The Norton Illumine Ebook
Overview
With the rise of digital learning came a need for more meaningful learning tools. The Norton Illumine Ebook was designed to transform passive reading into an interactive experience. It enabled instructors to assign readings and track student engagement while allowing students to annotate, explore interactive content, and respond to embedded reading questions, ultimately fostering a more dynamic and immersive learning experience.
My Role
Lead Designer
Interaction Designer
Prototype
Design System
Platform
Responsive & Accessible Web Application
Year
2021 - 2024
Problem
As part of our 0–1 initiative, we conducted exploratory research to better understand the role of assigned readings in college and high school courses and the specific challenges instructors face. This included a 3-day design sprint workshop with W. W. Norton's digital product leadership team.
1. Assignability
How do instructors delegate reading assignments in a way that aligns with their course structure and teaching style?
2. Assessment Type
How do instructors perceive the role of readings—as passive homework, active learning tools, or something else entirely?
Opportunity
How might we design an interactive learning experience that helps students stay focused, motivated, and actively engaged in course material outside of the classroom?
Goals
We converted the identified problems into opportunities for the Norton Illumine Ebook to address.
1. Assignability → Integration
Enable seamless integration with instructors' Learning Management Systems (LMS), making it easier to assign and track readings directly within their existing workflows.
2. Assessment Type → Formative
Design readings to support formative assessment, providing students with low-stakes opportunities to engage, reflect, and build understanding as they go.
Design Iterations
We explored multiple design directions to align with the product goals for the Norton Illumine Ebook, iterating on layout, interaction patterns, and content presentation.
Usability Testing
To validate our early design decisions, we conducted a round of moderated usability testing after finalizing the initial concept.
Participants: 6 students
Format: One-hour moderated sessions (remote)
Focus Areas:
Completing an assignment
Engaging with an interactive activity
Answering a multiple-choice question
Evaluation: Students were observed across 32 tasks, with attention to task completion (green/red), confusion points (yellow), and behavioral cues.
Product Launch
The Norton Illumine Ebook MVP launched in Spring 2023, with continuous improvements and maintenance carried through 2024. Iterations were driven by usability testing and stakeholder feedback, allowing us to converge on a solution that balanced usability, accessibility, pedagogical goals, and technical feasibility.
Impact
The Norton Illumine Ebook has continued to grow and evolve since launch. As of 2025, it:
Supports 110 unique titles published to the platform
Reached over 10,000 unique users
Launched an instructor-facing analytics platform to surface Ebook engagement insights
Includes 8+ scalable, interactive activity types