The solution
I wanted a streak you can always see and don't want to lose.
The streak sits on Home with this week's days and one thing to do today. If you're about to miss a day, you get one clear thing to do. If you slip anyway, there's a freeze or a repair. Finish a quiz and you see your new count and your week. Big milestones get a moment of their own.
Streak is the habit. Show it every day, and warn me before I lose it. Level is the long game. XP and badges give the streak something bigger to build toward. Kai is the personality, a friendly voice that knows how I'm doing.
I kept the main path short on purpose. You get a nudge, finish one quiz, and see the win. Everything else is a side path for when life gets in the way.
The problem
Making a quiz in Knowt is easy. Coming back tomorrow is the hard part.
The app already turns your notes into quizzes. What it didn't do was show what you studied each day, or give you a reason to study again tomorrow. The brief was to design a streak that shows progress and keeps people studying.
You can't see your effort. You can't tell what you studied this week, or how long you've been at it.
No reason to come back. Nothing celebrates a day you showed up. Nothing warns you before you miss one.
Kai doesn't know you. Kai wasn't connected to how you study, so its help felt generic.
This is based on the brief and my own look at the app. I didn't do user interviews for this project.
Key decisions
Home: the streak comes first
Home starts with the streak card. It shows your count, this week's days and one next step for today. Under it is your level, then study tools, courses and friends. Kai is one tap away in the corner.
The week row uses Kai as the day marker, so you can tell what you did and what's next at a glance. I kept the study tools close so the app still feels like a study app and not only a counter.
I tried four layouts: streak first, tools first, level first and Kai first. Streak first won, but I made the card shorter and moved the tools up.
Streak at risk: one clear action
When your streak is about to end, the dashboard shows a countdown ("ends in 3h 20m"), one button to start a 5 minute quiz, and a small link to use a streak freeze. A push notification brings you here. The Streak page shows the whole month.
You get a deadline and one small task. No guilt trip. Kai says the quiz takes about 5 minutes, so it feels easy to start. The freeze is a safety net, but it's just a text link, so the quiz stays the main thing.
I tried a plain counter, a month calendar and a week row with Kai. The week row went on Home, and the calendar moved to the Streak page.
Quiz: feedback that explains
After each answer, a bottom sheet tells you if you were right, and why. The question stays visible behind it. If you get it wrong, you see a short reason and an "Ask Kai why" button.
Right and wrong always come with an icon and a label, never only a color. Explaining the answer keeps you learning, so the streak isn't just about ticking a box.
I tried a color change on the answer, a bottom sheet and a full screen popup. The bottom sheet won because it explains the answer without hiding the question.
Kai: a helper that knows your streak
A full screen chat with four starter prompts: Quiz me, Explain a mistake, My streak and Plan my week. Kai answers with short text and a card with one main action. There's also a chat history and an offline state.
Nobody has to stare at an empty text box. Kai answers with your real streak and your real mistakes, then suggests one next step.
I tried a full screen chat, a half height sheet and a card on Home. Full screen won because a chat needs room for cards, chips and history. The sheet still works for quick help inside other screens.
Edge cases I designed for
A streak has to handle the bad days too. I designed these early, not at the end, because a streak is only as good as how it handles a miss.
What if it's day zero?
Home asks you to start your first streak, and Kai points to a 5 minute quiz.
What if a student is about to miss a day?
A countdown, one button for a 5 minute quiz, and a small link to use a freeze. A push notification brings you there.
What if a student misses a day?
A freeze covers it. The Streak page shows the freeze was used.
What if the streak is lost anyway?
You can repair it or restart. One way forward, no guilt.
What if the answer is wrong?
A short reason, and an "Ask Kai why" button.
What if Kai can't connect?
The chat shows an offline state and a way to try again.
Accessibility
Right and wrong always come with an icon and a label, never only a color.
The design system has rules for this. Text must reach 4.5:1 contrast, large text 3:1. Everything tappable is at least 44px. Color is never the only signal.
In v1, tags, notifications and chat had 10 to 12px text. In v2 I reviewed the text size and made it larger.
Results
I haven't tested this with real students. My decisions come from the brief, the competitor review and my own audit.
I made 36 screens across 9 flows: Streak, Home, Subject page, Quiz, Result, Weekly goal, Rewards, Streak states and Kai chat. I explored 13 layout options, and built one design system.
If I tested it, I would measure the day 7 return rate, quizzes finished per day, and freeze use compared to quiz use.
