Context
Designing AI tutor to teach Maths
AI can solve problems faster than students but the easier it becomes to get answers, the harder it becomes to build problem-solving skills.
Role
Product Designer
Platform
Android
Year
2025
Context
CalmSparks is an AI-powered learning companion designed to help students truly understand and master math through a structured, supportive journey.
Instead of just giving answers, it focuses on building intuition by breaking down concepts into clear, visual, and easy-to-follow explanations. The platform encourages active learning through guided problem-solving, varied practice, and personalised quizzes that adapt to each learner’s pace.
Daily Active Users
4x
Net Promoter Score
4.6
User Research
Pattern 1: Students Took the Hint the Moment It Was Available
Almost every student, when stuck, requested a hint before trying again. Though it was rational behaviour — “Why struggle when the answer is one tap away?” it created a compounding problem: students who never sat with difficulty never developed the confidence to try independently. Over two sessions, they became more hint-dependent, not less.
Observation: By the second session, several were clicking ‘hint’ before fully reading the question. The shortcut had become the default, and the default was eroding the skill the product was trying to build.
Pattern 2: Getting It Wrong Felt Like Failing
Several students went quiet after a wrong answer and either guessed randomly on subsequent tries or immediately requested the hint.
The product was unintentionally conditioning students to associate maths with the threat of being wrong.
Pattern 3: The Language of Problems Didn’t Land
That students engaged visibly more when he described problems in terms they recognised from their own lives, like splitting something fairly, figuring out a cost, and working out if something was enough.
Observation: When the context was real, the maths felt like a tool. When it was abstract, it felt like an exercise.