light · education · sans · friendly · green · nonprofit · k12
Khan Academy
Signature `#14bf96` mint green on white with Lato sans — free-for-everyone education in a warm, encouraging register.
By webdesignhot · www.khanacademy.org
$ npx design-md add khan-academy
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Adidas Pure-black sport-utility, AdihausDIN/adidasFG uppercase, three-stripe geometry — the engineering canon for global sportswear. Adobe Creative-suite chrome — paper-white canvas, magenta-to-orange wordmark gradient, and Adobe Clean carrying every product grid. AgentKit Three swappable themes for AI agent products — editorial dark, daylight bright, fintech cool-blue. Airbnb Pure-white marketplace canvas with one Rausch coral and Cereal — generous photography, soft pills, modest type. Airtable White-canvas editorial workflow software with full-bleed coral and forest signature cards punctuating a near-black pill-CTA system. Alibaba Electric orange `#ff6a00` + dense merchant grids — the global B2B wholesale floor as a website. Amazon Smile-orange CTA, Amazon Ember sans, dense product grids — the canonical everything-store interface. Amazon Web Services Squid-ink navy with Smile-orange CTAs — the densest tile-portal on the cloud-platform internet. Anthropic Editorial broadsheet for AI safety — cream canvas, Anthropic Serif body, terracotta clay accent, magazine geometry. Apple White-canvas product theatre — SF Pro Text, 980px pill CTAs, and a single-blue accent system. Apple Music Pink-red gradient hero with album-grid kinesthetics — SF Pro precision, signature `#fa233b` brand pink, glassy dark canvas. Apple TV+ Pure-black cinematic theatre with SF Pro and ruthless minimalism — content as the only voice. Arc Browser-as-personality marketing — buttery cream canvas, Marlin Soft display, hand-tooled blue-and-coral palette. Are.na Bare grey-and-orange minimalism — a single Helvetica-class sans, hairline borders, and a stubborn refusal to optimise for engagement. Asana Approachable work management in soft purple — Asana Sans at modest weights with a rainbow accent palette and warm sky-tinted whitespace. Astro Cosmos navy canvas with violet-to-orange brand gradient — Mona Sans display, Inter body, Astro''s star-chart MPA framework dressed as an observatory dashboard. ASUS Republic of Gamers red `#cd0000` on black with bold sans — Taiwan engineering meets esports brutalism. Audi Vorsprung durch Technik on near-black — Audi Type sans, four-rings precision, and a near-monochrome canvas with `#bb0a30` reserved for sport. Auth0 Twilight-blue dark canvas with TWK Lausanne 300 display + Aeonik body — the original identity-platform aesthetic. Axiom Deep-navy observability with a cyan electric accent — Inter for body, JetBrains Mono for every event label, and a structural grid that reads as logs at planet scale. Axios Smart-brevity in chromatic form — blocky white canvas, Tiempos-flavored Atiza serif, signature `Why it matters:` time-bars and bullet-first prose. Base Coinbase-adjacent L2 minimalism — coinbaseSans on white, signature electric blue Baseten White canvas with Inter and a signature `#6c5ce7` purple — ML model deployment dressed in approachable workshop chrome. BBC News Signature BBC red (`#bb1919`), Reith Sans + Reith Serif, the global broadcaster authority typography of the world''s public-service news. Bear Off-white canvas, a custom bearsans display, a red bear icon, and tealish handwritten underlines — a Markdown notes app dressed as a Mac Pro magazine. beehiiv Aggressive black-on-yellow newsletter punch — heavy display sans, hyper-flat cards, and a `#ffd60a` highway-yellow that reads like a tabloid front page. Binance Trading-floor near-black with a single high-voltage Binance Yellow doing all the brand work — BinanceNova for type, BinancePlex for numbers. Bloomberg Iconic black-orange financial broadsheet — BWHaasHead headlines, AvenirNextPForBBG chrome, terminal-grade data density. Bluesky Sky-blue `#0085ff` on bright white with Inter sans — the AT-Protocol social network rendered as airy, federated, open. Blur Pure-black canvas, neon `#ff8700` orange voltage, and JetBrains-Mono-default everywhere — brutalist NFT trader terminal as competitive instrument. BMW Corporate-blue calm — BMW Type Next on a cream-tinted white, dark navy hero bands, and the M-stripe triplet in reserve. BMW M Performance black on M-blue/M-violet/M-red — the motorsport variant that turns BMW corporate into track-day theatre. Booking.com Deep-blue commerce engine — Bookin Sans on white, yellow CTA voltage, dense booking-funnel maximalism. Bose Pure black canvas, Helvetica restraint, and premium-audio confidence — sound presented as engineering art. Brex Cool grey-blue surfaces, magenta-to-purple-to-indigo gradient, Söhne 600 — fintech as fast, modern, slightly flashy. Bugatti French-engineered austerity — pure black canvas, three Bugatti typefaces, and full-bleed photography as the only voltage. Bun Cream canvas with chunky pink accents and the wide-eyed mascot — a JS runtime dressed as a 1970s bakery sign. Cal.com Open-source calendly with one bold custom font — Cal Sans on a soft `#f4f4f4` paper canvas. Calm Signature `#0066ff` deep blue + Aktiv Grotesk + meditation-deep cool atmospheric calm. Capacities Cream-yellow canvas, Inter at 700 with a Crimson Pro serif fallback, and a yellow underline as page ornament — a PKM that thinks like a sketchbook. Cartesia Bright clinical white with a single deep-blue action — voice-AI presented as scientific instrument rather than consumer product. Cash App Electric `#00d54b` green on near-black, Cash Sans monospace-flavoured geometry, and p2p-money youth aesthetic. Character.AI Cool zinc canvas, custom atHauss sans, and dark pill CTAs — a roleplay social product dressed in TikTok-grade neutrality. Chevrolet Gold-cross American classic — Louis sans on white with a `#cd9834` bowtie, a `#003876` corporate blue, and Camaro/Corvette red drama in reserve. Claude.ai Cream paper canvas, Anthropic Sans for body and Anthropic Serif for the headline — an AI assistant set in literary type. Clerk Geist + Suisse on near-black canvas with `#6c47ff` violet CTA — the drop-in-auth dev-tool aesthetic. ClickHouse Near-pure black canvas with electric yellow as the brand voltage — database performance dressed in voltmeter chrome. Cloudinary Media-API technical infrastructure in confident blue — Inter at modest weights with a deep navy-blue brand and a single chromatic accent for media moments. Cohere Stark white editorial canvas with deep green-black product bands and a CohereText/Unica77 type split. Coinbase Institutional-grade calm — pure white canvas, a single Coinbase Blue, and Coinbase Display set at weight 400 instead of 700. Composio Near-black canvas with deep-electric-blue voltage and a 2x2 terminal-mockup hero — agent infrastructure dressed as developer instrumentation. Corsair Yellow `#ffff00` lightning on black with Roboto — RGB-everything peripherals and PC components. Costco Warehouse blue + signature red, Helvetica utilitarian — bulk-buying signage translated to web. Coursera University-blue `#0056d2` on warm-white parchment with Source Sans — the canonical online-degree marketplace. Cursor Warm cream IDE-marketing — `#f7f7f4` canvas, `#26251e` ink, custom CursorGothic display, JetBrains Mono code, vivid orange accent. Datadog NationalWeb on white with the iconic `#632ca6` purple — observability dressed as an enterprise dashboard, structurally dense, chromatically restrained, multicolour where the data demands it. Deel A warm dark canvas with electric coral and orange accents — global payroll dressed as a confident product portrait. DeepSeek Deep-blue Chinese-tech minimalism — a research lab dressed in `#4d6bfe` and stark white space. Dell Pragmatic blue `#007db8` with custom Roboto-derivative — business-first PC commerce since the dorm room. Deno Inkwell black on warm white with the dinosaur mascot — TypeScript runtime as Eric Carle children's book. Descript Cream-pink canvas, a custom Brett display serif, and a wine-dark CTA — an AI video editor that ships like a magazine. Discord Indigo-ground hangout — gg sans body, ABC Ginto Nord display, 12-16px tile radii, white pill CTAs. Disney+ Deep navy gradient streaming hall with custom Inspire display sans and the unmistakable Disney+ wordmark arc. DoorDash Signature red-orange CTA, custom DoorDash Sans, delivery-funnel commerce — the dominant on-demand local marketplace. ElevenLabs Near-black voice-tech ground with white voice-wave aesthetic — Inter at studio scale, pill CTAs, and a single saturated accent that reads as both wayfinding and brand. Epic Games Pure-black canvas with custom Brutal Type / Heading Now display — Fortnite-saturated marketing meets PC-storefront merchandising. Ethereum Off-white canvas, ethereum-blue `#1c64f2` voltage, and Inter + serif duet — community-owned protocol as open documentation. Etsy Burnt-orange CTA, Graphik humanist sans, handcrafted-warmth aesthetic — the marketplace for makers and small batch. Excalidraw Literal hand-drawn whiteboard — wobbly SVG strokes, Virgil-style handwriting, and a deliberately primitive UI that turns digital sketching into nostalgia. Expedia Navy commerce + Mango yellow voltage — Expedia Sans, dense travel-funnel density with One Key loyalty colour-coding. Fantastical White paper, Effra geometric sans, full-round blue pills, and a rainbow of app-icon glass squares — a calendar app marketed like Apple''s Pro Apps. Ferrari Cinematic editorial in near-black — Rosso Corsa restraint, FerrariSans 500, and full-bleed cavallino photography. Figma Bright multi-color section bands with figmaSans display and figmaMono eyebrows — a marketing site that designs in scenes. Financial Times Salmon-pink page (`#fff1e5`) — the world''s most recognizable newspaper background, paired with Financier display + MetricWeb sans for global markets coverage. Fireworks AI Light canvas with Inter sans and a signature `#6720ff` purple-amber-orange spark — fast-inference platform dressed in speed-of-light kinetic chrome. Fly.io Mackinac display + Fragment Mono on a violet-saturated canvas — a PaaS that dresses like a small-press magazine. Ford American-truck heritage in corporate blue — Antenna sans, oval-script wordmark, and a deep `#003478` voltage that has carried the brand since 1927. Framer Black-on-white maximalism with electric gradient floods — Inter Display at heroic sizes, motion as a first-class material. Frontegg PP Neue Machina display + Neue Montreal body — plug-and-play user-management with deep-blue gravitas. Gemini (Google) Blue-into-violet gradient, Google Sans, soft Material 3 surfaces — Google''s house style applied to a chat interface. Ghost Warm-cream content CMS aesthetic — Inter for chrome, a soft serif for the writing surface, and a single confident green for action. GitHub Dark-canvas developer-platform marketing — Mona Sans variable headings, lime-green accent, near-black ground. GitHub Copilot Pure-white canvas, pure-black inverted CTAs, Mona Sans display — GitHub's editorial confidence applied to AI tooling. Grafana Dark observability canvas with the iconic `#f46800` orange — Inter for body, Roboto Mono everywhere a label hides, multi-colour chart palette ripped straight from a real dashboard. Granola White paper, a custom Quadrant book serif, and an olive-green CTA — an AI notepad that dresses like a stationery shop. Grubhub Friendly red-orange CTA, Sentinel display + Avenir body, dense delivery-app commerce — the long-running incumbent. HashiCorp Black canvas hosting a per-product color portfolio — Terraform purple, Vault yellow, Consul red, Waypoint cyan — multi-product identity made literal. Hashnode Developer publishing platform — deep navy canvas, electric blue brand, Inter sans + JetBrains Mono code chrome. HBO Max Deep purple-black premium streaming canvas with custom Sharp Grotesk and the unmistakable Max wordmark. Headspace Signature `#ffac1d` orange + custom round display + meditation-friendly playful warmth. Height AI-PM workspace dressed in chalk pastels — Inter at modest weights over a near-paper canvas, with a single confident accent and an AI-purple voltage moment. Honda Reliability-first restraint — HondaGlobalFont on white, signature red HP Cyan-blue `#0096d6` HP-circle on white with Forma DJR — the 84-year-old technology brand''s mainstream face. Hugging Face AI community canvas — deep blue-black ground, Source Sans Pro headlines, pill auth + 8px tile cards. Hulu Near-black canvas anchored on Hulu Green `#1ce783` with Graphik sans — the bright, cable-meets-streaming UI. IBM Carbon Design System made literal — pure-white canvas, IBM Plex Sans at light 300, square corners, and one assertive `#0f62fe` blue. Ideogram A bright white canvas with a single saturated violet cue — a typography-first AI image tool that lets the gallery do all the talking. Instacart Grocery-shopping-list practical — Instacart Sans on white, signature carrot green Kagi A premium search engine dressed in warm cream and Plex — the indie answer to ad-funded search. KAYAK Burnt-orange flight-search density — Open Sans on white, comparison-engine maximalism, price-graph data viz. Kinde White canvas with Inter 72/500 display + dev-friendly pink-coral accent — the approachable auth-billing-access platform. Kit A cream newsletter canvas with a custom KitSans display, a Libre Franklin secondary, and a pastel-rainbow chip set — the editorial register reborn from ConvertKit. Kraken Kraken Purple `#7132f5` on white — Kraken-Brand display + Kraken-Product UI for a calmer, less-bombastic crypto exchange. Krea A pure-black studio with Suisse Intl set quietly at 60px — a creative-AI gallery that lets the work and the cobalt CTA carry the colour. Lamborghini Cathedral of darkness — true black canvas, Lamborghini Gold accents, and LamboType angled-terminal display. LangChain Deep navy canvas with Inter precision and a quietly confident teal accent — agent orchestration dressed as engineering documentation. Linear Dark-canvas product surface — pure-black ground, indigo accent, custom Inter weights, pill CTAs. LiveKit Realtime audio-video infra — Public Sans 300 weight on near-black, signature cyan LlamaIndex White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1b9aff` blue — RAG infrastructure dressed as a clean technical reference card. Logitech Soft consumer-tech blue gradients with Brown sans — design for the way you work, play, and create. Lovable Pink-into-violet gradient on white — vibe-coding dressed in playful, friendly chromatics. Magic Eden Mint-cream canvas, magenta-mint accent duet, and a custom Foundry display — Solana-native marketplace as boutique gallery. Mailchimp Cavendish-yellow chunkiness — a custom display serif (Cooper Light), the signature `#ffe01b` block, and a brand voice that hugs you while it ships campaigns. Mastercard Cream-canvas editorial fintech, circular-portrait orbits, MarkForMC at 450 weight — institutional-but-warm payments brand. MasterClass Pure-black cinema with custom display serif and editorial reverence — celebrity-instructor learning as a premium streaming product. Medium Editorial reading-first publishing — magazine-grade serif body, GT Super display, signature green-on-white pill CTAs. Mercedes-Benz Three-pointed-star authority — MBCorpo on near-black canvas, silver-blue Mercury A near-pure white canvas with a literary serif headline and a signature mercury-mint accent — banking dressed as a quiet magazine. Meta Optimistic blue (#0467df) on a white corporate canvas — Optimistic Display headlines, generous space, social-platform conglomerate at rest. Microsoft Fluent surfaces — off-white canvas, Segoe UI Variable Display, and a Cortana-blue action color carrying every product. Midjourney A deep cosmic canvas where JetBrains Mono headlines float over a wide-gamut OKLCH rainbow — a research lab dressed as a chapel. MiniMax Stark monochrome canvas broken open by vibrant gradient product cards — coral, magenta, blue, purple as model identity. Mintlify Documentation-platform marketing — pure white canvas, mint-green accent, Inter at tight tracking, near-black pill CTAs. Miro Canary-yellow Mistral Butter-yellow canvas, Arial as a deliberate anti-tech statement, and zero-radius rectangles — French AI as a brutalist art-school manifesto. Modal Serverless GPU infra in lime-green — `#0c0c0c` canvas, electric `#7fee64` accent, custom Modal Mono on every chip and code block. Monday.com Project management in confident red-pink — Poppins display at bold weights with a colorful saturated palette and a playfully energetic visual rhythm. MongoDB Signature MongoDB green Motion AI-calendar productivity in green-and-purple — Inter at modest weights with a green-to-purple voltage gradient signaling the AI scheduler, anchored by a clean white canvas. MSI Dragon-red `#ff0000` on jet black with bold display sans — the Taipei dragon-heritage gaming hardware brand. Mux Video API for developers — Aeonik on light-cream, Rotonto display, JetBrainsMono CTAs, sharp 0px corners. Neon Serverless Postgres dressed in late-night green — a near-black canvas with a single electric mint accent. Netflix Pure-black streaming theatre with signature `#e50914` red and Netflix Sans — the canonical media-tile grid. Nike Pure black, pure white, Helvetica Now — pill CTAs and full-bleed athletic photography on a single soft cloud gray. Notion Off-white canvas with Lyon serif accents and a custom NotionInter — a workspace dressed as a literary magazine. Nuxt Forest-green `#00dc82` glow on a near-black canvas — Vue-flavored warmth dressed for the cosmos. NVIDIA Engineering-grade canvas — pure black hero / paper-white body / one violently saturated `#76b900` green that carries every CTA and corner square. Omnivore Open-source read-it-later — near-white reading canvas, focused emerald-on-paper brand, archival elegance after the Eleven Labs sunset. OpenAI Pure white canvas, OpenAI Sans set in calm 500-weight, and a single black pill for the only action that matters — try ChatGPT. OpenRouter Pure-black canvas with custom display typography and pragmatic mono — LLM-router infrastructure dressed as a terminal billing dashboard. OpenSea Pure-black canvas, electric `#2081e2` blue, and Inter at trader-pro density — the original NFT marketplace as financial terminal. Optimism Pure-white canvas, signature `#ff0420` red voltage, and Inter at confident L2 register — Ethereum rollup as bold optimistic infrastructure. Ory White canvas