How I got there
Research
I started by looking at how other habit apps keep people coming back.
Duolingo's streak system. It's mostly rewards, and it's the same for everyone. It doesn't change based on how you study.
Assistant style interfaces. Chat style apps where you ask follow up questions. It feels like a conversation, not a menu.
Multi modal study. Flashcards with images and clips, so studying isn't only text.
Most streaks are about points. Knowt has an AI helper. If Kai knows your streak and your mistakes, the streak stops being a number. It starts to feel like yours.
This was desk research and a look at competitors, not user interviews. If I mention a persona, it's my own guess, not a finding.
Competitive analysis
How the idea formed
In April 2024 I sketched Home, courses and rewards on paper. The week row with Kai first showed up here. Then I made my first polished screens for the challenge.
In October I went back through my own work and found eight problems. I explored Home A to D, streak card 1 to 3, quiz feedback 1 to 3 and Kai chat A to C. Then I made the final screens and a design system.
The idea that stuck: use Kai, the Knowt character, as the day marker in the week row. One look tells you today, the days ahead and your count.
Options I tried
Four questions, thirteen options, four answers. I sketched every option in low fidelity first, so I was judging the layout and not the styling.
For Home, tools first shrank the streak to a small chip and it looked like a menu. For the streak card, a counter alone was too little info, so it became the header chip. A month calendar was too tall for Home, so it moved to the Streak page. For quiz feedback, an inline color change broke my rule: never color alone. For Kai, a half height sheet had too little room, so I kept it for quick help.
Looking back at my v1
I went back through my first version and found eight problems. Here are six.
Dashboard. v1 was about 2,000px tall, with no streak, no level and no way to get to the study tools. Home now puts the streak first, then level and tools.
Quiz answer. Copper was marked correct for copper plus zinc. The answer is brass. I fixed it, with a feedback sheet that explains the answer.
Text size. 10 to 12px text in tags, notifications and chat. Text size reviewed and made larger.
Result screen. The week row showed six days and no streak number. Now it shows the full week and the streak count.
Weekly goal. No confirmation screen, and it never said how days affect the streak. Now it's four steps that end with a confirmation.
Rewards. A big empty space and nothing about the next reward. Now there's Kai plus progress to the next reward.
Other flows
The streak touches more of the app than the four flows above. These are the rest.
Streak extended: the reward moment
After the quiz you see your new streak number, this week's days and a note from Kai, like "One more day and you hit 7. I will remind you at 7 pm." At seven days, you get a milestone screen.
You get the win right when you finish, and you already know what's next. That makes it easier to come back tomorrow.
In v1 the week row only showed six days and had no streak number. v2 shows the full week and the count.
Weekly goal: pick your days
You pick the days you plan to study, pick a time, and confirm. Four short steps, one decision each.
A plan turns "I should study more" into a habit. And with a set time, the reminder shows up when you can actually do something about it.
v1 had tiny checkboxes, 10px text and no confirmation. v2 ends with a confirmation screen.
Rewards: earn knowt, see what is next
When you finish goals, you earn knowt, the app's coin. The reward screen shows what you just earned (+12), your new balance (142) and how close you are to the next reward: one week of premium at 100 knowt.
Your effort turns into something real, and the next reward is always in view, so you have a reason to keep going.
v1 had a big empty space on the reward card and nothing about the next reward. v2 fills that space with Kai and the next goal.
Subject page: progress with friends
Each subject opens with its files, filtered by flashcards, notes and quizzes. Below the title are three tabs: Activity, Leaderboard and Discussion. Activity shows completion, accuracy and time spent. The leaderboard adds a friendly social side.
Your numbers show you what to work on, and seeing friends gives you one more reason to show up.
v1 had cut off tabs, an almost empty leaderboard and a confusing "Studied: 17" chip. In v2 I rebuilt the page around the three tabs.
Design system
One design system, so every screen feels like Knowt. It uses deep teal, teal and mint, with flame orange for streaks. The typeface is Montserrat: Bold for titles and numbers, Medium for supporting lines, Regular for body.
What I'd do differently
Test it with students
I haven't tested this with real students. Next, I'd run a usability test on the streak at risk flow.
Audit my own work sooner
Going back through v1 showed me problems I had stopped noticing. Small mistakes cost trust. One wrong quiz answer hurts more than uneven spacing.
What I'd build next
Friend streaks, so friends keep each other going. Streak challenges, weekly or monthly, opt in. Home screen widgets, to see the streak without opening the app. And dark mode, for late night study.