Perusall Redesign
Project
UX Case Study | Value Sensitive Design | Product Redesign
Role
UX Designer & Researcher | Conducted stakeholder analysis (students + professors)| Designed and iterated mid-fidelity prototypes | Led user feedback sessions and synthesis | Applied Value Sensitive Design (VSD) principles throughout
When
June – July 2026
Credits
Project by Brooke Bender
Course: GBDA 306 – Ethics and Values in Design
Instructor: Carolyn Eckert
Peer collaboration and feedback supported through course workshops
The proJECT
Perusall is an online reading platform widely used in university courses to encourage engagement through collaborative annotation and graded participation. While it aims to make reading more interactive, its reliance on algorithmic grading and activity tracking often shifts the focus from learning to performance.This project explores how Perusall can be redesigned to better align with stakeholder values. Students value autonomy and authentic learning, while professors prioritize efficiency and insight into student understanding.Through a Value Sensitive Design approach, I identified a key tension: Student autonomy vs. system-driven engagement tracking.My redesign challenges the assumption that more tracking equals better learning. Instead, it reframes engagement as something self-directed and reflective.
