Comprehensive Reading:
A Zero-to-One Gamified Independent Learning Experience
Comprehensive Reading is a Chinese leveled-reading product for Grade 1–6 students, built to grow both a love of reading and reading ability across a complete "in-class + after-class" learning journey. As lead designer, I was responsible for the after-class practice module — turning tedious homework exercises into a game kids want to play on their own, and one that captures their learning. The goal: lift task completion while making learning outcomes visible to students and parents.
Product Overview
The Comprehensive Reading system spans a child's full learning journey through three parts: the Reading Plan builds a daily reading habit; the Reading Challenge provides ongoing motivation; and After-Class Practice reinforces and extends what was taught in class. This project focused on After-Class Practice — the key touchpoint where classroom learning turns into lasting ability, and the part of the product whose metrics most needed improvement at the time.
Background
To pinpoint the problem, we ran a systematic analysis of Comprehensive Reading's core "in-class + after-class" metrics: for in-class, we looked at attendance, completion, and attendance-to-completion rates for long-term classes; for after-class, at task participation across long-term and short-term classes. The data showed clear room to improve participation and completion in the after-class practice module — especially in the higher L4–L6 grade bands.
In-Class & After-School Data Analysis
In-Class · Attendance & Completion
Long-term Class Attendance Rate
Long-term Class Completion Rate
Long-term Class Attendance-Completion Rate
After-School · Task Participation
Long-term Class Participation Rate
Short-term Class Participation Rate
Defining the Problem
Anchored on our core metrics — attendance, completion, participation, and student NPS — we broke the root causes down from the perspective of three stakeholders:
Students
- Low motivation to learn.
- Poor persistence — they give up halfway.
Parents
- No visible sense of learning outcomes.
- Low perceived value of the course.
Product
- Unclear learning plan.
- Weak link between tasks and lesson content.
- Learning outcomes surfaced poorly.
After-Class Practice · Design Goals
Starting from user needs and business needs, I combined the two into product goals, then translated those into clear design goals for this project — using design to achieve two things: lift task completion and make learning outcomes visible.
User Needs
Reinforce lesson content
Make learning fun
Feel the course's value
Business Needs
Lift task completion
Improve NPS
Product Goals
Lift task completion
Make outcomes visible
Design Goals
Lift task completion
Make outcomes visible
Exploring the Solution
I proposed gamification as the way in: "the knowledge content of Comprehensive Reading's after-class practice" × "a delightful experience" — boosting motivation and reinforcing learning at once. In other words, using design to hit both goals together: lift task completion and make learning outcomes visible.
Content
After-class practice
knowledge content
Method
Gamification
- Boost motivation
- Create a delightful experience
- Reinforce learning
Goal
Lift task completion
Make outcomes visible
Achieved through design
Solution Exploration: Content
The knowledge content behind the gamified solution comes from the module's existing exercises: it supports both multiple-choice and voice question types, with audio playback to lower the reading barrier for younger students. Game content and learning content are seamlessly linked — every step a child takes in the game reinforces what they learned in class.
User Research: The Psychology of Grade 1–6 Students
Before settling on a specific game format, I mapped the psychological traits of Grade 1–6 students as a design foundation: self-expression, curiosity, social interaction, sense of achievement, competition & cooperation, challenge, and learning & exploration. These needs became the anchors for choosing a game format and designing the incentive mechanics.
Grade 1–6 psychology
Comparing Game Formats
I ran a side-by-side comparison of four mainstream game formats: creative/building (e.g. Minecraft → storybook creation), action-adventure (e.g. Talking Tom Gold Run → level running), PvP battle (e.g. Hearthstone → card battles), and puzzle-progression (e.g. Defend the Carrot → a board-game style map).
Minecraft
Storybook creation
Talking Tom Gold Run
Level running
Hearthstone
Card battle
Defend the Carrot
Board-game map
Choosing the Format: a Board-Game Map
Weighing the two dimensions of "game experience" and "learning content," I landed on a board-game map format: on experience, it's simple to understand and operate, enjoyable to play, and rewarding; on learning content, it decouples cleanly from the curriculum, can carry the existing after-class question types, and makes progress visible. This format struck the best balance between "fun" and "useful."
Game Experience
Easy to understand · Enjoyable · Rewarding
Learning Content
Decoupled from curriculum · Carries after-class exercises · Progress visible
Design · Flow
I designed the full game flow along two dimensions: stage and role. Breaking it down by stage keeps every step of "play → create" complete and controllable; breaking it down by role gives both the creator and the recipient a clear path. In particular, adding a create-your-own-game step beyond just playing was meant to boost engagement — a level a child builds can be shared with peers, drawing in new users, who then create and share in turn. This forms an effective "play → create → share → acquire" loop.
By Role
Creator and recipient form a "share–participate" viral loop
By Stage
Two paths — "play" and "create" — covering the full game lifecycle
Gamification Design Strategy
I split the gamification strategy into three threads — Content, Experience, and User — mapping to "balancing gamification with knowledge content," "creating a delightful experience," and "sparking positive emotion."
Strategy 1 · Content: Balancing Game and Learning
1Tie game content to the learning context
Game scenes and elements should serve the student's learning context — avoiding over-gamification.