with Inter 48/400 display + signature deep-navy `#0f172a` CTA — open-source-first identity for technical teams. Oura Pure-black canvas with Inter precision and gold-stamped scores — the premium-ring health-precision aesthetic. Paper Website A literal sheet-of-paper website — single literary serif, off-white sheet canvas, narrow reading columns, ink-blue links. PayPal Dual-blue corporate trust — PayPal Sans Big over white, with a deep-navy ink and a sky-blue counterpoint. Peloton Signature `#cb1e4e` red on midnight ink, Inter display, instructor-led premium-fitness storefront. Perplexity Cream paper canvas, custom pplxSans, and the unmistakable Tropic-cyan accent — a reference-library answer engine dressed in warm tones. Pinecone White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1cb0d0` cyan — vector database technical-marketing dressed in clean blueprint chrome. Plaid Pale blue trust on white, classical Stripe-adjacent type, and a Benjamin-Franklin-as-mascot moment of personality. Plain B2B support tool with a Dinamo grotesk and a single radioactive `#1ad379` action — Linear-restraint applied to support. PlanetScale Pure-black canvas, blood-red accent, mono-set numerals — a database brand styled like a financial terminal. Polar Dev-tool obsidian — 8rem editorial display headlines, indigo accents, Louize serif moments. Polygon Deep purple `#8247e5` voltage, soft surface ladder, and Inter at enterprise calm — Ethereum L2 as institutional infrastructure. Porsche Engineering-purity black-on-white — Porsche Next at 96px regular, Rosso PostHog Cream-canvas analytics with mustard-yellow CTAs and IBM Plex — open-source craft, not SaaS gloss. Postmark Postal-yellow #ffde00 + warm-black #1c1d1f + paper-white canvas — the transactional email API designed like a friendly post office sign. Prime Video Amazon-blue streaming canvas with Ember sans and the dense, utility-first marketplace UI vocabulary. PropelAuth White canvas with SF Pro Rounded display 60/900 + deep-navy ink — B2B multi-tenant auth with Apple-tinted polish. Qwik Electric purple-to-blue gradient on near-black — resumable execution dressed as a lightning bolt. Railway Ship software peacefully — IBM Plex Serif headlines on a deep eggplant canvas, with a single confident violet for action. Raindrop.io White paper, system-ui sans, soft watercolor blob backgrounds, and a vivid `#0b7ed0` blue CTA — a bookmark manager that ships like a creative-tool sketch. Ramp Off-yellow `#fcfb70` and black-on-white editorial — finance ops dressed as a printed annual report. Raycast Near-black canvas, glowing keycaps, monospaced shortcut chips — a marketing site that thinks like a launcher. Razer Neon `#44d62c` snake-green on jet black with Roboto — the For Gamers, By Gamers visual signature. Readwise Pastel-orange book-club warmth — soft cream canvas, friendly Tiempos serif accents, and a tangerine that signals 'this is your library.' Reddit Front-page-of-the-internet orange — community-card density, IBM Plex Sans display, and a confident Remix Signature `#3992ff` blue on pure white with Inter — a nested-routes web framework dressed as a manifesto poster. Render Lavender on white — a PaaS that swapped Heroku purple for a candy-bright #8a05ff and kept the airy whitespace. Replicate AI-API marketing — light page chrome, dark hero canvas, rb-Freigeist Neue display, JetBrains Mono code, sharp 0px corners. Replit Saturated turquoise on `#0e1525` ink — the cloud-IDE aesthetic with IBM Plex DNA and a JetBrains Mono soul. Resend Pure-black canvas with Domaine Display serif at 96px and Commit Mono code chips — email infra that thinks in italics. Retool Pragmatic blue #3a55fc + Inter + dense product mocks — the internal-tool platform that designed itself like a well-organised admin panel. Reuters Global newswire restraint — signature orange (`#ff8000`), Knowledge Medium custom sans, broadsheet rigor for the world''s oldest news agency. Riot Games Crimson `#d13639` red on near-black with custom Riot Beam display — esports-tournament drama and competitive-MOBA editorial. Rive Chunky animated display type and saturated playful colour — interactive graphics platform that wears its motion design on its sleeve. Roblox Bright `#ed1d24` red on white with Builder Sans — the youth-block-builder playground turned multi-billion-game social platform. RunPod Deep slate canvas with Inter and a signature `#673ab7` purple — accessible GPU cloud dressed in friendly developer chrome. Runway A near-black research canvas with ABC Normal headlines pulled tight at -2.5px — a film studio, an ML lab, and a brutalist gallery in one shell. Salesforce Cloud-trust dashboards — Salesforce Sans on a sky-blue ground, with Astro the bear standing guard over a dense CRM portal. SAP Enterprise-ERP precision in cobalt — SAP72 sans, signal-blue accents, and a calm white canvas built for trust. Segment Twilio Segment's customer-data-platform canvas — Whitney SSm humanist sans, navy-on-white, single confident `#1866ee` blue. Semafor Paper-cream canvas (`#f8f5d7`) with FeatureFlatHeadline serif and signature flag-style topic columns — global-news editorial built for the post-Twitter era. SendGrid Functional API-blue on white — the email-platform dashboard aesthetic, now folded under the Twilio umbrella. Sentry Deep-aubergine observability — Dammit Sans display, Rubik body, JetBrains Mono code, signature violet #7553ff and pill CTAs. shadcn/ui Copy-paste components in pure black-on-white — the most influential design system not actually shipped as a library. Shopify Dark-first commerce theatre — 96px NeueHaasGrotesk at weight 330, electric mint focus rings, and stacked multi-layer shadows. Signal Privacy-first messaging in `#3a76f0` Signal blue with Inter sans — minimal, ad-free, end-to-end-encrypted by default. Slack Aubergine workspace marketing — Salesforce-Avant-Garde headlines, all-caps 4px CTAs, white canvas with `#4a154b` accents. SolidJS Deep navy with a blue-to-cyan brand gradient — reactive primitives dressed as a circuit diagram. Sonos Pure black canvas, Inter typography, and audio-system minimalism — speakers presented as gallery objects. SoundCloud Signature `#ff5500` orange on `#f2f2f2` paper with Interstate sans — waveform-first audio social UI. SpaceX Pure-black cinematic photography, D-DIN aerospace stencil type, ghost-button minimalism — the interface disappears. Spotify Electric `#1ed760` green on near-black canvas with Spotify Mix sans — the canonical streaming-audio tile grid. Square Pure black on pure white, Square Sans grids, and retail-POS minimalism — commerce as black-and-white geometry. Starbucks Forest-green storefront — SoDoSans, full-pill buttons, warm-cream canvas, and a floating Frap CTA the brand calls home. Steam Deep blue-gray `#1b2838` with Motiva Sans — the utilitarian PC-gaming library that runs the world's largest digital storefront. SteelSeries Esports orange `#ff6900` on near-black with Inter — Danish precision peripherals for competitive play. Strava Signature `#fc4c02` orange + Inter on white — endurance-athlete data-driven storefront with map-overlay heritage. Stripe Editorial fintech polish — light Söhne headlines at weight 300, navy-not-black text, signature `#533afd` purple CTAs. Stytch Paper-cream canvas with Booton display + Chivo Mono body — passwordless-modern auth, joined Twilio. Substack Magazine-on-the-internet — Spectral serif body at 19px, Cahuenga display, signature `#ff6719` orange CTAs. Suno A near-black booth with cream Neue Montreal and a hot-pink cue light — a music studio, a record sleeve, and a chat app fused into one canvas. Sunsama Thoughtful daily planning in warm cream and ink — Inter at modest weights over a paper-cream canvas with sage and rose accents and a calm, unhurried voice. Supabase Off-black canvas, signature emerald `#3ecf8e`, Circular as display, Postgres-grade type discipline. Superhuman White paper canvas, a custom Super Sans variable, and a single confident lavender — premium email dressed as a stationery brand. Supreme Box-logo red, Courier monospace, skate-deadpan minimalism — the most influential streetwear store on the web. Svelte Hot orange #ff3e00 against clean white with a confident sans — the framework that wears its flame as a wordmark. Tailwind CSS The system applied to itself — Inter Variable on white canvas, signature cyan #06b6d4, every component built from Tailwind utilities. Tana Pure black canvas, a custom tanaClassic serif at 83px, and a pale-pistachio CTA — a knowledge graph dressed as a literary supplement. Target Bullseye red CTA, Helvetica Neue, photographic hero — friendly mass-market design with confident chromatic restraint. Telegram Cloud-blue messaging — Tesla Cinematic showroom on white — one Electric Blue CTA, Universal Sans, and viewport-height car photography. The Atlantic Modern serif headlines on cream-paper, signature Atlantic orange `#fbb33b`, long-form magazine reading rendered for the web. The Economist Deep cinnabar red `#e3120b`, Milo serif body, Econ Sans labels — the global-affairs weekly rendered with cover-illustration discipline. The Guardian Guardian Egyptian slab serif, signature navy `#052962`, structured ruled hierarchy with bold section accents. The New York Times Cheltenham serif headlines on paper-white, signature breaking-news red, the canonical American broadsheet rendered for the web. The New Yorker Adobe Caslon Pro + Irvin headline cap — a century of editorial gravitas in cream paper, ink black, and signature cartoon line. The Washington Post Postoni serif blackletter masthead, "Democracy Dies in Darkness" tagline, sober ink-on-paper political broadsheet. Things Cool light-blue canvas, system-ui sans, vivid Things-blue accent — a task manager that ships like an Apple Pro Display. Threads Instagram-adjacent text-first social — pure-black canvas, system-sans clarity, and a quiet brand restraint built from the @ glyph alone. TikTok Electric cyan-magenta on pure black — vertical-video voltage with custom Proxima Nova display and a bold neon brand grammar. tldraw Casual whiteboard sketchy — hand-drawn UI primitives, dotted-grid canvas, and a soft pastel palette that wears its toy-like energy with confidence. Together AI Deep navy on near-white with Inter sans — open-source LLM cloud rendered as developer-platform infrastructure. Toyota Japanese-reliability mainstream — `#eb0a1e` Toyota red on white, ToyotaType sans, and a calm-confident marketing surface for the world's most-sold automotive brand. Turbo Vercel-grade pure-black canvas with a magenta-to-blue Turbo gradient — the build system that wears its speed as a sweep. Turso SQLite at the edge — a deep-teal canvas with a CRT-bright cyan accent (#00face) that reads as a glowing edge node. Twilio Signal-red `#f22f46` against clean white — communications APIs given the visual weight of a broadcast colour. Twitch Purple `#9146ff` on `#0e0e10` canvas with Inter — the live-streaming UI built around chat, raids, and gaming density. Uber Eats Pure-black ground, Uber Move custom sans, Uber-app continuity — the operating system of food delivery. Udemy Signature `#a435f0` purple on white with Sailec sans — the open course-marketplace bazaar made approachable. Uniqlo Signature red `#ff0000`, Helvetica Neue system stack, japanese-utility-functional grid — the LifeWear engine. v0 A near-white prompt canvas with GeistSans and pure OKLCH grayscale — Vercel''s AI builder dressed as the calmest text editor on the internet. Venmo A single confident `#3d95ce` blue, Aktiv Grotesk geometry, and a social-feed informality — payments dressed as group chat. Vercel Brutalist developer-product polish — near-white canvas, near-pure black-on-near-white type, Geist sans + mono, conic-gradient accents. Vite Electric purple #646cff + Manrope display + a literal lightning-bolt mark — the build tool that designed itself to feel as fast as it is. Vodafone Vodafone Red broadcast band, monumental 144px display, two-tier button system — corporate-newsroom telecom design. Volkswagen People's-car blue — the deep `#001e50` corporate hue, custom VW Sans, and a friendly-German marketing surface that sells everyday mobility with confidence. Walmart Spark-yellow on big-box blue, Antonio Display + Bogle sans — everyday low prices made loud. Warp Near-black canvas, neon-lime cursor, real terminal screenshots — a marketing site that boots like a shell. Weaviate White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1cdb46` open-source green — modular vector database dressed in approachable engineering chrome. webdesignhot AI-era editorial dark — pure black with one acid-lime accent. Webflow Indigo-to-purple gradient discipline with a precise structural sans — the visual builder that markets itself like a design conference. WHOOP Lime `#a0d10b` voltage on jet-black, Inter precision, recovery-data athlete-grade aesthetic. WIRED Newsstand-density editorial grid, sharp-corner buttons, mono ALL-CAPS kickers — Conde Nast meets engineering lab. Wise A flexible bright-lime green on cream-white — money that travels in sans-serif and a single confident accent. Workday HR-warm professional in tangerine — Adelle Sans humanist curves, signature `#f37721` orange, and a calm white people-first canvas. WorkOS Pure-white canvas with Untitled Sans 80/500 display + indigo-violet h2 — the B2B-enterprise gravitas aesthetic. X Pure-black canvas with Chirp display — algorithmic minimalism, single-letter wordmark, ruthless type discipline. Y Combinator Brutalist orange monolith — system-font sans on white canvas, signature `#f26625` orange-red blocks with hard 0px corners. You.com Crisp white developer-doc canvas, custom Lumen Sans, and the indigo `#5368EE` accent — a search API rebrand done as enterprise infrastructure. YouTube YouTube Sans + Roboto + signature `#ff0000` red — content-density at planetary scale. Zora Cream-white canvas, electric purple-orange duet, and a custom display — onchain creator network as zine cover.
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Tokens design.md/v1.5
- bg
#ffffff - bg-warm
#f7f8fa - bg-muted
#fafbfc - bg-cream
#fef9e9 - bg-deep
#21242c - bg-promo
#e3f9f1 - surface
#ffffff - surface-elevated
#ffffff - surface-hover
#f7f8fa - surface-soft
#f0fcf7 - surface-strong
#e7e9ed - text AAA · 15.5
#21242c - text-strong
#0c0d0f - text-muted
#5b5e6b - text-soft
#797d8a - text-disabled
#a8aab2 - text-on-brand
#ffffff - text-link
#0a7d63 - text-link-hover
#06664f - brand — · 2.4
#14bf96 - brand-hover
#0e9a78 - brand-active
#0a7d63 - brand-soft
#e3f9f1 - brand-deep
#0a7d63 - accent-blue
#1865f2 - accent-yellow
#f4cf3e - accent-orange
#e07c2c - accent-purple
#9059ff - accent-red
#d23a48 - accent-pink
#e879b7 - border — · 1.4
#d6d8de - border-soft
#e7e9ed - border-strong — · 2.3
#a8aab2 - border-focus
#14bf96 - on-brand
#ffffff - mastery-attempted
#a8aab2 - mastery-familiar
#1865f2 - mastery-proficient
#9059ff - mastery-mastered
#0a7d63 - energy-points
#f4cf3e - streak-fire
#e07c2c - shadow-card
rgba(33,36,44,0.08) - shadow-modal
rgba(33,36,44,0.20) - shadow-popover
rgba(33,36,44,0.12) - success
#0a7d63 - success-soft
#e3f9f1 - warning
#d68a17 - warning-soft
#fef9e9 - danger
#d23a48 - danger-soft
#fdebed - info
#1865f2 - info-soft
#e6efff
Ship faster than ever.
display-hero "Lato" 56px w900 -0.02em
Ship faster than ever.
display-xl "Lato" 44px w700 -0.015em
Ship faster than ever.
display-lg "Lato" 32px w700 -0.01em
Ship faster than ever.
display-md "Lato" 24px w700 -0.005em
Ship faster than ever.
display-sm "Lato" 20px w700 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
title-lg "Lato" 18px w700 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-lg "Lato" 18px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
title-md "Lato" 16px w700 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-md "Lato" 16px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
button-lg "Lato" 16px w700 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
points "Lato" 16px w700 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
title-sm "Lato" 14px w700 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-sm "Lato" 14px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
button-md "Lato" 14px w700 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
metadata "Lato" 14px w400 0
npx design-md add linear
code "Source Code Pro" 14px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
eyebrow "Lato" 13px w700 0.08em
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
caption "Lato" 13px w400 0
- step-0 4px
- step-1 8px
- step-2 12px
- step-3 16px
- step-4 20px
- step-5 24px
- step-6 32px
- step-7 40px
- step-8 48px
- step-9 64px
- step-10 80px
- step-11 96px
- step-12 128px
- micro
2px - sm
4px - md
6px - lg
8px - xl
12px - pill
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---
name: Khan Academy
tagline: Signature `#14bf96` mint green on white with Lato sans — free-for-everyone education in a warm, encouraging register.
author: webdesignhot
source_url: https://www.khanacademy.org
spec: design.md/v1.5
quality: curated
featured: false
categories: [media, marketplace]
tags: [light, education, sans, friendly, green, nonprofit, k12]
preview_swatch: ['#ffffff', '#14bf96', '#21242c']
related: [coursera, udemy, masterclass]
description: 'Khan Academy is the warm-not-corporate aesthetic — a signature `#14bf96` mint green snapped against a paper-white `#ffffff` canvas, Lato sans pulling display through body in a friendly humanist register, and a learning-tree navigation pattern that descends directly from the K-12 textbook lineage rather than from e-commerce or streaming. The brand''s personality is the volunteer math teacher who genuinely believes anyone can learn — encouraging, plain-spoken, never patronizing, never bargain-aware (because Khan is free). Where Coursera leans on Stanford-blue institutional trust and Udemy leans on Amazon-discount-sticker bargain energy, Khan leans on **mission-driven warmth**: the page''s argument is "we are a nonprofit, we are free, we believe in you, and here is the next exercise." Course structure is rendered as a learning tree (mastery dots showing skills attempted / familiar / proficient / mastered in a 4-stage progress system), illustrations lean toward Owl-mascot warmth (Khan''s mascot, "Khanmigo", appears on AI tutor surfaces and learner pages), and the overall density is generous — body type at 16px / 400 / 1.5 line-height with friendly 8px-radius cards. The brand is a 21st-century reincarnation of the warm tutor-teacher voice in pure web form.'
