The aim of the project is to design and test a portable and affordable digital microscope for school students which connects to screen-based devices. It is focused on being an easy-to-operate device and is economical to be a personal device for learning. It would provide an opportunity for students to look at what the naked eye can not see and hone their curiosity. As a mandatory device provided by the institute for academics, it would aid them and also could be gifted to those who don’t have a microscope in their curriculum yet. Various concepts of operation, slide (onion peel cell) and non-slide (e.g., butterfly) sample insertion, navigation, zoom and focus controls were compared. Playfulness of the device is a key focus, and an important feature which has been introduced is invertibility. This has benefits when a live sample needs to be viewed in a petri dish. The camera lens, instead of being above the sample, is below it, and the tissues, cells, etc., deposit at the bottom and are clearer to view. The device can be simply inverted and kept to be used like this. This has major applications in higher studies in biological sciences. User feedback based on the prototypes aided in improving the design further. A minimal instruction sheet on how to operate, understand scale marking of samples viewed and preparation of slides is designed to create an easier experience.