October 13, 2021

Digital Project Manager

We're hiring! Backpack Interactive is a small but mighty strategy, UX/UI and edTech design studio. We are committed to serving our educational and non-profit partners with products and interactive experiences that support educators and learners where they are. We look to hire the very best problem solvers we can find to join our award-winning team. You’ll be responsible for managing 3-5 projects (depending on duration & complexity) across the product/development cycle. You’ll work collaboratively with the Backpack team, developers, and partners to make sure products meet their user experience and educational goals, while also delivering on time and within budget.…

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October 11, 2021

15 Ways Universal Design Improves User Experience for All Students

This fall, most schools are back to in-person learning. But the rise of the Delta variant means virtual or hybrid learning isn't out of the picture yet. Parents and educators are also searching for edTech products that will help close instructional gaps from the past year. For parents and teachers of students with special needs, identifying software driven by a universal design user experience is even more urgent. When you ensure that your learning products are not just inclusive but accommodating to students with special needs, you improve overall usability. edTech products that adopt a universal design user interface help…

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October 5, 2021

UX/ UI Designer

We're hiring! Backpack Interactive is a small but mighty edTech strategy, UX, and UI design studio. We are committed to serving our educational and non-profit partners with products and interactive experiences that support teachers and students where they are. We look to hire the very best design thinkers and problem solvers we can find to join our award-winning team. You will be responsible for creating smart UX and then turning that into beautiful, production-ready UI designs. You’ll work collaboratively with the Backpack and development teams to make sure products and experiences meet user experience and educational goals while pushing design…

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September 28, 2021

Working with a Authors as edTech Product Stakeholders

Creating a new edTech product based on original print material from an author or publisher is a complex undertaking. You might be tempted to dive into the design process without bringing your author along, or wait until the very end to ask for their feedback. But don't take the risk. Whether you're an edTech design company or an in-house team at an educational publisher, you'll get the best results when you enlist your print authors as co-designers and product stakeholders.  After all, their material has already been vetted and sequenced in a print curriculum. Its success in that market is…

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September 10, 2021

What Your Development Team Needs to Know to Convert Print Content into an edTech Tool

Transforming a print product into an edTech tool is a big undertaking. To make it all happen, you'll likely need lots of new people on your team. This includes developers who can help you identify exciting new technology opportunities, as well as a UX team who understands the changing needs of teachers and students. Because of the pandemic, teachers and students have become more sophisticated users of technology. Meanwhile, consumers are on the hunt for learning products that offer the students in their family something more than a print book or workbook.  This means product owners have an incredible opportunity…

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September 1, 2021

Shifts in EdTech: What This Top-Level Hiring Trend Means for You

Tech-focused edTech startups are ramping up their hiring, especially for roles at the intersection of UX, product, and technology.  Over the past month, new chief product officer positions have popped up at: GoCoach, a professional development and education platform DreamBox Learning, a math software company Sketchy, an illustrated learning platform for medical and pharmaceutical students What does this shift in edTech hiring mean for you and your company? And how can you get ahead of the curve through UX edTech research and product planning? We break it all down for you below. Why Smart edTech Start-Ups Are Investing in UX …

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August 11, 2021

5 of the Latest edTech Trends You Need to Know

The education landscape for Fall 2021 keeps shifting, and edTech trends will shape how teachers and students work in new hybrid classrooms. From immersive learning to subscription-based content, we're seeing edTech products that address increased needs for flexibility. Even as changing edTech trends respond to the pandemic, we still believe that the best classroom technology amplifies a teacher's ability to help their students learn. To design better tools for the new demands facing teachers, edTech product owners can springboard off the cutting-edge thinking that happened in virtual classrooms all across the country in 2020. No matter what kind of product…

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July 28, 2021

UX in Education: Why UX Designers are the Learning Engineers of the Future

When it comes to designing UX in education, a generalist approach to product design and user experience simply doesn't cut it. Learning products have very different requirements than consumer tech. They're used by teachers and students in school environments to achieve high-stakes outcomes.  That's why it's even more important to base the UX of learning tools on research that reflects how students learn most effectively. By specializing in learning science, product design, and user research, UX designers in education are poised to become the learning engineers of the future. What Makes UX in Education Different A great UX designer in…

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July 27, 2021

What Shifting Back to In-Person Learning Means for EdTech

Fall 2021 is still up in the air as school districts around the country consider whether to permanently end remote learning.  In May, New York City announced that remote learning will no longer be an option for its students in the fall. In 2020, about 600,000 of its 1,000,000 students chose to learn from home.  Meanwhile, more than half of San Francisco's public school students are still learning remotely. Hybrid classrooms are expected to continue in the new school year. What does the shift to in-person mean for the edTech industry? And how should you address it in your own product…

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July 9, 2021

A Guide to Turning Your Successful Print Product into a Digital Learning Tool

Your company has a successful print product on its hands, and you're on the hunt for ways to turn that curriculum into a digital tool.  On the surface, this seems like good business sense. You know how popular digital tools are with your users; plus, there are no shipping or warehousing costs when you move into edTech. A win-win! But if you're used to dealing with print publications—or you've only ever built content platforms—you may be unsure of what to do next.  Below, we outline what it takes to build a brand new edTech product based on content that's been…

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July 1, 2021

Why Users Struggle in Your edTech Product

Users experience challenges in edTech products for all sorts of reasons. Everything from overly complex navigation patterns to visual noise can distract from your learning content and prevent users from getting the most out of your tool.  Has your customer service team noticed a pile-up of user feedback on the same feature? Or are your sales dwindling unexpectedly? If so, it's time to get to the bottom of things with user experience research. By using tools from the UX research process, you'll be able to pinpoint specific areas of frustration and develop better solutions. This could mean conducting a full…

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