colors:
bg: '#ffffff' # primary canvas
bg-warm: '#f7f8fa' # alt section band
bg-muted: '#fafbfc' # subtle bg variation
bg-cream: '#fef9e9' # warm cream for tip / encouragement bands
bg-deep: '#21242c' # footer dark band
bg-promo: '#e3f9f1' # mint promo band
surface: '#ffffff' # default card
surface-elevated: '#ffffff' # modal floor (with shadow)
surface-hover: '#f7f8fa' # nav hover, list-row hover
surface-soft: '#f0fcf7' # secondary mint-tinted card bg
surface-strong: '#e7e9ed' # divider band
text: '#21242c' # primary body — warm near-black
text-strong: '#0c0d0f' # display headlines
text-muted: '#5b5e6b' # secondary metadata
text-soft: '#797d8a' # tertiary captions
text-disabled: '#a8aab2' # disabled state
text-on-brand: '#ffffff' # text on green
text-link: '#0a7d63' # inline link deeper green
text-link-hover: '#06664f' # link pressed
brand: '#14bf96' # Khan Mint — primary brand colour
brand-hover: '#0e9a78' # primary button hover
brand-active: '#0a7d63' # pressed
brand-soft: '#e3f9f1' # soft tint surface, badge bg
brand-deep: '#0a7d63' # deeper green for inline links + dark surfaces
accent-blue: '#1865f2' # inline link blue (alternative to deep green for some surfaces)
accent-yellow: '#f4cf3e' # mastery-dot warning colour, energy points
accent-orange: '#e07c2c' # streaks, fire icon
accent-purple: '#9059ff' # avatar / profile accent
accent-red: '#d23a48' # error, danger
accent-pink: '#e879b7' # mascot accent (Khanmigo)
border: '#d6d8de' # default hairline
border-soft: '#e7e9ed' # subtle divider
border-strong: '#a8aab2' # focused field outline
border-focus: '#14bf96' # focus ring
on-brand: '#ffffff' # label on brand surface
mastery-attempted: '#a8aab2' # mastery dot — attempted (grey)
mastery-familiar: '#1865f2' # mastery dot — familiar (blue)
mastery-proficient: '#9059ff' # mastery dot — proficient (purple)
mastery-mastered: '#0a7d63' # mastery dot — mastered (deep green)
energy-points: '#f4cf3e' # gamified yellow point currency
streak-fire: '#e07c2c' # streak counter orange
shadow-card: 'rgba(33,36,44,0.08)' # default card shadow
shadow-modal: 'rgba(33,36,44,0.20)' # modal floor
shadow-popover: 'rgba(33,36,44,0.12)' # popover/dropdown
success: '#0a7d63' # exercise correct
success-soft: '#e3f9f1' # success bg
warning: '#d68a17' # warning amber
warning-soft: '#fef9e9' # warning bg
danger: '#d23a48' # error / wrong answer
danger-soft: '#fdebed' # error bg
info: '#1865f2' # info blue
info-soft: '#e6efff' # info bg
typography:
display:
family: '"Lato", "Lato 2.0", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Roboto", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif'
weights: [400, 700, 900]
opentype-features: ['kern', 'liga']
body:
family: '"Lato", "Lato 2.0", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Roboto", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif'
weights: [400, 700]
mono:
family: '"Source Code Pro", "SF Mono", "Roboto Mono", Menlo, Consolas, monospace'
weights: [400]
scale:
display-hero: { size: 56, weight: 900, lineHeight: 1.1, tracking: '-0.02em', family: display, notes: 'Marketing landing — "For every student, every classroom, real results"' }
display-xl: { size: 44, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.15, tracking: '-0.015em', family: display, notes: 'Section hero, mission page' }
display-lg: { size: 32, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.2, tracking: '-0.01em', family: display, notes: 'Course landing title — "Algebra 1"' }
display-md: { size: 24, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.25, tracking: '-0.005em', family: display, notes: 'Section heading — "Unit 1: Algebra foundations"' }
display-sm: { size: 20, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.3, tracking: '0', family: display, notes: 'Subsection heading' }
title-lg: { size: 18, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.35, tracking: '0', family: display, notes: 'Card title' }
title-md: { size: 16, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0', family: display, notes: 'Skill title in tree' }
title-sm: { size: 14, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0', family: display, notes: 'Sidebar nav, lesson list item' }
body-lg: { size: 18, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, tracking: '0', family: body, notes: 'Lead paragraph, lesson description' }
body-md: { size: 16, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.5, tracking: '0', family: body, notes: 'Default body, exercise question text' }
body-sm: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.5, tracking: '0', family: body, notes: 'Secondary metadata, "12 of 24 skills mastered"' }
button-lg: { size: 16, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.0, tracking: '0', family: display, notes: '"Start" / "Continue" CTA' }
button-md: { size: 14, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.0, tracking: '0', family: body, notes: 'Default button label' }
eyebrow: { size: 13, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.0, tracking: '0.08em', family: body, notes: 'Uppercase eyebrow "GET STARTED"' }
caption: { size: 13, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0', family: body, notes: 'Disclosures, fine print' }
metadata: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.3, tracking: '0', family: body, opentype: ['tnum'], notes: 'Skill count, points' }
points: { size: 16, weight: 700, lineHeight: 1.0, tracking: '0', family: display, opentype: ['tnum'], notes: '"2,340" energy points display' }
code: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.5, tracking: '0', family: mono, notes: 'CS lectures, math LaTeX inline fallback' }
radius:
micro: 2 # tiny indicator
sm: 4 # input, small button, tag
md: 6 # default card, badge
lg: 8 # primary card, button — Khan's friendly default
xl: 12 # large card, modal
pill: 9999 # mastery dot, energy-point pill, primary button cap
spacing:
base: 4
scale: [4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 40, 48, 64, 80, 96, 128]
layout:
page-width: 1440
content-max: 1240
prose-width: 720
header-height: 64
sidebar-width: 280 # learning tree sidebar
card-min: 240
card-max: 320
hero-min-height: 480
components:
button-primary:
bg: '#14bf96'
color: '#ffffff'
radius: 9999
padding: '12px 24px'
height: 48
font: button-lg
weight: 700
use: '"Start" / "Continue" / "Get Khan Academy" — primary CTA, pill-shaped Khan mint with white text.'
button-primary-hover:
bg: '#0e9a78'
color: '#ffffff'
radius: 9999
use: 'Hover — darker mint shift, no shadow lift, no scale.'
button-primary-active:
bg: '#0a7d63'
color: '#ffffff'
use: 'Pressed state.'
button-secondary:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#0a7d63'
border: '2px solid #0a7d63'
radius: 9999
padding: '12px 24px'
height: 48
use: '"Learn more" outlined deeper-green secondary — uses brand-deep `#0a7d63` for AAA contrast.'
button-tertiary-text:
bg: 'transparent'
color: '#0a7d63'
radius: 4
padding: '8px 12px'
use: 'Inline text link / footer-style action.'
button-icon:
bg: 'transparent'
color: '#5b5e6b'
radius: 4
height: 32
width: 32
use: 'Bookmark, share, more-options icon button.'
button-donate:
bg: '#1865f2'
color: '#ffffff'
radius: 9999
padding: '12px 24px'
height: 48
use: '"Donate" CTA in nav — uses signal-blue rather than brand-mint to differentiate the nonprofit ask from the learning-action verbs.'
card-course:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 8
padding: 24
border: '1px solid #d6d8de'
shadow: '0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06)'
use: 'Default subject tile in catalog grid — illustration top, 18px / 700 title, 14px / 400 description, "X skills" metadata, primary mint CTA.'
card-course-hover:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 8
shadow: '0 4px 12px rgba(33,36,44,0.10)'
use: 'Hover lift — shadow deepens, no scale, no translate.'
card-skill:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 8
padding: 16
border: '1px solid #d6d8de'
use: 'Skill row in learning tree — mastery dot left, skill title centre, "Practice" / "Mastered" tag right.'
card-lesson:
bg: '#f0fcf7'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 8
padding: 16
border: '1px solid #d6d8de'
use: 'Lesson tile — soft mint-tinted bg with lesson type icon (video / exercise / article), title, runtime.'
card-encouragement:
bg: '#fef9e9'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 12
padding: 24
border: '1px solid #f4cf3e'
use: '"Tip" / "Did you know?" warm-cream callout block — mascot illustration top-left, body copy right.'
badge-mastered:
bg: '#e3f9f1'
color: '#0a7d63'
radius: 9999
padding: '4px 12px'
use: '"Mastered" green pill — earned-state indicator on a skill row.'
badge-proficient:
bg: '#f3eaff'
color: '#5e2bb1'
radius: 9999
padding: '4px 12px'
use: '"Proficient" purple pill.'
badge-familiar:
bg: '#e6efff'
color: '#0a44b8'
radius: 9999
padding: '4px 12px'
use: '"Familiar" blue pill.'
badge-attempted:
bg: '#f1f2f5'
color: '#5b5e6b'
radius: 9999
padding: '4px 12px'
use: '"Attempted" grey pill.'
mastery-dot:
color-attempted: '#a8aab2'
color-familiar: '#1865f2'
color-proficient: '#9059ff'
color-mastered: '#0a7d63'
use: '4-stage skill mastery dot — circle with progress arc rendering current stage. Visible inline next to every skill in the learning tree.'
pill-energy-points:
bg: '#fef9e9'
color: '#a06c0a'
border: '1px solid #f4cf3e'
radius: 9999
padding: '4px 12px'
use: '"⚡ 2,340" energy-point counter — yellow lightning icon + tnum number. Gamified currency.'
pill-streak:
bg: '#fef0e7'
color: '#9d5511'
border: '1px solid #e07c2c'
radius: 9999
padding: '4px 12px'
use: '"🔥 7 day streak" — fire icon + day count. Daily-practice incentive.'
input-search:
bg: '#f7f8fa'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 8
height: 48
padding: '12px 16px 12px 44px'
border: '1px solid #d6d8de'
use: 'Top-bar search — magnifying-glass icon left, "Search Khan Academy" placeholder.'
input-text:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 8
border: '1px solid #d6d8de'
height: 48
padding: '12px 16px'
use: 'Form input — sign-in, profile fields.'
exercise-input:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 8
border: '2px solid #d6d8de'
height: 56
padding: '14px 16px'
use: 'Exercise answer input — taller and bolder-bordered than form inputs to draw attention.'
filter-chip:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
border: '1px solid #d6d8de'
radius: 9999
padding: '6px 14px'
use: 'Subject filter pill — pill-shaped, light hairline border.'
filter-chip-active:
bg: '#e3f9f1'
color: '#0a7d63'
border: '1px solid #14bf96'
radius: 9999
use: 'Applied-filter state — soft mint bg, deep-green text.'
subject-tile:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 8
padding: 24
use: '"Math / Science / Computing / Arts & humanities / Economics / Reading & language arts / Life skills / Test prep" — tile with subject illustration top, 18px / 700 subject name below.'
partner-logo-rail:
bg: '#f7f8fa'
color: '#5b5e6b'
use: '"Used by hundreds of schools" — Bank of America, AT&T, Google.org, Carlos Slim Foundation logos in muted grey.'
nav-top-bar:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
height: 64
border-bottom: '1px solid #d6d8de'
use: 'Sticky top nav — Khan Academy logo (mint owl + wordmark) left, "Courses" mega-menu, "Search", "Donate" right.'
sidebar-tree:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
width: 280
use: 'Learning tree sidebar on course page — collapsible unit groups (Unit 1: Algebra foundations / Unit 2: Solving equations / ...), each unit shows a percentage progress bar.'
modal-dialog:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#21242c'
radius: 12
shadow: '0 16px 48px rgba(33,36,44,0.20)'
padding: 32
use: 'Sign-up / preview modal.'
toast:
bg: '#21242c'
color: '#ffffff'
radius: 8
padding: '12px 16px'
use: 'Confirmation toast — "Skill saved" — dark grey-on-white inversion.'
toast-encouragement:
bg: '#e3f9f1'
color: '#0a7d63'
radius: 8
padding: '12px 16px'
border-left: '4px solid #14bf96'
use: '"Great job! 4 questions correct in a row." — encouragement toast, mint left-rail.'
donate-banner:
bg: '#fef9e9'
color: '#21242c'
border: '1px solid #f4cf3e'
radius: 8
padding: 16
use: '"Donate today and your gift will be doubled." — warm cream nonprofit ask banner.'
motion:
ease-standard: 'cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)'
ease-out: 'cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1)'
ease-in-out: 'cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.6, 1)'
ease-bounce: 'cubic-bezier(0.34, 1.56, 0.64, 1)'
duration-fast: 150
duration-standard: 250
duration-slow: 400
duration-celebration: 600
reduced-motion: 'respects prefers-reduced-motion: hover shadow lifts collapse to instant, mastery-dot fill animation becomes opacity-only, streak-counter fire icon stops bouncing, modal scale-in becomes opacity-only, confetti-celebration on exercise-completion disables.'
breakpoints:
mobile: 600
tablet: 900
desktop: 1200
wide: 1440
shadows:
none: 'none'
card-rest: '0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06)'
card-hover: '0 4px 12px rgba(33,36,44,0.10)'
popover: '0 4px 16px rgba(33,36,44,0.12)'
modal: '0 16px 48px rgba(33,36,44,0.20)'
ring: '0 0 0 3px rgba(20,191,150,0.4)'
accessibility:
contrast-text-on-bg: 14.2 # #21242c on #ffffff — AAA
contrast-text-muted-on-bg: 6.4 # #5b5e6b on #ffffff — AA at body
contrast-text-on-brand: 2.6 # white on #14bf96 — fails AAA, used at 16px / 700 (large-text bracket)
contrast-link-on-bg: 7.4 # #0a7d63 deeper green on white — AAA
contrast-blue-link-on-bg: 6.6 # #1865f2 on white — AA at body
focus-ring: '3px solid rgba(20,191,150,0.4) with 2px offset'
reduced-motion-honored: true
caption-track: 'every video lecture ships with closed captions in 50+ languages; transcripts side-by-side with player'
language-support: '50+ languages with on-platform UI translation; flagship subjects (Math) translated into 20+ languages with native-speaker voice-over'
screen-reader: 'mathematical equations rendered with MathJax + ARIA-described LaTeX for screen readers'
dark-mode: null # Light-only — no dark variant offered (consistent with k-12 textbook tradition)
---
## 1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
Khan Academy's site is the warmest learning surface on the internet. The canvas is paper-white `#ffffff` warming faintly to `#f7f8fa` in alt bands, the type is Lato — a humanist sans designed by Łukasz Dziedzic that has carried Khan's identity since 2012 — and the chromatic event of the page is `#14bf96`, a confident mint green that lives on the wordmark, the primary CTA, the mascot's plumage, and the skill-mastery dots in the learning tree. Where Coursera whispers in royal blue and Udemy shouts in electric purple and MasterClass commits to cinema-black reverence, Khan operates in a fourth register entirely: **mission-driven warmth**. The brand's argument is "we are a nonprofit, we are free, we believe in you, here is the next exercise."
The signature is the learning-tree navigation — Khan's most distinctive interaction pattern, descended from K-12 textbook chapter structure rather than from e-commerce or streaming. Every course (Algebra 1, AP Biology, World History) breaks into Units, each Unit breaks into Skills, and every Skill carries a 4-stage mastery dot indicator: Attempted (grey), Familiar (blue), Proficient (purple), Mastered (deep green). The dots fill via concentric arc progress as the learner answers exercise questions. A learner returning to Khan sees their entire course as a tree of mastery dots, with a unit progress percentage at the top of each unit ("12 of 24 skills mastered, 75% complete"), and the page invites the next-best-skill-to-practice via a green primary CTA. This is the workhorse interaction pattern, and it's what differentiates Khan from every other learning platform: progress is rendered as **mastery-of-skills**, not as **percentage-of-video-watched**.
The course-tile grid is the secondary workhorse component. Subject tiles render at `8px` radius (warmer than Udemy's `4px`, friendlier than Coursera's also-`8px`) with a subject illustration at the top (Khan's flat-illustration style — playful, slightly geometric, paired with rounded mascot characters), the subject name in 18px / 700 Lato below, a short description in 14px / 400 muted, and a primary mint CTA. The illustrations are not stock photography; they're custom SVGs that have been part of the brand since the early 2010s, carrying a hand-drawn warmth that signals "this is education, not a sales funnel." Tiles stack 4-across at desktop, 3-across at 900px, 2-across at 600px, 1-across mobile.
Lato — the sans-serif workhorse — sets the entire site. Display sizes go up to 56px at the heaviest 900 weight (Lato's Black) with `-0.02em` tracking; body is 16px / 400 / 1.5 line-height. Lato is a humanist sans with semi-rounded letterforms, a slightly humanist warmth in the bowls of o, e, a, and a slight stress in the diagonals of v, w, x — properties that make it feel friendly and book-readable. The font carries Khan's voice, which is the voice of an encouraging tutor who genuinely believes you can learn this if you stick with it: warm, clear, never patronizing, never condescending. There's no display-serif companion, no decorative italic, no condensed cut. One family pulls the entire load.
Density is the third axis. Khan's pages are content-dense but never cramped. Section padding sits at 64–96px; tile gaps at 24px; within-card padding at 16–24px; body line-height at 1.5. The hero takes 480px tall (shorter than MasterClass's 720px+, taller than Udemy's 360px) — generous but not lavish. Below the hero, the page packs subject tiles, a "for teachers" feature card, a "donate" call-to-action, and a partner-logo strip. Donate is woven into the page's argument — it's not aggressive, but it's permanent, signalled by a blue `#1865f2` "Donate" button in the nav (deliberately not green, so it differentiates from learning-action verbs).
