Mason's Way: User Flows by Audience

Orientation

Four audiences, one spine

Your notes describe four different people, but they move through the same eight stages in a different order, at a different depth, with different permissions. Laying them on a shared spine makes the overlaps obvious, and the overlaps are where the build gets cheaper.

The shared spine

1 Arrive, why they came and what they read first.
2 Screen, the screening session itself.
3 Understand, results and how to talk about them.
4 Learn, the code system, at whatever depth the role needs.
5 Practice, the tools: flashcards, alphabetizing, letter recognition, rhyming, real versus nonsense words, spelling.
6 Convert, ordinary material into marked material.
7 Review, documented progress.
8 Carry, records that travel with the learner.

What each stage card tells you

Sees is the screen. Does is the action. System needs is what has to exist behind it, which is the part the developer will care about. The arc line is the feeling at that moment, which is the part branding and the investor story will care about.

Both extra layers can be switched off in the top bar if you want the bare steps for a working session.

Three things the map makes obvious

1. The student has no independent flow. In your notes every student stage begins with "parent helps me". That is a legitimate design position rather than a hole, but it means the student is not a separate product. The student is a mode: a practice surface handed over by an adult, and eventually a record they inherit.

2. Parents and therapists want almost the same tools. They differ in depth, caseload, and who they answer to, not in features. Build one set of practice tools with two levels of framing rather than two products.

3. The teacher is the only role whose core loop is self-contained. Convert a worksheet, print it, use it Monday. It needs no linked family, no record, no curriculum. That makes it the smallest shippable thing on the map, which is worth knowing even if it is not what you ship first.

Audience 1

My child has a hard time learning.

Arrives worried and without vocabulary. Wants a next step she can take this week without waiting nine months for an evaluation. She is the longest relationship on the platform and the one who eventually holds the records.

worried, guessing→has language for it→overwhelmed→capable→prepared

Arrive

public, no account

Sees: Plain-language explanation of dyslexia. Signs by age. A direct statement of what this platform is and is not. An audience router: "I am concerned about my child's reading."
Does: Reads a bit. Decides whether these people sound trustworthy. Picks a path.
System needs: Public content with no account wall. An entry router on the homepage. The screening-is-not-a-diagnosis line placed before the screener, not after it.

ArcWorried and guessing. She has probably been told to wait and see, more than once.

Screen

parent administered

Sees: Overview first: who it is for, roughly thirty minutes, what she needs on hand, a quiet room. Consent. A calm progress indicator with no timer.
Does: Sits down with her child. Reads prompts aloud. Pauses when the child needs a break. Finishes in one or two sittings.
System needs: A parent-administered mode: scripts written to be read aloud, with a separate child-facing view.

Pause and resume that survives closing the iPad.

More than one child per parent account.

No score visible on the child-facing side at any point.

ArcNervous, hoping for something definite, half afraid of what it will say.

Understand

results and meaning

Sees: A plain summary. Strengths named before difficulties. Areas that may need support, each explained in a sentence. The limits of a screening, worded carefully. Recommended next steps.
Does: Reads the results. Opens "how to explain this to your child." Saves or prints the report. Writes down questions for the school.
System needs: Results attach to a child record, not to a session that disappears.

A durable export, PDF at minimum.

A questions-to-take-to-school generator built from her actual results. proposed

Explicit "who can see this" language on the results page itself.

ArcRelieved to finally have words for it, immediately anxious about what she is supposed to do with them.

Learn the system

highest drop-off risk watch

Sees: Two clearly separated tracks: "the method in ten minutes" and "learn it properly with me." Also a short piece on what her role is and, just as importantly, is not.
Does: Learns enough of the code marks to sit beside her child without feeling like a fraud. Comes back to it in short sessions.
System needs: A parent track that is deliberately shorter than the therapist track and says so.

Resume where she left off.

