WeWander
WELLNESS TRACKING TOOL FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH AUTISM
Inspired by our findings in a nationally recognized research initiative through the Knowlton School of Architecture, I was the lead product designer and strategist of a therapeutic assistance platform to help individuals with ASD integrate successfully into an urban setting that initially excluded them.
My Role
Team Management
Brainstorming
Research
User Interviews
Wireframes
Information Architecture
UX/UI
Pitch Deck Design
Employer
SensAI Wellness, Inc.
OVERVIEW
SensAI is a mental health and wellness tool designed to make life better for individuals and families afflicted with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by addressing struggles both internally and externally. The project started when I was in gradate school with a simple question: How can we help people with Autism thrive in our communities? The academic solution we came up with initially, was to create a set of guidelines for architects & city planners to build with these individuals in mind.
I wasn't satisfied with that answer. In a world where physically rebuilding cities is largely not a realistic option, I was determined to find a solution that can be implemented in a more immediate way.
RESEARCH
In order to dig into more detail about the challenges faced by individuals with ASD, my team & I implemented an extensive series of data-gathering exercises. We spoke to dozens of individuals, including twenty adults with ASD, as well as their parents, caregivers, doctors, & teachers.
We decided the best approach was to utilize a combination of quantitative & qualitative research methods. We conducted focus groups, surveys, one-on-one stakeholder interviews, and various interactive exercises to help us empathize fully with the individuals we wanted to help (prompts such as "draw a picture of your dream house.")
Method
After creating an initial set of features & designing a prototype, we conducted a series of one-on-one 30 minute interviews with key stakeholders in order to validate our initial hypotheses. We framed all questions in a neutral way to avoid leading participants towards biased answers. Interviews were structured conversationally, making sure to hit all the key points we wanted, while allowing participants the freedom to steer the conversation in new ways.
Through this process, we were able to trim features that turned out to be unneeded, refine the features that we correct in including, and add brand-new features to solve for unanticipated needs.
Findings
Our research pointed to a grim reality that faces these individuals once they reach adulthood. Often, individuals with ASD are forced into lives of avoidance, relying on largely ineffective or partial solutions, that include wearing earplugs, relying on a caretaker, or simply missing out on life outside their homes.
Navigation
Anxiety
Personal Space Invasion
Sensory
Overload
Solution
We designed an app built to help individuals keep track of their mental health, manage potentially noxious sensory stimuli out in the environment, and provide insights into their own condition.
Data can be crowd sourced and pooled between users to avoid unexpected triggers in real-time.
On the healthcare provider side, the app can help them connect with patients on a new level and collect in-depth and accurate information that can help them make better diagnoses and more streamlined treatment decisions.
For researchers, our system can give deep insight into both the conditions they are looking to study as well as data to fuel studies looking at novel treatment options.
Loud Noises
Smoke/Smells
Bright/Flashing Lights
Temperature Shifts
Personal Space
Use Case:
Parent - Child - Doctor
A parent may set up an account on behalf of their child with ASD in order to maintain consistent communication between themselves family members, caretakers, teachers, and doctors. This network will have the ability not only to get a sense of the child's mental state through access to analytics, episode history, and an interactive map of potential triggers, but also the ability to enter geographic trigger information themselves.
User Flow & Sitemap
Home
The user has access to guided mindfulness meditation and breathing exercises, all recent triggers with links to their locations, available quizzes and assessments for the day/week, access to incoming messages from his/her Support Network, and the ability to report an episode.
Journal
Users have the ability to report where episodes of exacerbated stress have occurred, both for their own reference, and the reference for the Support network. Journals utilize scientifically validated mental health assessment techniques integrated into daily, weekly, and as-needed journal entries.
*Scientifically validated mental health assessment techniques are integrated into daily, weekly, and as-needed diary entries.
Additional Use Cases
Individuals with depression or anxiety may experience inner turmoil at negative cyclical thought patterns brought on by exposure to particular people, conversations, tasks, or events. Accessible Design means Better Design for Everyone
Loud, high pitched, or sudden noises
Unpleasant tactile sensations
Bright lights
Unpleasant smells
External Triggers
Internal Triggers
Upsetting comments
Tough conversations
Particular tasks
Toxic work/relationship dynamics
ASD
Mental
Health
Everyone
Licensing Partnerships
What else can we do with a dynamic, geo-spatial sensory map?
An overlay of sensory data to help optimize a route for someone sensitive to particular stimuli.
Google Maps
An overlay of sensory data of a particular establishment so a person with sensitivities can decide whether to go or not.
Google Reviews
A reliable source of real time spatial sensory data would be extremely valuable to researchers.
Research
An overlay of sensory data in public spaces might help a dog walker avoid situations that could trigger a dog.
Wag/Rover
Like Google Maps, SensAI's API could benefit the biggest navigation app in China.