i-Ready Vocabulary
Role: Senior Interactive Designer @ Curriculum Associates
Team: 30+ cross-functional partners across product, engineering, and academic advisors
Timeline: October 2021 – July 2022
i-Ready is a leading educational software that serves 12 million+ K-8 students in the US. Our Reading team had the opportunity to create new Vocabulary lessons for middle schoolers, grounded in the Science of Reading. I led the planning and execution of the design strategy at every stage, and a team of 2 other designers.
objectives
We receive feedback from students and educators constantly, and took this opportunity to respond by:
Integrating best reading pedagogy
Increasing pass rates and student engagement
Reducing time spent in lessons
Providing accessible experiences for all students
impact
Our team delivered new Vocabulary lessons that provide a holistic approach to the pedagogical, usability, and engagement factors that we aimed to solve for. Data from 2022-2023 school year, as of October 2023:
29% increase in average passing scores, from 72.9 → 93.8
66% decrease in average time-on task, from 33.8 minutes → 11.1 minutes, resulting in delivering more lessons efficiently and effectively
a11y-friendly by WCAG 2.0 AA standards, including compliant color/text contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support
From students:
“They were good. They weren't boring... I liked them, they're better than my i-Ready lessons now." –Grade 8 Student
“Easy to understand…Like I would enjoy actually using that for school.” –Grade 7 Student
"It was good, easy to use, not like a test… It didn’t feel like a test. With the colors and everything, it made it seem less like a big deal." –Grade 8 Student
the design system
“They seemed really well-designed… I could understand how in other software someone could get confused about it, but this one was very un-confusing. Like I knew what to do right away." – Grade 7 Student
iteration and implementation
Previously, our products were custom-designed per screen causing process inefficiencies and high cost. I created a flexible component-based system that:
Allowed design + engineering to work iteratively side-by-side, saving time and version control.
Gave content writers the choice to mix-and-match interactive components and color themes presented to the student.
integration of a11y practices
Every decision made for color, font size, or interaction was held with accessibility in mind. I kept running documents of keyboard navigation flows, and color contrast reports in a fully integrated design approach as we progressed through the project. This documentation gave Product, Engineering, and QA full transparency into our accessibility compliance.
moments of delight
Along with varying color themes and interactive components across activities, I led the direction to infuse some game mechanics, animated accolades, and custom sound effects throughout the product.
“Most websites would be boring/bland and feel like a test, but this one feels more like a game and colors keep you engaged because they're bright" – Grade 8 Student
While we wanted to deliver something fresh, we couldn’t completely diverge from our “family” of products and UI language that students are already familiar with. After moodboarding a variety of visual themes and auditing key trends in our existing UI, we met somewhere in the middle, while also considering the feedback we received from students. This also allowed us to reuse some existing components in our system, so engineers didn’t have to reinvent the wheel.
These lessons combined ultimately form our “bundle” – the mighty pairing of Vocabulary + Reading Comprehension for reader success.
Role: Senior Interactive Designer @ Curriculum Associates
Team: 30+ cross-functional partners across product, engineering, and academic advisors
Timeline: October 2021 – July 2022
i-Ready is a leading educational software that serves 12 million+ K-8 students in the US. Our Reading team had the opportunity to create new Vocabulary lessons for middle schoolers, grounded in the Science of Reading. I led the planning and execution of the design strategy at every stage, and a team of 2 other designers.
objectives
We receive feedback from students and educators constantly, and took this opportunity to respond by:
Integrating best reading pedagogy
Increasing pass rates and student engagement
Reducing time spent in lessons
Providing accessible experiences for all students
impact
Our team delivered new Vocabulary lessons that provide a holistic approach to the pedagogical, usability, and engagement factors that we aimed to solve for. Data from 2022-2023 school year, as of October 2023:
29% increase in average passing scores, from 72.9 → 93.8
66% decrease in average time-on task, from 33.8 minutes → 11.1 minutes, resulting in delivering more lessons efficiently and effectively
a11y-friendly by WCAG 2.0 AA standards, including compliant color/text contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support
From students:
“They were good. They weren't boring... I liked them, they're better than my i-Ready lessons now." –Grade 8 Student
“Easy to understand…Like I would enjoy actually using that for school.” –Grade 7 Student
"It was good, easy to use, not like a test… It didn’t feel like a test. With the colors and everything, it made it seem less like a big deal." –Grade 8 Student
the design system
“They seemed really well-designed… I could understand how in other software someone could get confused about it, but this one was very un-confusing. Like I knew what to do right away." – Grade 7 Student
iteration and implementation
Previously, our products were custom-designed per screen causing process inefficiencies and high cost. I created a flexible component-based system that:
Allowed design + engineering to work iteratively side-by-side, saving time and version control.
