Create a Challenge was designed during my design residency at Gradeo, an education startup focused on transforming traditional exam preparation through technology. Gradeo’s core strength lies in providing access to over ten years of NSW HSC past papers, along with AI tools that allow students to generate customised practice exams based on subjects, topics, and difficulty levels.

During a conference, Gradeo received strong feedback from parents whose children were using the platform to practise with past papers. One parent shared that her son felt significantly more confident and better prepared for his exams through regular use of the platform. While this validated the educational value of Gradeo’s content and AI generated practice exams, it also raised a key question, how might we encourage students to practise more consistently and engage with these tools over time?

Create a Challenge was conceived as a way to turn exam practice into an ongoing, goal-driven experience. By combining Gradeo’s existing past papers and AI-generated practice exams with personal and group challenges, the feature encourages students to set goals, track progress, and stay motivated. Rather than practising sporadically, students are supported in building consistent study habits through a sense of purpose and achievement.

The Create a Challenge feature allows users to:

• Create individual or group challenges
• Select subjects and define what to track, including AI-generated practice exams or past papers
• Invite classmates or peers to participate
• View progress through a persistent challenge tracker displayed on the home screen

This tracker provides continuous visual feedback, reinforcing progress and motivating students to keep practising without adding unnecessary pressure.

By integrating AI-generated practice exams into a goal-based system, Create a Challenge increases engagement while helping students practise with intention. The feature enhances existing learning tools by adding motivation, accountability, and visibility, encouraging students to return to the platform and build confidence through regular practice.

This project helped me understand how motivation plays a critical role in learning tools. By translating real user feedback into a feature that combines AI, goal-setting, and progress tracking, I explored how design can support long-term engagement rather than one-off use. Create a Challenge reflects my approach to design: using insight-driven ideas to shape features that encourage consistency, confidence, and meaningful learning behaviour.