Context
Human brains and skill sets continue to evolve, and the uniqueness of each individual keeps rising.
📦
→
🎯
There’s no longer a one-size-fits-all approach to what you intend to learn, but more personalized and individualized paths are needed.
📚
Content access is NOT the problem
→
but about designing systems
that supports the messy side of learning:
🤝🏻 connection
🔥 momentum
🎯 prioritization
❤️ emotions
Problem
⚠️
Many of us are perfectionists and therefore hesitate, and not taking actions, leaving our beautiful ideas on paper, or just thoughts in our heads.
Design Principles
Goals
⚙️
Plan with AI, start micro-actions, visualize progress, and journal to reflect.
🔗
Connect with the right resources, not all of the resources.
Provide recommended resources in the learning plan.
🏋🏻
Action > consumption
Take microactions and visualize progress.
💆🏻♀️
Social without pressure
Learn about others' progress, but follow your own plan.
Gathering data
Research Methodology & Personas
1
🎙️
In-Depth Research Interviews
To understand adult learners' emotions, motivations, and learning challenges.
30-45 minutes per session
All lived in the United States
Diverse age groups and learning goals
Participants self-provided
2
🧪
Competitor Analysis
To investigate how Glows and Grows can stand out from our competitors, I carried out a competitor analysis to understand our strengths.
3 other competitors
Key Personas
The Independent Explorer
self-directed niche learner • Flexible
💬 "I learn best when I can create my own path and become an expert in something unique"
Key Behaviors
⚡
Tends to over-analyze before taking action
🎨
Values flexibility and self-directed learning
✨
Seeks validation to confirm they're on track
🎯
Motivated by celebrating small wins
Learning Preferences
Manual
control
Visual
progress
Trusted
advice
Structured • Goal-Driven
💬 "When I pay for a structured course with deadlines and mentors, I actually complete it. Free courses? I abandon them every time."
Key Behaviors
⏰
Takes action when tasks feel urgent and time-bound
📊
Thrives with clear deadlines and milestones
👥
Needs peer accountability to stay on track
✅
Feels progress through structured achievement
Learning Preferences
Peer
support
Deadlines
Competitor Analysis
How we stand out among our competitors
Our Competitors
Glows & Grows
Coursera
Duolingo
Atoms
⚠️
1
Learning Input > Output; Lacks Accountability
Other apps focus on content consumption over action-taking. A very limited emotional accountability or reflection system to sustain learning.
2
Limited Depth & Real-Life Application
Surface-level knowledge that doesn't translate to real-life application. Habit trackers lack learning content and community support.
3
No Social Interactions
Purely individual experience with no peer connections, community engagement, or accountability partners.
✓
✓
Action-Based Progress + Visible Momentum
Progress measured by actions taken, not content consumed. Reflection prompts build momentum and self-awareness.
✓
AI Learning Plans + Micro-Actions + Emotional Accountability
Personalized AI plans that adapt to your goals and pace. Break learning into micro-actions with progress proof by visualization and reflection.
✓
Buddy System + Community Feed + Mentor Matching
Connect with a learning community, and find mentors, turning solo learning into shared growth.
Bridging the Define & Ideate Stage
POV, HMW & Design Strategies
I summarized 4 key insights about learning Activation Problems, formats, emotions and momentum as follows.
🎭
SELF-DIRECTED | FLEXIBLE
Point of View...(POV)
An Independent Explorer needs a way to get started and stay motivated because they tend to over-analyze and procrastinate due to perfectionism.
How Might we... (HMW)
How might we help Independent Explorers overcome over-analysis and perfectionism so they can get started more easily?
Point of View...(POV)
An Independent Explorer needs To share their work for others to validate because recognition from others helps them see and celebrate their visible progress.
How Might we... (HMW)
How might we create opportunities for Independent Explorers to share, teach, and get recognition from peers
to make their progress visible?
🎯
Point of View...(POV)
The Guided Striver needs accountability from peers because talking through their ideas aloud and receiving validation helps them stay on track and feel progress.
How Might we... (HMW)
Build accountability systems that encourage Guided Strivers to share ideas aloud and receive peer validation?
Point of View...(POV)
The Guided Striver needs to structure their learning with clear deadlines because they take action when tasks feel urgent and time-bound.
How Might we... (HMW)
Provide clear, structured deadlines and actionable items, so Guided Strivers can consistently achieve small or big goals?
Feature Prioritization
Comprehensive Feature Set
Based on personas' mutual needs & competitive Analysis. Features are organized by priority to address both personas' needs while enabling sustainable product development.
Design System
UI Components & Brand Identity
Based on the brand vision and to ensure scalability and design efficiency, the following design system was established.
Icons
navigation & Progress
cards
major buttons
Enabled
disabled
Meet GG
Brand Essence
GG is a sun character representing warmth and curiosity; with a clown hat, embodying playfulness; with leaves symbolizing cultivation (Growing) and continuous learning.
