Overview
Waggener Edstrom is one of the largest privately-owned firms in the world, with long and fruitful relationships with dozens of clients, including over two decades of collaboration with Microsoft. As a senior member of the agency’s Studio D Experience Design team, I’ve acted as Design Lead on numerous Microsoft-related projects, but few can touch the impact that Bing Education has had on teachers and students through its partnership with Donors Choose.
Designed on an aggressive deadline in collaboration with fellow team members David Carroll and Chris Kalani, Bing Education originally acted as a simple, straightforward hub illustrating Bing’s commitment to the cause of improving education. Its impact became much greater when it debuted a new Teacher Appreciation section.
Users are encouraged to share stories of how teachers or education faculty touched their lives in meaningful ways. Participants are then sent a code allowing them to make a donation to any project they’d like on Donors Choose.
We quickly accumulated hundreds of story submissions, culminating in a shout out from Jimmy Fallon on his late night talk show and a feature in USA Today.
The site was developed internally at Studio D by leveraging Silverlight and the Bing Maps API, with front-end web stack assistance and consultation from the design team. The social media icons are from my Ice Cream Social Icon Pack, available for use under a Creative Commons license.
While it’s always extremely gratifying to deliver a successful product for its own sake, that satisfaction is exponentially greater when benefiting an amazing cause.