Umutcan Yaprak

A developing practice in learning & technology

UmutcanYaprak

An English Language Teaching student at TED University. Exploring how stories and thoughtful technology can make room for learning.

A fictional comic: Lina finds a lantern and a paper map on a rainy afternoon.
A story in pictures.Local prototype · AI-assisted
Explore the work

Language. Learning. Making.

Selected work2026 / 01

Hopes &
Leaves

A little structure. A lot of possibility.

A personal project exploring a simple question: how can a writing space help a learner move from a small idea to a story of their own?

Visit the project
Hopes & Leaves public homepage, with a botanical book illustration and the message Stories begin with a small idea.Enlarge the public homepage screenshot
The public front doorActual interface · November 2026
Context

Personal learning project

Focus

Writing · scaffolding · storytelling

Today

Public demo + local prototypes

Try the writing journey. The temporary public demo includes cards, planning, writing, submission and export. Use invented details. AI generation is off; account registration is closed.

Open the demo

Chapter 01 / The learning journey

One idea.
Six moments.

Follow the decisions behind the writing experience, from the first question to a new way of reading.

Idea

Start with a question.

Story Sparks asks who is in the story, where it happens, how the problem begins, what comes next and how it ends.Enlarge the story questions screenshot
Local interface study · fictional content

Before asking for a paragraph, the interface asks for a few ideas. These small prompts are my starting point for making the blank page feel more approachable.

Cards

Give imagination a foothold.

Five illustrated story cards: a young cook, a little village, one evening, a discovered map and the word happy.Enlarge the story cards screenshot
Local interface study · fictional content

Character, place, time, event and a useful word become tangible choices. Learners can keep a card they like and change the others, then decide how the pieces belong together.

Plan

Make the next step visible.

Three empty planning columns for beginning, middle and ending, each with a short guiding question.Enlarge the planning screenshot
Local planning-interface study

Beginning, middle and ending provide a visible route through the task. The prompts offer direction while leaving the story's events and language to the writer.

Write

Keep the learner's words central.

The public writing demo shows five chosen cards, a story title and the beginning and middle of an invented fox-and-lantern story.Enlarge the public writing demo screenshot
Public demo · fictional writing

The chosen cards stay in view while the writer develops the story. Drafts can be saved and submitted. In the public demo, writing remains available with AI assistance switched off.

Feedback

Leave room for another draft.

A fictional story is shown above revision history and a test teacher's comment asking how the friends felt.Enlarge the fictional feedback screenshot
Local feedback study · fictional writing and test accounts

A comment can point to one useful next move. The local feedback workflow keeps the original submission and revision context together, so a story can remain a conversation.

Comic

Meet the story in a new form.

A local two-page comic reader displays Lina in a yellow raincoat following a lantern and a map to a kitten.Enlarge the local comic-reader screenshot
V2 local prototype · AI-assisted fictional example

Story Maker explores adapting submitted writing into illustrated pages and narration. This is a local prototype: the original writing and its adaptation remain separate, and comic generation is not available in the public demo.

Chapter 02 / The learning design

Small choices.
Clear intentions.

These are the intentions behind the design. They are questions I am exploring, not claims of measured learning outcomes.

Offer a starting point.
Visual prompts and a three-part plan break a large writing task into decisions a learner can see and revisit.
Protect authorship.
The learner writes the story. Original submissions, revisions and AI-assisted adaptations are kept distinct rather than overwriting one another.
Design for returning.
Saved drafts, visible planning context and a teacher's next-step comment make space for revision, not just a finished submission.
Chapter 03 / The craftLocal prototype

A page worth
turning.

The V3 reader explores the feel of a physical book: page turns, separate lettering, visible text and narration that follows the spread.

The offline V3 reader captured mid-page-turn, with a curled sheet revealing the next illustrated spread.Enlarge the V3 page-turn screenshot
Actual V3 offline readerSynthetic art · audio test tone

Readable, in more than one way.

Lettering stays separate from artwork. A text view, portrait layout, pause controls and reduced motion make the reading interaction more flexible. An in-app lettering editor is a future step.

An honest prototype boundary.

This V3 demonstration uses synthetic illustrations and an audio test tone. Real generated V3 artwork and voice performance are still to be evaluated. It is not a public demo feature.

About meA practice in progress

Learning to teach.
Making as I learn.

I'm Umutcan, an English Language Teaching student at TED University.

I'm interested in what happens where language learning, storytelling and digital tools meet. Hopes & Leaves is where I bring those interests together: shaping an activity, building the interface and questioning what each choice asks of a learner.

This portfolio documents work as it develops, with a clear distinction between what you can try today and what I am still exploring.