Academia is an edtech startup and an open-access research database used by millions of researchers. The needs of international researchers weren’t being met, and the company sought to grow Premium features to help users access information more effectively.

What I did:

• Conducted user interviews to understand use cases and needs
• Launched A/B tests to identify market opportunities
• Sized market opportunities and measured impact with SQL
• Created marketing collateral
• Led the launch of article translation feature, collaborating with engineering and UI design

Impact:

• 500+ monthly upgrades to Premium driven by the translation feature
• Internationalized experience made the platform accessible to a global audience

IXL is a personalized learning platform used by 1 in 4 students in the U.S. Teachers needed more visibility into student learning gaps to support differentiated instruction. Administrators lacked insight into implementation and usage, which impacted renewals. New teachers needed better onboarding to start using the product effectively.

What I did:

• Observed real classroom use to identify friction points
• Spoke with teachers and admins at education fairs
• Created low-fidelity mockups
• Created user journeys, stories, and personas to guide UX decisions
• Collaborated with 8 engineers, 1 UI designer, and QA to launch IXL’s Analytics for School Leaders — a dashboard suite for tracking school-wide performance
• Designed new features for the Teacher Analytics platform
• Partnered with marketing to launch IXL’s first teacher onboarding campaign

Impact:

• Launched features used by over 9 million students
• Improved internal product workflows and admin visibility
• Supported platform adoption and renewal efforts

With funding through the Mellon Foundation, I created an immersive experience using film and sound in an abandoned WWII bunker in the northern Ozarks. For three months, I followed a group of artist-researchers investigating the site of a WWII bunker at Tyson Field Station in Eureka, MO. Inspired by practices in artistic research, I questioned the site and ongoing human interaction with it through listening and play.

What I did:

• Took field recordings and composed notes on and off-site
• Edited film and audio materials for an installation

Impact:

Created an in-person participatory experience for 15+ people, inviting artistic engagement with the bunker space as a site of ongoing thinking.

The Gaspee VR project is an experimental educational platform that uses immersive video and interactive environments to bring early American history to life. It was developed by an independent study team of student engineers, videographers, and designers at Brown University. The team aimed to make history engaging and accessible through virtual reality storytelling.

What I did:

• Created exploratory sketches and hub design concepts to help users enter and navigate the immersive experience
• Focused on how to structure complex information into an intuitive user flow
• Contributed written documentation for the team, reflecting on process and design intent

Impact:

Helped inform the early UX strategy for navigating VR educational content through accessible and user-friendly design.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses across the country faced unprecedented financial uncertainty. Community Carecard emerged as a grassroots initiative to help these businesses by enabling customers to purchase digital gift cards directly.

What I did:

• Collaborated with a cross-functional volunteer team to define product goals and user flows
• Built low- and high-fidelity mockups to visualize key pages and interactions
• Designed branded UI assets in Sketch to create a cohesive, trustworthy experience
• Helped refine and prioritize core features to move quickly toward MVP launch
• Supported developer handoff with clear specifications and responsive design assets

Impact:

Successfully launched MVP, enabling businesses to receive community support through prepaid gift card purchases during a critical economic moment.