Many ways to learn No.3: Exploratory Interfaces

An exploratory interface is an interactive system designed for investigation and discovery; a non-linear, clickable environment where learners can navigate freely. Think hotspots, expanding panels, animated transitions between sections and embedded multimedia. A branching visual interface where every choice opens up new material.

There's no prescribed path, no next button to click. Instead, learners are free to follow their curiosity, dig into what interests them, and construct understanding at their own pace.

The learning emerges from the experience of navigating, noticing, and making sense of things for ourselves. prove. The game becomes a system of cause and effect, and the learner is embedded inside it.

Jean Piaget and his theory of constructivism is a foundational figure here. When a learner encounters something unexpected, it creates what Piaget called "disequilibrium" — a cognitive tension that drives them to adapt their understanding.

Jerome Bruner built on this with a pedagogical approach he called discovery learning — the idea that learners should be encouraged to discover principles for themselves rather than having them explained. He argued this leads to deeper understanding and better retention, because the learner has done the cognitive work of arriving there.

Bruner, J. S. (1961). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31(1), 21–32.
Piaget, J. (1952). The Origins of Intelligence in Children. International Universities Press. 

Project profile:  Red Bull Wingfinder — Strengths Explorer 

Red Bull's Wingfinder is a personality assessment that offers insight into your strengths at work. But having your results is only the beginning. Understanding them is another thing entirely. We designed the Strengths Explorer as an interface for that deeper understanding.

Users move freely across the four areas and 24 personality traits, choosing what to investigate and in what order.

They can discover what each characteristic means in practice, hear directly from Red Bull athletes who share those traits, and explore the full spectrum of each dimension — understanding not just where they sit, but what the extremes look like and why it matters.

Every user takes a different path through the same material, guided by their own curiosity and the areas of their personality they are most interested in addressing.