I worked with the PBS KIDS Digital team to overhaul the existing PBS KIDS Super Vision™ app to better communicate the real learning power of games to parents.
PBS KIDS Super Vision gives parents a real-time feed of what their kids are playing and learning across several PBS KIDS experiences.
Connections to PBSKIDS.org and the PBS KIDS Measure Up! app are currently supported.
Some games and apps support a deeper level of integration with PBS KIDS Super Vision. This allows parents to track the skills in which their kids excel, and the skills where they may need more practice.
The Super Vision dashboard gives users access to features outside of the core activity feed experience. The Play Timer is a very popular feature that can display a message on a kid's device and put it to sleep, all remotely. The app has quite a robust help section and even provides TV times, localized to your PBS station.
The app was tested with parents on paper (for language, tone, and data comprehension) and in interactive form (for broader navigational concepts and user preferences). This testing was crucial for the app’s direction and our perceptions of who our users really are.
Nomadic.fm is a digital learning company focused on preparing people to build, manage and lead businesses. They consult with academic and enterprise clients to build customized Field Manuals for students and deliver them through their platform.
I worked with the Nomadic team to improve the learning experience on the platform by giving students better tools and shifting focus towards the social elements of learning.
The original platform laid a good foundation but didn’t feel like a coherent digital learning space.
Early in the design process we experimented with multiple approaches to each feature and reworked how they all fit together.
The first major improvement was a clear library of content. Field Manuals began to feel like independent elements, each with their own title, cover image, and level of completion.
While each field manual is self-contained, its elements are accessible in different ways throughout the platform. For example, text and video can be favorited for quick reference at a later date.
Each Field Manual contains its own debate section but the conversation hub collects them all into one central location. It also allows users to start new conversations, outside of those set up by program administrators, so they can discuss the content on their own terms.
Notifications help to bring users back to the platform, keeping them engaged with the discussions they’ve participated in.
All of the activity happening in and around field manuals contributes to a leaderbaord. This highlights the competitive aspects of learning in a group of your peers.
I also contributed heavily to the front-end development of the new platform. One of Nomadic's goals is to enable learning anywhere, so we engineered the platform to be just as responsive as the learning materials it houses.
I worked closely with Jun Ho at Nomadic all the way through implementation, making adjustments as we went. Some of the front-end work was also completed with the help of the team at Back Forty.
The Nomadic platform is continually being improved and rolled out to new institutions and organizations around the globe. Below is a short list of other improvements we’ve made to the platform over time.
Welcome page for students and administrators
Analytics on learning and engagement for teachers and administrators
Teaching notes for content and quizzes used in classroom review
Dedicated resource management feature for uploaded documents
I worked with Austin from EducatorsHandbook.com to modernize and enhance the well-loved Incidents app. With an existing customer base of school districts, the behavior management tool needed to feel familiar, even with a host of new features.
Incidents is built around making the student behavior management process easier. Many schools rely on paper records and manual workflows. Incidents speeds this up considerably, scaling management and analysis to whole districts.
A student’s entire history is accessible on demand, limiting excess consequences that would interfere with school. A teacher or administrator can see an overview as well as a full log of prior incidents to add context to the event at hand.
The power of Incidents comes from the high level analysis of when and where incidents are occurring. Administrators can diagnose problem areas by location, time of day, subject and more.
Powerful filters give administrators the ability to focus on long-term trends or particular types of incidents.
To fit in seamlessly with the dynamic school environment, Incidents is fully responsive, providing a world-class user experience on every device.
The new Incidents app from EducatorsHandbook.com has been rolled out to districts across the country, garnering priase from current and new users. The app is under active development and continues to adjust to customer feedback.