Math

Helping students become independent mathematical thinkers.
Rethinking the visual presentation of scientifically-proven math curriculum.
Developing software that gets young students excited about learning math.
Blending instruction and technology to help students become stronger and more confident with math.
Helping students at all levels of mathematical proficiency catch up and keep up.

Literacy

Helping all students read at or beyond developmental expectations.
Comprehensive support and engaging strategies to enhance foundational early literacy skills.
Developing language acquisition skills through commonly-used idioms and expressions.
Helping students become more proficient readers through differentiated small–group instruction.
Teaching students to recognize and identify elements of music.
Nurturing a lifelong love of reading.
Using data to individualize and differentiate reading instruction.

History

250 inspirational stories of African American achievement preserved for generations to come.
Exploring the role of music in America’s cultural heritage.
Teaching the culture and traditions of Texas in Benchmark Education's Spot On Social Studies series.
Working to make classrooms—and the world—unsafe for bigotry and intolerance.
Using the “People’s Document” to inspire and empower students to participate in civic life—and VOTE!

Health

Improving the employee healthcare experience while decreasing costs for employers.
Bringing new solutions and medications to patients in need.
Creating quality oral healthcare products — since 1873.
Using data, technology and creativity to build brands.
Introducing a cure for yeast infections that’s easier to swallow.
Teaching Florida students about the dangers of tobacco use.
Looney Tunes characters help families pick more nutritious food for their children.
Developing a visual identity system for a premium tea brand.

User Experience

Upgrading the user experience of rural broadband consumers.
Improving an online authoring tool used to create customized marketing materials.
Using the Japanese origins of Agile methodology to empower employees.
Expanding career pathways for students from historically underrepresented communities.
Teaching the basics of creating user-friendly interfaces.
Learning how and why to design for people with less than perfect vision.
An accessible, effective framework for reading instruction.

STEM Careers

Teaching the data science skills that employers value most.
Building intensive digital learning experiences using the Canvas LMS platform.
Preparing students for financial technology careers.
Learning how to protect systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks.
Teaching students to define the why, when, and what of product development.
Learning software development life cycle methodologies.
Making STEM-related careers accessible and engaging for students.

Finance

Delivering real-time financial market coverage and analysis.
Delivering tactical and strategic portfolio guidance and goals-based advice.
Teaching financial literacy to college-bound students through a scholarship contest.
The Pet Card could be Chase's most popular credit card.

How do you breathe new life into a flagship product?

The Challenge:

Curriculum Associates’ Product Development Team hired me to redesign Ready Classroom Mathematics, their comprehensive core mathematics program for Grades K–8. The task was twofold:

  • refresh the brand
  • make the content more accessible through design

My Solution:

First, I reframed the goals as making the math accessible, increasing engagement, and building teacher and student confidence. Next, I recommended and implemented this process:

  • analyze the existing program by conducting a comprehensive design audit 
  • synthesize user research to identify how math is taught successfully
  • utilize learnings to define how visual representations can be used to make connections
  • identify and develop style rules for the primary modes of math representation
  • design a flexible visual system with directional pointers to guide instruction
Focus AreasMath RepresentationLearning PathDesign SystemGrade 6 LessonGrade 7 LessonGrade 8 Lesson

Focus Areas

Math Focus Areas

Math Representation

Five Modes

The development of deep understanding of mathematical ideas requires experience in different modes and experience making connections between and within these modes of representation.

Math representations support students’ learning and understanding of mathematical concepts. Using a variety of representations helps students examine a concept through more than one lens.

Creating style rules for each of the five modes facilitated the reorganization of existing content and allowed the math team to choose the best visualization for each math problem.

Five Modes of Math Representation

Learning Path

Ready Classroom Mathematics helps students become strong, independent mathematical thinkers by taking a unique approach, building upon research-based practices that are proven to work.

To give students time to dig deeper into the concepts, lessons span multiple days and are divided into Explore, Develop, and Refine sessions. 

The Try–Discuss–Connect routine sparks meaningful partner and whole class discussions. Through talking, students are able to better process, synthesize, and retain ideas leading to greater understanding, which helps them become independent learners.

It was my job to convey this flow of information by establishing a functional and beautiful design system.

Curriculum Associates Learning Path: Instructional Routine

Design System

I designed a collection of repeatable graphic elements that comprised a flexible, maintainable, stable, and scalable system. The design engages learners by highlighting and differentiating instructional elements and establishes a clear, consistent, and intuitive navigation system.

These visual building blocks and assets were incorporated into templates that could be put to consistent use across the entire product ecosystem.

Design System

Grade 6 Lesson

Grade 7 Lesson

Grade 8 Lesson