Brilliant: Learn Math & Coding

Very good platform to learn but there are paywalls

Is Brilliant's mission to teach, or to be a shiny app? Brilliant's mission page says the goal is to help people excel in STEM in less time, with lessons engineered to minimize cognitive load. I'm asking sincerely, not rhetorically: is the mission to teach people, or to ship a visually lively app? Right now, it can't claim both. While I'm concentrating on a problem, the logo blinks and glances around at the bottom of the screen. When content overflows, an animated arrow starts jumping a few seconds in — exactly when I've begun reading. Peripheral motion involuntarily captures human attention; every one of these animations breaks my concentration mid-learning. The app damages the very thing I'm paying for: my ability to focus on, understand, and retain the material. This isn't just one user's irritation. The research literature on distraction and learning (e.g., Kaur, "Unseen Barriers: The Impact of Distraction on Student Learning," Global Journal of Advanced Research, Vol. 12 Issue 2, 2025) is unambiguous: interruptions during learning produce shallow learning and worse retention. Decorative motion during problem-solving is pure extraneous cognitive load — the exact category Brilliant's own pedagogy claims to minimize. What would fix it: - A motion-free lesson mode, or at minimum respect for the OS Reduce Motion setting: no blinking logo, no jumping arrows, nothing animated while a question is on screen. - A static scroll indicator (a persistent scrollbar showing position and remaining content) instead of the delayed animated arrow — or merge the question area with the button area so the layout itself communicates that more content is below. Brilliant says it reads every piece of feedback and measures everything. Please measure this: retention, not engagement, for users with and without decorative motion. I believe your own data will side with your mission statement.