Designing a Reading Analytics Platform for K–12 Students

Principal Product Designer | Stackup (2015–2016)

Context

Stackup was an EdTech Chrome extension and web dashboard that translated students’ online reading into measurable classroom credit. The platform served students, teachers, administrators, and parents, each with different goals and workflows.

I led the end-to-end redesign of the product, spanning research, UX strategy, interface design, prototyping, frontend development, and post-launch iteration. The focus was creating a system that increased engagement for students while remaining simple and reliable for educators.

This work strengthened adoption across classrooms and districts and ultimately contributed to Stackup’s acquisition by GG4L in 2021.

Caption: The platform gained local news coverage and received multiple awards for innovation in education. Shoutout to founder Nick. It was rewarding to watch his vision come to life and reach more than 10 million users worldwide.

The Challenge

The original experience was fragmented across roles.

Teachers struggled with tracking, students lacked motivation, and administrators needed reporting without technical overhead. The product had to be engaging for younger users while still aligning with academic structure and privacy expectations.

Approach

Discover

Heuristic evaluations, educator interviews, and classroom observation revealed workflow friction and incentive gaps.

Define

Aligned stakeholders around MVP scope and success metrics using the Google HEART framework.

Ideate

Collaborative sketching, journey mapping, and story mapping explored gamification, dashboards, and reporting clarity.

Prototype

Annotated wireframes and interactive UXPin prototypes supported rapid validation with teachers and students.

Test

In-class usability sessions and embedded feedback informed refinements to challenge flows, reward timing, and progress tracking.

Implement

Delivered frontend contributions for the marketing site, web app, and Chrome extension while partnering closely with engineering for QA and release cycles.

Artifacts

• Research report and story mapping
• Personas and journey maps
• Wireframes and interactive prototypes
• Reusable UI component library via custom design system
• Classroom usability testing materials
• Post-launch enhancements and validation

Reflection

Designing for K–12 required balancing playfulness with academic credibility. Direct classroom observation provided more actionable insight than surveys alone, and investing early in a reusable component system reduced downstream friction. Tight collaboration with engineering ensured the final product shipped as a coherent system rather than a collection of screens.