Math Mapper is a complex and continually evolving software that requires devoted coordination with developers, psychometricians, project management, and learning sciences. There are days when "the cart is before the horse" and others where design time is ample. I enjoy these types of development teams where the challenges are ever-changing and the achievement bar is never a simple "this will do". I had a daily obligation to ensure the development team had plenty of work while at the same time looking for efficiency gains and visual improvements to the interface and user flows.

Many times I would assist the Learning Sciences Team with field research. These trips involved travel to local middle schools to observe how teachers presented Math Mapper and how the kids are using it. If time allowed, we interviewed the children who completed their coursework and asked them to walk us through the assessments. These assessments provide the students with a 'theta score' based on their responses to problems. I really enjoyed these sessions since they provided first-hand accounts and interpretations of the software. Sometimes their interpretations matched what was intended and other times we miss the mark. These were great opportunities for improving student's comprehension by analyzing feedback, reorganizing content flow and/or designs.