I currently lead Product at ParentPowered, where we create easy-to-use tools for great parenting to improve the lives of all children. Previously I developed an English coaching platform for adult immigrants, and helped students and teachers get easy access to online learning at Clever.
In collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula (BGCP) and the Stanford Haas Center for Public Service, my team designed a reflection and observation tool to promote cross-cultural communication and awareness between Stanford students and BGCP youth. As part of a Spanish language course, the two groups of students meet weekly to practice their Spanish, learn about art and Latino culture, and eventually co-create a mural. In previous quarters the class instructors felt that some Stanford students lacked the cultural competency to engage respectfully and empathetically with the BGCP youth, so they were eager for us to design a tool that would help Stanford students build these skills.
We developed a prototype of a survey tool that gives Stanford students the opportunity to reflect on their interactions and observations at the BGCP. In designing the questions and desired outcomes we relied heavily on Tara Yosso’s concept of Community Cultural Wealth, which she defines as the array of knowledge, skills, and abilities possessed by socially marginalized groups but often unacknowledged by the dominant society. Going forward, this framework and design will be used to promote cultural competency across multiple service learning courses at Stanford.
Book Cover Redesign
Redesigned book cover
In my Visual Design Fundamentals course we were tasked with redesigning a book cover. I chose to redesign my favorite Spanish-English dictionary, because I was interested in the visual representation of intersecting languages and cultures.
I used geometric shapes, diagonal lines, and contrasting warm and cool colors to convey a sense of cross-cultural convergence. I also explored additional color palettes to represent other bilingual dictionaries.
I co-created an online toolkit to enable teams to create great products by conducting meaningful research with kids. Over the course of several years we developed a set of best practices for conducting research with kids, and tested prototypes with dozens of researchers, designers, and product managers who work on children’s products.
With the support of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center within Sesame Workshop, we were able to make the resource available to the kids product community. I facilitated a panel session to present our work at the ASU+GSV Conference.
In this op-ed I shared my thoughts on the importance of human-centered design for creating effective edtech products. It was published by EdSurge and featured in their weekly Edsurge Innovate newsletter.
Practica
Westly Prize for Young California Innovators (2018 Finalist)
Practica began as a class project at the d.school, and eventually evolved into my master's project. In partnership with two other students, I created a coaching platform to accelerate English learning for adult immigrants, expanding their access to sustainable employment in the United States. Our work stemmed from the belief that real-world practice and personalized support are essential to building the English competence and confidence necessary for effective workplace communication. We partnered with businesses in the service industry to offer their employees personalized English coaching via mobile messaging.
As our final project for a Human Computer Interaction Design class, my group worked with Avenidas (a senior center in Palo Alto) to create a platform that promotes empathy and relationship-building between young people and older adults. After conducting a series of interviews and observations, we were struck by the seniors' eagerness to tell stories and share personal experiences. We became interested in the power of this storytelling and personal sharing in supporting emotional wellbeing.
We prototyped our early ideas for cross-generational connection by sourcing questions from Stanford students, and distributing printed copies of the questions over lunch at Avenidas. The seniors were eager to respond to students' questions, in some cases writing up to two pages of stories and advice. We scanned their handwritten responses and sent digital copies back to the students. While we received positive feedback on the overall interaction, the prototyping process brought up questions about anonymity and ongoing one-on-one conversations, as well as technical challenges related to handwriting display and recognition.
Based on feedback from our prototyping, we designed a web interface where students can submit questions for local seniors. The questions are then printed out and distributed for seniors to answer, and their handwritten responses are scanned and displayed digitally for young people to read, follow up, and express their gratitude.