A one-page printable legend for the refrigerator. proposed

Gated by Micah's scope and sequence, which we do not have yet. blocked

ArcOverwhelmed. This is the single most likely place on the whole map to lose her. If the parent track reads like a certification course, she closes the tab and does not come back.

Practice

tablet first

Sees: Large, tablet-friendly practice tools: flashcards, alphabetizing, letter recognition, rhyming, real versus nonsense words, spelling. Calm feedback. No streaks, no ranking, no failure states.
Does: Runs a short session with her child. Hands the iPad over for part of it. Watches. Stops before either of them is frustrated.
System needs: Two people, one device: a parent view and a child view that swap without logging out.

Practice results write to the child's record automatically.

A handoff into kid mode, if kid mode exists. open

Session length that the adult sets, not the app.

ArcDoing something concrete at last. This is the best moment in her whole journey, and it is the moment worth building the marketing around.

Review

weekly, low effort

Sees: What was practiced. What is improving. Dated milestones. Observations from a therapist or teacher if one is connected.
Does: Checks in weekly. Adds her own note: "read a menu out loud without help."
System needs: Progress signals a non-specialist can read without training.

A place for parent observations, which turn out to be the observations that matter most in a school meeting.

Honesty when progress is flat. A view that only ever goes up is a view she will stop believing.

ArcReassured or worried. The view has to be trustworthy in both directions or it is worthless in either.

Carry the records

the long promise

Sees: My Records: screening results, progress summaries, therapist reports, accommodation letters, plus outside documents she uploads herself. Who created each one and when.
Does: Pulls a record for a new school, a tutor, an IEP meeting, a doctor. Shares one document with one recipient, then revokes it later.
System needs: The parent account holds the child's record. proposed, see section 6

Durable export that outlives the platform.

Share to a named recipient, with revoke and an access log.

Survives changing schools, therapists, and states.

ArcPrepared and in control. Micah's own observation, that these documents are impossible to find years later, is the reason a family stays on the platform for a decade instead of a semester.

Not in the parent flow

Stage 6, conversion. Your notes give the conversion tool to teachers only. I would keep it that way for the parent at first, then watch for the request, because the parent who is homeschooling or supplementing at home will ask for it within a month. Treat it as a later unlock rather than a launch feature. proposed

Audience 2

I'm frustrated because it's hard to learn like everyone else.

Every stage in your notes begins with an adult. That is worth stating as a decision rather than leaving as an accident: the student does not have an independent journey, they have a mediated one that gradually becomes their own.

embarrassed→it has a name→curious→capable→this is mine

Arrive

mediated, no self-entry

Sees: Nothing on their own. An adult brings them to the table.
Does: Sits down when asked, usually without being told exactly why.
System needs: No marketing surface addressed to a child, and no self-signup for minors. Both are a design choice and a compliance simplification at the same time. proposed

ArcBraced for another test they expect to fail. Whatever loads first has to not look like school.

Screen

parent or teacher helps me

Sees: One task at a time. Large type. No visible timer, no visible score, no red. A clear way to say "I need a break."
Does: Answers rhyming, syllable counting, letter recognition, real versus nonsense words, spelling a spoken word. Asks to stop if it gets hard.
System needs: A child-facing view that never shows a score and never uses the word wrong.

An adult-facing view running alongside on the same device.

Break and resume at any point without losing the session.

ArcThis is where a child decides whether the platform is safe. Every later stage depends on getting this one emotionally right.

Understand

parent explains it to me

Sees: A short, kid-appropriate version of what the results mean, delivered by their adult rather than by the screen.
Does: Listens. Asks the question every one of them asks: does this mean I am stupid.
System needs: A scripted "explain it to your child" module, banded by age, written for the adult to read aloud. This is one of the highest-value, lowest-build assets on the entire map.

Strengths first. Brain-difference framing, not deficit framing.

A version for the teacher to use with an older student who was screened at school. proposed

ArcRelief, if it is done well. For a lot of children this is the first time the difficulty has a name that is not their own character.

