Teaching
As a former high school English teacher, I bring a unique perspective to the field of UX design. While teaching, the students were my “users,” and they experienced the lessons I designed and delivered every day. My main goal was to optimize the user experiences of my students so they were engaged and progressing in their studies. I taught ~175 students per year. My interactions with diverse students, some of whom had disabilities or were non-native English speakers, lead me to emphasize accessibility and consistency in everything I design – from lesson plans and school projects to mobile apps and websites.
My eclectic background has given me many valuable transferrable skills, and I am confident in (and excited about!) my ability to create meaningful and impactful designs that will improve users’ lives.
See below for some of the experiences I designed for students that highlight UX principles particularly well.
Walking in Someone Else's Shoes
Activity based on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
Context
- Class Name: 9th Grade English I
- Class Format: Virtually via Google Meet
- School year: 2020-2021
- Class Demographics: 13-14 year olds, including some students with disabilities.
- Artifact: The Google Jamboard below was a small group activity we did to explore the following quote from To Kill a Mockingbird: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” – Atticus Finch (chapter 3)
UX Considerations
- Students worked together in small groups to create user personas based on an image of a pair of shoes
- Google Jamboard’s interactive nature encourages collaboration and ideation among students
Brave Space
Context
- Class Name: 9th Grade Sheltered English I
- Class Format: Virtually via Google Meet
- School year: 2020-2021
- Class Demographics: 13-14 year olds, all of whom were non-native English speakers. Many had been in the US for less than a year.
- Artifact: The Google Jamboard below was an activity we did on the 1st day of school to establish norms for our virtual classroom environment
UX Considerations
- Multi-lingual
- Images help convey concepts visually
- Google Jamboard’s interactive nature encourages collaboration and ideation among students and teacher
Romeo & Juliet Class Slides
Context
- Class Name: 9th Grade Sheltered English I
- Class Format: Virtually via Google Meet
- School year: 2020-2021
- Class Demographics: 13-14 year olds, all of whom were non-native English speakers. Many had been in the US for less than a year.
- Artifact: The Google Slides below were our ongoing class slides that I used to structure our study of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet
UX Considerations
- Taught an abridged, lower-lexile version of Romeo & Juliet specifically made for the user group (non-native English speakers)
- Images and animations help tell the story and explain literary concepts
- Each character was assigned a clipart cartoon character that remained consistent for the duration of the play
- Large font
- Bolded keywords
If the Google Slides preview below does not load, please click here to access the slides. Be sure to click the “Slideshow” button in the top right corner to view the slides in presentation mode and see the animations.