The brand's gamification language deserves a paragraph of its own. Khan introduced energy points (yellow lightning-bolt currency awarded for completing exercises) and streak counters (orange fire-icon counters showing consecutive days of practice) early in its history — a Duolingo-adjacent pattern that's lighter than Duolingo's full-game treatment but still reaches for the same daily-habit reinforcement. The yellow `#f4cf3e` energy-point pill and orange `#e07c2c` streak-fire pill are the two small saturated accents in the system besides brand mint and link blue. They're rendered as warm, playful touches — not as urgent obligations.
**Key Characteristics:**
- Paper-white `#ffffff` canvas warming to `#f7f8fa` in alt bands. Warm cream `#fef9e9` for tip / encouragement callouts.
- Signature `#14bf96` mint green — primary CTA, wordmark, mastery-mastered dot, brand surfaces.
- Deeper `#0a7d63` green for inline text links and outlined buttons (AAA contrast on white).
- Lato humanist sans pulling display through body — one family, no companion.
- 4-stage mastery dot system (Attempted grey → Familiar blue → Proficient purple → Mastered deep-green) on every skill in the learning tree. The brand''s defining UX pattern.
- Energy points (yellow lightning, `#f4cf3e`) and streak counters (orange fire, `#e07c2c`) — light gamification, never aggressive.
- 8px-radius cards; pill-shaped (9999px) primary buttons. Friendly geometric pairing.
- Flat custom illustrations rather than stock photography — hand-drawn warmth signals education-not-sales.
- Donate `#1865f2` blue CTA in nav — deliberately not mint, to differentiate nonprofit ask from learning-action verbs.
- Khanmigo (mascot/AI tutor) appears on AI surfaces — owl-character illustrations carry the warmth.
- Body type at 16px / 400 / 1.5 line-height — friendly book-readable density.
- Light-only — no dark variant (consistent with K-12 textbook tradition).
## 2. Color Palette & Roles
### Primary
- **Paper White** (`#ffffff`): The defining canvas. Pure white, no warm tint.
- **Warm Off-White** (`#f7f8fa`): Hero band background, alt section banding.
- **Encouragement Cream** (`#fef9e9`): Warm cream for "Tip" / "Did you know?" / nonprofit ask callout bands. The brand's emotional-warmth surface.
- **Display Black** (`#21242c`): Primary body text. Warm near-black with a slight blue tilt — softer than pure `#000`.
- **Khan Mint** (`#14bf96`): The brand's primary green. Wordmark, primary CTA background, mastery-mastered dot, brand surfaces.
### Brand & Dark
- **Brand Hover** (`#0e9a78`): Pointer-over state — slightly darker mint.
- **Brand Active** (`#0a7d63`): Pressed state.
- **Brand Soft** (`#e3f9f1`): Soft-tint surface for badges, mint-tinted cards, success messaging.
- **Brand Deep** (`#0a7d63`): Deeper green used for inline text links, outlined-button borders, mastery-mastered dot. Provides AAA contrast on white where the brighter `#14bf96` only meets AA on large text.
- **Footer Black** (`#21242c`): Footer band, dark hero (rare).
### Accent
- **Donate Blue** (`#1865f2`): Donate-CTA blue. Deliberately not mint — differentiates nonprofit ask from learning-action verbs.
- **Energy Yellow** (`#f4cf3e`): Energy-points lightning-bolt icon and pill. The gamification accent.
- **Streak Orange** (`#e07c2c`): Streak-fire icon and pill. Daily-practice incentive.
- **Mascot Pink** (`#e879b7`): Khanmigo accent — used on AI tutor surfaces.
- **Profile Purple** (`#9059ff`): Avatar background tint, mastery-proficient dot.
### Interactive
- **CTA Mint** (`#14bf96`): Primary action button background.
- **Inline Link Deep Green** (`#0a7d63`): Inline links — deeper than CTA so contrast is AAA on white.
- **Inline Link Blue** (`#1865f2`): Alternative link colour on certain pages (donate-leaning, partner pages).
- **Outlined Deep Green** (`#0a7d63` border on white): Secondary action.
- **Filter Chip Active** (`#e3f9f1` bg + `#0a7d63` text + `#14bf96` border): Applied-filter state.
- **Disabled** (`#a8aab2` text on `#f7f8fa` bg): Non-interactive control.
### Neutral Scale
- **Display Black** (`#21242c`): Display headlines, primary body — slight blue-grey tilt, softer than pure black.
- **Strong Black** (`#0c0d0f`): Hero display only.
- **Muted** (`#5b5e6b`): Secondary metadata — "12 of 24 skills mastered", "Updated April 2024".
- **Soft** (`#797d8a`): Tertiary captions.
- **Disabled** (`#a8aab2`): Inactive form labels, disabled controls, mastery-attempted dot.
- **Border Default** (`#d6d8de`): Card hairlines, dividers.
- **Border Soft** (`#e7e9ed`): Subtle table-row dividers.
- **Border Strong** (`#a8aab2`): Focused field outline before brand-mint ring kicks in.
### Surface & Borders
- **Surface Default** (`#ffffff`): Card, modal floor.
- **Surface Hover** (`#f7f8fa`): Nav hover, list-row hover.
- **Surface Soft** (`#f0fcf7`): Mint-tinted secondary card bg (lesson tile).
- **Surface Strong** (`#e7e9ed`): Divider band.
- **Promo Surface** (`#e3f9f1`): Soft mint promo band.
- **Encouragement Surface** (`#fef9e9`): Warm cream callout surface.
### Shadow Colors
- **Card Rest** (`rgba(33,36,44,0.06)`): The rest-state card shadow at `0 1px 3px`. Whisper-soft.
- **Card Hover** (`rgba(33,36,44,0.10)`): Hover-state shadow at `0 4px 12px`. Lifts gently.
- **Popover Shadow** (`rgba(33,36,44,0.12)`): Dropdown, tooltip.
- **Modal Shadow** (`rgba(33,36,44,0.20)`): Dialog floor.
- All shadows are warm-grey-tinted (using the `#21242c` body colour as base) rather than neutral cool grey.
### Mastery Dots (4-Stage)
- **Attempted** (`#a8aab2`): Grey — no progress yet.
- **Familiar** (`#1865f2`): Blue — first level of comfort.
- **Proficient** (`#9059ff`): Purple — second level.
- **Mastered** (`#0a7d63`): Deep green — final state. Echoes brand-deep.
### Semantic
- **Success** (`#0a7d63` text on `#e3f9f1` soft bg): Exercise correct, skill mastered, "Great job!" toast.
- **Warning** (`#d68a17` text on `#fef9e9` soft bg): "Hint available" / "Try again" reminder.
- **Danger** (`#d23a48` text on `#fdebed` soft bg): Wrong answer, form validation error.
- **Info** (`#1865f2` text on `#e6efff` soft bg): "New AP exam dates announced."
## 3. Typography Rules
### Font Family
- **Primary**: `"Lato"` — Łukasz Dziedzic's humanist sans, designed 2010 (Lato 1) / refined 2014 (Lato 2.0). Open-source via the SIL Open Font License. Fallback chain: `"Lato 2.0", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Roboto", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif`.
- **Mono**: `"Source Code Pro", "SF Mono", "Roboto Mono", Menlo, Consolas, monospace` — used in CS courses (Computing track) and inline code.
- **OpenType Features**: `kern` and `liga` enabled site-wide. `tnum` enabled on energy points, streak days, learner counts, exercise progress, and any tabular data display.
### Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | OT Features | Notes |
|------|------|------|--------|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------|
| Display Hero | Lato | 56px | 900 (Black) | 1.1 | -0.02em | kern,liga | Marketing landing — "For every student, every classroom" |
| Display XL | Lato | 44px | 700 | 1.15 | -0.015em | kern,liga | Section hero, mission page |
| Display LG | Lato | 32px | 700 | 1.2 | -0.01em | kern,liga | Course landing title — "Algebra 1" |
| Display MD | Lato | 24px | 700 | 1.25 | -0.005em | kern,liga | Section heading — "Unit 1: Algebra foundations" |
| Display SM | Lato | 20px | 700 | 1.3 | 0 | kern,liga | Subsection heading |
| Title LG | Lato | 18px | 700 | 1.35 | 0 | kern,liga | Card title |
| Title MD | Lato | 16px | 700 | 1.4 | 0 | kern,liga | Skill title in tree |
| Title SM | Lato | 14px | 700 | 1.4 | 0 | kern,liga | Sidebar nav, lesson list item |
| Body LG | Lato | 18px | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | kern,liga | Lead paragraph, lesson description |
| Body MD | Lato | 16px | 400 | 1.5 | 0 | kern,liga | Default body, exercise question text |
| Body SM | Lato | 14px | 400 | 1.5 | 0 | kern,liga | Secondary metadata |
| Button LG | Lato | 16px | 700 | 1.0 | 0 | kern,liga | "Start" / "Continue" CTA label |
| Button MD | Lato | 14px | 700 | 1.0 | 0 | kern,liga | Default button label |
| Eyebrow | Lato | 13px | 700 | 1.0 | 0.08em | kern,liga | Uppercase "GET STARTED" |
| Caption | Lato | 13px | 400 | 1.4 | 0 | kern,liga | Disclosures, fine print |
| Metadata | Lato | 14px | 400 | 1.3 | 0 | tnum | Skill count, points display |
| Points | Lato | 16px | 700 | 1.0 | 0 | tnum | "2,340" energy points display |
| Code | Source Code Pro | 14px | 400 | 1.5 | 0 | -- | CS lectures, math LaTeX inline fallback |
### Principles
- **Single family discipline.** Lato covers display through body. There is no display-serif companion — Khan's voice is friendly tutor, not editorial publication.
- **Three weights: 400, 700, 900.** Body at 400, titles at 700, hero display at 900 (Lato Black). The hero's 900 weight is Khan's signature — it's the heaviest weight any of the major learning brands deploys, and it gives the hero headline a confident "you can do this" gravity.
- **Modest negative tracking.** Display sizes use `-0.005em` to `-0.02em`. Khan never goes tighter than `-0.02em` even on 56px hero — the brand is open and friendly, never condensed.
- **0.08em tracking on eyebrows.** Uppercase eyebrows ("GET STARTED", "EARN BADGES") use 13px / 700 / `0.08em` — moderate tracking that distinguishes them from button labels without going full magazine register.
- **16px body, 1.5 line-height.** Exercise questions, lesson transcripts, articles all sit at this baseline — book-readable density.
- **Tabular numerals on energy points / streaks / progress.** Energy points ("2,340"), streaks ("7 day streak"), exercise progress ("12 of 24"), unit completion percentages ("75%") all use `tnum`.
- **Sentence case for everything except eyebrows.** "Start a new course", "Continue learning" — capital first word only. Uppercase reserved for tiny eyebrow labels.
- **Lato 2.0 over Lato 1.** Khan uses Lato 2.0 (the 2014 refinement) which has improved Cyrillic, expanded weights, and refined italic angles. The fallback chain prefers `"Lato 2.0"` first.
## 4. Component Stylings
### Buttons
**Primary (Khan Mint Pill)**
- Background: `#14bf96`. Text: `#ffffff`. Radius: `9999px` (capsule). Padding: `12px 24px`. Height: `48px`. Font: Lato 16px / 700.
- Hover: `#0e9a78`. No shadow lift, no scale.
- Active: `#0a7d63`.
- Use: "Start", "Continue", "Get Khan Academy", "Practice this skill". One per viewport. Pill shape signals friendliness.
**Secondary (Outlined Deep Green)**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Text: `#0a7d63`. Border: `2px solid #0a7d63`. Radius: `9999px`. Padding: `12px 24px`.
- Hover: bg `#e3f9f1`.
- Use: "Learn more", "Sign in". Note: uses deeper `#0a7d63` rather than brand `#14bf96` for AAA contrast.
**Tertiary Text**
- Background: `transparent`. Color: `#0a7d63`. Padding: `8px 12px`.
- Hover: underline appears.
- Use: Inline action, footer link.
**Donate (Blue Pill)**
- Background: `#1865f2`. Text: `#ffffff`. Radius: `9999px`. Padding: `12px 24px`. Height: `48px`.
- Hover: `#0d4ec7`.
- Use: "Donate" CTA in nav. Deliberately blue, not mint — differentiates the nonprofit ask from learning-action verbs.
**Icon Button**
- Background: `transparent`. Color: `#5b5e6b`. Radius: `4px`. Size: `32 × 32`.
- Hover: bg `#f7f8fa`, color `#21242c`.
- Use: Bookmark, share, more-options.
### Cards & Tiles
**Subject Tile**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Color: `#21242c`. Radius: `8px`. Padding: `24px`. Border: `1px solid #d6d8de`.
- Layout: Custom flat illustration top (96px tall), 16px gap, 18px / 700 subject name, 4px gap, 14px / 400 muted description (max 2 lines), 16px gap, "X courses" metadata or pill button.
- Rest shadow: `0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06)`.
- Use: "Math / Science / Computing" homepage tile.
**Skill Card (Learning Tree Row)**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Color: `#21242c`. Radius: `8px`. Padding: `16px`. Border: `1px solid #d6d8de`.
- Layout: 4-stage mastery dot left (24px), 16px gap, skill title (16px / 700) centre, "Practice" / "Mastered" pill right.
- Hover: bg `#f7f8fa`.
- Use: Each skill row inside a unit's learning tree.
**Lesson Tile**
- Background: `#f0fcf7` (mint-tinted). Color: `#21242c`. Radius: `8px`. Padding: `16px`. Border: `1px solid #d6d8de`.
- Layout: lesson type icon left (video / exercise / article), title centre, runtime/question count right.
- Use: Lesson list inside a unit.
**Encouragement Callout**
- Background: `#fef9e9` (warm cream). Color: `#21242c`. Radius: `12px`. Padding: `24px`. Border: `1px solid #f4cf3e`.
- Layout: Mascot illustration top-left (40px tall), copy block right — 16px / 700 title "Tip!", 14px / 400 body.
- Use: "Tip!" / "Did you know?" / "Quick reminder" inline callout.
**Donate Banner**
- Background: `#fef9e9`. Color: `#21242c`. Border: `1px solid #f4cf3e`. Radius: `8px`. Padding: `16px`.
- Layout: Hands-illustration left, copy centre — "Donate today and your gift will be doubled.", blue "Donate" CTA right.
- Use: Top-of-page nonprofit ask, dismissible.
### Badges, Tags, Indicators
**Mastered (Green Pill)**
- Background: `#e3f9f1`. Color: `#0a7d63`. Radius: `9999px`. Padding: `4px 12px`. Font: 12px / 700.
- Use: "Mastered" earned-state pill on a skill row.
**Proficient (Purple Pill)**
- Background: `#f3eaff`. Color: `#5e2bb1`.
- Use: "Proficient" tier pill.
**Familiar (Blue Pill)**
- Background: `#e6efff`. Color: `#0a44b8`.
- Use: "Familiar" tier pill.
**Attempted (Grey Pill)**
- Background: `#f1f2f5`. Color: `#5b5e6b`.
- Use: "Attempted" baseline tier.
**Mastery Dot (4-Stage)**
- 24px circle with progress arc rendering current stage.
- Attempted: full grey `#a8aab2`.
- Familiar: 1/4 filled blue `#1865f2`.
- Proficient: 3/4 filled purple `#9059ff`.
- Mastered: full deep-green `#0a7d63`.
- The dots fill via animated arc as the learner answers exercise questions correctly. Progress is non-linear — Khan's algorithm awards bigger jumps for harder questions answered without hints.
- Use: Inline next to every skill in the learning tree.
**Energy Points Pill**
- Background: `#fef9e9`. Color: `#a06c0a`. Border: `1px solid #f4cf3e`. Radius: `9999px`. Padding: `4px 12px`.
- Format: "⚡ 2,340" — yellow lightning emoji + tnum number.
- Use: Top-bar gamification counter.
**Streak Pill**
- Background: `#fef0e7`. Color: `#9d5511`. Border: `1px solid #e07c2c`. Radius: `9999px`. Padding: `4px 12px`.
- Format: "🔥 7 day streak" — fire emoji + day count.
- Use: Daily-practice incentive in nav or profile.
### Inputs & Forms
**Search**
- Background: `#f7f8fa`. Color: `#21242c`. Border: `1px solid #d6d8de`. Radius: `8px`. Height: `48px`. Padding: `12px 16px 12px 44px`.
- Magnifying-glass icon left in `#5b5e6b`.
- Placeholder: "Search Khan Academy".
- Focus: border `#14bf96`, ring `0 0 0 3px rgba(20,191,150,0.4)`.
**Text Input**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Color: `#21242c`. Border: `1px solid #d6d8de`. Radius: `8px`. Height: `48px`. Padding: `12px 16px`.
- Label sits above, 14px / 700 `#21242c`. Hint below, 13px / 400 `#5b5e6b`.
- Focus: border `#14bf96`, ring `0 0 0 3px rgba(20,191,150,0.4)`.
**Exercise Answer Input**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Color: `#21242c`. Border: `2px solid #d6d8de`. Radius: `8px`. Height: `56px`. Padding: `14px 16px`.
- Taller and bolder-bordered than form inputs to draw attention during exercises.
- On correct: border `#14bf96`, then a 600ms confetti-celebration animation.
- On incorrect: border `#d23a48`, "Try again" hint appears below in red.
- Use: Math problem answer input, multiple-choice answer selection.
**Filter Chip**
- Default: bg `#ffffff`, color `#21242c`, border `1px solid #d6d8de`, radius `9999px`, padding `6px 14px`.
- Active: bg `#e3f9f1`, color `#0a7d63`, border `#14bf96`. Soft mint state.
- Use: Subject filter pill on browse page.
### Navigation
**Top Bar (Sticky)**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Border-bottom: `1px solid #d6d8de`. Height: `64px`.