Gave content writers the choice to mix-and-match interactive components and color themes presented to the student.
integration of a11y practices
Every decision made for color, font size, or interaction was held with accessibility in mind. I kept running documents of keyboard navigation flows, and color contrast reports in a fully integrated design approach as we progressed through the project. This documentation gave Product, Engineering, and QA full transparency into our accessibility compliance.
moments of delight
Along with varying color themes and interactive components across activities, I led the direction to infuse some game mechanics, animated accolades, and custom sound effects throughout the product.
“Most websites would be boring/bland and feel like a test, but this one feels more like a game and colors keep you engaged because they're bright" – Grade 8 Student
While we wanted to deliver something fresh, we couldn’t completely diverge from our “family” of products and UI language that students are already familiar with. After moodboarding a variety of visual themes and auditing key trends in our existing UI, we met somewhere in the middle, while also considering the feedback we received from students. This also allowed us to reuse some existing components in our system, so engineers didn’t have to reinvent the wheel.
These lessons combined ultimately form our “bundle” – the mighty pairing of Vocabulary + Reading Comprehension for reader success.
Role: Senior Interactive Designer @ Curriculum Associates
Team: 30+ cross-functional partners across product, engineering, and academic advisors
Timeline: October 2021 – July 2022
i-Ready is a leading educational software that serves 12 million+ K-8 students in the US. Our Reading team had the opportunity to create new Vocabulary lessons for middle schoolers, grounded in the Science of Reading. I led the planning and execution of the design strategy at every stage, and a team of 2 other designers.
objectives
We receive feedback from students and educators constantly, and took this opportunity to respond by:
Integrating best reading pedagogy
Increasing pass rates and student engagement
Reducing time spent in lessons
Providing accessible experiences for all students
impact
Our team delivered new Vocabulary lessons that provide a holistic approach to the pedagogical, usability, and engagement factors that we aimed to solve for. Data from 2022-2023 school year, as of October 2023:
29% increase in average passing scores, from 72.9 → 93.8
66% decrease in average time-on task, from 33.8 minutes → 11.1 minutes, resulting in delivering more lessons efficiently and effectively
a11y-friendly by WCAG 2.0 AA standards, including compliant color/text contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support
From students:
“They were good. They weren't boring... I liked them, they're better than my i-Ready lessons now." –Grade 8 Student
“Easy to understand…Like I would enjoy actually using that for school.” –Grade 7 Student
"It was good, easy to use, not like a test… It didn’t feel like a test. With the colors and everything, it made it seem less like a big deal." –Grade 8 Student
the design system
“They seemed really well-designed… I could understand how in other software someone could get confused about it, but this one was very un-confusing. Like I knew what to do right away." – Grade 7 Student
iteration and implementation
Previously, our products were custom-designed per screen causing process inefficiencies and high cost. I created a flexible component-based system that:
Allowed design + engineering to work iteratively side-by-side, saving time and version control.
Gave content writers the choice to mix-and-match interactive components and color themes presented to the student.
integration of a11y practices
Every decision made for color, font size, or interaction was held with accessibility in mind. I kept running documents of keyboard navigation flows, and color contrast reports in a fully integrated design approach as we progressed through the project. This documentation gave Product, Engineering, and QA full transparency into our accessibility compliance.
moments of delight
Along with varying color themes and interactive components across activities, I led the direction to infuse some game mechanics, animated accolades, and custom sound effects throughout the product.
“Most websites would be boring/bland and feel like a test, but this one feels more like a game and colors keep you engaged because they're bright" – Grade 8 Student
While we wanted to deliver something fresh, we couldn’t completely diverge from our “family” of products and UI language that students are already familiar with. After moodboarding a variety of visual themes and auditing key trends in our existing UI, we met somewhere in the middle, while also considering the feedback we received from students. This also allowed us to reuse some existing components in our system, so engineers didn’t have to reinvent the wheel.
These lessons combined ultimately form our “bundle” – the mighty pairing of Vocabulary + Reading Comprehension for reader success.