This week, I took a big fat L, meaning I lost. That sentence basically sums up my experience during Week 4 of developing Classroom & Beyond.
This week I focused moving beyond the initial designs and focusing on how the toolkit would actually function for educators. I continued working in Canva, completing the first design pass for my first set of slides and developing nine layouts for my second collection, project & assignment slides. These included project overviews, objectives, timelines, progress trackers, rubrics, and reflection slides.
One thing I was happy about was how consistent everything started to look. Using the same typography, spacing, and sage, white, and blue color palette helped the two collections feel like parts of one product rather than separate designs.
However, my biggest challenge wasn’t necessarily the design process. It was finding the time to actually finish everything. Between teaching, planning lessons, and other school responsibilities, I quickly realized that imagining layouts was much easier than sitting down and building them all.
Another important part of this week was gathering feedback. I shared my designs with two of my teacher freinds, and their responses helped me look at the toolkit from a different perspective. While they appreciated the clean look and consistency, they also suggested leaving more room for longer instructions and providing a guide for customizing the templates.
I started thinking about what happens after someone downloads the product. Would they know where to begin? Would the templates be easy to edit? A well-designed product isn’t very helpful if users struggle to access or customize it.
So I decided to prioritize more flexible layouts and a simple getting started guide. I also needed to be more intentional about managing my development time rather than trying to complete everything at once.
By the end of Week 4, I estimated that the toolkit was about 35% complete. There was still plenty left to do, but I was beginning to understand that developing a digital product involves more than making something visually appealing.
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