Prodigy Live Events - UX Case Study
Role: UI/UX Designer
Product: Prodigy Live Events (Festivals), time-limited, bi-monthly LiveOps events in Prodigy Math Game for players ages 6–12.
Problem: Data analysis showed a critical gap between players earning rewards and those claiming them.
Rearchitected the Festival UX from a one-off experience into a modular, repeatable framework supporting a full yearly cycle of five themed events as new mechanics were introduced.
Through iterative improvements across four Festival releases I focused on visibility, guided entry, and progression clarity. Some results of this work were:
Working closely with the Data and Product teams, we confirmed the following issues:
I then collaborated with UX Research to conduct playtest sessions that revealed three core issues.
I collaborated with UX Research to conduct playtest sessions that revealed three core issues.
A secondary issue around quest difficulty was also surfaced, which Game Design later calibrated to support broader participation.
Iterative UX Strategy (Across Festivals)
Based on playtest findings and funnel analysis, I developed a phased approach to test and roll out UX interventions across four Festival releases — moving from lightweight visibility fixes to guided onboarding and progression refinement.
Phase 1: Immediate Visibility
I started with lightweight interventions focused on surfacing rewards at the right moment.
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Pumpkin Fest - Reward Toaster Notification
An A/B-tested toaster triggered when rewards were ready to claim, resulting in a small but positive uplift in claim rates during its first month.
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Winter Fest: HUD Action States
Building on these results, visibility was escalated into animated “Collect” states on the HUD, using motion over text to reinforce actionable moments.
Phase 2 :Guided Entry & First-Time Experience
As visibility improved, the next challenge was helping players understand where to go.
Winter Fest: First-Time Experience A/B Test
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Clicking the Festival HUD icon surfaced a guided modal redirecting players to the Festival Map.
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If a player’s first interaction happened via the World Map, a hovering hand and modal guided them to the Festival location.
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As result, festival participation increased by 19.4% in its first month.
Simplifying Time-Based Mechanics
For Winter Fest, I reworked how time was communicated to reduce complexity.
Instead of multiple “X days left” countdowns, the UI shifted to present-moment, actionable states such as Coming Soon or Come Back Tomorrow. This prioritized immediate feedback over long-term timers, which user research showed younger players often ignore.
Refining Progression & Structure
As awareness and entry improvements rolled out, each Festival introduced a distinct core mechanic. Designed as part of a year-long LiveOps cycle, events brought new gameplay while building on shared UX foundations.
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Pumpkin Fest introduced Community Quests, shifting progression from individual goals to shared progress and framing story advancement as a collective reward.
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Winter Fest featured daily quest reveals, encouraging repeat visits through time-gated progression.
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Moonlight Fest launched alongside these system improvements and reintroduced Story Mode from Starlight, refined through UX iterations. Updates included reduced tab categories, clearer quest-driven prompts (e.g., Go to the Moon Gate), and an exclusive Festival map for Members.
Key Takeaways
Validated through analytics and user research, these iterations showed that awareness-first visual affordances(such as notifications, motion, and guided entry) were far more effective than instructional text for this audience. Reframing timers as present-moment, state-based feedback also improved comprehension and engagement among younger players.
Work shown was created during my employment with Prodigy Education Inc. All rights are owned by Prodigy Education Inc. and are displayed with permission.