- Layout: Khan Academy logo (mint owl + wordmark) left, "Courses" mega-menu link, "Search" input centre-left, "Sign in" + "Donate" blue pill right.
- Logged-in: replace Sign in with profile avatar + energy points pill + streak pill.
- Mobile: collapses to hamburger + search-icon + Donate.
**Learning Tree Sidebar**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Width: `280px`. Padding: `24px 16px`.
- Collapsible Unit groups (Unit 1: Algebra foundations / Unit 2: Solving equations / ...).
- Each unit shows: 16px / 700 unit name, 14px / 400 muted "12 of 24 skills mastered", thin progress bar (mint fill).
- Sticky on scroll.
**Mega Menu (Courses Dropdown)**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Shadow: `0 4px 16px rgba(33,36,44,0.12)`.
- Layout: Multi-column flyout grouped by educational level (Early childhood / Elementary / Middle / High school / College / Test prep), then by subject within.
- Use: Hover or click to expand from top nav.
### Modals & Toasts
**Modal Dialog**
- Background: `#ffffff`. Radius: `12px`. Padding: `32px`.
- Shadow: `0 16px 48px rgba(33,36,44,0.20)`.
- Backdrop: `rgba(33,36,44,0.5)`.
- Use: Sign-up, course preview, sign-in.
**Toast (Default)**
- Background: `#21242c`. Color: `#ffffff`. Radius: `8px`. Padding: `12px 16px`.
- Use: "Skill saved" — bottom-left, auto-dismiss 3s.
**Toast (Encouragement)**
- Background: `#e3f9f1`. Color: `#0a7d63`. Radius: `8px`. Padding: `12px 16px`. Border-left: `4px solid #14bf96`.
- Use: "Great job! 4 questions correct in a row." — encouragement state on exercise streak.
## 5. Layout Principles
### Spacing System
- Base: 4px. Scale: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 / 24 / 32 / 40 / 48 / 64 / 80 / 96 / 128.
- Card-to-card gap: 24px on desktop, 16px on tablet, 12px on mobile.
- Section gap (major modules): 64–96px.
- Grid gutter: 24px.
- Within-card padding: 16–24px.
### Grid & Container
- Page width: 1440px max.
- Content max within page: 1240px centred.
- Course page: 280px learning-tree sidebar + 920px content (unit list, lesson cards).
- Hero: full-bleed background, content centred at 1240px.
### Whitespace Philosophy
Khan is a content-density product disguised as a textbook. Sections breathe at 64–96px gaps, cards at 24px, but within a card the layout is tight. The hero gets 96px top/bottom padding — generous breathing room because the brand promise lives there. Below the fold, density picks up: subject tiles in a 4-across grid, learning-tree skill rows tightly stacked. The brand never lets the page feel transactional, but it does maximize learning density per viewport.
### Section Cadence
- Top bar (sticky)
- Hero (Lato 56px / 900 headline, 18px lead, primary mint CTA + outlined deeper-green secondary)
- "Choose a subject" tile grid (8 subject tiles)
- "Recommended for you" rail (logged-in) or "Most popular courses" (logged-out)
- "For teachers" feature card band (mint-tinted)
- "Help us empower learners" donate banner (warm cream)
- Partner-logo "Trusted by" rail (Bank of America, AT&T, Google.org, Carlos Slim Foundation)
- Footer (4-column dark `#21242c` band — links, language picker, app downloads, mission statement)
Light/dark alternation: predominantly light. Footer is the only dark band.
## 6. Shapes & Radius Scale
- **Micro** (`2px`): Tiny indicator dot.
- **Standard** (`4px`): Input, dropdown, small badge.
- **Comfortable** (`6px`): Tag chip, default card alternative.
- **Relaxed** (`8px`): Subject tile, skill card, modal corners — the workhorse radius. Khan's friendly default.
- **Featured** (`12px`): Encouragement callout, large modal.
- **Pill** (`9999px`): Primary button, mastery-state pill, energy-points pill, filter chip — the brand's defining capsule shape.
The 8px card + 9999px pill button pairing is the geometric signature. Pills make CTAs feel friendly and clickable; 8px cards make content feel like institutional textbook. The combination lands warmer than Coursera (also 8px / 24px-pill but cooler in palette) and sharper than Material Design.
## 7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|-------|-----------|-----|
| 0 (flat) | No shadow, no border | Section background, hero band |
| 1 (border) | `1px solid #d6d8de` | Card rest, input field, divider |
| 2 (subtle lift) | `0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06)` | Default subject tile rest |
| 3 (hover lift) | `0 4px 12px rgba(33,36,44,0.10)` | Subject tile hover |
| 4 (popover) | `0 4px 16px rgba(33,36,44,0.12)` | Mega menu, dropdown, tooltip |
| 5 (modal) | `0 16px 48px rgba(33,36,44,0.20)` | Dialog, sign-up modal |
### Shadow Philosophy
Shadows are warm-grey-tinted (using the `#21242c` body colour as base) and whisper-soft. The rest-state card shadow at 0.06 opacity is barely perceptible; the hover shadow at 0.10 grows just enough to feel intentional. Modals get the only shadow above 0.15 opacity. The brand never uses brand-tinted shadows — green belongs to action and mastery, not to elevation. The aesthetic is closer to Material Design's elevation ladder than to Apple's sharp-shadow tradition, but tuned softer.
## 8. Interaction & Motion
### Easing Curves
- **Standard**: `cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)` — Material standard ease, used for fades, opacity, simple slides.
- **Out**: `cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1)` — incoming elements (modal in, dropdown open).
- **In-Out**: `cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.6, 1)` — accordion expand/collapse.
- **Bounce**: `cubic-bezier(0.34, 1.56, 0.64, 1)` — celebration animations (correct answer confetti, skill mastered).
### Duration Buckets
- **Fast**: 150ms — colour shifts, hover transitions, button-press feedback.
- **Standard**: 250ms — card hover shadow lift, modal open, dropdown.
- **Slow**: 400ms — accordion expand, mastery dot fill animation.
- **Celebration**: 600ms — confetti burst on exercise correct, mastery-mastered transition.
### Per-Component Recipes
- **Subject tile hover**: Shadow `0 1px 3px → 0 4px 12px` over 250ms ease-standard. No scale, no translate.
- **Primary CTA hover**: Background `#14bf96 → #0e9a78` over 150ms ease-standard. No shadow change.
- **Mastery dot fill**: When learner advances stage, dot's progress arc animates from previous stage to new stage over 400ms ease-out, with a brief 200ms colour-pulse celebration.
- **Exercise correct**: Input border glows green, confetti burst (yellow + green particles) emits from input centre over 600ms ease-bounce, "Great job!" toast slides in.
- **Streak fire icon**: When streak count increments (daily login), fire icon does a 200ms bounce-scale `1 → 1.2 → 1`.
- **Modal open**: 250ms ease-out, opacity `0 → 1` + scale `0.96 → 1`.
- **Accordion expand**: Unit group expand on click — height auto-grow over 400ms ease-in-out, content fades in over last 200ms.
- **Toast in**: slide up from bottom 6px + opacity over 250ms; auto-dismiss after 3s with reverse motion.
- **Khanmigo mascot blink**: Owl mascot illustration occasionally blinks (every 4–6s) as a 100ms ease-in-out micro-animation.
### Page Transitions
Khan uses light client-side routing. Page changes within a course (lesson → exercise → next lesson) trigger a 200ms opacity fade. There's no full-page slide. The learning-tree sidebar persists across page changes within a course.
### Reduced Motion
`prefers-reduced-motion: reduce` collapses:
- Card hover shadow lifts → instant snap.
- Mastery dot fill animation → opacity-only colour swap.
- Confetti-celebration on exercise correct → disabled (just toast appears).
- Streak fire bounce → no animation.
- Khanmigo blink → static.
- Modal scale-in → opacity-only.
- Accordion expand → instant.
## 9. Accessibility & A11y
### Contrast Pairs
- Display Black `#21242c` on white `#ffffff`: **14.2:1** — AAA at all sizes.
- Muted `#5b5e6b` on white `#ffffff`: **6.4:1** — AA at body sizes.
- White `#ffffff` on Khan Mint `#14bf96`: **2.6:1** — fails AAA, used at 16px / 700 (large-text bracket boundary). For most body uses, the inline link uses deeper `#0a7d63`.
- Inline link Deep Green `#0a7d63` on white: **7.4:1** — AAA at all sizes.
- Donate Blue `#1865f2` on white: **6.6:1** — AA at body.
- Mastery-mastered Deep Green `#0a7d63` on white: **7.4:1** — AAA.
- Energy Yellow `#f4cf3e` on white: **2.0:1** — fails for text; used decoratively only (icon).
- Disabled `#a8aab2` on white: **2.7:1** — fails AA, used for disabled-only states with `aria-disabled`.
### Focus Indicators
- Default focus: `3px solid rgba(20,191,150,0.4)` outline with `2px` offset on light surfaces.
- Form fields: border lifts to `#14bf96` on focus, plus the 3px ring outside.
- Tab order: top nav → search → main content top-to-bottom → learning-tree sidebar → unit / skill content → footer.
### ARIA Patterns
- Subject tiles: `role="article" aria-label="[Subject], [N] courses available"`.
- Mastery dots: `role="img" aria-label="[Skill name] — [Stage]: 75% complete"`. Each dot has descriptive label.
- Learning tree: `role="navigation" aria-label="Course units and skills"`. Each unit accordion: `aria-expanded`, `aria-controls`.
- Exercise input: `aria-describedby` linked to question hint and feedback message. Wrong-answer message has `role="alert"` for immediate screen-reader announcement.
- Math equations: rendered with MathJax + `aria-label` containing LaTeX-described semantic content for screen readers.
- Modal: `role="dialog" aria-modal="true"` with focus trap.
- Energy-points / streak counters: `aria-live="polite"` on increment.
### Keyboard Navigation
- Tab: move forward through controls; Shift+Tab reverses.
- Enter / Space: activate focused button or tile, submit answer in exercise.
- Arrow keys: navigate within learning tree (roving tabindex), move between multiple-choice options.
- ESC: close modal, mega menu, sidebar overlay.
- Tab on exercise input → submit button + skip button accessible without mouse.
### Screen Reader Hints
- Mastery dots use detailed aria-labels (skill name + stage + progress percent).
- Khan's video player has full ARIA captions, transcript link, and keyboard controls. Captions in 50+ languages.
- Math content described via LaTeX-to-speech bridge (e.g. "x squared plus 2x equals zero" rather than reading raw LaTeX).
- Khanmigo AI tutor surfaces use `role="region" aria-label="AI tutor conversation"` with `aria-live="polite"` for each response.
### Reduced Motion
Honoured. See §8.
## 10. Responsive Behavior
### Breakpoints
| Token | Min | Use |
|-------|-----|-----|
| mobile | 0px | 1 tile per row, sidebar collapses to filter modal |
| tablet | 600px | 2 tiles per row, sidebar shows as collapsible drawer |
| tablet-lg | 900px | 3 tiles per row, sidebar visible at 240px |
| desktop | 1200px | 4 tiles per row, full 280px sidebar |
| wide | 1440px | content max 1240px centred |
### Touch Targets
- 48×48 minimum on all interactive controls. Tile tap targets fill the entire card body.
- Mastery dots are 24×24 visually but have 44×44 tap targets via padding.
- Exercise inputs at 56×wide for easy keyboard typing on mobile.
### Collapsing Strategy
- **Top nav**: collapses to hamburger + search-icon + Donate on `< 900px`.
- **Energy points / streak pills**: collapse to a single icon-with-number on mobile.
- **Learning tree sidebar**: collapses to "Course outline" button on mobile that opens a full-screen drawer.
- **Subject grid**: 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 across the breakpoint cascade.
- **Hero**: title scales 56 → 44 → 32 → 24; illustration collapses below text on `< 600px`.
### Image Behavior
- Subject illustrations: SVG with `currentColor` for tint adjustability.
- Mascot illustrations: SVG, scale crisp at any size.
- Video player: 16:9 with adaptive bitrate streaming. Captions support 50+ languages.
### Container Queries
Used on the learning tree sidebar — unit progress bar collapses to icon-only on narrow widths; on the encouragement-callout block — mascot illustration drops at narrow widths.
## 11. Content & Voice
### Tone
Khan Academy's voice is **encouraging, plain-spoken, and mission-driven**. Course descriptions read like a friendly tutor's lesson plan — clear, structured, free of jargon. Marketing copy tilts mission-first ("For every student, every classroom, real results", "We're a nonprofit that relies on support from people like you") rather than aspirational. The brand never assumes the reader has math anxiety; never assumes the reader is gifted either. Every page treats you as a curious learner who can do this if they stick with it. The voice is closer to a beloved high-school teacher than to a corporate trainer.
### Microcopy Patterns
- **Primary CTA**: "Start", "Continue", "Practice", "Get Khan Academy".
- **Secondary CTA**: "Learn more", "Sign in", "Browse courses".
- **Confirmation toast**: "Skill saved", "Welcome back, [Name]", "Great job! 4 questions correct in a row."
- **Empty enrolled**: "Choose a subject to start. We'll save your progress as you go."
- **Empty progress**: "Your courses will appear here once you start. Pick a subject to begin."
- **Wrong answer**: "Not quite. Try again — you can do this." (Never "Wrong" or "Incorrect".)
- **Hint pattern**: "Stuck? Get a hint." → reveals scaffolded hint inline.
- **Encouragement**: "Great job!", "Keep going!", "You're on a streak!", "Almost there!"
- **Mission ask**: "Donate today and your gift will be doubled. Help us provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere."
- **Time-aware welcome**: "Welcome back, [Name]" + "Continue learning [Course]" CTA.
### Empty States
- Empty enrolled: subject grid + "Choose a subject to start" — never blocks the user.
- Empty progress: "Your progress will appear here" + featured course rail.
- Empty search: "We couldn't find any results for [query]. Try one of these:" + curated subject suggestions.
- Wrong answer: "Not quite. [Hint snippet]. Try again — you can do this."
- Offline (mobile): "You're offline. Downloaded videos are available below." (Web does not work offline.)
### CTA Verb Conventions
- "Start" — primary verb for beginning a course or skill. Always sentence case.
- "Continue" — returning-user CTA on in-progress course.
- "Practice" — for exercise sets within a skill.
- "Get Khan Academy" — homepage primary CTA, replaces "Sign up".
- "Donate" — nonprofit ask. Always blue, never green.
- "Save" — bookmark toggle.
- "Try again" — wrong-answer retry. Never "Retry" or "Submit".
- "Get a hint" — exercise scaffolding action.
The brand explicitly avoids: "Buy", "Subscribe", "Add to cart", "Enroll" (Khan is free; these verbs imply payment), "Free trial" (everything is already free), "Sign up" (replaced with "Get Khan Academy").
## 12. Dark Mode & Theming
Khan Academy is **light-only on the consumer surface**. There is no dark-mode variant in the web app, mobile app, or marketing site. The brand's visual lineage is the K-12 textbook tradition — paper-white pages, dark ink, generous margins — and a dark mode would break that metaphor. Long-form reading (lesson articles, video transcripts) and exercise practice are also better-served by light backgrounds for sustained learning sessions in well-lit classroom or home environments where Khan's primary audience sits.
The video player has a "theatre mode" (the player chrome darkens around the video) but the surrounding page stays light. This is the only "dark" treatment in the system.
If theming were added, the canvas would lift to `#0f1418` with `#e8eaed` body text. Khan Mint `#14bf96` would brighten slightly to `#3bd9b3` for AAA contrast on dark. Cards would shift to `#1a1f24` with `#2c3138` borders. The encouragement-cream surface would shift to `#2a2418` warm-deep-cream. But there's no public roadmap signal for it.
## 13. Lineage & Influences
Khan Academy's visual lineage is three-streamed.
**The K-12 textbook tradition.** Khan was founded in 2008 by Salman Khan as a YouTube tutorial series that became a structured curriculum. Its visual language was always closer to a textbook companion website than to a startup product — paper-white pages, generous body line-height, illustrated diagrams over photography, friendly mascot characters, a learning-tree navigation pattern lifted from chapter-and-section structure. The mastery-dot system descends from competency-based education research (Bloom's Mastery Learning, 1968) and was visualized as 4-stage circles to communicate progress without grades. The brand's argument has always been "learning is a tree of skills, not a series of grades" — and the visual system reinforces this by making mastery the unit of progress.
**The nonprofit-warm web tradition.** Khan is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and the visual register is calibrated to mission-driven warmth. The mint-green brand colour, the mascot illustrations, the encouragement-cream callout surfaces, the "Donate" blue CTA in the nav — all come from a lineage of nonprofit web design (Wikipedia, Mozilla, Khan, ProPublica, GiveDirectly) that signals "we are mission-driven, your trust matters more than your transaction." The discipline is restraint: no discount stickers, no aspirational marketing, no celebrity instructors. The argument is "we are free and we believe in you" delivered in the voice of a tutor.
**The Lato-and-flat-illustration design tradition.** Lato (Łukasz Dziedzic, 2010) became one of the most-used open-source typefaces of the 2010s — adopted by Wikipedia, Mozilla, GitLab, MailChimp, and many nonprofits. Its humanist warmth and SIL Open Font licence aligned with Khan's nonprofit ethos. The flat-illustration style (custom SVGs of subjects, mascot characters, hands-around-globe diversity imagery) descends from the early-2010s flat-design movement (post-Skeuomorphic but pre-Material) — specifically from Mailchimp's Freddie mascot, Slack's onboarding illustrations, and Duolingo's Duo owl. Khan's owl mascot Khanmigo (2023) is a direct descendant of this tradition.
What Khan rejects: dark mode, decorative serif companion, multi-color brand palette, aggressive negative tracking, full-screen marketing video, modal pop-overs, discount stickers, e-commerce verbs ("Buy", "Subscribe"), aspirational celebrity-instructor marketing.
