Knowunity: Designing for a voice-powered active recall
Kathleen Cuevas
Platform: Mobile | Timeline: 3 weeks | ▶️ Live prototypeStudents often think they understand a topic until they're asked to explain it.
When it comes to answering a quiz, picking the right answer isn't the same as retrieving it from memory.
So how might we help a student review and remember what they’ve learned when exam day comes?
💪 The Challenge: Design how a voice-powered active-recall step will look and feel in the exam plan when reviewing.
I designed an AI-guided voice recall feature concept for Knowunity, a studying app for high school and middle school students. This aids their learning by enabling confident explanations in their own words.
The idea
After completing a quiz or learning plan, students are prompted to explain topics aloud in their own words to an AI tutor (Noe), using active recall as a pedagogical method.
Guided by the core principle to never trap the student, this led to how I designed the interactions for this feature:
1. Encouraged to speak, with an option to answer in text
A student is encouraged to explain a concept in their own words by speaking out loud.
In situations where this may not be ideal or possible (eg. reviewing while on a public transportation), they still have an option to respond in text.
2. Giving hints, no-hard fails
A student should feel safe enough to keep trying.
Getting told "wrong" after speaking out loud lands harshly and a more exposing kind of failure than when picking a wrong answer from a list of options.
Designed where a miss routes to a hint plus a retry, never a hard fail.
3. Skipping is okay
A student can exit anytime if they can’t answer.
They can review the questions they skipped for another time when they’re more ready.
Designed with Claude Code
From synthesising the brief, stress-testing ideas, and building the prototype using Knowunity’s design system, I shipped a prototype in 3 weeks. I was able to test it out, which uncovered some usability issues and ideas to improve the design.
What landed well and needs improvement
🚧 WIP
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Posted Aug 26, 2026
Designed an AI-guided voice recall feature concept for Knowunity, a studying app for high school and middle school students.
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Timeline
Jun 21, 2026 - Jul 11, 2026
