World Classroom Web Experience

Learning practical English and increasing international awareness through international cultural exchanges help Japanese students to foster an understanding of multiple cultural and community perspectives. Receiving a grant from a local business association, the goal of this project as a solo designer was to deliver user-centered solutions defined by MVP, whose features include speech to text/text to speech, analytics and video chat with voice assistant technology to build a digital platform from scratch to excel further business impact through user success.

Duration | 9 months (Sep 2020 - May 2021)
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Team | COO, Product manager, CTO, Three full-stack engineers
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Status | Launched

Impact

Business

Drove 56% revenue growth in the first 3 months
Commissioned in 30+ schools within 2 years, impacting 140,000+ users

Teacher User

Reduced burdens on teachers by 100 hours

Student User

Increased confidence of students in practical use of English by 71%
Improved sense of purpose in studying English by 93%

Final Design

Speech to Text to input a Hand-written English Script to the System

Analytics of Auto-graded Student's Performance

Video Chat - AI Voice Assistance

Design System

While finalizing the visual design, I also developed design system that included style guide and component library with design tokens, streamlining the design process and ensuring a visually consistent user interface.

Partial Style Guide - Color

Component Library - Icon

Component Library - Input Field

Reflection

Learning

Design Scoping and Resource Prioritization
Navigating resource allocation was one of the most pivotal challenges in my role as a solo product designer. With limited human, financial, and time resources, I had to make difficult trade-offs—streamlining certain design processes while still aiming to deliver a scalable system that could support the product's evolution beyond my direct involvement. Scoping the product design proved especially difficult, and due to limited exploration bandwidth, some user experience aspects may have been constrained. This highlighted the importance of better prioritization frameworks and investing effort where impact is highest. Moving forward, I aim to improve my approach to early design scoping and exploration to ensure a more holistic, user-centered solution, even under constraints.
Balancing Brand Alignment with Accessibility
Another key challenge was balancing accessibility with brand identity at the component level. While I prioritized brand alignment in response to strong requests from executive stakeholders, I proactively recommended structured user testing and in-depth interface evaluations post-delivery to advance accessibility practices and ensure long-term inclusivity. Leveraging my strengths in systems thinking and strategic prioritization, I’m committed to continuing this work and developing inclusive, brand-aligned designs that scale effectively.

Acknowledgement

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to contribute to a product driven by the mission to generate positive social impact and expand equitable access to learning for younger generations. Collaborating with a team that demonstrated both resilience in navigating ambiguity and a steadfast commitment to user-centered outcomes was truly rewarding. I look forward to applying the skills, insights, and values gained from this experience to future endeavors with the same level of purpose and dedication.