Solution: Breaking the Paralysis Cycle
Feature 1: Overcoming Hesitation through Micro-Actions
Combining the market research and key insights, feature 1: overcoming hesitation through micro-actions was placed as the highest priority for shipping.
Entry Point
external push
proof upload
celebration
The mess behind these Final screens
🧪
Before arrival of my final screens, I carried out 2 rounds of usability testing to iterate on my design.
⚠️ uneven sizes of button
⚠️ lack context of learning
⚠️ difficult to differentiate between search and buttons
⚠️ Confusing ui elements
⚠️ lacking flexibility to journal to document
Ideation & Prototype & Testing - Design Exploration
From Identity-Matching to Goal-Setting
When creating the goal-setting feature, I explored ways to solidify users' learning via identity building. However, test results showed that goal focus + flexible domains accommodate different levels, which aligns with the app's goals more.
🧪
Testing Insight:
Identity reinforces learning, but learners have diverse motivations, from childhood ambitions to professional development, not everyone defines identity.
Hobby
Competency
Mastery
Before:
Identity Focused
⚠️ what I assumed
users define themselves by career aspirations
Feedback example
‘I want to know my finances better, but I’m not interested in being an accountant’
After:
Goal Focus
✅ what users want
flexible domains + goals accomodate different levels
🎯
The pivot
‘ What are you trying to become?’
‘ What do you want to learn?’
Solution: Balancing Learning Guidance & Autonomy
Feature 2: AI-generated personalized plan
The key challenge was to create adaptive learning plans that balance AI coaching with user autonomy in accommodating both personas, as their desired level of autonomy spans a wide spectrum. Thus, iterations regarding commitment levels, learning plan customization, and liability disclaimers were added.
1
Commitment level
➕ Newly added screen
2
Disclaimer
➕ Newly added screen
3
➕ added ' edit my plan' cta
➕ added links to resources
➕ added border to the current learning stage
Solution: building systems to reflect for life-long learning
Feature 3: reflection & Journaling for life-long learning
As mentioned above, learning is also emotional and especially important for the long term personal growth.
1
Action alignment reflection
before
after
➕ options to select from
➕ options after typing to provide space to think
4
Gallery to visualize progress
➕ newly added screen
Reflections on Using AI
AI Strategy & Development Roadmap
AI is rising, and I therefore used it as my creative partner in the project. I also asked my users their views on AI, and reflected on the usage in this project.
The Role of AI
⚯ As a creative partner:
AI accelerates the design process in the following ways.
💭
brainstorming
🎨
iterating
📝
writing
💖 Some of my favorite tools:
mid-Journey
Chat GPT
Gemini
Claude AI
Bear in Mind when using AI…
🧠 Always allow yourself to think before relying on AI:
Never let AI create bias before you think; nothing beats human creativity.
🤝🏻 Trust in AI: During the 2nd Usability Testing, I questioned about trust and accuracy of AI.
Users revealed they need transparency about AI’s role and limitations.
📍 Next Steps:
Research more on how to scale AI ethically
⬇️
so the content generated can be more aligned with user expectations.
The AI-Driven Roadmap
0 months
3 months
6 months
12 months
(0-3 Months)
Track
💯
Hero flow success - 1st action completion rate
✅
Work completion rate - momentum sustain
🔗
Weekly upload frequency - engagement
(4-6 Months)
Launch
🤝🏻
Buddy system based on interviewee framework.
(7-12 Months)
AI Refinement
⭕️
Refine AI recommendations and achieve 85% accuracy.
Key Learning & Design Philosophy
I got inspired by both the process of designing and listening to advice on learning from my users.
Users asked if we could skip the proof upload to speed up the user flow. However, this is the core of the accountability system; removing it undermines the entire design.
Instead, I simplified the flow by integrating camera access directly into the flow, making proof upload sweet and simple.
💫
' Listen to others, but have a backbone; you are the final decision maker.'
💫
‘Make 100 things, discard 90, and share the 10 best...’
James Clear
Iterations may not give you answers of what to design, but eliminate things that you should omit
One Piece of Advice My Users Gave Me in Learning Something New...
🍾
“Just do it.... Analysis paralysis where you overthink something...’
Interviewee 5
💆🏻♀️
‘Don't worry too much. Don’t be intimidated by the app. Eventually, it’s just drawing.’
Interviewee 2
🏃🏻♀️
‘Consistency.' Being Able to do things consistently
Interviewee 2
⏳
Always choose a well-structured program with personalized support, as you will need it.
Interviewee 1
Personal Story
Why this project matters to me
The Treadmill Problem
I’ve always hated treadmills. They felt boring, repetitive, just motion without meaning. But they were the most accessible and economic way for me to move, especially during long, tiring days.
Books That Kept Me Company
So I started pairing them with audiobooks and productivity videos. Suddenly, movement became meaningful.
A Career Crossroad
Around the same time, I was also navigating a career transition. I found myself wanting to relearn things I’d left behind , from old hobbies to unfinished goals.
🎨 🩰 🏸
Maybe it was compensation, or maybe it was a need to reclaim something I never had the space or support to
explore deeply.