Geni
Educational App 2025
In early 2025 I joined a team of developers who were working on an AI powered educational app. The goal was to create personalized assignments easily for a class of students adhering to curriculum while offering detailed insights on growth and success.
Mascot
Sketch Process
One of the first conversations I had with my team was about a chat feature where you could get guided help and ask questions without giving away answers. They had no clear idea about a mascot, but did want something that could be fun and engaging to interact with. I suggested a star for the base of the design as that has become the symbol of AI. I wanted it to still be different and stand out and tried out a variety of star shapes, colors and playful expressions.
Final Design
This 7-point star design stood out as a unique icon shape that also translated well to animated character movement. I wanted to call him Starby, but final decisions were never made.
Dashboard
When designing the dashboard there were a lot of considerations I had to keep in mind. Both teachers/parents and students need access to get to assignments, but they have different options (either to send out assignments, or receive and complete). They could mostly have the same design, but with different options when assignments are selected. Generative reports would also display differently depending on what goals you are interested in.
The Chat was also a main feature of the menu bar, which pops out when you click on it and the star jumps into the spot. He has idle animations, thinking and talking, as well as cheering you on if you're answering questions and get something correct.
Type & Accessibility
When choosing a font for the Geni app, I considered the target market being students in schools that are required to accomodate all learners. I pushed for us to adopt Lexend which is dyslexic friendly and helps faster and easier comprehension with unique letter forms. It is honestly a little wonky, with some letters have serif (and most not), but it is easier to differentiate a lowercase l from an uppercase I and number 1.
*Notice that the font Arial on my website doesn't even do this well.
Geni Website
Separate from the App, I created a website layout focused on attracting parent users for use in home, this version contains placeholder images/text.
Goals
• Easy Sign Up/Login for repeat users coming to the site and new users who may be directed by their school or a parent.
• Build trust through community/school endorsements and user testimonials.
• Generate excitement, cute and fun illustrations plus reasons that a parent might be interested.
• CTA for new users to sign up for free to try it out.
• Link to other pages that will build more trust if they are still unsure, About and FAQ can answer more questions about the team and the product.
Lessons Learned
In the spring of 2025 I was able to attend IDEAcon with my team, sharing Geni with others in the Digital Illinois Educators Alliance. We were able to test it with a few schools, but unfortunately funding came to an end before completing a full version to release.
