Case Study: How Thoughtful In-App Notifications Made Learning More Engaging

The Challenge

The Embibe Learning Outcomes App is an AI powered e-Learning platform that provides students with personalised learning journeys based on their academic and behavioural gaps. But the challenge was to ensure students stayed engaged.

With a wide range of learning content – 3D videos and practice questions mapped to thousands of course and reference books, as well as tests, both preset and custom tests, coupled with the fact that the app has tonnes of features and micro-features to hyper-personalize learning, it was difficult to ensure students explore new content and features, complete their practice sessions, take tests and stay consistent – without overwhelming them.

That’s where in-app notifications came in. The idea was to write in-app notifications that seemed natural, helpful, timely, and motivating.

The Approach

Instead of sending generic reminders, I took a more thoughtful approach:

✅ Keep it short. Students don’t have time for long messages.

✅ Make it action-driven. A notification should make a student want to do something -open a test, revise a topic, or explore a feature.

✅ Add a personal touch. Messages should feel like a friendly nudge, contextual to their goal/exam.

✅ Send at the right time. A well-timed notification can make all the difference.

✅ Structure matters. Each in-app notification had two parts:
    🔹 A tag – This quickly told students why the message was important (e.g., “Trending for Your Exam”).
    🔹 A description – A personalised message where the key content or feature is highlighted in bold. (e.g., “3D videos mapped to Concepts of Physics by HC Verma. Watch now!”).

What I Wrote

The Results

With these timely and hyper-contextual in-app notifications, there was a 32% improvement in student engagement measured in terms of time spent per session. Students were found to engage more with the app’s features, complete their practice sessions, and stay on track with their learning goals.

The Takeaway

Good UX writing isn’t about pushing features mindlessly. It’s about guiding users to use a product in a way that is helpful. And these in-app notifications did just that.