Deborah 2.0
Deborah is an ASL dictionary and learning tool, made for the Mabley Developmental Center. I helped make signs easier to find, and made the whole thing work on a phone.
The problem
Looking up a sign was harder than it should be. The dictionary search didn't match how people actually look for words, and on a phone the site was tough to use. That matters when your users are learning, and many are on mobile.
What I did
My role grew with the project. I started by animating signs, and got certified in ASL along the way. Then I moved into research, design and code.
- 1Animated ASL signs and built the sign dataset.
- 2Looked into how people search for signs.
- 3Redesigned the search with an A–Z sidebar.
- 4Rebuilt the pages so they work well on mobile.
Where it is now
The redesign is built and I've handed the final code to the lab, but it isn't live yet. So for now, I'm sharing it here as a case study.
Looking back
This project taught me to see a feature all the way through, from animating a single sign to writing the code that shows it. Next, I'd love to test the new search with learners once it launches.