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concept work in the design process.
outh Entrepreneurs had defined their
long-term product goals and we
were in the iterative design process for
Phase II. At this point, we told them that
everything was going to take a hiatus
so that we could focus on concept work.
lacing an emphasis on the future can
be difficult when you’re trying to get
your minimum viable product off the
ground. However, we identified seven
future product goals that would need to tie
in seamlessly with our existing product.
fter a short exploration, we were
able to see how several small
tweaks to our existing designs would
make that integration much easier down
the road. These are the future ideas &
designs that I created for YE Academy.
There are many different product development frameworks in
which concept work can be transformative. It can make the team
excited about the future of the product. It empowers investors
to dream. It helps stakeholders understand why shortcuts are
bad. It can also lead to a world of hurt if it is presented as
a guarantee, a finished design concept, or a sales promise
rather than a business opportunity. I believe that it is
essential to pitch it this way to clients.
Some product development frameworks emphasize short over
long term strategy with the advantage of being positioned to
pivot quickly with new information. This can be lean and
flexible while still being detrimental to the user experience. We
wanted to adopt a philosophy of compromise that adopted the
best pieces of agile and rapid product development while still
considering long term possibilities with the flexibility to adapt
quickly. One example of this was choosing to include long-term
goals when mapping the information architecture. We considered
use cases for those products and features for existing and
future personas. We also planned for the placement of those
components in our short-term wireframes. Another example
was the way we planned for integration with reviews,
gamification components, and incentives.
Design iteration is the methodology of applying the entire
design and development process repeatedly to improve it over
time. I’m a big fan of it conceptually, but I’ve found that small to
medium software companies and startups don’t have time and
resources to redo work. Instead, I prefer rapid testing and
iteration during my design process where a product doesn’t
have to be built to be tested. I believe that concept work should
affect one of those iterations.
We identified seven medium and long
term product goals to explore in the
context of our minimum viable product
for YE Academy. It may be helpful to
reference Phase II to see how they fit
into the overall product. These were
completed in a rapid design sprint with
minimal strategy using napkin sketches
for content, interactions, & behavior.
My Classroom was a new concept that
was tied to a drag-and-drop Class
Builder and a Class Manager. In this
mockup, you can see the list of classes
available as well as ‘subscriptions’ to
pre-built templates based on state laws
determined by geographical location.
Next to it is the class manager with an
ability to reference the lessons in a week,
track progress, and leave notations.
Selecting a lesson or resource would
then open the normal curriculum panel
created in Phase II.
We recommended introducing incentives for engagement throughout the product. These could be tied to classroom progress, content consumption, community engagement, and content mastery with two reward systems. The first was status, displayed as a badge in communicate discussions and reviews. The second was a points system tied to rewards that YE was already giving away to educators.
They had long been aware of the need
for a YE store. Most of the lessons in their
curriculum were based on interactive
activities, many requiring physical items.
YE partnered with donors who believed
in entrepreneurial education to provide
prepaid credit cards to purchase these
items, such a simple masking tape, while
other items had to be directly ordered
from them, such as YE Currency. They
needed to an easy way for teachers to
redeem credits for items that they could
use in the classroom. YE asked for a
concept exploration that allowed for
teachers to earn those points up to a
certain amount rather than giving them
away. This would serve as a powerful
motivator for educators to stay engaged
with new lessons and content every
semester and drive community
discussions and lesson reviews.
This had two stages associated with it. In the first stage, educators were rewarded with YE points and status for passing competency exams with an 80% or higher. These existed for each lesson and were based on content, videos and resources. You can see that on the left. In the second stage, YE could award educators with a certification level that would be integrated into their in-person mentoring program.
The appearance and behavior of lesson
reviews were based on Amazon, but it
also rewarded teachers by giving them
status for upvotes. It also encouraged
to submit unique content to improve
lessons and discuss implementation.
While YE Academy would initially
focusing on new educators, the ‘My
Classroom’ goal would require them to
receive training. We planned on
creating a hand-holding experience to
reduce the barrier to entry.
I already talk about this in Phase II, but
you can open the document beow to
see the architecture and user flow for the
future components of YE Academy. Each
of the previous explorations represent an
item in this document.
I was the principal designer for all of the work shown unless otherwise noted, and I am the author and creator of the case studies within this portfolio. This website exists as a digital resume for the purpose of providing proof of experience in order to gain future potential work. Many of these projects were completed collaboratively in a “creative for hire” agency, freelance contract, or software company with copyright assigned to that entity or client.
I always have language in my creative contracts that I discuss with clients and employers that specifies my ability to display my work publicly. This includes concepts and processes as well as final deliverables, given that all of these are necessary to display my competence as a UX and Product Designer. I follow best practices to the best of my ability to assure that my work for clients is in compliance with copyright, either through open licensing or purchase of stock photography, mockups, icons, and other creative resources. However, I recognize that digital ownership is sometimes disputed on the internet. I do not assume legal liability for work completed in good faith on behalf of corporations and organizations, even if it is displayed here in my Resume. Even so, I take copyright and intellectual property seriously as a professional designer and photographer.
If you have any questions or concerns about something displayed here, please contact me and I will do my best to resolve them as simply and expediently as possible. Thank you!