Learn the system

parent helps me learn

Sees: A few marks at a time, always attached to a real word they can read. Never the full legend at once.
Does: Learns alongside the adult, who is often learning it at the same moment.
System needs: Lessons that assume an adult is present and give that adult something to say. Marks introduced in Micah's sequence, which we still need. blocked

ArcCautious, watching the adult's face for whether they are doing it right.

Practice

mediated, then maybe alone

Sees: The practice tools: flashcards, alphabetizing, letter recognition, rhyming, real versus nonsense words, spelling. Tablet sized. Calm.
Does: Practices with the adult driving. Later, possibly alone, if there is a safe kid mode.
System needs: Kid mode is the biggest single product decision in the student flow. A workable definition: no free text entry, no sharing, no outbound links, no account creation, a session length the adult sets, and one obvious way back to the adult. Progress still writes to the record. proposed

Kid mode as a device state rather than a login. The child never has credentials.

Mastery visible without competition. No streaks and no leaderboard.

ArcCapable. If the platform ever produces a moment a child is proud of, it happens here, which is why practice deserves more craft than any other surface.

Receive converted material

indirect

Sees: Their actual homework, marked. Not a worksheet from an app, the real page from class.
Does: Reads it, on paper or on screen.
System needs: A student-visible inbox of assigned or converted passages, only if the teacher flow is connected to a student record. Print alone may be enough at first. proposed

ArcSeen. Their own homework, in a form they can actually read, is a stronger proof than any practice game.

Carry the records

mediated now, theirs later

Sees: My documents, when a parent opens them for a new school or program.
Does: Watches the parent do it. Years later, does it alone for a university or an employer.
System needs: A handover: at an agreed age the record transfers from the parent to the learner. Decide it now, because it shapes the data model, not later, when it becomes a migration. proposed

ArcProud, then independent. A nine-year-old's screening report is a nineteen-year-old's accommodation letter.

Audience 3

I notice a problem with one of my students. They're falling behind and confused.

Time poor, professionally cautious, and not looking for a curriculum. Your own note is the design constraint: teachers will not learn the entire system. Everything in this lane should respect that.

concerned, no time→oriented fast→careful→equipped→able to advocate

Arrive

For Educators entry

Sees: A short, credible educator entry. Reads about dyslexia at a professional level, not a parent level.
Does: Decides in about five minutes whether this is legitimate. Possibly forwards it to a reading specialist or an administrator.
System needs: A separate educator entry with professional tone. Something forwardable: a one-page overview a teacher can send to a colleague without explaining it. proposed

ArcConcerned about one particular child, skeptical of one more platform, five minutes to spare.

Screen

teacher guides the student

Sees: The screening flow, plus guidance on when a teacher may and may not run one.
Does: Guides one student through the screener during a quiet period. Gets results.
System needs: Consent is the sharpest open question in this lane. Who authorizes a school-initiated screening, does the parent see it, and does it belong to the school or the family. needs a policy answer

More than one student per teacher, without building a full roster system on day one.

A provisional record for a student whose family is not on the platform yet. proposed, see section 6

ArcCareful. Aware they may be stepping close to a line the district drew.

Understand and prepare the parent conversation

high value, low build

Sees: What the results mean. What to say to a parent and, more usefully, what not to say. A conversation guide they can print and hold.
Does: Prepares for a hard conversation, then has it.
System needs: A printable parent conversation guide. Cheap to build and probably the thing teachers tell each other about.

Language that stays clear of diagnostic claims, everywhere in this lane.

A way to hand the results to the parent so the family can continue on their own. This is the natural referral loop into the parent flow. proposed

ArcNervous about overstepping. Relieved to be handed words that are not their own guess.

Learn, overview only

deliberately shallow

Sees: A fifteen-minute orientation: what the marks are, why they matter, what changes for the student. Plus resources on working with dyslexic students in an ordinary classroom.
Does: Skims it. Bookmarks the legend. Does not finish the course, and that is fine.
System needs: A teacher track that is intentionally shallow and labeled as such, so nobody feels they are failing to complete it. Resist letting it grow into the therapist curriculum. proposed

ArcRelieved it is short. A teacher who hits a certification-shaped wall here never reaches the conversion tool.

