Product Design · Education Platform

Tinybop Schools

Product Design · Platform UX · Design Systems · Education

Tinybop Schools extended our existing apps into a classroom platform for students, teachers, and administrators. The goal was to give educators more ownership over how the apps were used in school, while bringing curriculum support and contextual resources closer to the experience itself.

How do you support students, teachers, and administrators without turning one product into three disconnected systems?

Multi-Audience UX

Designing for different audiences

Students, teachers, and administrators needed very different levels of complexity. Student experiences stayed focused on accessing and exploring the apps, while teacher and administrator tools were denser and more task-oriented. Visual distinctions between the audiences helped orient people without breaking the larger Tinybop system.

Apps Page

Classes Dashboard

Teacher/Educator user management

Teacher Homepage

Learning Experience

Bringing context into the experience

Tinybop already had handbooks and supplemental materials, but much of that support lived outside the apps. Schools brought relevant guidance closer to where it was needed, using contextual information alongside tutorials and app content rather than relying only on separate resources.

Design Systems

Building a shared system

Even though the audiences had different needs, the platform still had to feel like one product. I shaped the visual and interaction system across typography, spacing, hierarchy, controls, inputs, checkout flows, headers, tutorials, and contextual side rails so the experience could flex without feeling fragmented.

Tinybop’s apps are available in 40+ languages, so the Tinybop Schools system was designed to stay flexible across localization, content length, and different classroom contexts.

Visual Direction

Keeping the personality

The administrative parts of the product needed to be compact and functional, while still preserving Tinybop’s personality through color, typography, illustration, and interaction.

outcome

From apps to a classroom platform

Tinybop Schools remained in use for years after launch, including through the height of remote learning, extending Tinybop’s app ecosystem into a more structured classroom experience. Aligned with 38 STEM curriculum topics and built on apps available in 40+ languages and used by more than 12 million kids worldwide, the platform brought Tinybop’s open-ended learning into classrooms at a broader scale.

Timeline

2017

ROLE

Design Lead

platforms

Responsive Web

SCOPE

9 interactive simulations
38 curriculum-aligned STEM topics
40+ languages
12M kids
 

focus

Product strategy
Experience architecture Interaction design
Design systems

Audience

K–5 students, teachers & school administrators

Collaborators

Maayan Eldar, Product
Rose Paisner, Research
Eden Wall, Education
Elias Jarzombek, Engineer
Matt Jacobs, Developer
Raul Gutierrez, Founder & CEO