How do you breathe new life into a flagship product?
The Challenge:
Curriculum Associates’ Product Development Team hired me to redesign Ready Classroom Mathematics, their comprehensive core mathematics program for Grades K–8. The task was twofold:
- refresh the brand
- make the content more accessible through design
My Solution:
First, I reframed the goals of the assignment: make the math accessible, increase engagement, and build teacher and student confidence. Next, I recommended using a gap analysis method to compare the current and desired states of the curriculum. I identified areas for improvement by:
- analyzing the existing program through a comprehensive design audit
- synthesizing user research to identify how math is taught successfully
- utilizing learnings to define how visual representations can be used to make connections
- identifying and developing style rules for the primary modes of math representation
- designing a flexible visual system with directional pointers to guide instruction
Modes of Math Representation
The development of deep understanding of mathematical ideas requires experience in different modes and experience making connections between and within these modes of representation.
Math representations support students’ learning and understanding of mathematical concepts. Using a variety of representations helps students examine a concept through more than one lens.
Creating style rules for each of the five modes facilitated the reorganization of existing content and allowed the math team to choose the best visualization for each math problem.
Learning Path
Ready Classroom Mathematics helps students become strong, independent mathematical thinkers by taking a unique approach, building upon research-based practices that are proven to work.
To give students time to dig deeper into the concepts, lessons span multiple days and are divided into Explore, Develop, and Refine sessions. The Try–Discuss–Connect routine sparks meaningful partner and whole class discussions. Through talking, students are able to better process, synthesize, and retain ideas leading to greater understanding, which helps them become independent learners.
It was my job to convey this flow of information by establishing a functional and extensible design system.
Design System
I designed a collection of repeatable graphic elements that comprised a flexible, maintainable, stable, and scalable system. The design engages learners by highlighting and differentiating instructional elements and establishes a clear, consistent, and intuitive navigation system. These visual building blocks and assets were incorporated into templates that could be put to consistent use across the entire product ecosystem.
