Designers
Eva Duwenkamp, Annette Meikis, Mariano Procopio
Year
2026
Category
Product
Country
Germany
Design Studio / Department
Outermedia GmbH
»LEON addresses critical literacy challenges in primary education, such as declining reading skills, linguistic diversity, and limited teaching resources, in a way that is clearly relevant. The jury was convinced by the thoughtful application of AI, which enables fair and transparent evaluations and provides individualized feedback, while significantly reducing teacher workload. The project excels by turning learning into a joyful experience through engaging formats in which children can express their creativity while making positive progress on a didactic foundation. Its free, browser-based model and positive user experience ensure equal access, demonstrating how technology-driven design can achieve meaningful social impact at scale. LEON has been successfully deployed across 250,000 students and 3,500 schools.«
UX Design Awards Jury 2026 Spring
And the award goes to...
Three questions to the project team
What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
From a UX point of view, the main challenge was balancing complexity and simplicity for very different user groups. We had to design an interface that presents scientifically accurate analyses of reading samples in a clear and understandable way for primary school teachers, while at the same time creating a child-friendly experience that allows children to navigate and understand content with minimal reading skills. In addition, enabling remote tandem reading via video conferencing required integrating this functionality seamlessly into the tool, using a highly reduced and intuitive interface suitable for children.
What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
Our personal highlight was presenting the first prototypes to teachers and seeing their immediate enthusiasm - they told us this was exactly what they had been waiting for. Another major milestone was the rollout of the software. Within just a few months, we reached over 100,000 children and received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. We see moments of surprise when sharing these numbers with the professional community, as the success is highly unusual for a educational software product. This achievement was made possible by the interdisciplinary team, bringing together UX design, subject-specific didactics, AI development, and hands-on experience from schools.
Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
In five years, the project is expected to be used across all 16 federal states in Germany, contributing measurably to improved reading skills among children. Building on this foundation, Leon is envisioned to expand to additional languages and support further age groups, allowing the approach to benefit an even broader and more diverse range of learners.
