Passion Projects
This is a collection of projects that were not a part of my day-to-day work, but that I feel showcase my interests, my creative process, and who I am as a person. You’ll find one UX project that relates to EdTech but was not part of my work with any company; some information about the talk I gave at the STC conference in 2019; a quick summary of a sustainability presentation I gave on Earth Day; some cat photos from a volunteer gig I’ve been doing for a few years; and finally, some travel photography.
Head2Head
In late 2017, I had an idea for an app in the EdTech space that I thought could really fill a need in the market. Gamification and quiz apps were very popular, and I started to think about how useful that model could be for a very particular set of students: those taking AP courses in high schools. These students tend to be very motivated to do well on their exams, so they study hard and are more likely to purchase study aids. My app concept, which I code-named “Head2Head*,” would provide them with a way to study that would be fun, competitive, and interactive.
Each subject would have a set of multiple-choice questions that were relevant to the AP exam. The students could choose to either study on their own, challenge their friends, or challenge a stranger. They would receive more points for answering faster. I played with the idea of earning badges or coins, but never fully fleshed out how it would work. I was focusing on what I thought was the most crucial part of the app: the “cards.”
One thing I remembered vividly from my own studies was having piles of flash cards that I sorted into categories. There were cards I definitely knew, cards I kind of knew, and cards I didn’t know at all. I would often separate those out and then just study one category at once, before reevaluating where each card belonged. I really wanted to find a way to incorporate this into the app somehow. I came up with a system where each question also functioned as a “card” that would be auto-categorized based on how you answered it during gameplay, but that you could also re-categorize yourself. There would be four in-app categories: “got it,” “getting there,” “needs work,” and “too few views.” The last one was mostly a way for the system to categorize cards that hadn’t been answered enough times by the student.
I really struggled with what the interaction would be that could be easy & intuitive on a phone to quickly change the categories. What I ended up with was a swiping interface, where each cardinal direction was one of the four categories. The student could simply swipe the card in a direction and it would be added to the category whose color was on that side. At the bottom, there was a summary section that showed how many cards were in each category. One thing I’m still thinking over is a better way to search for a specific card, or see all the cards at a glance.
The biggest benefit of this card-sorting system is being able to study only one category at once in solo sessions. If you want to only study what you’ve been struggling with, you can do that. You can also just go over the ones you know really well but might want a quick refresher on. A similar feature is the “review incorrect answers in solo session” feature. After a challenge, the student can choose to go directly into a solo session that only shows them the questions they got wrong.
I did take this project to our director of UX at Edmentum in early 2019, and he asked me to consider how it would look if we implemented it in Study Island. Since Study Island is geared mostly towards 3rd-8th graders (though it does cover K-12), he asked me to drop the AP concept and just think of it as a quiz app that could be used in the classroom or as homework. Unfortunately, road map priorities for the company pulled me away from this pretty quickly; however, I did make some progress, which you’ll see in the “space theme” screenshots below.
This app is still something that I think about and work on sporadically, although it comes in bursts and at this point it’s been a little while. I would love to see it become real someday!
*Please note: I am not a marketing professional. The name Head2Head would probably not appeal to high schoolers - it was just what I called it for fun!
The Future of Communicating with Digital Natives
Ever since I worked on Study Island for Home in 2014-2016, I had been interested in designing for younger audiences. We had many discussions on my team at Edmentum around designing for Digital Natives. Then, in late 2018, some colleagues submitted proposals to speak at the Society for Technical Communication conference. They mentioned to me that the conference was looking for more speakers that were coming from a UX perspective, as there were many technical writers that were looking at getting into UX design or writing. I decided to submit a proposal for a talk titled: The Future of Communicating with Digital Natives. I was accepted and gave the talk in May of 2019, in Denver. It was a great experience!
All the Edmentum speakers at STC 2019. Left to right: Sarah Bosak, myself, Patty Viajar, & John Bowie.
I’ve pasted below the description of my talk & the takeaways that was provided in conference programming. You can also view my full slide deck here.
“What will your audience expect in the future of communication? As technology continues to permeate our everyday lives, a new demographic is emerging: the digital native. These people have grown up with information & tools at their fingertips like never before. Drawing on my time as a User Experience designer for K-12 educational products, I will give examples and lessons learned from today’s youth, who will become your primary audience before you know it. How would they liked to be talked to? When would they like information? What format are they looking for? These are some of the questions I will attempt to shed some light on during my session.
Takeaways:
1. What’s different about digital natives & their expectations.
2. Why today’s communication methods aren’t as effective with digital natives.
3. What methods you can use to satisfy the needs of this new demographic.”
Earth Day Lunch & Learn
Since high school, where I was president of the environmental club, I’ve been passionate about sustainability. I try to do what I can in my daily life to leave a positive impact on our environment. I love sharing my knowledge with others and I really enjoyed coordinating Earth Day celebrations at Edmentum as part of the Employee Activity Committee.
For our activities in 2018, I put together a lunch & learn around leading a more planet-friendly life. I quickly touched on tried & true methods like recycling and trying to reduce single-person commuting in cars; I talked about composting and how food doesn’t decompose well in landfills; I touched on the impact that different types of diets can have on your carbon footprint. I also focused on a topic that I care deeply about and continue to struggle with myself: conscious consumerism. Avoiding buying anything that you don’t need, shopping locally instead of from Amazon, buying secondhand whenever you can…these things can be hard when we’re surrounded by marketing.
My biggest takeaway, though, was that it’s not about perfection. I think a lot of people get turned off of the movement when they think they need to go fully zero-waste, become a strict vegan, and never drive a car again. Even things like thrifting part of your wardrobe, practicing meatless Mondays, or consolidating errand trips can add up quickly.
You can view my whole slide deck here. This topic is something I’d be happy to talk to you about at any time!
Cat Photography Volunteering
One Saturday a month, I photograph cats who are currently in foster homes and are looking for their forever homes. The photos are used on the Last Hope website & PetFinder to give the cats a better chance of being found & adopted. I love both cats & photography, so I really look forward to this every month! Here are just a few of my favorites.
Travel Photography
I started playing around with a digital camera and Photoshop in middle school. I’ve really enjoyed it as a hobby ever since then, and even insisted on minoring in Photography in college, no matter how much my parents told me it wouldn’t be useful! I am also incredibly passionate about travel and have been fortunate to visit a lot of wonderful places. Because of this, my photography mainly focuses on my travels. I love shooting wildlife when I can, detailed shots of architecture and culture, and every so often a landscape. My ultimate goal is to combine my love of photography with my love of scuba diving by becoming a skilled underwater photographer.
You can find my full photography portfolio here; below you’ll find a selection of some of my favorite shots. I’d love to tell you the story behind any of these, so feel free to reach out and ask!
