UWorld is known for delivering high-quality exam prep content, but students needed a more effective way to retain knowledge and personalize their study process. After hearing consistent feedback about the lacking functionality of the integrated study tool, we set out to redesign Digital Flashcards—a feature that would allow students to create, organize, and review personalized flashcards directly within the UWorld platform.
As the Senior UI/UX Designer, I led the end-to-end design of this feature, collaborating closely with product managers, content experts, and developers to deliver a solution that felt native to the UWorld experience and met the evolving needs of our users.
Students had no way to easily capture key concepts while working through practice questions.
Many were using external flashcard apps, causing friction and context switching.
There was no ability to track or structure review sessions effectively within the UWorld environment.
User engagement and retention by adding a high-value, in-platform study tool.
Reduce reliance on third-party tools like Quizlet and Anki.
Enhance the perceived value of the UWorld subscription offering.
Conducted surveys and user interviews with students across different exam types (MCAT, USMLE, NCLEX).
Mapped the current user study journey to identify key friction points and moments of opportunity.
Competitive analysis of third-party flashcard tools to understand what students liked and what they found lacking.
Students wanted the ability to quickly create cards from within practice questions.
Many preferred spaced repetition to optimize review sessions.
Organization, tagging, browse and search were essential to reduce friction as decks and cards are created.
A seamless experience inside UWorld was valued over having to jump between platforms.
Seamless workflow: Users should be able to create and access flashcards without breaking focus.
Simple, clean UI: Prioritize readability and usability, especially on mobile.
Custom organization: Allow users to tag, group, and filter cards for flexible review.
Smart review features: Incorporate spaced repetition to help students retain information over time.
Sketching & Low-Fidelity Wireframes: I explored flows for card creation, tagging, and review directly within the practice question UI.
High-Fidelity Design & Prototypes: Validated concepts through usability testing and delivered designs, optimized for both web and mobile.
Design Handoff and QA: Collaborated with developers and QA to maintain consistency and functionality through implementation.
Add flashcards directly from questions with auto-populated content (e.g., question and explanation snippets).
Highlight text and instantly save it to a card.
Tag cards by topic or system (e.g., "Cardiovascular", "Pharmacology").
Group cards into custom decks and subfolders for structured review.
Optimized flashcard interface for quick review and rating cards by difficulty on mobile and desktop.
Spaced repetition integration for helping students retain high-yield information longer.
Feature adoption rate had over 25% of active users creating flashcards within 3 months of releasing improvements.
Students reported less friction and better focus, no longer needing external tools.
Qualitative feedback highlighted the benefit of having review tools built into their existing workflow.
Helped increase user retention and time spent on platform, aligning with core business goals.
Listen to your users early and often: User feedback shaped every key feature of the flashcard tool.
Design within existing workflows: Keeping the experience native to the platform minimized disruption and increased engagement.
Balance simplicity with power: Students wanted advanced functionality like tagging and repetition—but without added complexity.
Collaborate cross-functionally: Working closely with developers, QA, and content ensured a high-quality, on-brand experience.
