For my Interactive Qualifying Project at WPI, I traveled to Melbourne, Australia, where my team worked with 100 Story Building, a nonprofit focused on developing creativity in teachers and students. They were in the process of building a digital version of their Story Hubs program, which would give teachers remote access to creative teaching resources, but they did not yet have a clear picture of what that platform needed to do or how it should work.

    My team’s job was to figure that out for them. I conducted interviews with 10 stakeholders, including staff and teachers, to identify what they actually needed from the platform. I then led a competitive analysis of 6 existing teacher resource websites, evaluating each across 5 key features including usability and search functionality, and measuring them against the priorities our stakeholders had named. That research produced a comparative chart of what worked, what did not, and what was missing entirely, which we translated into a concrete, evidence-based set of design recommendations the client could use to build the platform.

    More than anything, the project strengthened my ability to problem solve. Walking into an unclear situation, finding the right questions to ask, and building a structured path to a solution is something I came out of that experience much more confident doing.