A Self-Paced Sales Web App Helping Czech Students Grow Their First Businesses
Powered by gamified modules and progress tracking—95% task completion, <5% error rate.
TL;DR Summary
Prompt
Sales Intervention Workbook is a gamified, self-paced web application based on Texas A&M’s business workbook. It is designed to help Czech Republic students build and scale real-world businesses using interactive, goal-oriented modules.
Solution
Designed an intuitive web-based experience that breaks down complex business tasks into trackable, non-linear modules—making business development feel achievable and motivating through game design principles.
Team
Aayushi Gandhi
Dana Billman
Gabby Fisher
Brack Harmon
Zhongyou Wu
My Role
UI/UX Designer
Skills
Game Design
Interaction Design Prototyping
UX Strategy
Timeline
10 weeks
cONTEXT
The Sales Intervention Workbook started as a traditional textbook designed to teach students the fundamentals of sales — a crucial skill for building and growing a business. However, the static, text-heavy format made it difficult for students, especially first-time entrepreneurs, to stay engaged and apply what they learned.
To address this, the project aimed to transform the workbook into a gamified digital platform — merging business theory with daily, practical actions. The experience was designed to be visually simple yet motivating, taking inspiration from Duolingo, habit trackers, and interactive learning tools. The long-term vision also included integrating AI features, enabling users to practice sales conversations with an AI coach for personalized guidance.
Problem space
Young entrepreneurs often struggle to stay consistent with business development outside a classroom setting. Traditional workbooks lack interactivity, feedback, or any sense of momentum.
My task was to create a web app that could:
Make the learning journey feel rewarding
Offer non-linear exploration through business-building exercises
Allow users to track daily progress at their own pace
rESEARCH
To better understand our target users; university-age students in the Czech Republic building real world businesses; we conducted interviews with 11 students across three sales domains: B2B, B2C, and retail. These students were either launching software-based services, starting consumer brands, or operating physical/e-commerce storefronts. Our goal was to learn how they approach business development, stay accountable, and where traditional workbook systems fall short.
Interviews
Working within tight timelines, I followed a Lean UX approach—translating the Texas A&M Sales Workbook into an intuitive digital tool. While I didn’t conduct the interviews myself, I worked closely with our product manager, who gathered insights from our target users. I also consulted our internal team to evaluate design feasibility early on.
Sample Interview & Survey Questions
What kind of business are you trying to build?
How do you currently set and track weekly goals?
Do you prefer a linear, step-by-step curriculum or the freedom to choose your own path?
What would keep you coming back to a business tool daily?
Results from interviews
From these interviews, we uncovered key insights that shaped our MVP. First, students needed more accountability tools—most struggled to track consistent progress across weeks and wanted visible milestones or streaks. Traditional static PDFs or printed workbooks were often skipped or forgotten. A flexible, visual, and mobile-accessible experience was preferred.
Users also responded well to gamification elements like badges, progress bars, and streak reminders, especially when framed as “leveling up” their business. Lastly, users wanted autonomy. Many had prior experience in parts of the workbook and preferred to jump ahead, rather than follow a rigid module path.
Based on this research, we developed two personas to represent our audience:
Original MVP
Our initial MVP was visually bold and heavily gamified—featuring colorful city-building metaphors, fireworks, and multiple color-coded modules. While engaging on the surface, early feedback revealed that these elements were distracting for users just starting their entrepreneurial journey. Most students felt overwhelmed, unsure where to begin, and struggled to focus on actionable learning.
Through user interviews and testing, we discovered that early-stage learners needed simplicity, structure, and a clear sense of progress—not visual noise. This led me to rethink our design priorities and streamline the experience around what actually helps users move forward.
Refined MVP
Daily Progress Tracking : Helps students visualize their learning journey and stay motivated with consistent feedback.
Modular, Non-Linear Flow: Empowers users to start where it feels most relevant—whether it's building a sales pitch or understanding funding.
Lightweight Gamification: Replaces heavy visuals with subtle reward cues like checkmarks and module unlocks to reduce overwhelm.
Clean, Distraction-Free UI : Prioritizes clarity, helping students focus on reflection, business building, and next steps.
design
To bring research insights into action, we focused on creating a structured UI that aligned with student needs: simplicity, autonomy, and progress tracking.
Initial ideas explored colorful and gamified directions but were refined over time to maintain clarity and purpose.
Prototyping & Iteration
We began with quick hand sketches and evolved into low-fidelity wireframes using Miro Board. These templates allowed for rapid testing of layouts, clarity of text inputs, and module progression.
User flow
Final Outcome
The outcome is a streamlined, goal-focused UI tailored for students balancing studies and real-world business building. Clear hierarchy, collapsible menus, and modular layouts ensure information is digestible, while progress trackers reinforce consistency without bold colors and multiple animations.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
To support Czech students in building their businesses while progressing through the Sales Workbook, I designed a simple, structured interface with four core screens. These screens map directly to the user journey—from orientation to reflection—and align with the pillars of tracking progress, learning non-linearly, and building step-by-step.
Modules Screen
The main dashboard presents all workbook modules in a clean, collapsible list view. This supports non-linear learning by letting students start wherever they wish and revisit past lessons anytime.
Progress indicators beside each module provide quick visual feedback, encouraging goal completion without overwhelming first-time users.
Questions + Objectives Screen
Each module opens with a clear objective and 3–4 guided questions. This page mirrors the workbook’s layout while enhancing it with form fields, digital input flexibility, and responsive design. The maroon header and white background create a focused reading zone, minimizing distraction while keeping the user anchored in their task.
Send Module Progress
Once answers are filled in, users can “Send Progress,” allowing them to save their inputs and continue working later or export their work for instructor review.
This feature is crucial for accountability and enables asynchronous collaboration with mentors or peers. We kept the Call-to-action(CTA) simple to encourage confident completion.
Track Your Sales (Progress Tracker)
A visual dashboard that gamifies business tracking with real-time goal completion bars, module achievements, and sales data entries. This screen motivates users to return daily, reinforcing habits and giving tangible feedback on business efforts outside the app. Its visual simplicity mirrors productivity tools like Notion or Duolingo’s weekly streaks.
Results
Final thoughts
The Sales Workbook application is currently under development and will soon be available for public use on Itch.io. Despite being in progress, initial feedback from stakeholders and early testers has been highly encouraging.
Validated Design Decisions
Through iterative design and feedback sessions with business students and mentors, the modular structure and non-linear progression model were validated as both motivating and flexible for diverse users.
Enhanced Learning Experience
Test users reported that the clear objectives and visual progress tracking helped break down overwhelming business goals into manageable daily steps — mimicking Duolingo’s simplicity but focused on entrepreneurial growth.
Improved Usability & Visual Cohesion
Switching from a celebratory, colorful theme to a clean simple aesthetic created a more focused interface, resonating with adult learners while still feeling warm and supportive.
6 out of 7
Visual Appeal Score
87%
System Usability Score(SUS)
What I Could Have Done Better:
Incorporated audio/video tutorials for each module
Designed a real-time peer leaderboard for social accountability
Upon launch on Itch.io, further user testing and analytics tracking will be used to refine and expand features, including potential reward systems and collaborative modules.
Nice to meet you! Hope you liked my work.
All rights reserved. Aayushi Gandhi 2025