NOBLE GAS STATION
Educational Chemistry Game for Middle-School Learners
The CCS Winter 2024 studio project with Stride Learning Solutions challenged our team to design an educational game for K–12 chemistry, focusing on stoichiometry.
The result: Noble Gas Station, where students take on the role of a space-station operator, balancing chemical equations to fuel cargo ships, calculate weights and distances, and level up through missions. My contributions centred on UI/UX design and menu systems, bringing the learning mechanics into a polished, intuitive interface.
Problem Statement
Stoichiometry remains a major stumbling block for many students; ratios, coefficients, and balancing equations feel abstract and disconnected from “real-life” meaning. Traditional classroom methods struggle with engagement, and the challenge is how to turn this complex content into something accessible, playful and high-impact.
Our goal: create an interactive game that simplifies the learning process, motivates students through gameplay, and fits cleanly into Stride’s digital curriculum, all without the feel of “just another worksheet”.
UX Principles
Keep it Game-First: Interfaces feel playful and familiar, not like worksheets.
Low Cognitive Load: One clear action per screen, minimal distractions.
Instant Feedback: Colour, motion, and badges guide learning without stopping flow.
Visual Metaphors: Fuel gauges and beakers make abstract chemistry feel concrete.
Accessible for Classrooms: High-contrast, readable UI designed for school laptops.
Every mission asks players to balance the fuel mix, launch the ship, receive instant feedback, and seamlessly transition into the next learning challenge.
UI Elements
Noble Gas Station’s interface borrows from familiar console games so middle-school learners don’t feel like they’re in a worksheet.
Micro UI Elements
A cohesive set of small interface components; buttons, speech bubbles, icons, grids. These create visual consistency and keep interactions intuitive across the entire game.
HUD Elements
Live, always-visible indicators like XP, progress bars, and mission timers that help students stay oriented and informed without interrupting gameplay.
Menu Screens
Console-inspired navigation screens for starting, pausing, saving, and adjusting settings, designed to be familiar, readable, and effortless for K–12 players.
In-Game Screens
Supporting screens such as inventory and shop views that extend the game world, introduce rewards, and guide progression while keeping cognitive load low.
Feedback Overlays & Badges
Bold success and error overlays that deliver immediate, high-contrast feedback, turning correct answers into celebration and mistakes into light, humorous nudges.
Outcome
Noble Gas Station delivered a polished UI-driven game prototype that turned complex chemistry into a simple, visual fuel-mixing mission. The project improved student engagement in playtests, created a reusable UI system for future Stride games, and demonstrated how thoughtful UX can make STEM topics approachable and fun.