A powerful AI platform that bridges the gap between educators and students, enabling objective, real-time assessments of writing development.
With Rune, we empower educators and support students by transforming writing assessment from subjective observation to precise, data-driven insight. All while enhancing class engagement and the learning environment.
Our pen design and intuitive UI offer an integrated approach that enhances understanding, fosters student confidence, and promotes academic success.
Rune integrates a smart pen with an intuitive user interface to provide real-time insights into student writing. By combining advanced data tracking with a user-friendly design, Rune allows educators to identify and address student challenges with precision. This solution fosters student confidence, streamlines assessment, and promotes academic success through actionable feedback and engagement tools.
Role
Design Lead
Team
Max Bloom (Project Manager)
Austin Joseph (Physical Designer)
Max Clardie-Hook (Digital Designer)
Skills
UX/UI Design
Brand Identity Design
Human Factors
Industrial Design
Timeline
8 Weeks
Let's jump into it.
Every classroom has students who face unseen challenges. One of the most overlooked yet impactful difficulties is related to writing development. Writing difficulties often go unnoticed or are misunderstood, affecting students confidence, academic performance, and engagement.
At first our team researched ways to ease and relieve writing pain associated with dysgraphia and fine motor regression, but once we stepped back and examined all our insights, we realized a much bigger gap in the education system as it is today.
We heard numerous stories of people experiencing misunderstanding with their teachers. Expressing a student-teacher disconnect across all of our insights. This became a large problem area we felt the need to address.
“I had accommodations very late in my scholarity. Before that teachers considered me as someone who put no effort in writing.”
“No accommodations are yet made for me, my teachers aren't even aware of anything named dysgraphia."
90% of those we reached out to said they received little to no support for their dysgraphia and other writing difficulties.
Traditional educational approaches rely heavily on teacher observation to identify issues. While dedicated, teachers face large class sizes and limited resources, making it difficult to catch nuanced writing issues.
What if we could catch and monitor writing difficulties objectively, instead of relying on teacher observation?
AI-powered detection of writing irregularities and difficulties—integrated into a smart writing device—has the potential to transform how we approach writing development.
Developing a tool that could integrate seamlessly into classrooms required multiple designs, iterations, testing, and refinement. Here’s how we approached the design process, taking feedback and usability to heart.
We started by exploring different form factors to test, with human factors taken into consideration.
Inspired by game-based learning platforms, Rune replaces digital input with a smart pen, allowing students to participate in activities and quizzes by writing on physical paper.
By evolving from low-fi to mid-fi, we aimed to bridge the gap between analog and digital learning, making Rune an intuitive, effective tool for classrooms.
As we tested different physical form factors for Rune, we also refined the digital experience that would integrate seamlessly with the smart pen. Our low-fidelity wireframes focused on structuring core interactions, ensuring intuitive navigation, and defining essential features for teachers and students.
Through iterative feedback, our mid-fidelity designs incorporated visual hierarchy improvements, data visualization refinements, and enhanced usability for large classroom settings. We focused on simplifying teacher workflows, providing actionable insights, and ensuring a smooth transition between physical writing and digital assessment.
We combined quantitative surveys with qualitative interviews to assess usability and gather deeper insights. The Likert scale responses provided measurable data on navigation and design, while open-ended feedback revealed pain points and areas for improvement. This mix helped refine both the interface and user experience.
We tackled an often-overlooked problem—how handwriting struggles impact learning. It took time to refine our approach, leading to a later pivot than ideal. With more time, I’d have expanded the UI system, but despite constraints, we created a solution that makes writing challenges more visible and actionable for educators.