Making learning gamified for students at Quizizz
How we redesigned Quizizz's gamification system to make it more engaging for students.
Overview - The fun crisis
Quizizz was losing market share to competitors like Blooket and Gimkit because students found it less fun.
As lead designer, I spearheaded a gamification redesign adding peer-to-peer interaction, strategy elements, and reward systems.
These changes increased student satisfaction scores from 3.1 to 3.8 - the first significant improvement in three years.
My Role
Led the end-to-end journey as a lead designer. Managed art direction, facilitated play test sessions alongside the research team, and aligned the stakeholders.
Team
The team consisted of me, a Jr. Designer, a Researcher, a Product Manager, an Illustrator, and 5 Engineers.
Research
Teacher Insights
We connected with a few teachers, also looked at various forums and figured:
- 1Blooket/Gimkit were taking over ice-breakers and review use cases
- 2Quizizz was seen as a serious assessment tool rather than an engaging platform
- 3Quizizz's live mode hadn't evolved enough to provide variety
- 4Teachers valued Quizizz's educational rigor over extreme gamification
Student Preferences
Since we couldn't reach US students directly, we analyzed Blooket/Gimkit's Reddit and Discord
- 1Students enjoy strategy-based gameplay
- 2They want classroom banter and bragging rights
- 3Enjoy unpredictable elements that can change game outcomes
Our challenge was clear: Create engaging gameplay that students love while maintaining the educational rigor teachers valued in Quizizz.
Introducing
Game Mechanics
Peer to Peer
Fun classroom banter within students
Strategy
Choosing the right form of attack or defense
Loss Aversion
Stay in line and protect score or sabotage
My Favorite Interactions
Levels - Roulette
Students progress through levels, and upon reaching certain milestones, they get to choose between different variations of strike and shield.
Striking Success
This demonstrates how students can strike another students score.
Shield in Action
This shows how students strikes work when someone shields their score.
Impact
PSAT (Participant Satisfaction Score) is our key metric for measuring student engagement
First significant movement in 3 years!
What students said
What teachers said
