Rookly

Modern glow-up for an ancient game

Scholastic Chess Platform + League Experience | Product + Experience Design | Summer 24-Present

Evolve Rookly from a basic digital chess tool into a nationally-scaled academic league and brand experience—designed for K–12 students, school pride, accessibility, and lasting engagement.

Long story short

200+

200+

schools ready for next season, from ~20

1,572,864

possible student avatar combinations

RooklyChessBoardGame
RooklyChessBoardGame
RooklyChessBoardGame

❓The Problem

Rookly began as a simple online platform connecting chess coaches and learners. However, its true momentum emerged in the form of a K–12 scholastic chess league that allowed structured team-based play to schools without geographic or funding limitations. But how to recreate the scholastic athlete experience online...and in chess? Easier said then done! Rookly faced steep challenges:

  • Built a complete design system to replace Tailwind defaults and improve accessibility

  • Redefined the UX architecture and game flow for K–12 usability

  • Created motion design and in-game animation systems to enhance engagement

  • Led the strategy and documentation for gamification, social interaction, and player progression

  • Partnered on brand evolution, including typography, UI voice, and visual updates

  • Contributed to the conversion-focused redesign of Rookly’s public website

To grow beyond a hobbyist tool and into an organized, rewarding scholastic experience, the product needed structure, storytelling, and systems that could scale.

🧑‍💼 My Role

Since mid-2024, I’ve led Rookly’s evolution across nearly every product-facing dimension:

  • Built a complete design system to replace Tailwind defaults and improve accessibility

  • Redefined the UX architecture and game flow for K–12 usability

  • Created motion design and in-game animation systems to enhance engagement

  • Led the strategy and documentation for gamification, social interaction, and player progression

  • Partnered on brand evolution, including typography, UI voice, and visual updates

  • Contributed to the conversion-focused redesign of Rookly’s public website

Ongoing

🔍 Approach + Process

The approach to work with Rookly has been flexible and wide-ranging, including doing some strategic discovery, diving deep on other products the audience uses, and developing a framework for growing the product over time.

Strategic Discovery

  • Conducted a wide-ranging competitive audit, blending analysis of:

  • Chess platforms (Chess.com, Lichess)

    • Youth-oriented platforms (Roblox, YouTube Kids, Discord)

    • Sports, esports, and educational tools to examine team identity mechanics

  • Investigated accessibility needs and interaction modes across devices (touch, screen readers, etc.)

  • Identified cultural gaps: how can a digital chess league replicate the camaraderie of school sports?

Design + Brand Foundations

  • Developed a bespoke design system, built for scalability, accessibility, and performance

  • Defined motion principles and implemented them via Rive (startup-friendly, lightweight)

  • Replaced generic visuals with custom animations and team-based UI elements (e.g. “locker rooms,” ESPN-style match tickers)

Interaction Design + Gamification

  • Created modular layouts supporting flexible device use (including mobile play on school buses)

  • Introduced animated emoji reactions, allowing lightweight social connection between players

  • Designed spectator mode with real-time scoreboards and clickable game previews

  • Documented full gamification strategy, including:

    • Progression dimensions: puzzle use, wins, consistency, sportsmanship

    • Ranking systems: exponential growth curves, badge rarities (common → legendary)

    • Personalization features: titles, emoji packs, unlockables

🛠️ The Solution

While we continue to work, the breadth and types of solution continue to evolve. However, to date, we've made some strong gains on the foundation of the product.

Scalable, Student-Centered Platform

  • Chess gameplay UI redesigned with flexible panels, cross-device support, and real-time interactivity

  • Emojis and motion elements woven into matches to replicate in-person chess dynamics (e.g. excitement, frustration, respect)

  • “Locker Room” and “Spectator Mode” experiences support community and team cohesion

  • Animated score ticker visualizes league activity like a school sports broadcast

New Public-Facing Web Experience

  • New typography, motion design, and illustration style

  • Clearer school sign-up flows and structured call-to-actions

  • Deeper storytelling of Rookly’s value to schools, educators, and students

Systems That Scale

  • Gamification frameworks ready for phased rollout; custom exponential scoring and rating systems that allow for consistent student growth without sacrificing high end reward systems

  • Parent and coach features for match viewing and sharing

  • Accessible-first design baked into component library and layouts

🪞 Outcomes + Reflections

So far some of the success we've seen includes growing from a few dozen schools to 170 contracted schools across the U.S., transitioning into a revenue-generating scholastic league without losing the individual and group lesson roots, and creating/implementing a scalable system that enables tournaments, leagues, and real-time spectating from any device. Along with the product growth, I've also helped to bring about design & brand maturity by shipping a robust design system used across web, app, and internal tools, launching a high-conversion marketing site with tailored messaging for educators and school districts, and delivering visual and interaction polish (animations, screen transitions, score tickers) with startup-ready performance via Rive. Working with Rookly has allowed for flexing of design leadership muscles. This work challenges me to create playful, high-quality UX that holds up to classroom and competition scrutiny. It also requires me to scale a design system that serves K–12 players...a super varied audience. Finding opportunities to bring some joy and expression into that environment in a way that feels good for all students has been a real challenge. And speaking of challenges...shaping Rookly in a way that helps kids feel pride, connection, and identity whether they win or lose has been a really strong and rewarding North Star. This isn’t just chess. It’s school spirit. Online.

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