I'm Li Fan,
a UI/UX researcher
& product designer
based in Atlanta.

Overview

A project for CS4660 (Educational Technology) at Georgia Tech, developed over the span of 1-2 months with a team of 6 members. We focused on building a prototype for a visual novel with the goal of teaching web accessibility principles to Georgia Tech students.

The Problem

Accessibility is a critical part of designing inclusive technologies and creating positive user experiences. However, Georgia Tech's curriculm currently lacks support for accessibility education.

Research

My team and I conducted both a literature review and user interviews with student developers working on long-term web development projects, such as senior capstone projects. Based on this, we uncovered a few key insights:

Accessibility is a low priority at the faculty level.

Even if educators want to teach accessibility principles, they are often constrained by departmental restrictions or lack of support.

Some users had only limited or surface-level knowledge of accessibility principles, while others did not consider accessibility a priority or did not understand its importance.

Users felt overwhelmed when researching accessibility resources.

Design

Based on this research, we designed a few possible learning environments, including a guided interactive tutorial, Leetcode-style coding challenge platform, and interactive game. Ultimately, we settled on the interactive game due to its ability to convey a narrative about real users who benefit from accessibility features.
Some key features we included in the game were:

Visual Novel Format: The narrative-focused nature of a visual novel allowed us to integrate stories of real users who would benefit from web accessibility features. This allowed us to elicit intrinsic motivation, a key component of meaningful gamification.

Real-time Feedback: Real-time feedback ensures that users reflect on misconceptions and serves as a formative assessment to measure learning.

Block-based Coding Puzzles: These puzzles featured real HTML syntax, serving as scaffolding while being grounded in realistic environments.

Iteration

After developing our prototype, we conducted more user testing. Across our users, many expressed dissatisfaction with the game's lack of interactivity. Users felt that the prototype mostly involved clicking through dialogue, while members of our group expressed concern over facilitating transfer and meaningful gamification.
To address this, we designed two new features:

Forum with Reviews: Using this feature, players could view different reviews left by hypothetical users complaining about accessibility issues and select issues to address, allowing for agency and increased interactivity. This also helped ground the game in real-world scenarios, further facilitating transfer and meaningful gamification.

Zoom Call: After clicking on the review, players would be able to talk directly with a user, providing additional environments for the player and further grounding the game in real-world scenarios. This also included one of our initial reasons for choosing the visual novel format: the ability to learn impacts of accessibility issues through talking to those affected.

My Contributions

Here are some of my primary contributions:

Creating the UI and adding functionality for the customer call, visual novel dialogue, and the second coding environment

Creating all the character illustrations and sourcing images for backgrounds online

Some contributions I also made as part of assignments include:

Conducting a literature review to determine issues with current accessibility education

Conducting preliminary user interviews with student developers

Conducting user testing to determine game effectiveness and pain points using a think-aloud protocol

Synthesizing research and interview findings into reports

Outcomes

Overall, our project was received positively at the poster presentation. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work with such talented fellow students, and this project helped me gain a deeper understanding of educational technology while helping me develop my skills in Figma.
This semester, I'm also TAing for the class, and I'm thrilled to pass on what I've learned to other students!
If you'd like to try the Figma prototype, you can view it here.

Overview

Current Crisis is a Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) at Georgia Tech focused on building power grid resilience through gaming, all developed in Unity by a team of Georgia Tech students. If you'd like to play a demo or read more, feel free to check out the game website.

Contributions

I'm currently the lead for the game's Graphics team, which includes:

Coordinating work amongst my interdisciplinary team of 30+ members

Maintaining technical documentation, ensuring new members are properly onboarded

Ensuring all game assets match style guidelines

Designing wireframes, interactive prototypes, and VFX in Figma and Unity

Assisting with user testing

Designing displays for exhibits at events such as the Atlanta Science Festival and Dataseum , attracting over 175 visitors

Designing quality-of-life features to improve user experience

Outcomes

Current Crisis was my first experience working with a large team on a long-term project and my first time leading a team of my own. Through this project, I learned new softwares, developed leadership skills, and stepped into the world of game development.

Overview

VGDimensions is a competitive deckbuilder based off previous games from VGDev, Georgia Tech's game development club.
I was the art subteam lead for this game, which was developed over the span of the Fall 2025 semester alongside a group of about 15 other Georgia Tech students.

Contributions

Throughout this project, my work primarily involved:

Holding weekly subteam meetings for art

Creating and assigning tasks to team members

Creating and enforcing guidelines for the game's art style

Ensuring art deliverables were completed in a timely manner(events, demos, etc.)

Outcomes

VGDimensions was my first time taking on a sublead role in one of VGDev's games, and I loved being able to work together with my friends and the incredibly talented people in the club while gaining experience in leadership and project management!