Our Block

The New Teacher Project
2024
UI, UX, Brand, Product Innovation
Role: Design Lead. Development: Jon Brundage Jr. Project Management: Kevin Hanes. Under the guidance of Partner Christian Marc Schmidt
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CHALLENGEHow can school districts better understand and uplift the assets that already exist in the communities they serve? TNTP, a national nonprofit, approached Schema to help design a platform that would allow community members to share the local people, places, and programs that make their neighborhoods strong, giving schools more context, connection, and insight into the ecosystems around them.

APPROACH
  • Community interviews and workshops with pilot cities.
  • Collaborative feedback sessions with educators and service providers.
  • Rapid prototyping and testing across different user groups.

Our goal was to translate local knowledge into actionable insight—through an experience that felt warm, inclusive, and empowering.

ROLE
  • Overall UX strategy and interaction design.
  • Information architecture for asset contributions and categorization.
  • Design systems that scale across screen sizes and community contexts.
  • Visual language that is both vibrant and respectful, inspired by local bulletin boards, maps, and neighborhood textures

SOLUTIONOur Block is a flexible, digital tool that enables residents to:
  • Share local assets and resources (from barbershops to after-school programs).
  • Add stories, tags, and categories to create meaningful context.
  • Help school districts identify and tap into community strengths they may have missed.

IMPACTBy shifting community engagement from one-off surveys to an ongoing, participatory platform, Our Block redefines how schools interact with the neighborhoods they serve. It fosters visibility, trust, and collaboration while turning community knowledge into a powerful planning resource.