Convert papers and tests

the core loop why they return

Sees: Upload or photograph a page, review the extracted text, apply the marks, inspect and correct the marked result, then print, save, or assign. Before and after, side by side.
Does: Converts next week's reading passage the night before class, in about ten minutes, on a laptop, tired.
System needs: Speed over depth. This is a ten minute job or it does not happen.

Human review made visible. Never imply the marking is automatically correct.

Correction that is faster than doing it by hand, or the tool has no reason to exist.

Copyright and permitted use of uploaded classroom material. unresolved

Works with no linked student record at all. proposed

ArcEquipped. This is the teacher's whole reason to come back, and it is the only loop on the map that delivers value without anyone else being on the platform.

Review

scoped visibility

Sees: Progress for the students they are connected to. Assigned and completed practice.
Does: Checks before a parent meeting or an IEP.
System needs: A scoped view. A teacher should see classroom-relevant progress, not a family's uploaded medical reports or a therapist's clinical notes. Scoping the teacher view is a privacy requirement, not a feature preference. proposed

ArcAn informed advocate. Walks into the meeting with something dated and specific instead of an impression.

Not in the teacher flow

Stage 5, practice. Your notes leave practice tools out of the teacher lane, and I would keep it that way. A teacher running a class of twenty-six does not have a tablet session with one child. What they need instead is to assign practice that happens at home, which makes the assignment handoff the real requirement rather than the tools themselves. proposed

Audience 4

I'm here to help children with dyslexia overcome their learning challenges by teaching the coding method.

The power user, and the audience whose adoption validates the method itself. Also the only role that arrives already knowing what they want, which makes them the easiest to disappoint.

evaluating rigor→convinced→confident teaching it→efficient→evidenced

Resources

ongoing, not one time

Sees: About dyslexia. Teaching tips. Practice tips. How to talk about this with parents, teachers, and students.
Does: Uses the library as continuing professional material, and returns to it between sessions rather than once at signup.
System needs: Depth and visible authorship. This audience is checking credentials before they adopt a method.

Content clearly attributed to Micah and her training, which is the platform's actual credibility asset.

Printable, because they hand things to people in person.

ArcEvaluating whether this is rigorous enough to put their professional name behind.

Screen

caseload, not one child

Sees: The full screener plus interpretation guidance. Their list of students, with dates.
Does: Screens a student. Reviews results. Prepares to discuss them with both the parent and the student, which are two different conversations.
System needs: A caseload view. This is the first place the platform needs to handle many learners under one adult.

Sessions and dates, because their work is billable and reportable.

Two conversation guides from one result: one for the parent, one for the student.

ArcProfessional judgment engaged. They are comparing the screener against instruments they already trust.

Teach the system

the full method

Sees: The whole method, in Micah's sequence. Worked examples. The complete mark legend with the rules attached.
Does: Teaches the system to a child, session by session. Prints resources for the student and for the parent to use at home.
System needs: Micah's scope and sequence, which we still need to request. Her margin notes reference "end of II B" and a 2018 schedule, so a document exists. blocked

Lesson-level control over which marks are active, so a student is not shown marks they have not reached.

Printable student and parent packets, generated from the lesson rather than assembled by hand.

ArcConfident. This is where the platform either saves them preparation time or quietly costs them time, and they will know which within two sessions.

Practice

same tools as the parent

Sees: The same practice tools the parent uses: flashcards, alphabetizing, letter recognition, rhyming, real versus nonsense words, spelling. Plus the ability to assign.
Does: Runs tools during a session, then assigns practice for the week at home.
System needs: Assignment handoff to the parent. This is the single connection that turns four separate audiences into one network, and it is the highest-leverage integration on the map. proposed

One shared tool set with a therapist-level control layer, not a second product.

