In most industries, UX is often used to drive engagement at any cost—but in education, aligning design with real human needs isn’t just ethical, it’s a strategic advantage.
GUEST COLUMN | by Jonathan Mann
YULIYA PAULIUKEVICH
I have worked in user experience (UX) design for decades. Like education, UX tends to attract people who want to make a positive contribution to the world. We work to make the complex simple and the difficult manageable. When we do our job well, we get the satisfaction of knowing we have contributed to our company’s success and helped a fellow human at the same time. But that only holds true when the business goals we are working toward are aligned with people’s well-being. Outside of education technology, that is not always the case.
‘Like education, UX tends to attract people who want to make a positive contribution to the world. We work to make the complex simple and the difficult manageable.’
Before moving into edtech, I spent many years as a designer and design leader working on consumer-facing products. I have also managed and mentored designers whose careers have taken them into large technology companies, and I hear regularly about the challenges they face. In many industries, business objectives can conflict with what is best for users. When that happens, UX teams find themselves navigating tensions between user-centered design principles and the business metrics that define success.
For example, sometimes UX is deployed to reduce friction so people scroll longer, make impulse purchases, or sign up for services they do not really need. Sometimes, it is used to optimize notifications that drive compulsive checking of social media feeds. Designers might be asked to implement dark patterns, such as cancellation flows that introduce just enough confusion to discourage churn. These approaches can improve metrics, but they do not always reflect the values that drew many of us to the field.
When Design Works Against the User
In addition to UX design, I also have experience with behavioral economics. This field recognizes that people are not perfectly rational decision-makers. Framing, social proof, and loss aversion are just a few of the commonly deployed strategies. When applied thoughtfully, these principles can help nudge people toward positive outcomes. Automatic enrollment in retirement savings plans is one well-known example.
But those same principles can be embedded in user interfaces to drive behaviors that benefit the company more than the user. Defaults can favor unintentional renewals. Scarcity cues can create artificial urgency. Loss aversion can be used to discourage cancellation. I know they are effective because I personally have been involved with incorporating these principles in the past.
Why EdTech Is Different
Education technology offers a different possibility. Here, there is little conflict between contributing to business success and serving the best interests of students and educators.
‘Education technology offers a different possibility. Here, there is little conflict between contributing to business success and serving the best interests of students and educators.’
Teachers operate under constant time pressure. They juggle multiple digital tools, interpret student data, and make decisions quickly. Even small inefficiencies add friction to an already demanding job. Thoughtful design removes that friction and makes technology feel like a support rather than a burden. Our team is currently working on a new platform for teachers that eliminates fragmentation across assessment, instruction, and practice, and turns overwhelming data into actionable insights. The priorities for this platform came from UX research pointing toward real teacher pain points to solve.
In this case, good design in education shows up as time saved, confusion avoided, and better-informed decisions.
Engagement That Supports Learning
Student engagement raises a related set of questions. There is growing concern about the impact of highly engaging digital products on young people. In some corners of social media, engagement strategies are explicitly designed to hook users and keep them on the platform as long as possible, sometimes with negative consequences for their time, social lives, and mental health.
Designers in education cannot ignore that broader context. Students are surrounded by digital experiences competing aggressively for their attention.
In edtech, however, engagement strategies have a different intent. Engagement matters when it supports learning, such as when a student reads a little longer, practices a difficult skill, or stays motivated long enough to make progress. In those cases, engagement reflects persistence rather than distraction. For example, optimizing our search and browse interfaces can make it easier for kids to find books they’ll love, while just the right messaging can keep them motivated when practicing math.
‘For example, optimizing our search and browse interfaces can make it easier for kids to find books they’ll love, while just the right messaging can keep them motivated when practicing math.’
Where Value and Values Align
This alignment between user needs and intended outcomes is what makes UX work in edtech particularly meaningful. When design improvements make educators’ work easier and more effective, the benefits extend beyond the software itself into classrooms and schools, helping accelerate learning in meaningful ways. In a field often described in terms of transformation and disruption, it is gratifying to know that the work we do succeeds when it genuinely supports teaching and learning. Our success ultimately comes from creating real value for educators and students, not from extracting more attention from them.
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Jonathan Mann is Vice President of User Experience at Renaissance, where he leads UX design, UX research, and accessibility. Prior to joining Renaissance, he led UX at PayPal and Target. He has a Master of Education in educational technology and a certification in behavioral economics. Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn.
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