Overview
When I joined Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT), it was primarily a marketplace for printable resources. This meant that My Library—a dashboard where teachers stored their purchased materials—was mostly home to PDFs and documents, with most users having only a handful of purchases. As TPT evolved, My Library needed to be rethought to accommodate a growing range of digital resources, including Easel, TPT’s custom editor.
I collaborated with the lead marketplace designer to oversee a redesign of My Library, aiming to solve user problems while also establishing a vision for the future of the platform. This project wasn’t just about UI changes—it was a strategic exercise in defining the next phase of TPT’s product experience.
The Challenge: Adapting My Library for a Digital-First TPT
TPT was growing into a multi-faceted education platform, offering more than just static downloads. However, My Library had not kept pace with this evolution. The key challenges included:
- A lack of organization – With an increasing number of interactive and multimedia resources, teachers needed better ways to categorize and find their materials.
- A limited search function – Unlike the TPT Marketplace, My Library’s search capabilities were minimal, making it hard for users to locate specific content.
- No clear connection to the broader ecosystem – My Library felt disconnected from other aspects of TPT, like Easel, bookmarked items, and recently accessed resources.
This redesign was an opportunity to define a future state for TPT’s platform—one that would serve as inspiration for both the design team and the broader company.
The Solution: A Future-Focused Approach
As a player/coach who both manages designers and contributes individually, I take on future-looking projects that can serve multiple functions:
- Establish a long-term product vision that inspires both IC designers and leadership.
- Create design-driven ideas that can generate business impact beyond the initial project.
- Define practical use cases for design system components, accelerating future implementation.
- Conduct user testing to gauge sentiment for new features and interactions.
- Build a library of reusable components to make larger projects easier to execute.
A Search-First Approach & Course Correction
Initially, I envisioned My Library as a search-based interface since TPT users had shown a high comfort level with searching the marketplace for content. The concept was to bifurcate site search, allowing users to see results from both the marketplace and their personal library.
However, after consulting with PMs and engineers, we uncovered a major constraint:
- Users’ purchased content was not indexed, meaning search functionality would be limited to basic text matching, which was unreliable.
- Implementing a robust search would require a significant engineering lift, delaying other high-priority projects.
By identifying this early, we avoided wasted engineering effort and instead pivoted toward a filtering-based navigation system. This allowed users to organize and access their materials through:
- Custom collections (by class, year, subject, etc.).
- Multi-layered filtering to refine searches based on content type.
- Recently accessed resources for quick retrieval.
Transforming My Library Into a Dynamic Dashboard
We also reimagined My Library beyond just a storage space—instead, it became a personalized dashboard for teachers. New modules introduced in this concept included:
- Bookmarks – Items teachers flagged but hadn’t purchased yet (encouraging future sales).
- Recently Accessed Resources – A convenient feature for returning users.
- Suggested Content & Updates – Smart recommendations based on past purchases and usage.
Even though this project didn’t launch in its entirety, these concepts influenced other key areas of TPT, including:
- Bookmarks module being integrated into the checkout flow and homepage.
- Recently Accessed Resources module added to the logged-in homepage.
Results & Impact
While the full My Library redesign did not make it to production, it was a highly valuable initiative that:
- Defined the future visual and interaction direction for the platform.
- Generated design concepts that were later integrated into other parts of TPT’s ecosystem.
- Showcased the benefits of reusable design system components, increasing efficiency for future projects.
- Helped secure buy-in from stakeholders by illustrating how My Library could evolve in a way that aligned with business goals and user needs.
Key Takeaways
- Visionary projects drive long-term impact – Even when not fully implemented, future-thinking designs can influence product strategy.
- Early collaboration prevents wasted effort – Engaging engineers and PMs early helped us course-correct and focus on feasible improvements.
- Treating user spaces like homepages creates opportunities – My Library’s transformation into a personalized dashboard laid the groundwork for broader platform improvements.
- Small wins add up – Features like bookmarks and recently accessed content were realized elsewhere, proving the business value of this initiative.
This project reinforced the importance of strategic, vision-driven design—helping TPT continue its evolution from a printable marketplace to a fully interactive teaching platform.
Need some Future-looking Design Vision?
I’m available for full time or contract work and I’d love to help you with your project. Drop me a line and let’s see how we can work together.
Justin Dickinson 