ArcEfficient. Practice they assign is practice they do not have to invent on a Sunday night.

Convert materials

my addition

Sees: The same conversion tool the teacher gets.
Does: Marks up passages for a specific student at a specific lesson level.
System needs: Your notes give conversion to teachers only. I think the therapist needs it more: they mark material by hand for every student every week, which is exactly the labor Micah is doing today. Worth putting to her directly, because if she agrees it changes who the conversion tool is designed for. confirm with Micah

ArcRelieved of the most tedious part of the job.

Review and document

produces the record

Sees: Documented progress across a caseload. Their own session observations. What was assigned and what was actually done at home.
Does: Writes session notes. Produces a progress summary for a parent, a school, or a referral.
System needs: Therapist-authored documents land in the student's portable record, signed and dated.

A separation between clinical notes and shareable summaries. proposed

This is what makes the parent's record worth having years later, so the therapist is effectively the platform's content producer.

ArcEvidenced. Their professional judgment written down in a form that survives them leaving the case.

Section 5

Shared surfaces versus role-specific ones

The scoping headline from the whole exercise: the screener and the practice tools are built once and serve everyone. What actually differs between the four audiences is framing, depth, and permissions. That is a much smaller build than four products.

Surface	Parent	Student	Teacher	Therapist
Public dyslexia content	core	not in flow	core	light
Screener, administering	core	receives	core	core
Results and interpretation	core	mediated	core	core
How to explain this, scripts	to the child	receives	to the parent	to both
Learn the code system	medium	mediated	overview only	full depth
Practice tools	core	core	assigns only	core
Kid mode	sets it up	core	maybe	sets it up
Conversion tool	later unlock	receives output	core	core, proposed
Assign practice	receives	receives	medium	core
Progress review	core	light	scoped	core
Portable records	holds them	inherits	requests	contributes
Printable resources	core	receives	core	core

core central to the role medium used, but not the reason they come light occasional proposed my addition, not in your notes

What the pattern says about scope

Build once, frame four times

The screener, the practice tools, the results engine, and the progress log appear in three or four lanes each. The expensive-looking part of the platform is actually the shared part. What multiplies is copy, depth, and permission rules, which are cheap by comparison.

Only two things are genuinely role-specific

The conversion tool and the caseload view. Everything else is the same surface with a different frame around it. If a feature proposal does not fall into one of those two, it should probably be a variation rather than a new build.

The narrowest first release

Teacher plus conversion tool. Self-contained, no records, no accounts beyond a login, no consent question if it works without a linked student. Smallest thing on the map that is useful on its own. observation

The most valuable first release

Parent plus student, screener through practice. Touches the most surfaces, carries the emotional story, and is the relationship that lasts a decade. Costs more and needs Micah's sequence first. observation

Those two are worth putting to Micah as a straight choice, because they lead to different products. I would not decide it for her, but I would not let the question stay implicit either.

Section 6

Accounts, records, and access

Every one of the four flows eventually touches the same object: a learner's record. These are positions I am proposing so there is something concrete to argue with, not conclusions. Each one has a reason attached, because the reason is the part worth debating.

1. The learner record is the center, not the account proposed

One student, one record, created once. Adults join it. The record holds screening results, progress, assignments, therapist documents, and uploads.

Why: the alternative, where each adult has their own copy of a child, produces four versions of the truth and makes the portable record impossible. Micah's own complaint, that these documents cannot be found years later, is a symptom of exactly that.

2. For a minor, the parent account holds the record proposed

Schools and therapists get access, not ownership.

Why: a school-owned record dies at graduation, and a therapist-owned record dies when the family changes providers. The family is the only party present for the whole story. This is also the honest reading of the promise the platform is making.

3. Adults join a record by invitation, with a role and a scope proposed

Parent: everything. Therapist: full learning view, can author documents, sees their own clinical notes. Teacher: classroom scope, sees assigned practice and progress, does not see uploaded outside reports or clinical notes.

