In Europe’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, digital learning tools are now central to how teachers teach, and students learn. Yet many of these tools fall short, not because of missing features or poor content, but because they overlook a crucial factor: the user experience (UX) of the students and teachers who use them. 

The UX@School project (“User Experience Design for Improving Digital Education in Secondary Schools”) seeks to bridge that gap. By embedding UX principles into digital education, the initiative aims to make learning more engaging, inclusive, and effective for everyone involved. 

What Is the UX@School Project? 

UX@School is a European cooperation project funded by the Erasmus+ Programme. It runs from November 2023 to October 2025 and brings together partners from several European countries, including Greece, Belgium, Spain, Bulgaria, and Portugal. 

Its mission is clear: to empower secondary-school teachers and trainers to design student-centered digital learning environments by applying UX design principles to educational contexts. 

Project Objectives 

UX@School focuses on strengthening teachers’ competencies to: 

• Design and implement innovative, engaging, and student-centered digital learning paths, environments, and materials. 

• Monitor and assess the user experience of students when engaging with digital tools. 

• Develop a deeper understanding of UX design in education, using it to create, test, and evaluate more effective learning scenarios. 

What the Project Produces 

The initiative delivers several tangible outcomes designed to make UX design accessible and practical for educators: 

• UX@School Handbook 

A comprehensive guide that combines theory with practice, the Handbook introduces UX principles, such as usability, accessibility, and engagement, and demonstrates how they can be applied in classrooms. It supports teachers in designing and evaluating digital learning materials and activities from a UX perspective. 

• Online Tracking System 

This digital tool enables educators to monitor and evaluate the user experience of their students in digital learning environments. Instead of focusing only on grades or completion rates, it helps capture insights about how students interact with, feel about, and navigate learning tools, providing data for continuous improvement. 

• Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) 

The UX@School MOOC offers free training for teachers and trainers across Europe. It introduces UX design thinking, provides case studies and practical exercises, and encourages participants to design and test their own UX-informed learning materials. It is open to educators of all experience levels and helps them embed UX concepts directly into their teaching. 

•  Training and Community Events 

The project also organizes international training sessions and multiplier events, such as the 2025 “UX@School Ambassador Training” in Sofia and the national dissemination event in Larisa, Greece. These sessions bring educators together to exchange experiences and co-create better digital learning practices. 

Why UX Matters in Education 

When applied to education, UX design is not about technology for its own sake — it’s about creating meaningful, inclusive, and effective learning experiences. 

A thoughtful UX approach in schools can: 

• Enhance engagement: When digital tools are intuitive and appealing, students are more motivated to learn. 

• Support accessibility: UX design helps educators ensure that learning environments work for students with diverse abilities and backgrounds. 

• Increase effectiveness: By reducing friction in interaction, students can focus more on learning content rather than struggling with the interface. 

• Promote reflection and improvement: Teachers can gather real feedback from learners and iterate on their digital materials to make them better. 

Ultimately, UX design aligns with student-centred pedagogy — turning teachers into designers of learning experiences rather than mere deliverers of information. 

UX@School in Practice 

The project translates these principles into practical action.
During its pilot phase, educators across Europe are testing the UX@School tools and applying the Handbook’s framework to real classroom scenarios. 

In the Larisa event (Greece, 2025), teachers and students discussed how UX principles help make digital lessons more inclusive and enjoyable. In the Sofia training, participants collaborated on “UX challenges”, designing and evaluating digital lessons using the UX@School toolkit. 

These activities demonstrate the project’s core idea: teachers learn by doing, reflecting the same experiential philosophy they are encouraged to foster in their students. 

The Benefits of Embracing UX in Classrooms 

Integrating UX into teaching practice can bring lasting benefits: 

• More student-centered design: Teachers begin by understanding learners’ needs, preferences, and behaviors. 

• Greater inclusion: Accessibility becomes an integral part of design, not an afterthought. 

• Higher engagement: Well-designed tools encourage curiosity and sustained motivation. 

• Continuous improvement: Data from the Online Tracking System supports evidence-based adjustments. 

• Professional development: Teachers gain new design and analytical skills relevant to 21st-century education. 

Challenges and Next Steps 

Introducing UX in schools does present challenges, such as limited time, varying digital readiness, and institutional constraints. However, UX@School directly addresses these barriers through ready-to-use resources, scaffolded training, and a growing European network of educators who share ideas and best practices. 

As the project progresses into its final phase in 2025, more schools are expected to adopt its tools and contribute to evaluating their impact on engagement and learning outcomes. 

Learning Through Experience 

The phrase “learning through experience” captures what UX@School stands for: the idea that students don’t just absorb information, but they experience their learning environments. How they interact with content, how accessible it feels, and how engaging it is all on what and how they learn. 

When teachers apply UX design, principles, classrooms, physical or digital, transform into spaces where students explore, interact, and co-create knowledge.  

Conclusion 

The UX@School project represents a forward-looking approach to digital education in Europe. By placing user experience at the heart of teaching and learning, it helps educators design digital lessons that are more engaging, inclusive, and effective. 

As schools continue their digital transformation, UX design is becoming not just a technical consideration but a pedagogical necessity.
UX@School provides the roadmap, with its Handbook, Tracking System, MOOC, and community of practice for teachers who want to make learning truly experiential, accessible, and human-centered.