Case Study 2
Overview
For 3 months, I led a government-supported art education program in a vulnerable public school in Santiago, Chile, under the Undersecretariat of Crime Prevention. The project aimed to strengthen social cohesion and emotional well-being among students, using creative, inclusive learning as a tool for safety.
I designed and facilitated a full course—not a one-time workshop, but weekly classes across 5 groups of students (ages 8–14), each receiving 1.5 hours per week of instruction for three months. The classes focused on anime character design, teaching anatomy, expression, and movement—while using character creation as a gateway for students to explore identity, emotions, and safety.
By the end of the program, students had created characters that represented their inner worlds, giving voice to what they feared, valued, or aspired to become. It wasn’t just about learning to draw—it was about learning to feel safe while expressing who they are.
The Problem
Students, many neurodivergent or with behavioral/emotional needs, lacked safe, expressive spaces
Schools often focused on behavior control, not emotional support
Classrooms were overstimulating or alienating for students with sensory and attention differences
Children struggled to talk openly about fears, identity, or grief
There were no emotional UX tools or curriculum in place to support self-expression or trust-building
My Role
Curriculum Designer for a creative emotional education program
Sole Instructor for 5 recurring groups, teaching weekly over 3 months
Emotional UX Researcher through observation and visual storytelling
Facilitator of long-term creative and identity-based learning
Objectives
Build a structured yet flexible emotional learning experience through character design
Provide neuroinclusive classes tailored to diverse learning needs
Use anime-style drawing to foster emotional articulation, identity exploration, and trust
Observe, document, and adapt the learning experience in response to student behavior, energy, and expression
Process
1. Curriculum Design
I developed a 12-week anime character design course, covering topics such as:
Basic anatomy and body proportions
Facial expressions and emotional gestures
Posture, movement, and costume design
Narrative: “Who is your character? What do they protect? What do they need?”
Each lesson built technical skills while opening space for emotional symbolism and storytelling.
2. Class Rhythm & Environment
Classes were held Monday through Friday with 5 different groups (30–40 students per group), totaling 148 unique students.
Each group met weekly for 1.5 hours over 3 months. I adapted each session based on energy levels, emotional responses, and participation flow. The environment prioritized flexibility, safety, and creative freedom.
3. Emotional Expression Through Character Creation
Rather than asking students to speak about feelings directly, I invited them to design characters: guardians, alter egos, dream selves, or quiet reflections of their pain. Some created protectors. Others invented worlds they wished existed.
Through character-building, they gave shape to what was hidden, and often unspoken.
4. Iteration & Insight Tracking
I documented each class with observation notes, mood patterns, drawing trends, and informal teacher reflections.
Patterns like “characters with invisible powers” or “silent students who drew protectors” emerged across groups—giving insight into the children’s collective emotional experience of school and safety.
Tools I Used
Paper & Pencils · Observation Logs · Miro (theme mapping) · Storytelling Prompts · Weekly Class Plans · Notion (for structure tracking)
Key Insights
Safety cannot be enforced—it must be experienced, co-created, and earned
Children communicate rich emotional truths when given the right tools—especially tools that don’t demand words
Structure with emotional flexibility is essential in neuroinclusive classrooms
Character design becomes a mirror for identity, safety, grief, and agency
Long-term learning relationships matter: trust was built week by week, not instantly
Impact
Reached 148 students, many with neurodivergent or emotional regulation needs
Over 3 months of weekly classes, students designed original characters that reflected personal struggles, hopes, and internal strengths
Teachers reported that students showed more confidence, peer empathy, and emotional vocabulary
Some children who rarely participated in traditional class settings became highly engaged in drawing and storytelling
The character narratives and behavioral observations became part of a report presented to school leadership, informing future strategies for emotional inclusion and learning design
Reflection
These were not just drawing classes—they were portals of self-expression, created in pencil, posture, and imagination.
As a UX researcher and facilitator, I’ve come to understand that emotional design doesn’t begin with pixels—it begins with people.
Designing these classes taught me that structure and softness can coexist. That identity is built one line at a time. That a child’s superhero might reveal what they’re too afraid to say out loud.
In these rooms, I wasn’t just teaching anatomy.
I was helping students draw their emotional language—one that belongs to them, completely.
Experience 2024-2025
Santiago