By Alesha Arp
The user interface is more than a cosmetic layer for an educational game; it can reveal the game’s true learning value.
User interfaces (UIs) present a paradox: when they are well designed, users rarely notice them; when they are poorly designed, they can make a program difficult to use or diminish an educational game’s effectiveness. As digital learning becomes a larger part of classroom instruction, evaluating the UI and overall user experience of educational games for both students and teachers should be a top priority.
When selecting digital games for classrooms, educators consider many factors: curriculum alignment, cost, and whether students find the experience engaging. The quality of the user interface should be part of that decision. Fortunately, assessing a game’s UI is straightforward if you focus on a few practical principles.
1) Design principles are universal.
Although visuals and language should be age-appropriate, the fundamental rules of good design remain constant across audiences and contexts. Children may benefit from friendly characters and playful language, but the interface still needs to support clear focus on the task. Unintuitive interactions can confuse both kids and adults.
Good design uses familiar patterns and predictable behaviors. For example, many transactional interfaces follow a down-and-right flow—think of a PIN pad or a checkout button—which users learn through repeated exposure. These shared conventions create muscle memory that helps users move efficiently through an experience. Children, like adults, internalize common design constructs from the digital environments they use every day.
2) Interfaces should be uncluttered.
The most effective educational interfaces keep the learning task front and center. When art assets, decorations, or extraneous animations obscure content, students must work harder to find and process the learning material. This unnecessary visual noise increases cognitive load for all learners and can be especially challenging for students with processing or attention differences.
Designers often add many characters, rewards, and decorative elements to appeal to a broad audience, but too much imagery risks hiding the instructional purpose. Prioritize clarity: graphics and interface elements should support learning goals rather than distract from them.
3) Well-designed UIs support progressive discovery.
Good educational tools guide users from basic to advanced actions through a clear hierarchy of features. Designers use tools like a usage maturity matrix to map the tasks that new, intermediate, and advanced users need to perform. For teachers, initial tasks might include logging in, enrolling students, and launching assignments. More advanced tasks could involve exploring data on standards coverage or customizing reports.
A well-designed landing page surfaces the essential, first-step actions so users can begin immediately. Secondary and advanced functions should be available with a small number of clicks and remain discoverable without overwhelming the novice user. This approach—often called progressive disclosure or progressive discovery—ensures users can grow into the system without being confronted by everything at once.
4) Don’t overuse extrinsic motivation.
Game-based learning must balance students’ expectations of typical games with the need to keep attention on learning. Features like lengthy avatar customization, excessive badges, or time-consuming cosmetic choices can reduce time spent on actual instruction. If students spend minutes personalizing avatars on a platform intended for short practice sessions, that personalization eats into valuable learning minutes.
That said, educational games should not be sterile. They should be engaging, motivating students to persist, think, and explore. Intrinsic motivation—where students feel satisfaction from solving a problem or mastering a challenge—often produces deeper engagement than superficial rewards. Celebrations of success within the game are valuable when they follow meaningful problem-solving and perseverance, not when they replace the learning itself.
5) Informative feedback beats “digital worksheets” every time.
One of the weakest forms of digital learning is mere worksheet replication: a question appears, the student gets a green check or a red X, and the interaction ends. This binary feedback tells the student only whether an answer is correct, not why it is correct or how to improve. In contrast, effective game-based learning provides actionable feedback that helps students rethink and try again.
Well-designed interfaces support multiple solution paths and offer clues or scaffolded hints when a student struggles. Informative feedback explains why an incorrect response didn’t work and suggests a next step, allowing students to revise their thinking and deepen understanding. That kind of feedback, embedded in thoughtful gameplay, makes digital games more effective than static digital worksheets.
About the author
Alesha Arp is the senior user experience researcher at MIND Research Institute, the nonprofit organization behind ST Math, a PreK–8 spatial-temporal math program. Previously, she worked as a special education teacher and continues to bring classroom insight to her research. She can be reached via the MIND Research Institute.
This article was originally published by The Learning Counsel, a research institute and news media hub focused on the transition to digital curriculum and instruction.