UX / UI Gym: Game to train your design eye

UX / IU Gym is an interactive tool that I have created to help UX / IU designersespecially those in early stages, to practice in a fun and effective way the analysis of poorly designed interfaces. This is a "visual gym" that mixes gamification, professional feedback and key concepts of user experience. Ideal for those who want improve your visual approach without falling into abstract theory.

Project created to practice playing

The idea arises from a real need: to have a space where the critical eye can be trained without pressure, to be unafraid and to learn in each round. UX / IU Gym is presented as an UX mentor with unique personality: fun, close and rigorous. Each session launches a screen with intentional errors —from cloned buttons to non-existent visual hierarchy— for the user to detect, analyse and propose improvements.

The main objectives were:

• Create a practical tool to train the UX / IU look.
• Convert design theory to active and fun learning.
• Teach with useful, motivating and professional feedback.
• Include UX laws, design tricks and real examples in each analysis.
• Promote the daily habit of analyzing interfaces.

How does UX / UI Gym work?

It is very simple to use, just enter the link of UX / IU Gym prompt. And each session starts with the message:
"Welcome to your session at UX / UI Gym Here's your screen of the day: What mistakes do you see and how would you improve them?"

After responding, the mentor gives a feedback that always includes:

• Recognition of success
• Correction of unobserved
• Explanation of common errors
• Professional proposal
• UX / IU law applied
• Tip of the day to keep learning

The generated screens are varied: landings, forms, dashboards, mobile apps... with different mistakes in each. You can also ask that the level rise, that the challenge focus only on forms or even analyze only the use of color.

I show you an example of a conversation start, so you can see how easy it is to use:

Once the screen is generated, we can pass our notes on which elements we see or what we would correct / change to get it analyzed and give us a more professional feedback. Besides, if he thinks you've forgotten some little thing during the analysis, he'll also tell you:

In case you see it easy, that it bores you, or that you feel it's «little» for you, don't worry, you can also ask him to raise the level and be much more complex the proposal he makes you. You can even ask that the exercise focus on a specific screen typology or some aspect of the specific design that you want to work and / or review. An example may be to order on the product sheet:

Impact and personal learning

UX / UI Gym has allowed me to merge teaching, humor and design into one experience. It was a particularly enriching project because it made me think not only as a designer, but also as a mentor and learner. Beyond the tool design, the true value has been to observe how many new designers begin to improve their eyes in very few sessions, simply by practicing in a guided way, without judgment and with a fun touch.

Speaking with fellow professionals, something is constantly repeated: at first it costs a lot to "tune" the UX eye. This ability to detect inconsistencies, anticipate usability problems or define clear visual hierarchies does not appear alone, and many times you don't work on theory. We need to go through a number of real projects —and make mistakes— to develop it.

And that's when my bulb turned on: What if there was a way to practice without waiting for that "big project" to come?. Thus was born UX / IU Gym: as a how to train visual analysis through the game, accessible and without barriers. A proposal that it does not seek to assess, but to help to improve every day with small challenges. I think it can be a very useful tool for other designers.especially in early stages, where there are sometimes no spaces to be wrong without pressure.

This project has reminded me that UX education does not have to be boring, dense or academic. It can be playable, motivating and deeply formative. And above all, that design can also be taught from enjoyment and curiosity. If with this idea I have managed to awaken that spark on someone else, then it has been totally worth it.