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History Addict Bildungs-App by Xi Pang

History Addict Bildungs-App by Xi Pang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 A' Design Award in Bronze in Bildungsdesign Competition Category.


BronzeBildung· 2025

History Addict Bildungs-App

by Xi Pang

Client: X Design Studio

A' Design Award in Bronze Winner in Bildung Category

Colors

The Design

About History Addict Bildungs-App

History Addict ist eine mobile Bildungs-App, die den traditionell mühsamen Prozess des Geschichtslernens in ein fesselndes, spielerisches Erlebnis verwandelt. Sie nutzt Datenanalyse und KI-Algorithmen, um Geschichtskurse zu empfehlen, die auf die Interessen der Nutzer zugeschnitten sind. Die App transformiert außerdem von Historikern anerkannte Lernwerkzeuge in interaktive Rätsel innerhalb ihres Quiz-Moduls und hilft den Nutzern dabei, ihr Wissen effektiv zu festigen, während sie ein spielähnliches Erlebnis genießen. Indem History Addict das Geschichtslernen unterhaltsamer und zugänglicher macht, zielt die App darauf ab, mehr Menschen dazu zu inspirieren, Geschichte in ihrem Leben zu schätzen und sich damit auseinanderzusetzen.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award in Bronze

History Addict Bildungs-App ist Gewinner des A' Design Award in Bronze, einer hochprestigeträchtigen Anerkennung für herausragende Designs, die sich durch Kreativität, Einfallsreichtum und Scharfsinn auszeichnen. Bronze-Gewinner sind reichlich geschickte und auffallend kreative Artefakte, die die große Erfahrung, Fantasie und Findigkeit ihrer Designer belegen. Von History Addict Bildungs-App wird erwartet, dass es ein hochgeschätztes, bewundertes und geliebtes Objekt ist, das bemerkenswert professionell und innovativ ist. Dieses mit dem A' Design Award in Bronze prämierte Design verkörpert bewährte Verfahren in Kunst, Wissenschaft, Design und Technologie und ist hervorragend in seiner Liebe zum Detail. History Addict Bildungs-App befriedigt Bedürfnisse auf großartige Weise, berührt Wünsche, bezaubert Gefühle und spricht die Neugier an.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
History Addict is an education app that turns the traditionally tedious history learning process into a gamification experience. It leverages data analytics and AI algorithms to suggest courses that match user interest. Besides, the app builds on effective learning tools recommended by historians and transforms them into interactive puzzles in the quiz module. As such, users can effectively consolidate their learning outcomes via the quiz while having a game like experience.
Dimensions & Packaging
Through data analytics, the home page feed automatically recommends courses that are currently trending based on other users interest on the app. On top of this, the app also leverages machine learning algorithms to suggest courses to the user based on his or her past searching, browsing, and learning behaviors. This ensures the user can get a good mix of familiar history topics that are similar to those they have learnt before and fresh history topics that they have not touched on yet.
Tags
Gamification Design, History Learning, Education App, Emotional Design
Production Technology
History Addict followed a human centred design process. At the start, the designer conducted extensive research to understand the problem space and user needs. Various tools were then used to extract research insights, like persona, user journey map, and qualitative coding. Based on the research findings, the designer created early prototypes to experiment with different directions. Eventually, hifi interfaces were crafted based on the final design idea. See the attached pdf for more details.
Design Challenge
The biggest challenge was to make the app entertaining and fun. There were some competitor products before History Addict so it is vital for the app to have a unique value proposition. I focused on the quiz as a breakthrough as it was often considered a daunting and tedious part in the learning process. Then I dedicated myself to active brainstorming and extensive literature review, which eventually helped me uncover various learning tools and turned them into game like puzzles for the quiz.
Research
Multiple research methods were adopted in this project, including literature review, competitor analysis, and user research. For example, extensive surveys were conducted to collect both qualitative and quantitative data from over 50 history learners of different age groups. The goal was to understand the users pain points, needs, learning preferences and expectations. For more detailed research results and insights, please refer to the uploaded pdf document due to the 500 character limit.
Inspiration
Learning history can be challenging sometimes. Firstly, memorizing various historical times and figures is difficult and time consuming. Secondly, existing learning materials feel tedious to some learners. To tackle these issues, I conducted research to explore effective learning tools that help users strengthen their memory, like family trees and flashcards. Afterwards, I leveraged these tools with gamification design to make the history learning process more entertaining and enjoyable.
Project Duration
The user research and low fidelity mockups of this project were completed between October and November of 2019 in Shanghai, China. In the spring of 2021, it was revamped with a new visual style and updated UI elements in Edinburgh, Scotland. The final stage of this project was conducted to further refine design details in 2024 in California, United States.
Operation Flow
All product features can be easily interacted with via common hand gestures. On the reading page, users can press and hold on text that they are interested in, then a toolbar will pop up giving them options to copy, highlight, or share the selected text. Plus, in the quiz module, users can solve the questions with multiple ways, like clicking on the right answer card or dragging and rearranging answer cards in the correct order. The variety of interaction adds more fun to the user experience.
Patents
Copyrights belong to Xi Pang, 2025.
Team Members
Xi Pang
Image Credits
Image #1: Photographer Daniel Tseng, Photo of Kyoto, 2017.
Image #2: Creator Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1831.
Image #3: Photographer Daisy Chen, Photo of Kyoto, 2020.
Image #4: Photographer Ryunosuke Kikuno, Photo of Samurai, 2020.
Image #4: Photographer Susann Schuster, Photo of Kabuki, 2021.
Image #5: Illustrator Storyset, Grades Concept Illustration, 2021.

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