LevelEdTech

Third graders were learning unfamiliar language concepts while also developing mouse and keyboard skills. A mechanic could feel playful and still ask too much of the learner.

I started with teachers and curriculum, then explored how actions such as cutting, revealing, inspecting, and arranging could make prefixes, suffixes, and sentence structure tangible.

I prototyped each interaction separately so we could evaluate its behavior, rather than judge the idea from a static screen. The exploration covered roughly 15 interactions, including word cutting, multiple-choice gaps, reveal tools, vocabulary inspection, letter manipulation, and sentence building.

The important question was not how many mechanics we could invent. It was which ones made the language concept meaningful without distracting from the material.

I worked with teachers and learning, editorial, and pedagogy experts to determine the language of instructions and remediation, how much support to provide, and when it should appear as students moved through the material.

Comparisons between prototypes informed which interaction experiences were suitable for the learning task. This connected the mechanic, instructional language, and timing of support into one experience.

Some learning toys required children to cut something or drag it into place before they could work with the material. We recognized that many children were still developing the dexterity to perform those mouse interactions.

I designed a practice step before the lesson: small games where the required inputs became part of the gameplay. The goal was to make the controls familiar so children could focus their attention on learning and discovery.

Serving hungry cats gave clicking, dragging, and placing a clear purpose. The game used the same kinds of actions the next learning toy would require, with a short game goal to work toward.

Interaction practice became a playable step in the learning journey, connected to the tool the student would use next.

I created a UX harness for exploring motion-controlled AR games and their first-time experiences. The work considered how to introduce unfamiliar controls through tutorials that were easy to follow.

I created a day-in-the-life experience to define and communicate how the platform and product would look, feel, and behave. That work established the UX structure and architecture for a task that was initially broad and unclear.

I made the journey visual and built an HTML prototype to demonstrate its interactions, sequence, and key moments. This gave the work a tangible form that could be reviewed and developed over time.

The platform story evolved into onboarding and user flows connected to the parent portal. Parents could sign up, add their children, view and manage permissions, and see their children’s progress.

I developed the mobile experience through multiple UI passes and iterations, continuing to work with legal and a third-party verification team on the child-safety and company requirements that shaped the journey.

Following approval and several iterations of the mobile direction, I designed the main desktop UX and UI for the parent portal and its onboarding.

The work moved from defining the platform experience to a visual, interactive journey, then into successive interface passes across mobile and desktop.