Looped
Institutional Branding
My sister has dealt with severe Dyslexia ever since she was little and my parents have had to constantly make teachers accommodate her legal iep (Individual Education Plan) when she should be should not have to put up a fight every time. One might say that it requires a closed loop of communication between students, teachers, parents, and school faculty to stay active and actually helpful in her education. My app allows for that loop to be established. My brand has event programs and classroom kits to get teachers “in the loop” and use their renewal hours to be certified to better help children with ieps. Though this brand wants to help anyone with a learning disability and their educators, my design uses the Dyslexia awareness color, a bright red, as an homage to my little sister. Besides the stationery, style guide, event graphics, app, and pr box, I am working on a two-minute narrated infomercial ad in After Effects that sets the educational voice of the brand is about. This project has been quite thorough and is still in progress because I am passionate about this issue.
Infomercial In Progress
As said above, I am working on a two-minute infomercial ad that sets the voice and tone of the brand. I aimed it at all three audiences that would use LoopED: students, parents, and educators. Below I have attached the copywriting I completed for this project, co-written by my Dad and narrated by my Mom. It was important that I included them in this project because of how many issues they've experienced with staff at my sister's school. They want change too!
This infomercial was a way for me to get more experience in copyrighting, After Effects, and storytelling. The project timeline was difficult, so I have only been able to complete :45 seconds of it. However, I have completely storyboarded it and gathered all of the audio/music for it. Another step that I would love to take is to add in some FX to create more atmosphere and imply more motion. Below you can see the Youtube channel with its featured video being the infomercial. I filled in the other hypothetical videos as recordings from Breakout Sessions at Educator's Event that I conceptualized.
Infomercial Script:
There’s a lot to learn, isn’t there? I mean, we’ve been gaining knowledge, absorbing information and going to school since we were very young! Many of us know that there are different learning styles - in fact - you may already know HOW you like to learn, whether it be through visuals, audio, touch, or a combination. Although it’s not always that simple.
1 in 5 children in the U.S. have learning and thinking differences. These challenges are caused by variations in how the brain develops and processes information - unrelated to intelligence. More than half (54 percent) of the kids in special education have IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) for learning disorders or other health impairments. That’s over 2.3 million public school students with an IEP! These programs require a full legal process with lots of meetings, tracking, and support to cater to students’ needs.
Take Makena, for example. She has dyslexia. Unfortunately, some teachers have dropped the ball. Last Thursday’s social studies test should have been administered with several accommodations. She should’ve had the ability to ask her special ed teacher reading or writing questions and have unlimited time. Instead, Makena’s parents had to find out from her after school that she didn’t get the support she needed that day. Classrooms have a lot going on. So how can any educator possibly remember what all of their students need, all of the time?
We want to help get everyone on the same page… to stay in the loop… so this doesn’t happen again. The Looped app brings messaging, your class calendars, and IEP documents together to keep you, case workers, students, and their parents all in the loop to make sure that kids like Makena, get what they need at school. Everyday. Of course, as a teacher, your learning journey doesn’t stop here. We invite you to our annual Educator’s Event to learn more about these issues and give you an opportunity to establish connections within your little circle to help those students with IEPs.
Join us. It’s time for you to get in the loop.
The App
This simple wireframe's purpose was to show the main objective behind LoopED: to close the communication loop between all parties involved in a student's IEP. I alluded to the three different interface styles I wanted the app to have: one for educators, students, and parents. With the limited timeline, I only worked on the student interface, which prioritizes functions like viewing grades, using a group chat, and IEP tools. Now, Makena would be able to reference it for reading accommodations on a test or for printed-out notes during a lecture in an efficient way. Notice the details like the speech bubble-shaped contact photos!
