward system, directly validated this approach

68%

68%

Students who wanted planner integration, the Weekly Planner was research-driven, not assumed

3

3

Core screens, each solving exactly one of the three engagement failure modes

"The gamification couldn't feel like a layer on top of learning. It had to be inseparable from it."

"The gamification couldn't feel like a layer on top of learning. It had to be inseparable from it."

Credits, Home, & Continue learning