Designing an Intuitive Curriculum Tool for Deeper Teaching
RESPONSIVE DESIGN . PRODUCT DESIGN . RESEARCH
RESPONSIVE DESIGN . PRODUCT DESIGN . RESEARCH
THE CHALLENGE
Our team at Common Sense Media set out to reimagine the Digital Literacy and Well-being Curriculum to better support K–8 educators. While the content was strong, the experience wasn't: teachers weren’t deeply engaging with the curriculum. It felt too long, overwhelming, and hard to navigate—leading to shallow or inconsistent implementation across the school year.
The User Problem: Teachers are time-poor. They found the curriculum "intimidating" and hard to navigate during a 45-minute class period.
The Business Problem: Low engagement with interactive tools (like "Fact or Fiction") because they felt disconnected from the core lesson plans.
MY TEAM
Product Manager, Product Designer (me), Brand Designer, Head of Design, VP of Product, Education Stakeholders, Engineers
MY ROLE
I was the sole product designer on this initiative, leading end-to-end—from early research through to final QA. I worked closely with stakeholders and collaborated with cross-functional partners throughout the process.
TIMELINE
January 2025 -June 2025, Launching in August 2025
Discovery
Competitive Analysis
As part of the discovery phase, I conducted a competitive analysis to understand how other educational platforms structure and deliver curriculum experiences. I focused on content accessibility, lesson sequencing, clarity of implementation, and overall UX. Here's what I found:
What we learned
While these platforms offer strong content and helpful features, most fall short in guiding educators through a clear, manageable path to deep implementation. Many rely on extensive filtering or self-directed discovery, which can overwhelm teachers under time constraints.This gap validated our approach: giving teachers just enough structure—without rigidity—so they feel confident about where to start and what to do next.
User Research
Talking to Prospective users
To better understand the prospective user for the Digital Literacy and Well-being Curriculum (DCR), we created a detailed user persona based on interviews and research with educators. We mapped out their habits, goals, and common classroom routines to identify how they typically plan and teach digital content. We also documented key pain points—like feeling overwhelmed by too much material, uncertainty about where to start, and difficulty integrating lessons into tight schedules. This foundation helped ensure our design decisions directly addressed real user frustrations and aligned with their daily workflows.
Based on our research, it was clear that teachers needed a simpler, more guided way to engage with the curriculum. Our main persona was Persona A: "The Time-Crunched Educator" (Primary)
Needs: Needs to find a 15-minute activity for 6th graders right now.
Pain Point: "I love the content, but I can't read a 10-page PDF while 30 kids are waiting."
Our core challenge became:
How might we redesign a dense, research-heavy digital literacy curriculum into a 'glanceable' mobile-first experience, so that a time-crunched teacher can find, prep, and launch a high-quality lesson in under 120 seconds without losing pedagogical depth?
IDEATION & DESIGN STRATEGY
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
With a clear understanding of our users' needs and pain points, I began the design phase by creating mid-fidelity wireframes to explore how we might simplify the lesson discovery and planning experience. Starting with this level of fidelity allowed us to focus on structure, flow, and hierarchy without getting too caught up in visual details.
I explored several layout options and interaction models—particularly around how to present lesson sequences, grade-level filtering, and resource previews in a way that felt approachable rather than overwhelming. Through a few focused iteration cycles, I collaborated with stakeholders and internal teams to refine the design, balancing content density with clarity and ease of use.After aligning on a direction that prioritized clarity, flexibility, and momentum for the user, we prepared a version of the prototype for usability testing—focusing on whether educators could intuitively find what to teach, in what order, and how to bring it into their classrooms.
Once we had a solid mid-fidelity prototype, I conducted usability testing with a group of educators to evaluate how well the design supported lesson discovery, planning, and implementation. I asked participants to walk through key tasks—like finding a starting point, filtering by grade or topic, and previewing lesson materials—to see where they encountered friction. The feedback was incredibly valuable. Teachers appreciated the simplified layout and the ability to preview resources without downloading, but some still felt unsure about the best order to teach lessons.
Based on this feedback, I made the following experience and interaction design changes:
The Breakthrough: Instead of a list of lessons, I designed a Filtering Engine. Teachers could filter by "Grade," "Topic" (e.g., Cyberbullying), and "Time Available.
Wireframe Focus: I prioritized the "Card UI" for the Fact or Fiction cards, ensuring that on mobile devices, the "Swipe" interaction felt as natural as a social media app to keep students engaged.
Suggested Lesson Sequences:
Introduced a filter to view a recommended lesson order, helping teachers follow a clear path without second-guessing what comes next.
Simplified Grade Selection:
Allowed users to filter one grade at a time, reducing cognitive load and giving focus to what matters most to them.
Flexible Topic Filtering:
Let users filter by one topic or all topics to create their own teaching pathways or focus on priority themes.
Resource Preview:
Designed a carousel to preview slides and materials, so teachers can quickly scan content without downloading anything.
Improved Content Hierarchy:
Applied clear visual hierarchy to support better scanning, reading, and lesson planning.
New ‘Implementation’ Tab:
Created a dedicated space for deep guidance on implementation, helping teachers bridge the gap from content to classroom.
Final Design
I moved to Figma to build a Design System that was accessible (WCAG 2.1 compliant) and vibrant.
Visual Language: Used bold, high-contrast colors to differentiate curriculum topics.
The Impact
Our iterative testing and design refinements led to measurable improvements:
Usability score of 9/10 in testing sessions
Teachers easily identified lesson paths and filtered content with confidence
After launching the new web-based curriculum view, teacher "Resource Saves" increased by 42%.
Takeaways
The DCR project reinforced how nuanced stakeholder alignment can be—and how critical it is to bring end users into the conversation early. While navigating differing opinions is always part of the process, grounding decisions in real user needs helps move the work forward with clarity and purpose. Interestingly, even late-stage design input—when well-timed—can bring a fresh lens that strengthens the final outcome. It reminded me that good design isn’t just about timing, but about staying open, collaborative, and grounded in impact.
This project also reminded me how powerful clarity and structure can be in driving meaningful engagement. Teachers didn’t need more content—they needed better pathways through the content. By focusing on simplicity, flexibility, and guided planning, we turned a once-overwhelming tool into something teachers could truly rely on.