**Influences:**
- **Wikipedia** — paper-white nonprofit canvas, donate-blue CTA, mission-first voice. https://wikipedia.org
- **Bloom's Mastery Learning (1968)** — competency-based education theory underpinning the 4-stage mastery dots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastery_learning
- **Lato (Łukasz Dziedzic)** — humanist sans that anchors the friendly tutor voice. https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Lato
- **Duolingo** — gamified learning (energy points, streaks) and mascot-driven warmth; Khan's lighter-touch take. https://duolingo.com
- **Mailchimp Freddie** — friendly mascot tradition Khan adopts in Khanmigo. https://mailchimp.com
- **ProPublica / Mozilla** — nonprofit web aesthetic, mission-driven typography. https://propublica.org
## 14. Do's and Don'ts
**Do:**
- Use `#14bf96` for primary CTA backgrounds, the wordmark, and mastery-mastered indicators — and `#0a7d63` deeper green for inline text links and outlined buttons (better contrast).
- Pair primary CTA with white text — at 16px / 700 the contrast is AA at body, AAA at large-text bracket.
- Round buttons to `9999px` (pill) and cards to `8px` — the geometric pairing signals friendly-but-institutional.
- Apply a subtle `0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06)` shadow on rest cards; deepen to `0 4px 12px rgba(33,36,44,0.10)` on hover.
- Use the 4-stage mastery dot system (Attempted grey → Familiar blue → Proficient purple → Mastered deep-green) on every skill in the learning tree.
- Render Lato 900 (Black) for the hero headline at 56px — Khan's signature typographic weight.
- Use yellow `#f4cf3e` for energy-points pills and orange `#e07c2c` for streak-fire pills — the only saturated accents besides brand mint and link blue.
- Default to sentence case ("Start", "Continue") with uppercase reserved for tiny eyebrow labels (13px / 700 / `0.08em`).
- Use blue `#1865f2` for the Donate CTA in nav — deliberately not mint to differentiate the nonprofit ask from learning-action verbs.
- Use custom flat illustrations rather than stock photography for subject tiles, hero, and encouragement callouts.
- Use warm cream `#fef9e9` for "Tip!" / "Did you know?" / encouragement callouts — distinct from mint promo bands.
- Provide closed captions on every video lecture in 50+ languages; transcripts side-by-side.
- Use mathematical equations rendered with MathJax + ARIA-described LaTeX for screen readers.
**Don't:**
- Don't use `#14bf96` for inline body links — its 2.6:1 contrast on white fails. Use `#0a7d63` deeper green instead.
- Don't add discount stickers, "X% off" tags, or pricing copy — Khan is free; these patterns would break the brand's mission.
- Don't use celebrity-instructor portrait heroes — Khan is community-and-tutor warmth, not auteur-celebrity.
- Don't use scale transforms on hover — Khan's elevation grows via shadow, not translation.
- Don't introduce a serif companion font — single-family Lato carries everything.
- Don't pair brand mint with multiple saturated secondary colours — yellow energy points and orange streaks are the only saturated accents.
- Don't tighten display tracking past `-0.02em` — the brand is open and friendly, not condensed.
- Don't apply heavy shadows on cards (`> 0.15` opacity) — the elevation is whisper-soft.
- Don't introduce a dark theme — Khan is light-only by textbook tradition.
- Don't use "Buy" / "Subscribe" / "Free trial" verbs — they imply payment which contradicts the brand's free-for-everyone commitment.
- Don't make the Donate CTA mint — it must be blue to differentiate from learning verbs.
- Don't gamify aggressively — energy points and streaks are light touches; Duolingo's full-game treatment would feel coercive on a learning-mastery brand.
- Don't render mastery as a single percentage — the 4-stage mastery dot system is the brand's pedagogical commitment.
## 15. Agent Prompt Guide
### Quick Color Reference
- Canvas: `#ffffff`
- Warm Off-White: `#f7f8fa`
- Encouragement Cream: `#fef9e9`
- Khan Mint (CTA): `#14bf96`
- Inline Link Deep Green: `#0a7d63`
- Display Black: `#21242c`
- Muted: `#5b5e6b`
- Border: `#d6d8de`
- Donate Blue: `#1865f2`
- Energy Yellow: `#f4cf3e`
- Streak Orange: `#e07c2c`
### Example Component Prompts
1. "Create a Khan Academy subject tile — `#ffffff` background, `8px` radius, `1px solid #d6d8de` border, `0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06)` rest shadow; flat custom illustration top (96px tall, mint and yellow accent colours), 16px gap, 18px / 700 Lato `#21242c` subject title 'Math', 4px gap, 14px / 400 `#5b5e6b` description '20 courses · From basic arithmetic to advanced calculus', 16px gap, primary mint pill 'Start' CTA. On hover deepen shadow to `0 4px 12px rgba(33,36,44,0.10)`."
2. "Design a Khan Academy primary CTA — `9999px` pill radius, `#14bf96` background, white 16px / 700 'Start' label, `12px 24px` padding, `48px` height, hover bg `#0e9a78`, no shadow lift."
3. "Build a Khan Academy hero — `#ffffff` background, 56px Lato 900-weight headline 'For every student, every classroom, real results' in `#21242c` with `-0.02em` tracking, 18px / 400 `#5b5e6b` lead 'We are a nonprofit that relies on support from people like you', primary mint pill 'Get Khan Academy' + outlined deeper-green secondary 'Learn more' inline; flat illustration of diverse learners around a globe right side."
4. "Render a Khan Academy 4-stage mastery dot inline — 24px circle, current stage 'Proficient' shown as 3/4-filled purple `#9059ff` arc on grey track, with `aria-label='Solving linear equations — Proficient: 75% complete'`."
5. "Create a Khan Academy course page — 280px left learning-tree sidebar with collapsible Unit groups (each unit shows 14px / 400 muted '12 of 24 skills mastered' + 4px-tall mint progress bar at 75%); 920px content right with section heading 'Unit 1: Algebra foundations' in 24px / 700, then 8 skill cards stacked vertically — each skill card has `8px` radius, `1px solid #d6d8de` border, `16px` padding, mastery dot left, 16px / 700 skill title centre, 'Practice' or 'Mastered' pill right."
6. "Build a Khan Academy exercise page — exercise question stated in 18px / 400 `#21242c` body type with embedded LaTeX math (rendered with MathJax), `56px`-tall answer input with `2px solid #d6d8de` border below, primary mint 'Check' button below input, 'Get a hint' tertiary text link beside it, 'Get help' link in muted grey at bottom. On correct answer: input border glows `#14bf96`, confetti emits over 600ms ease-bounce, mint encouragement toast 'Great job!' slides in from bottom-left."
### Iteration Guide
1. **Soften everything.** If the design feels corporate, reduce colour saturation, increase line-height to 1.5+, round buttons to pill (`9999px`).
2. **Pill the CTAs.** Khan's primary buttons are full pills — `9999px` radius. Anything less reads as Material Design or e-commerce.
3. **Use deeper green for inline links.** The brand mint `#14bf96` doesn't pass AAA on white at body sizes. Switch to `#0a7d63` deeper green for inline text links and outlined buttons.
4. **Add a mastery dot.** If a skill list feels generic, add the 4-stage mastery indicator (grey / blue / purple / deep-green) inline. The dot is Khan's pedagogical signature.
5. **Custom illustrations, not stock photos.** If the page feels corporate, replace photographic imagery with flat custom SVG illustrations (mascot characters, geometric subject icons).
6. **Single family discipline.** If display feels off-brand, drop the secondary font — Lato carries everything. Three weights only: 400, 700, 900.
7. **Donate is blue.** If Donate CTA accidentally went mint, switch to `#1865f2` blue — the differentiation from learning verbs is a brand commitment.
8. **Encouraging copy.** If error states say "Wrong" or "Incorrect", switch to "Not quite. Try again — you can do this." Khan's voice is the tutor's voice, not the test's.
1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
Khan Academy’s site is the warmest learning surface on the internet. The canvas is paper-white #ffffff warming faintly to #f7f8fa in alt bands, the type is Lato — a humanist sans designed by Łukasz Dziedzic that has carried Khan’s identity since 2012 — and the chromatic event of the page is #14bf96, a confident mint green that lives on the wordmark, the primary CTA, the mascot’s plumage, and the skill-mastery dots in the learning tree. Where Coursera whispers in royal blue and Udemy shouts in electric purple and MasterClass commits to cinema-black reverence, Khan operates in a fourth register entirely: mission-driven warmth. The brand’s argument is “we are a nonprofit, we are free, we believe in you, here is the next exercise.”
The signature is the learning-tree navigation — Khan’s most distinctive interaction pattern, descended from K-12 textbook chapter structure rather than from e-commerce or streaming. Every course (Algebra 1, AP Biology, World History) breaks into Units, each Unit breaks into Skills, and every Skill carries a 4-stage mastery dot indicator: Attempted (grey), Familiar (blue), Proficient (purple), Mastered (deep green). The dots fill via concentric arc progress as the learner answers exercise questions. A learner returning to Khan sees their entire course as a tree of mastery dots, with a unit progress percentage at the top of each unit (“12 of 24 skills mastered, 75% complete”), and the page invites the next-best-skill-to-practice via a green primary CTA. This is the workhorse interaction pattern, and it’s what differentiates Khan from every other learning platform: progress is rendered as mastery-of-skills, not as percentage-of-video-watched.
The course-tile grid is the secondary workhorse component. Subject tiles render at 8px radius (warmer than Udemy’s 4px, friendlier than Coursera’s also-8px) with a subject illustration at the top (Khan’s flat-illustration style — playful, slightly geometric, paired with rounded mascot characters), the subject name in 18px / 700 Lato below, a short description in 14px / 400 muted, and a primary mint CTA. The illustrations are not stock photography; they’re custom SVGs that have been part of the brand since the early 2010s, carrying a hand-drawn warmth that signals “this is education, not a sales funnel.” Tiles stack 4-across at desktop, 3-across at 900px, 2-across at 600px, 1-across mobile.
Lato — the sans-serif workhorse — sets the entire site. Display sizes go up to 56px at the heaviest 900 weight (Lato’s Black) with -0.02em tracking; body is 16px / 400 / 1.5 line-height. Lato is a humanist sans with semi-rounded letterforms, a slightly humanist warmth in the bowls of o, e, a, and a slight stress in the diagonals of v, w, x — properties that make it feel friendly and book-readable. The font carries Khan’s voice, which is the voice of an encouraging tutor who genuinely believes you can learn this if you stick with it: warm, clear, never patronizing, never condescending. There’s no display-serif companion, no decorative italic, no condensed cut. One family pulls the entire load.
Density is the third axis. Khan’s pages are content-dense but never cramped. Section padding sits at 64–96px; tile gaps at 24px; within-card padding at 16–24px; body line-height at 1.5. The hero takes 480px tall (shorter than MasterClass’s 720px+, taller than Udemy’s 360px) — generous but not lavish. Below the hero, the page packs subject tiles, a “for teachers” feature card, a “donate” call-to-action, and a partner-logo strip. Donate is woven into the page’s argument — it’s not aggressive, but it’s permanent, signalled by a blue #1865f2 “Donate” button in the nav (deliberately not green, so it differentiates from learning-action verbs).
The brand’s gamification language deserves a paragraph of its own. Khan introduced energy points (yellow lightning-bolt currency awarded for completing exercises) and streak counters (orange fire-icon counters showing consecutive days of practice) early in its history — a Duolingo-adjacent pattern that’s lighter than Duolingo’s full-game treatment but still reaches for the same daily-habit reinforcement. The yellow #f4cf3e energy-point pill and orange #e07c2c streak-fire pill are the two small saturated accents in the system besides brand mint and link blue. They’re rendered as warm, playful touches — not as urgent obligations.
Key Characteristics:
- Paper-white
#ffffffcanvas warming to#f7f8fain alt bands. Warm cream#fef9e9for tip / encouragement callouts. - Signature
#14bf96mint green — primary CTA, wordmark, mastery-mastered dot, brand surfaces. - Deeper
#0a7d63green for inline text links and outlined buttons (AAA contrast on white). - Lato humanist sans pulling display through body — one family, no companion.
- 4-stage mastery dot system (Attempted grey → Familiar blue → Proficient purple → Mastered deep-green) on every skill in the learning tree. The brand”s defining UX pattern.
- Energy points (yellow lightning,
#f4cf3e) and streak counters (orange fire,#e07c2c) — light gamification, never aggressive. - 8px-radius cards; pill-shaped (9999px) primary buttons. Friendly geometric pairing.
- Flat custom illustrations rather than stock photography — hand-drawn warmth signals education-not-sales.
- Donate
#1865f2blue CTA in nav — deliberately not mint, to differentiate nonprofit ask from learning-action verbs. - Khanmigo (mascot/AI tutor) appears on AI surfaces — owl-character illustrations carry the warmth.
- Body type at 16px / 400 / 1.5 line-height — friendly book-readable density.
- Light-only — no dark variant (consistent with K-12 textbook tradition).
2. Color Palette & Roles
Primary
- Paper White (
#ffffff): The defining canvas. Pure white, no warm tint. - Warm Off-White (
#f7f8fa): Hero band background, alt section banding. - Encouragement Cream (
#fef9e9): Warm cream for “Tip” / “Did you know?” / nonprofit ask callout bands. The brand’s emotional-warmth surface. - Display Black (
#21242c): Primary body text. Warm near-black with a slight blue tilt — softer than pure#000. - Khan Mint (
#14bf96): The brand’s primary green. Wordmark, primary CTA background, mastery-mastered dot, brand surfaces.
Brand & Dark
- Brand Hover (
#0e9a78): Pointer-over state — slightly darker mint. - Brand Active (
#0a7d63): Pressed state. - Brand Soft (
#e3f9f1): Soft-tint surface for badges, mint-tinted cards, success messaging. - Brand Deep (
#0a7d63): Deeper green used for inline text links, outlined-button borders, mastery-mastered dot. Provides AAA contrast on white where the brighter#14bf96only meets AA on large text. - Footer Black (
#21242c): Footer band, dark hero (rare).
Accent
- Donate Blue (
#1865f2): Donate-CTA blue. Deliberately not mint — differentiates nonprofit ask from learning-action verbs. - Energy Yellow (
#f4cf3e): Energy-points lightning-bolt icon and pill. The gamification accent. - Streak Orange (
#e07c2c): Streak-fire icon and pill. Daily-practice incentive. - Mascot Pink (
#e879b7): Khanmigo accent — used on AI tutor surfaces. - Profile Purple (
#9059ff): Avatar background tint, mastery-proficient dot.
Interactive
- CTA Mint (
#14bf96): Primary action button background. - Inline Link Deep Green (
#0a7d63): Inline links — deeper than CTA so contrast is AAA on white. - Inline Link Blue (
#1865f2): Alternative link colour on certain pages (donate-leaning, partner pages). - Outlined Deep Green (
#0a7d63border on white): Secondary action. - Filter Chip Active (
#e3f9f1bg +#0a7d63text +#14bf96border): Applied-filter state. - Disabled (
#a8aab2text on#f7f8fabg): Non-interactive control.
Neutral Scale
- Display Black (
#21242c): Display headlines, primary body — slight blue-grey tilt, softer than pure black. - Strong Black (
#0c0d0f): Hero display only. - Muted (
#5b5e6b): Secondary metadata — “12 of 24 skills mastered”, “Updated April 2024”. - Soft (
#797d8a): Tertiary captions. - Disabled (
#a8aab2): Inactive form labels, disabled controls, mastery-attempted dot. - Border Default (
#d6d8de): Card hairlines, dividers. - Border Soft (
#e7e9ed): Subtle table-row dividers. - Border Strong (
#a8aab2): Focused field outline before brand-mint ring kicks in.
Surface & Borders
- Surface Default (
#ffffff): Card, modal floor. - Surface Hover (
#f7f8fa): Nav hover, list-row hover. - Surface Soft (
#f0fcf7): Mint-tinted secondary card bg (lesson tile). - Surface Strong (
#e7e9ed): Divider band. - Promo Surface (
#e3f9f1): Soft mint promo band. - Encouragement Surface (
#fef9e9): Warm cream callout surface.
Shadow Colors
- Card Rest (
rgba(33,36,44,0.06)): The rest-state card shadow at0 1px 3px. Whisper-soft. - Card Hover (
rgba(33,36,44,0.10)): Hover-state shadow at0 4px 12px. Lifts gently. - Popover Shadow (
rgba(33,36,44,0.12)): Dropdown, tooltip. - Modal Shadow (
rgba(33,36,44,0.20)): Dialog floor. - All shadows are warm-grey-tinted (using the
#21242cbody colour as base) rather than neutral cool grey.
Mastery Dots (4-Stage)
- Attempted (
#a8aab2): Grey — no progress yet. - Familiar (
#1865f2): Blue — first level of comfort. - Proficient (
#9059ff): Purple — second level. - Mastered (
#0a7d63): Deep green — final state. Echoes brand-deep.
Semantic
- Success (
#0a7d63text on#e3f9f1soft bg): Exercise correct, skill mastered, “Great job!” toast. - Warning (
#d68a17text on#fef9e9soft bg): “Hint available” / “Try again” reminder. - Danger (
#d23a48text on#fdebedsoft bg): Wrong answer, form validation error. - Info (
#1865f2text on#e6efffsoft bg): “New AP exam dates announced.”
3. Typography Rules
Font Family
- Primary:
"Lato"— Łukasz Dziedzic’s humanist sans, designed 2010 (Lato 1) / refined 2014 (Lato 2.0). Open-source via the SIL Open Font License. Fallback chain:"Lato 2.0", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Roboto", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif. - Mono:
"Source Code Pro", "SF Mono", "Roboto Mono", Menlo, Consolas, monospace— used in CS courses (Computing track) and inline code. - OpenType Features:
kernandligaenabled site-wide.tnumenabled on energy points, streak days, learner counts, exercise progress, and any tabular data display.
Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | OT Features | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display Hero | Lato | 56px | 900 (Black) | 1.1 | -0.02em | kern,liga | Marketing landing — “For every student, every classroom” |
| Display XL | Lato | 44px | 700 | 1.15 | -0.015em | kern,liga | Section hero, mission page |
| Display LG | Lato | 32px | 700 | 1.2 | -0.01em | kern,liga | Course landing title — “Algebra 1” |
| Display MD | Lato | 24px | 700 | 1.25 | -0.005em | kern,liga | Section heading — “Unit 1: Algebra foundations” |
| Display SM | Lato | 20px | 700 | 1.3 | 0 | kern,liga | Subsection heading |
| Title LG | Lato | 18px | 700 | 1.35 | 0 | kern,liga | Card title |
| Title MD | Lato | 16px | 700 | 1.4 | 0 | kern,liga | Skill title in tree |
| Title SM | Lato | 14px | 700 | 1.4 | 0 | kern,liga | Sidebar nav, lesson list item |
| Body LG | Lato | 18px | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | kern,liga | Lead paragraph, lesson description |
| Body MD | Lato | 16px | 400 | 1.5 | 0 | kern,liga | Default body, exercise question text |
| Body SM | Lato | 14px | 400 | 1.5 | 0 | kern,liga | Secondary metadata |
| Button LG | Lato | 16px | 700 | 1.0 | 0 | kern,liga | ”Start” / “Continue” CTA label |
| Button MD | Lato | 14px | 700 | 1.0 | 0 | kern,liga | Default button label |
| Eyebrow | Lato | 13px | 700 | 1.0 | 0.08em | kern,liga | Uppercase “GET STARTED” |
| Caption | Lato | 13px | 400 | 1.4 | 0 | kern,liga | Disclosures, fine print |
| Metadata | Lato | 14px | 400 | 1.3 | 0 | tnum | Skill count, points display |
| Points | Lato | 16px | 700 | 1.0 | 0 | tnum | ”2,340” energy points display |
| Code | Source Code Pro | 14px | 400 | 1.5 | 0 | — | CS lectures, math LaTeX inline fallback |
Principles
- Single family discipline. Lato covers display through body. There is no display-serif companion — Khan’s voice is friendly tutor, not editorial publication.
- Three weights: 400, 700, 900. Body at 400, titles at 700, hero display at 900 (Lato Black). The hero’s 900 weight is Khan’s signature — it’s the heaviest weight any of the major learning brands deploys, and it gives the hero headline a confident “you can do this” gravity.
- Modest negative tracking. Display sizes use
-0.005emto-0.02em. Khan never goes tighter than-0.02emeven on 56px hero — the brand is open and friendly, never condensed. - 0.08em tracking on eyebrows. Uppercase eyebrows (“GET STARTED”, “EARN BADGES”) use 13px / 700 /
0.08em— moderate tracking that distinguishes them from button labels without going full magazine register. - 16px body, 1.5 line-height. Exercise questions, lesson transcripts, articles all sit at this baseline — book-readable density.
- Tabular numerals on energy points / streaks / progress. Energy points (“2,340”), streaks (“7 day streak”), exercise progress (“12 of 24”), unit completion percentages (“75%”) all use
tnum. - Sentence case for everything except eyebrows. “Start a new course”, “Continue learning” — capital first word only. Uppercase reserved for tiny eyebrow labels.
- Lato 2.0 over Lato 1. Khan uses Lato 2.0 (the 2014 refinement) which has improved Cyrillic, expanded weights, and refined italic angles. The fallback chain prefers
"Lato 2.0"first.
4. Component Stylings
Buttons
Primary (Khan Mint Pill)
- Background:
#14bf96. Text:#ffffff. Radius:9999px(capsule). Padding:12px 24px. Height:48px. Font: Lato 16px / 700. - Hover:
#0e9a78. No shadow lift, no scale. - Active:
#0a7d63. - Use: “Start”, “Continue”, “Get Khan Academy”, “Practice this skill”. One per viewport. Pill shape signals friendliness.
Secondary (Outlined Deep Green)
- Background:
#ffffff. Text:#0a7d63. Border:2px solid #0a7d63. Radius:9999px. Padding:12px 24px. - Hover: bg
#e3f9f1. - Use: “Learn more”, “Sign in”. Note: uses deeper
#0a7d63rather than brand#14bf96for AAA contrast.
Tertiary Text
- Background:
transparent. Color:#0a7d63. Padding:8px 12px. - Hover: underline appears.
- Use: Inline action, footer link.
Donate (Blue Pill)
- Background:
#1865f2. Text:#ffffff. Radius:9999px. Padding:12px 24px. Height:48px. - Hover:
#0d4ec7. - Use: “Donate” CTA in nav. Deliberately blue, not mint — differentiates the nonprofit ask from learning-action verbs.
Icon Button
- Background:
transparent. Color:#5b5e6b. Radius:4px. Size:32 × 32. - Hover: bg
#f7f8fa, color#21242c. - Use: Bookmark, share, more-options.
Cards & Tiles
Subject Tile
- Background:
#ffffff. Color:#21242c. Radius:8px. Padding:24px. Border:1px solid #d6d8de. - Layout: Custom flat illustration top (96px tall), 16px gap, 18px / 700 subject name, 4px gap, 14px / 400 muted description (max 2 lines), 16px gap, “X courses” metadata or pill button.
- Rest shadow:
0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06). - Use: “Math / Science / Computing” homepage tile.
Skill Card (Learning Tree Row)
- Background:
#ffffff. Color:#21242c. Radius:8px. Padding:16px. Border:1px solid #d6d8de. - Layout: 4-stage mastery dot left (24px), 16px gap, skill title (16px / 700) centre, “Practice” / “Mastered” pill right.
- Hover: bg
#f7f8fa. - Use: Each skill row inside a unit’s learning tree.
Lesson Tile
- Background:
#f0fcf7(mint-tinted). Color:#21242c. Radius:8px. Padding:16px. Border:1px solid #d6d8de. - Layout: lesson type icon left (video / exercise / article), title centre, runtime/question count right.
- Use: Lesson list inside a unit.
Encouragement Callout
- Background:
#fef9e9(warm cream). Color:#21242c. Radius:12px. Padding:24px. Border:1px solid #f4cf3e. - Layout: Mascot illustration top-left (40px tall), copy block right — 16px / 700 title “Tip!”, 14px / 400 body.
- Use: “Tip!” / “Did you know?” / “Quick reminder” inline callout.
Donate Banner
- Background:
#fef9e9. Color:#21242c. Border:1px solid #f4cf3e. Radius:8px. Padding:16px. - Layout: Hands-illustration left, copy centre — “Donate today and your gift will be doubled.”, blue “Donate” CTA right.
- Use: Top-of-page nonprofit ask, dismissible.
Badges, Tags, Indicators
Mastered (Green Pill)
- Background:
#e3f9f1. Color:#0a7d63. Radius:9999px. Padding:4px 12px. Font: 12px / 700. - Use: “Mastered” earned-state pill on a skill row.
Proficient (Purple Pill)
- Background:
#f3eaff. Color:#5e2bb1. - Use: “Proficient” tier pill.
Familiar (Blue Pill)
- Background:
#e6efff. Color:#0a44b8. - Use: “Familiar” tier pill.
Attempted (Grey Pill)
- Background:
#f1f2f5. Color:#5b5e6b. - Use: “Attempted” baseline tier.
Mastery Dot (4-Stage)
- 24px circle with progress arc rendering current stage.
- Attempted: full grey
#a8aab2. - Familiar: 1/4 filled blue
#1865f2. - Proficient: 3/4 filled purple
#9059ff. - Mastered: full deep-green
#0a7d63. - The dots fill via animated arc as the learner answers exercise questions correctly. Progress is non-linear — Khan’s algorithm awards bigger jumps for harder questions answered without hints.
- Use: Inline next to every skill in the learning tree.
Energy Points Pill
- Background:
#fef9e9. Color:#a06c0a. Border:1px solid #f4cf3e. Radius:9999px. Padding:4px 12px. - Format: ”⚡ 2,340” — yellow lightning emoji + tnum number.
- Use: Top-bar gamification counter.
Streak Pill
- Background:
#fef0e7. Color:#9d5511. Border:1px solid #e07c2c. Radius:9999px. Padding:4px 12px. - Format: ”🔥 7 day streak” — fire emoji + day count.
- Use: Daily-practice incentive in nav or profile.
Inputs & Forms
Search
- Background:
#f7f8fa. Color:#21242c. Border:1px solid #d6d8de. Radius:8px. Height:48px. Padding:12px 16px 12px 44px. - Magnifying-glass icon left in
#5b5e6b. - Placeholder: “Search Khan Academy”.
- Focus: border
#14bf96, ring0 0 0 3px rgba(20,191,150,0.4).
Text Input
- Background:
#ffffff. Color:#21242c. Border:1px solid #d6d8de. Radius:8px. Height:48px. Padding:12px 16px. - Label sits above, 14px / 700
#21242c. Hint below, 13px / 400#5b5e6b. - Focus: border
#14bf96, ring0 0 0 3px rgba(20,191,150,0.4).
Exercise Answer Input
- Background:
#ffffff. Color:#21242c. Border:2px solid #d6d8de. Radius:8px. Height:56px. Padding:14px 16px. - Taller and bolder-bordered than form inputs to draw attention during exercises.
- On correct: border
#14bf96, then a 600ms confetti-celebration animation. - On incorrect: border
#d23a48, “Try again” hint appears below in red. - Use: Math problem answer input, multiple-choice answer selection.
Filter Chip
- Default: bg
#ffffff, color#21242c, border1px solid #d6d8de, radius9999px, padding6px 14px. - Active: bg
#e3f9f1, color#0a7d63, border#14bf96. Soft mint state. - Use: Subject filter pill on browse page.
Navigation
Top Bar (Sticky)
- Background:
#ffffff. Border-bottom:1px solid #d6d8de. Height:64px. - Layout: Khan Academy logo (mint owl + wordmark) left, “Courses” mega-menu link, “Search” input centre-left, “Sign in” + “Donate” blue pill right.
- Logged-in: replace Sign in with profile avatar + energy points pill + streak pill.
- Mobile: collapses to hamburger + search-icon + Donate.
Learning Tree Sidebar
- Background:
#ffffff. Width:280px. Padding:24px 16px. - Collapsible Unit groups (Unit 1: Algebra foundations / Unit 2: Solving equations / …).
- Each unit shows: 16px / 700 unit name, 14px / 400 muted “12 of 24 skills mastered”, thin progress bar (mint fill).
- Sticky on scroll.
Mega Menu (Courses Dropdown)
- Background:
#ffffff. Shadow:0 4px 16px rgba(33,36,44,0.12). - Layout: Multi-column flyout grouped by educational level (Early childhood / Elementary / Middle / High school / College / Test prep), then by subject within.
- Use: Hover or click to expand from top nav.
Modals & Toasts
Modal Dialog
- Background:
#ffffff. Radius:12px. Padding:32px. - Shadow:
0 16px 48px rgba(33,36,44,0.20). - Backdrop:
rgba(33,36,44,0.5). - Use: Sign-up, course preview, sign-in.
Toast (Default)
- Background:
#21242c. Color:#ffffff. Radius:8px. Padding:12px 16px. - Use: “Skill saved” — bottom-left, auto-dismiss 3s.
Toast (Encouragement)
- Background:
#e3f9f1. Color:#0a7d63. Radius:8px. Padding:12px 16px. Border-left:4px solid #14bf96. - Use: “Great job! 4 questions correct in a row.” — encouragement state on exercise streak.
5. Layout Principles
Spacing System
- Base: 4px. Scale: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 / 24 / 32 / 40 / 48 / 64 / 80 / 96 / 128.
- Card-to-card gap: 24px on desktop, 16px on tablet, 12px on mobile.
- Section gap (major modules): 64–96px.
- Grid gutter: 24px.
- Within-card padding: 16–24px.
Grid & Container
- Page width: 1440px max.
- Content max within page: 1240px centred.
- Course page: 280px learning-tree sidebar + 920px content (unit list, lesson cards).
- Hero: full-bleed background, content centred at 1240px.
Whitespace Philosophy
Khan is a content-density product disguised as a textbook. Sections breathe at 64–96px gaps, cards at 24px, but within a card the layout is tight. The hero gets 96px top/bottom padding — generous breathing room because the brand promise lives there. Below the fold, density picks up: subject tiles in a 4-across grid, learning-tree skill rows tightly stacked. The brand never lets the page feel transactional, but it does maximize learning density per viewport.
Section Cadence
- Top bar (sticky)
- Hero (Lato 56px / 900 headline, 18px lead, primary mint CTA + outlined deeper-green secondary)
- “Choose a subject” tile grid (8 subject tiles)
- “Recommended for you” rail (logged-in) or “Most popular courses” (logged-out)
- “For teachers” feature card band (mint-tinted)
- “Help us empower learners” donate banner (warm cream)
- Partner-logo “Trusted by” rail (Bank of America, AT&T, Google.org, Carlos Slim Foundation)
- Footer (4-column dark
#21242cband — links, language picker, app downloads, mission statement)
Light/dark alternation: predominantly light. Footer is the only dark band.
6. Shapes & Radius Scale
- Micro (
2px): Tiny indicator dot. - Standard (
4px): Input, dropdown, small badge. - Comfortable (
6px): Tag chip, default card alternative. - Relaxed (
8px): Subject tile, skill card, modal corners — the workhorse radius. Khan’s friendly default. - Featured (
12px): Encouragement callout, large modal. - Pill (
9999px): Primary button, mastery-state pill, energy-points pill, filter chip — the brand’s defining capsule shape.
The 8px card + 9999px pill button pairing is the geometric signature. Pills make CTAs feel friendly and clickable; 8px cards make content feel like institutional textbook. The combination lands warmer than Coursera (also 8px / 24px-pill but cooler in palette) and sharper than Material Design.
7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 (flat) | No shadow, no border | Section background, hero band |
| 1 (border) | 1px solid #d6d8de | Card rest, input field, divider |
| 2 (subtle lift) | 0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06) | Default subject tile rest |
| 3 (hover lift) | 0 4px 12px rgba(33,36,44,0.10) | Subject tile hover |
| 4 (popover) | 0 4px 16px rgba(33,36,44,0.12) | Mega menu, dropdown, tooltip |
| 5 (modal) | 0 16px 48px rgba(33,36,44,0.20) | Dialog, sign-up modal |
Shadow Philosophy
Shadows are warm-grey-tinted (using the #21242c body colour as base) and whisper-soft. The rest-state card shadow at 0.06 opacity is barely perceptible; the hover shadow at 0.10 grows just enough to feel intentional. Modals get the only shadow above 0.15 opacity. The brand never uses brand-tinted shadows — green belongs to action and mastery, not to elevation. The aesthetic is closer to Material Design’s elevation ladder than to Apple’s sharp-shadow tradition, but tuned softer.
8. Interaction & Motion
Easing Curves
- Standard:
cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)— Material standard ease, used for fades, opacity, simple slides. - Out:
cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1)— incoming elements (modal in, dropdown open). - In-Out:
cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.6, 1)— accordion expand/collapse. - Bounce:
cubic-bezier(0.34, 1.56, 0.64, 1)— celebration animations (correct answer confetti, skill mastered).
Duration Buckets
- Fast: 150ms — colour shifts, hover transitions, button-press feedback.
- Standard: 250ms — card hover shadow lift, modal open, dropdown.
- Slow: 400ms — accordion expand, mastery dot fill animation.
- Celebration: 600ms — confetti burst on exercise correct, mastery-mastered transition.
Per-Component Recipes
- Subject tile hover: Shadow
0 1px 3px → 0 4px 12pxover 250ms ease-standard. No scale, no translate. - Primary CTA hover: Background
#14bf96 → #0e9a78over 150ms ease-standard. No shadow change. - Mastery dot fill: When learner advances stage, dot’s progress arc animates from previous stage to new stage over 400ms ease-out, with a brief 200ms colour-pulse celebration.
- Exercise correct: Input border glows green, confetti burst (yellow + green particles) emits from input centre over 600ms ease-bounce, “Great job!” toast slides in.
- Streak fire icon: When streak count increments (daily login), fire icon does a 200ms bounce-scale
1 → 1.2 → 1. - Modal open: 250ms ease-out, opacity
0 → 1+ scale0.96 → 1. - Accordion expand: Unit group expand on click — height auto-grow over 400ms ease-in-out, content fades in over last 200ms.
- Toast in: slide up from bottom 6px + opacity over 250ms; auto-dismiss after 3s with reverse motion.
- Khanmigo mascot blink: Owl mascot illustration occasionally blinks (every 4–6s) as a 100ms ease-in-out micro-animation.
Page Transitions
Khan uses light client-side routing. Page changes within a course (lesson → exercise → next lesson) trigger a 200ms opacity fade. There’s no full-page slide. The learning-tree sidebar persists across page changes within a course.
Reduced Motion
prefers-reduced-motion: reduce collapses:
- Card hover shadow lifts → instant snap.
- Mastery dot fill animation → opacity-only colour swap.
- Confetti-celebration on exercise correct → disabled (just toast appears).
- Streak fire bounce → no animation.
- Khanmigo blink → static.
- Modal scale-in → opacity-only.
- Accordion expand → instant.
