LEARNING EXPERIENCE & VISUAL DESIGN LEADER
Lauren Heil
I make complicated ideas easier to understand.
My career has taken me from agency designer to classroom teacher to product founder, but the work has always been the same: helping people learn, understand, and do something with confidence. Today I design learning experiences, educational products, visual systems, and brands that are as useful as they are beautiful.
Available for director-level leadership roles, consulting, speaking, and learning product partnerships
IMPACT
Different audiences, different challenges, the same goal every time.
1M+
Installs in year one
Combined installs of the original Stickity Google Workspace add-ons in their first year.
50
U.S. States
Educators across every U.S. state use products and resources I've designed.
60+
Countries
Visual learning tools supporting classrooms around the world.
One philosophy
Good design isn't decoration. It's one of the fastest ways to help people learn.
THE THROUGHLINE
My career may look unusual.
To me, it's always made perfect sense.
I started as a graphic designer, learning how typography, color, hierarchy, and storytelling shape the way people understand information.
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Then I became a teacher. That's where everything clicked.
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I realized that beautiful design isn't enough if people still feel confused. Watching hundreds of students learn computer science taught me more about communication than any design job ever could.
Since then, every role I've taken has been another version of the same challenge:
How do you take something complicated and make it feel obvious?
Sometimes a course..
a product..
a visual system..
a brand..
The medium changes. The goal does not.
HOW I WORK
Six things that are true on every single project.
1
1
Start with people.
Whether I'm designing a course, a product, or a presentation, I start by asking where people get stuck. Good design begins with empathy, not software.
2
Make complexity feel simple.
I'm drawn to messy problems. I enjoy organizing ideas, finding patterns, and building experiences that make difficult concepts feel approachable without oversimplifying them.
3
Build systems, not one-offs.
A great design solves today's problem. A great system helps hundreds of people solve tomorrow's. That's why I love templates, design systems, workflows, and reusable patterns.
4
Design for the edges.
Some of my best work started by asking how to better support multilingual learners, students with disabilities, or overwhelmed teachers. Design for the greatest needs and everyone benefits.
5
Stay hands-on.
I love strategy, but I also love making things: opening Illustrator, building prototypes, refining layouts, writing copy, sketching ideas, and figuring out why something isn't working.
6
Technology should reduce friction.
Whether I'm building with AI, designing a Chrome extension, or creating professional learning, technology should make work easier, not more complicated.
LEARNING SYSTEMS I'VE BUILT
My career, told as five chapters.
Over the last fifteen years I've built learning experiences in classrooms, school districts, startups, and national education organizations. The essentials stay visible; open a chapter for the full story.
CHAPTER 1
friEdTech
Head of Marketing
2025 - 2026
Building a professional learning ecosystem
For five years I helped shape friEdOnline, designing everything from course structure and learning activities to videos, assessments, graphics, and downloadable resources. Later I led friEdTech's visual rebrand, transforming a new identity into practical tools the entire company could actually use. Highlights: → Built online courses from storyboard to launch. → Designed the visual systems surrounding every course. → Created reusable templates, badges, graphics, and supporting materials. → Led the company's complete visual rebrand. → Developed AI guidance that helped teammates create stronger work with Claude.
Learning Experience Designer
2021 - 2025
CHAPTER 2
Stickity
Building a product teachers actually asked for
Founder, Product & Learning Experience Designer
2023 - present
Stickity started with a simple classroom frustration: creating visual supports shouldn't take longer than teaching the lesson itself. I designed the product, built the visual library, developed the brand, worked directly with educators, and continue leading its evolution into a Chrome extension. REACH Today educators in all 50 states and more than 60 countries use Stickity. OWNERSHIP Product vision, UX/UI, visual library, brand, accessibility model, and district onboarding, end to end.
CHAPTER 3
The FIVE Network
Designing a four-year learning journey
Lead Learning Content Designer
2020 - 2021
High school students don't experience growth one lesson at a time. I helped design an entire learning progression focused on life skills, mentoring, and career readiness, bringing curriculum, storytelling, motion graphics, illustration, and digital learning into one cohesive experience. CONTRIBUTION Curriculum architecture and sequencing, plus multimedia production including motion graphics and narration. SYSTEM BUILT A repeatable in-app learning format and production workflow that kept a four-year sequence coherent.
CHAPTER 4
DSST Public Schools
Learning from the classroom first
Teaching changed how I think about design. Seven years in the classroom taught me what actually helps people understand something, and what only looks good on paper. Later, as District Virtual Learning Lead, I helped educators redesign instruction for online learning during one of the most challenging moments in education. That perspective shapes every project I take on today.
District Virtual Learning Lead
2020
Computer Science & Digital Arts Teacher
2014 - 2020
CHAPTER 5
Earlier Creative Career
Where the visual foundation was built
Graphic Designer & Art Director
Wunderman3
Leo Burnett Group
Sporting Kansas City
Before education, I learned high-level visual communication, concept development, and production in agency work. Selected clients: Xbox, Burger King, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Major League Soccer.
