Khanversations — Irene and Jeff
A conversation about chance design encounters, selling things online, and re-learning to draw from two designers at Khan Academy.
Tell us a little about your role at Khan Academy
Jeff: Hi! I’m Jeff. I’m a senior product designer at Khan Academy, and I’m on the Learning Platform team. I mostly work with the different parts of Khan Academy that are learner facing. Most recently, I’ve been working on a project we undertook with IDEO to help prepare students and teachers for semi-remote learning in the months ahead. I’ve also been working on the design system that we use in our mobile apps.
Irene: Hello! I’m Irene. I’m a designer on the MPP (Marketing, Philanthropy and Product) team, essentially the brand design team! I work on projects to maintain and develop our brand and visual language. Most recently, I updated the illustrations for our website’s various error pages. The challenge was to create on-brand imagery that brings joy to our users, even when they land on an error page.
How did you get into design?
Jeff: Growing up I was always messing around on my family’s old Mac, mostly making comic strips in a program called Kidpix and eventually experimenting with making websites and things. Over time that turned into Photoshop and Illustrator, and the rest just kind of happened from there! A big turning point for me in terms of design being a career path was when I started making show posters and flyers for friends in high school. That pushed me to start thinking of it as something I could really see myself dedicating my life to pursuing.
Irene: Similar to you Jeff, as a kid I was always into drawing and making things with my hands. However I was never fully aware that design was a “thing” until I was actually in it. Per my parents’ recommendation, I actually started off as a physics major in college. (I know, insane right?) I remember one day during my junior year, I was at a coffee shop near campus watching SoulPancake YouTube videos instead of doing my physics assignment. Well, the producer for SoulPancake happened to be at the same coffee shop — they caught me watching these videos and struck a conversation with me! We exchanged contact info and I ended up landing my first graphic design internship… and the rest was history!
What’s something you both have in common?
Jeff: We’ve discovered a few things we have in common! We both have an interest in selling used things on digital marketplaces. I like selling musical equipment on a platform called Reverb, and Irene sells clothes on Poshmark. Also we both loved film and video early on in our creative careers but both didn’t end up really pursuing it. Maybe most importantly, I’ve always wanted to know more about anime, and Irene knows a lot about anime and is teaching me, so I feel like that’s an upcoming thing in common.
Irene: Yes to selling used stuff online! That dopamine hit when you make a sale makes it so addicting.
What’s something you’ve been learning about recently?
Jeff: I’ve been digging into learning science recently, specifically around how systemic inequality manifests in educational practice, and steps that can be taken to address it. I’ve also been reading a lot about how different types of motivation can be used in learning, which has been really interesting to me as a new parent as well. Now when I’m bribing my daughter with a snack, I find myself thinking about extrinsic motivation theories.
Irene: I’ve been re-learning how to draw again! I was really into drawing in middle school and high school, and I miss the feeling of getting lost in drawing.
Jeff: Ah! Another thing we have in common. I’ve been drawing recently with my daughter as well, and it makes me want to get back to where I used to be.
Irene: Yeah!! I miss being in touch with the roots of drawing as a practice. I think when you’ve become rusty at something, getting back into it can feel incredibly daunting at times. But having no expectations and just drawing things that I enjoy has really helped me get out of my head and enjoy the process a lot more.
Khanversations is a series of dialogues between designers at Khan Academy to help us learn new things about each other.
P.S. We’re hiring! If you’re interested, check out our job listings.