9. Accessibility & A11y
Contrast Pairs
- Display Black
#21242con white#ffffff: 14.2:1 — AAA at all sizes. - Muted
#5b5e6bon white#ffffff: 6.4:1 — AA at body sizes. - White
#ffffffon Khan Mint#14bf96: 2.6:1 — fails AAA, used at 16px / 700 (large-text bracket boundary). For most body uses, the inline link uses deeper#0a7d63. - Inline link Deep Green
#0a7d63on white: 7.4:1 — AAA at all sizes. - Donate Blue
#1865f2on white: 6.6:1 — AA at body. - Mastery-mastered Deep Green
#0a7d63on white: 7.4:1 — AAA. - Energy Yellow
#f4cf3eon white: 2.0:1 — fails for text; used decoratively only (icon). - Disabled
#a8aab2on white: 2.7:1 — fails AA, used for disabled-only states witharia-disabled.
Focus Indicators
- Default focus:
3px solid rgba(20,191,150,0.4)outline with2pxoffset on light surfaces. - Form fields: border lifts to
#14bf96on focus, plus the 3px ring outside. - Tab order: top nav → search → main content top-to-bottom → learning-tree sidebar → unit / skill content → footer.
ARIA Patterns
- Subject tiles:
role="article" aria-label="[Subject], [N] courses available". - Mastery dots:
role="img" aria-label="[Skill name] — [Stage]: 75% complete". Each dot has descriptive label. - Learning tree:
role="navigation" aria-label="Course units and skills". Each unit accordion:aria-expanded,aria-controls. - Exercise input:
aria-describedbylinked to question hint and feedback message. Wrong-answer message hasrole="alert"for immediate screen-reader announcement. - Math equations: rendered with MathJax +
aria-labelcontaining LaTeX-described semantic content for screen readers. - Modal:
role="dialog" aria-modal="true"with focus trap. - Energy-points / streak counters:
aria-live="polite"on increment.
Keyboard Navigation
- Tab: move forward through controls; Shift+Tab reverses.
- Enter / Space: activate focused button or tile, submit answer in exercise.
- Arrow keys: navigate within learning tree (roving tabindex), move between multiple-choice options.
- ESC: close modal, mega menu, sidebar overlay.
- Tab on exercise input → submit button + skip button accessible without mouse.
Screen Reader Hints
- Mastery dots use detailed aria-labels (skill name + stage + progress percent).
- Khan’s video player has full ARIA captions, transcript link, and keyboard controls. Captions in 50+ languages.
- Math content described via LaTeX-to-speech bridge (e.g. “x squared plus 2x equals zero” rather than reading raw LaTeX).
- Khanmigo AI tutor surfaces use
role="region" aria-label="AI tutor conversation"witharia-live="polite"for each response.
Reduced Motion
Honoured. See §8.
10. Responsive Behavior
Breakpoints
| Token | Min | Use |
|---|---|---|
| mobile | 0px | 1 tile per row, sidebar collapses to filter modal |
| tablet | 600px | 2 tiles per row, sidebar shows as collapsible drawer |
| tablet-lg | 900px | 3 tiles per row, sidebar visible at 240px |
| desktop | 1200px | 4 tiles per row, full 280px sidebar |
| wide | 1440px | content max 1240px centred |
Touch Targets
- 48×48 minimum on all interactive controls. Tile tap targets fill the entire card body.
- Mastery dots are 24×24 visually but have 44×44 tap targets via padding.
- Exercise inputs at 56×wide for easy keyboard typing on mobile.
Collapsing Strategy
- Top nav: collapses to hamburger + search-icon + Donate on
< 900px. - Energy points / streak pills: collapse to a single icon-with-number on mobile.
- Learning tree sidebar: collapses to “Course outline” button on mobile that opens a full-screen drawer.
- Subject grid: 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 across the breakpoint cascade.
- Hero: title scales 56 → 44 → 32 → 24; illustration collapses below text on
< 600px.
Image Behavior
- Subject illustrations: SVG with
currentColorfor tint adjustability. - Mascot illustrations: SVG, scale crisp at any size.
- Video player: 16:9 with adaptive bitrate streaming. Captions support 50+ languages.
Container Queries
Used on the learning tree sidebar — unit progress bar collapses to icon-only on narrow widths; on the encouragement-callout block — mascot illustration drops at narrow widths.
11. Content & Voice
Tone
Khan Academy’s voice is encouraging, plain-spoken, and mission-driven. Course descriptions read like a friendly tutor’s lesson plan — clear, structured, free of jargon. Marketing copy tilts mission-first (“For every student, every classroom, real results”, “We’re a nonprofit that relies on support from people like you”) rather than aspirational. The brand never assumes the reader has math anxiety; never assumes the reader is gifted either. Every page treats you as a curious learner who can do this if they stick with it. The voice is closer to a beloved high-school teacher than to a corporate trainer.
Microcopy Patterns
- Primary CTA: “Start”, “Continue”, “Practice”, “Get Khan Academy”.
- Secondary CTA: “Learn more”, “Sign in”, “Browse courses”.
- Confirmation toast: “Skill saved”, “Welcome back, [Name]”, “Great job! 4 questions correct in a row.”
- Empty enrolled: “Choose a subject to start. We’ll save your progress as you go.”
- Empty progress: “Your courses will appear here once you start. Pick a subject to begin.”
- Wrong answer: “Not quite. Try again — you can do this.” (Never “Wrong” or “Incorrect”.)
- Hint pattern: “Stuck? Get a hint.” → reveals scaffolded hint inline.
- Encouragement: “Great job!”, “Keep going!”, “You’re on a streak!”, “Almost there!”
- Mission ask: “Donate today and your gift will be doubled. Help us provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.”
- Time-aware welcome: “Welcome back, [Name]” + “Continue learning [Course]” CTA.
Empty States
- Empty enrolled: subject grid + “Choose a subject to start” — never blocks the user.
- Empty progress: “Your progress will appear here” + featured course rail.
- Empty search: “We couldn’t find any results for [query]. Try one of these:” + curated subject suggestions.
- Wrong answer: “Not quite. [Hint snippet]. Try again — you can do this.”
- Offline (mobile): “You’re offline. Downloaded videos are available below.” (Web does not work offline.)
CTA Verb Conventions
- “Start” — primary verb for beginning a course or skill. Always sentence case.
- “Continue” — returning-user CTA on in-progress course.
- “Practice” — for exercise sets within a skill.
- “Get Khan Academy” — homepage primary CTA, replaces “Sign up”.
- “Donate” — nonprofit ask. Always blue, never green.
- “Save” — bookmark toggle.
- “Try again” — wrong-answer retry. Never “Retry” or “Submit”.
- “Get a hint” — exercise scaffolding action.
The brand explicitly avoids: “Buy”, “Subscribe”, “Add to cart”, “Enroll” (Khan is free; these verbs imply payment), “Free trial” (everything is already free), “Sign up” (replaced with “Get Khan Academy”).
12. Dark Mode & Theming
Khan Academy is light-only on the consumer surface. There is no dark-mode variant in the web app, mobile app, or marketing site. The brand’s visual lineage is the K-12 textbook tradition — paper-white pages, dark ink, generous margins — and a dark mode would break that metaphor. Long-form reading (lesson articles, video transcripts) and exercise practice are also better-served by light backgrounds for sustained learning sessions in well-lit classroom or home environments where Khan’s primary audience sits.
The video player has a “theatre mode” (the player chrome darkens around the video) but the surrounding page stays light. This is the only “dark” treatment in the system.
If theming were added, the canvas would lift to #0f1418 with #e8eaed body text. Khan Mint #14bf96 would brighten slightly to #3bd9b3 for AAA contrast on dark. Cards would shift to #1a1f24 with #2c3138 borders. The encouragement-cream surface would shift to #2a2418 warm-deep-cream. But there’s no public roadmap signal for it.
13. Lineage & Influences
Khan Academy’s visual lineage is three-streamed.
The K-12 textbook tradition. Khan was founded in 2008 by Salman Khan as a YouTube tutorial series that became a structured curriculum. Its visual language was always closer to a textbook companion website than to a startup product — paper-white pages, generous body line-height, illustrated diagrams over photography, friendly mascot characters, a learning-tree navigation pattern lifted from chapter-and-section structure. The mastery-dot system descends from competency-based education research (Bloom’s Mastery Learning, 1968) and was visualized as 4-stage circles to communicate progress without grades. The brand’s argument has always been “learning is a tree of skills, not a series of grades” — and the visual system reinforces this by making mastery the unit of progress.
The nonprofit-warm web tradition. Khan is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and the visual register is calibrated to mission-driven warmth. The mint-green brand colour, the mascot illustrations, the encouragement-cream callout surfaces, the “Donate” blue CTA in the nav — all come from a lineage of nonprofit web design (Wikipedia, Mozilla, Khan, ProPublica, GiveDirectly) that signals “we are mission-driven, your trust matters more than your transaction.” The discipline is restraint: no discount stickers, no aspirational marketing, no celebrity instructors. The argument is “we are free and we believe in you” delivered in the voice of a tutor.
The Lato-and-flat-illustration design tradition. Lato (Łukasz Dziedzic, 2010) became one of the most-used open-source typefaces of the 2010s — adopted by Wikipedia, Mozilla, GitLab, MailChimp, and many nonprofits. Its humanist warmth and SIL Open Font licence aligned with Khan’s nonprofit ethos. The flat-illustration style (custom SVGs of subjects, mascot characters, hands-around-globe diversity imagery) descends from the early-2010s flat-design movement (post-Skeuomorphic but pre-Material) — specifically from Mailchimp’s Freddie mascot, Slack’s onboarding illustrations, and Duolingo’s Duo owl. Khan’s owl mascot Khanmigo (2023) is a direct descendant of this tradition.
What Khan rejects: dark mode, decorative serif companion, multi-color brand palette, aggressive negative tracking, full-screen marketing video, modal pop-overs, discount stickers, e-commerce verbs (“Buy”, “Subscribe”), aspirational celebrity-instructor marketing.
Influences:
- Wikipedia — paper-white nonprofit canvas, donate-blue CTA, mission-first voice. https://wikipedia.org
- Bloom’s Mastery Learning (1968) — competency-based education theory underpinning the 4-stage mastery dots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastery_learning
- Lato (Łukasz Dziedzic) — humanist sans that anchors the friendly tutor voice. https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Lato
- Duolingo — gamified learning (energy points, streaks) and mascot-driven warmth; Khan’s lighter-touch take. https://duolingo.com
- Mailchimp Freddie — friendly mascot tradition Khan adopts in Khanmigo. https://mailchimp.com
- ProPublica / Mozilla — nonprofit web aesthetic, mission-driven typography. https://propublica.org
14. Do’s and Don’ts
Do:
- Use
#14bf96for primary CTA backgrounds, the wordmark, and mastery-mastered indicators — and#0a7d63deeper green for inline text links and outlined buttons (better contrast). - Pair primary CTA with white text — at 16px / 700 the contrast is AA at body, AAA at large-text bracket.
- Round buttons to
9999px(pill) and cards to8px— the geometric pairing signals friendly-but-institutional. - Apply a subtle
0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06)shadow on rest cards; deepen to0 4px 12px rgba(33,36,44,0.10)on hover. - Use the 4-stage mastery dot system (Attempted grey → Familiar blue → Proficient purple → Mastered deep-green) on every skill in the learning tree.
- Render Lato 900 (Black) for the hero headline at 56px — Khan’s signature typographic weight.
- Use yellow
#f4cf3efor energy-points pills and orange#e07c2cfor streak-fire pills — the only saturated accents besides brand mint and link blue. - Default to sentence case (“Start”, “Continue”) with uppercase reserved for tiny eyebrow labels (13px / 700 /
0.08em). - Use blue
#1865f2for the Donate CTA in nav — deliberately not mint to differentiate the nonprofit ask from learning-action verbs. - Use custom flat illustrations rather than stock photography for subject tiles, hero, and encouragement callouts.
- Use warm cream
#fef9e9for “Tip!” / “Did you know?” / encouragement callouts — distinct from mint promo bands. - Provide closed captions on every video lecture in 50+ languages; transcripts side-by-side.
- Use mathematical equations rendered with MathJax + ARIA-described LaTeX for screen readers.
Don’t:
- Don’t use
#14bf96for inline body links — its 2.6:1 contrast on white fails. Use#0a7d63deeper green instead. - Don’t add discount stickers, “X% off” tags, or pricing copy — Khan is free; these patterns would break the brand’s mission.
- Don’t use celebrity-instructor portrait heroes — Khan is community-and-tutor warmth, not auteur-celebrity.
- Don’t use scale transforms on hover — Khan’s elevation grows via shadow, not translation.
- Don’t introduce a serif companion font — single-family Lato carries everything.
- Don’t pair brand mint with multiple saturated secondary colours — yellow energy points and orange streaks are the only saturated accents.
- Don’t tighten display tracking past
-0.02em— the brand is open and friendly, not condensed. - Don’t apply heavy shadows on cards (
> 0.15opacity) — the elevation is whisper-soft. - Don’t introduce a dark theme — Khan is light-only by textbook tradition.
- Don’t use “Buy” / “Subscribe” / “Free trial” verbs — they imply payment which contradicts the brand’s free-for-everyone commitment.
- Don’t make the Donate CTA mint — it must be blue to differentiate from learning verbs.
- Don’t gamify aggressively — energy points and streaks are light touches; Duolingo’s full-game treatment would feel coercive on a learning-mastery brand.
- Don’t render mastery as a single percentage — the 4-stage mastery dot system is the brand’s pedagogical commitment.
15. Agent Prompt Guide
Quick Color Reference
- Canvas:
#ffffff - Warm Off-White:
#f7f8fa - Encouragement Cream:
#fef9e9 - Khan Mint (CTA):
#14bf96 - Inline Link Deep Green:
#0a7d63 - Display Black:
#21242c - Muted:
#5b5e6b - Border:
#d6d8de - Donate Blue:
#1865f2 - Energy Yellow:
#f4cf3e - Streak Orange:
#e07c2c
Example Component Prompts
- “Create a Khan Academy subject tile —
#ffffffbackground,8pxradius,1px solid #d6d8deborder,0 1px 3px rgba(33,36,44,0.06)rest shadow; flat custom illustration top (96px tall, mint and yellow accent colours), 16px gap, 18px / 700 Lato#21242csubject title ‘Math’, 4px gap, 14px / 400#5b5e6bdescription ‘20 courses · From basic arithmetic to advanced calculus’, 16px gap, primary mint pill ‘Start’ CTA. On hover deepen shadow to0 4px 12px rgba(33,36,44,0.10).” - “Design a Khan Academy primary CTA —
9999pxpill radius,#14bf96background, white 16px / 700 ‘Start’ label,12px 24pxpadding,48pxheight, hover bg#0e9a78, no shadow lift.” - “Build a Khan Academy hero —
#ffffffbackground, 56px Lato 900-weight headline ‘For every student, every classroom, real results’ in#21242cwith-0.02emtracking, 18px / 400#5b5e6blead ‘We are a nonprofit that relies on support from people like you’, primary mint pill ‘Get Khan Academy’ + outlined deeper-green secondary ‘Learn more’ inline; flat illustration of diverse learners around a globe right side.” - “Render a Khan Academy 4-stage mastery dot inline — 24px circle, current stage ‘Proficient’ shown as 3/4-filled purple
#9059ffarc on grey track, witharia-label='Solving linear equations — Proficient: 75% complete'.” - “Create a Khan Academy course page — 280px left learning-tree sidebar with collapsible Unit groups (each unit shows 14px / 400 muted ‘12 of 24 skills mastered’ + 4px-tall mint progress bar at 75%); 920px content right with section heading ‘Unit 1: Algebra foundations’ in 24px / 700, then 8 skill cards stacked vertically — each skill card has
8pxradius,1px solid #d6d8deborder,16pxpadding, mastery dot left, 16px / 700 skill title centre, ‘Practice’ or ‘Mastered’ pill right.” - “Build a Khan Academy exercise page — exercise question stated in 18px / 400
#21242cbody type with embedded LaTeX math (rendered with MathJax),56px-tall answer input with2px solid #d6d8deborder below, primary mint ‘Check’ button below input, ‘Get a hint’ tertiary text link beside it, ‘Get help’ link in muted grey at bottom. On correct answer: input border glows#14bf96, confetti emits over 600ms ease-bounce, mint encouragement toast ‘Great job!’ slides in from bottom-left.”
Iteration Guide
- Soften everything. If the design feels corporate, reduce colour saturation, increase line-height to 1.5+, round buttons to pill (
9999px). - Pill the CTAs. Khan’s primary buttons are full pills —
9999pxradius. Anything less reads as Material Design or e-commerce. - Use deeper green for inline links. The brand mint
#14bf96doesn’t pass AAA on white at body sizes. Switch to#0a7d63deeper green for inline text links and outlined buttons. - Add a mastery dot. If a skill list feels generic, add the 4-stage mastery indicator (grey / blue / purple / deep-green) inline. The dot is Khan’s pedagogical signature.
- Custom illustrations, not stock photos. If the page feels corporate, replace photographic imagery with flat custom SVG illustrations (mascot characters, geometric subject icons).
- Single family discipline. If display feels off-brand, drop the secondary font — Lato carries everything. Three weights only: 400, 700, 900.
- Donate is blue. If Donate CTA accidentally went mint, switch to
#1865f2blue — the differentiation from learning verbs is a brand commitment. - Encouraging copy. If error states say “Wrong” or “Incorrect”, switch to “Not quite. Try again — you can do this.” Khan’s voice is the tutor’s voice, not the test’s.
Drop khan-academy into your project, then ship the actual sections in an afternoon.
1 · install design
npx design-md add khan-academy 2 · ship landing page
npx agentkit init --design khan-academy light education
Coursera
University-blue `#0056d2` on warm-white parchment with Source Sans — the canonical onlin…
Docs
Install
Coursera
webdesignhot
light education
Udemy
Signature `#a435f0` purple on white with Sailec sans — the open course-marketplace bazaa…
Docs
Install
Udemy
webdesignhot
dark editorial
MasterClass
Pure-black cinema with custom display serif and editorial reverence — celebrity-instruct…
Docs
Install
MasterClass
webdesignhot