Spinner vs. dice
Number count: matches the number of questions
Gamification: avoids over-gamified elements
Learning context
Scene transitions, reward feedback, and level completion are all designed around the learning context
2Fit learning content to the game experience
How students interact with the content should match the feel of gameplay.
Popup question format
Compatible with existing question types
Modular game content that preserves immersion
Lower the difficulty
Audio playback and "level hints," supporting both multiple-choice and voice questions
Boost motivation, spark positive emotion
Motivation: build a world, add Easter eggs, add randomness
Atmosphere: rich animation and sound
Reduce cognitive load, simplify the path
Onboarding & simplified flows and interactions to lower the learning curve
Reward mechanics with instant in-game feedback
Generous rewards, timely feedback
Strategy 2 · Experience: Create Delight
Across three fronts — motivation, cognitive load, and instant feedback — I set out to create a delightful gamified learning experience for kids.
"Motivation is the energy source of behavior."
— Edward Deci, psychologist
For "boosting motivation," I grounded the work in a "Meaning / Challenge / Reward / Curiosity" framework: a world gives the game meaning, random pressure gives it challenge, earned rewards make it worthwhile, and unknown surprises make it fun.
Meaning
Meaning
A complete game world gives each level a story and a sense of mission.
Challenge
Challenge
Random mechanics add just enough challenge and tension to keep kids focused and in flow.
Reward
Reward
Instant rewards like Knowledge Points tie effort directly to payoff.
Curiosity
Curiosity
Random Easter eggs and surprises spark exploration, so every round feels fresh.
1Boost motivation, spark positive emotion
Motivation: build a world, add Easter eggs, and add randomness to the game.
Curiosity
Randomly adds unknown surprises
2Reduce cognitive load
Onboarding to lower the learning curve.
3Simplify the interaction path
Streamlined flows and interactions to lower the effort.
Create game
4Reward mechanics with instant in-game feedback
Generous rewards, timely feedback.
In-game feedback
Echoes the world
Result feedback
Creation feedback
Timely, generous feedback at every step
keeps students engaged in the game
Strategy 3 · User: Spark Positive Emotion and Achievement
Boost motivation before learning, add fun during, and deliver a sense of achievement after.
Focus on my achievement
Segmenting the Game Strategy to Drive Product Goals
For the different stages a child is in, I designed differentiated nudges: guide creation for the not-yet-created stage, guide play & sharing for the created stage, and guide sharing for the played stage. Social data cues like "this level has been challenged by 10 people" push users, step by step, toward the product goals.
Stage
Not created
Created
Played
Goal
Guide creation
Guide play & sharing
Guide sharing
Strategy
Results
After launch, both design goals — "lift task completion" and "make learning outcomes visible" — were met.
Overall Participation
Task Completion
Creation Rate
Share Rate
- Completion rose 5 points — students liked the game format, and feedback from the learning-services team was largely positive.
- Participation is tied to business configuration and operational actions (it currently runs alongside the classroom practice module).
The Reading Challenge Won Over Both Students and Parents
Across cohort 601, we received 20 student responses in total — 100% enjoyment.
🎁 Tonight's reading assignment has been replaced with the Reading Challenge. Has your child tried it yet? How do they like it?
My child really loves it.
🤭
Great!
I think we should test this format. Let's see everyone's feedback first. If the feedback is positive, we can continue using it. If not, we won't use it for now.
Which format do you think works better?
I really like it. This is very well designed. It's not just the reading pen — I think we ourselves are big readers. Don't give the kids so many essays to write. Honestly, we don't even have that much time. We're just playing the key knowledge points from this lesson in the reading challenge.
This is simple, and I think it's easier for kids to stick with it. Most of our students are still in school and don't have much time. As I see it, if kids read their textbooks on their own according to the time and pages we assign, and they can keep it up, that's already great!
Hearing the teacher tell the story in class is the most engaging.
The language in this unit is all about logic and accumulation. As long as kids keep at it, they will see results.
I really hope we can switch to the game-based format for all reading challenges soon.
To make it easier for children to learn and to spark our little ones' interest in studying, we've introduced a new game-based reading challenge to replace this lesson's reading showcase 🥺
👉 All questions are based on what was taught in class. Children can unlock the next level after answering correctly, which adds a sense of achievement and helps them practice within the game~
🤔 Location: App → Classroom Tasks → Reading Challenge
I've already updated the challenge. Let me know if your child likes the new format! 😁 I'm looking forward to your feedback!
It's great for lower grades in the game-based format. For middle and upper grades, I think a direct quiz format works better.
Haha~ Do you like the game?
He even asked me, his mom, to play with him 😂
Hello, Ms. Liang, Haozhe has already completed the level. He said it was really fun, and he even got to create his own questions. Very creative 😜
Ms. Liang, my child likes the quiz game format.
Please add more levels. My child enjoys the game much more than traditional exercises.
Ms. Liang, my son thinks the after-class reading game is really fun.
Gamification Impact: Before / After
Before
Weak motivation
VS
After
Strong motivation
Reflection
Reusability across products / subjects
A complete game world creates a sustainable incentive system — with real potential to be reused across other subjects.
Design
Use different gamification strategies for lower vs. upper elementary grades; front-load the work, and later consider integrating with the "study buddy" feature.
On gamification
Continuously balancing "game form vs. game core" and "learning value vs. fun" is the central challenge of gamified design.