Why: the teacher scope is a privacy requirement rather than a feature tier. A parent who suspects the school can read a medical report will not upload one, and the record loses the documents that make it worth keeping.

4. A teacher who screens first creates a provisional record proposed needs a policy answer

It either converts when a parent claims it, or it expires on a set schedule.

Why: your teacher flow starts before any parent is involved, so this case is not optional. It is also the flow with the most legal exposure, and it needs an answer from Micah plus whoever advises her on school policy, not from us.

5. Kid mode is a device state, not an account proposed

The child never has credentials. An adult unlocks the device into kid mode and exiting requires the adult. Practice still writes to the record.

Why: it matches your notes, where the parent drives everything, and it removes a large compliance surface around minors and accounts. It also means "safe kid mode" becomes a scoping decision about what is switched off, which is a much easier conversation to have with a developer.

6. The record hands over to the learner at an agreed age proposed

At eighteen, or at an age Micah prefers, ownership transfers from the parent to the learner.

Why: the documentation use case Micah described, employers and universities, is an adult use case. If handover is not in the model from the start it becomes a migration later, and migrations of records people depend on are exactly the kind of thing that goes wrong.

7. Adults screening themselves are the simplest case proposed

They own their record from the start, need no consent chain, and no kid mode.

Why: worth noticing that the audience with the least product complexity is not in your four. The handoff document lists adults who suspect dyslexia as a known audience, and if cost of build ever becomes the deciding factor, they are the cheapest door into the platform. Not a recommendation, just a card worth keeping on the table.

Section 7

Decisions this map needs

Grouped by who can answer. The first group is for Micah, the second is for you and Micah together, and the third is for the developer once the first two are settled.

For Micah

Does the therapist get the conversion tool?Your notes say teachers only. I think the therapist needs it more, since marking material by hand for every student every week is the exact labor she is doing now.Changes who the conversion tool is designed for.
Her scope and sequence.Still outstanding. Her margin notes reference "end of II B" and a 2018 schedule, so a document exists somewhere.Blocks the parent Learn stage and the entire therapist Teach stage.
What does a parent see of a therapist's session notes?Everything, a summary only, or nothing until the therapist publishes it.Determines whether clinical notes and shareable summaries are one object or two.
Who authorizes a school-initiated screening?And does the parent see the result automatically. This is the highest-exposure question on the map.Blocks the teacher screening flow entirely.
Is there a kid mode in the first release?The student flow is meaningfully different with and without it.Changes the practice build and the whole student story.

For you and Micah together

Primary audience for release one.Teacher plus conversion is the smallest self-contained thing. Parent plus student is the most valuable and the longest relationship. They lead to different products, and the choice is currently implicit.Everything downstream depends on this.
How much does a parent have to learn?The Learn stage is the likeliest place to lose her. Worth deciding deliberately how deep the parent track goes before anyone builds it.Sets the size of the parent curriculum.
At what age does the record hand over to the learner?Only matters years from now, but it shapes the data model today.Cheap to decide now, expensive to retrofit.

For the developer, once the above is settled

Copyright and permitted use of uploaded classroom material.Named in the handoff document and still open. It constrains storage, sharing, and possibly the whole conversion feature.
Does the conversion tool work with no linked student record?If yes, the teacher release becomes dramatically simpler.
Two people on one device during screening and practice.A parent view and a child view that swap without logging out. Easy to overlook, and everything in the parent and student lanes assumes it.
Multi-learner handling.Parents have more than one child, teachers have a class, therapists have a caseload. Three different shapes of the same requirement, and the therapist caseload is the one that forces the general solution.

Suggested order for the Wednesday call

Show her the four persona headers and the emotional arcs first, since those are the easiest to react to and she will correct the framing immediately. Then the shared surfaces table, which makes the scope conversation concrete. Save accounts and access for last, or for the following week, because it is the section most likely to eat the whole hour.