Overview

SUMMARY:

Children with autism have trouble identifying civil servants and service personnel: what purpose they serve, how they help the community, and what items/automobiles/tools they use and why. The Speaks app aims to familiarize children with autism with service personnel, the items or tools they use, and what services they provide to ease the children’s anxiety and confusion when they encounter these types of workers in their daily lives.

My Role:

I performed qualitative interviews with teachers and aids working with children with autism remotely to ensure autism-friendly design. I also tested this application along with my team members, with children with autism to ensure that our design was actually accessibile and usable, as well as any changes that need to be made going forward with the application.

Project Duration:

January 2018 - March 2018

Links:

User Interviews, User Testing Page 1, User Testing Page 2

Final Product Prototype:

Here

Full Report:

Here

The Challenge

When we started this project, we knew that designing an app for a child with autism wouldn't be easy. The autism spectrum is broad. Every child is at a different level, meaning that we couldn't just design a simple learning game for the average 4-year-old. We started small. We shrunk our user base, focusing on designing an app for those around the ages of 5 to 7.

Of course, there are apps on the market that cater towards this problem, but none that won't break the bank. Low-income families couldn't afford the $300 dollar apps on the market that would help their child communicate. We realized that there was a need, we just had to create a plan to fulfill it.

Our Process

Understanding the Business Value

Before we could design our product, we determined its value in the market as well as our goals moving forward. By conducting a lean canvas and a value proposition canvas, we were able to see that our idea had value in the market, and would improve the lives of those affected by autism - not only children, but parents and teachers as well. Not only that, we were able to figure out our three-week, three-month, and three-year (3x3x3) goals.

Speaks Three-Week Goals
Speaks Three-Week Goals
Speaks Three-Month Goals
Speaks Three-Month Goals
Speaks Three-Year Goals
Speaks Three-Year Goals
Speaks Lean and Value Proposition Canvas
Speaks Lean and Value Proposition Canvas

Understanding the User

When approaching the user research section of the project, we knew the best way to understand children with autism was through those who knew how to communicate with them, understanding them at a level that they themselves had difficulty explaining to others. We conducted ethnographic and subject matter expert interviews with Sarah Nguyen, who teaches children with autism, and her student aids, in order to get varying perspectives on how they engage with the children. We gathered that the best way they learned was through visual imagery and interactive, sensory elements.

Speaks User Inteviews
Speaks User Interviews

Initial Design

The initial designs of our application focused on a mobile version of the app, as my research found that most children with autism are capable of using mobile devices as opposed to a desktop.

Speaks Paper Prototype
Speaks Paper Prototype

Since we only had 10 weeks to flesh out this project, we were not able to have a fully-functional web application, however we were able to test our product using an Invision prototype, with the base designs created in Figma, as well as a beta web application. We focused on designing an engaging environment for the children, using bright colors and cartoon characters, limiting the amount of on-screen text for a more visual learning experience. Not only that, we gathered that children with autism find question-and-answer game was short and concise, focusing on the key elements needed for that specific job type so that the children would quickly and easily understand what they look like and what they do.

User Testing

We were given the opportunity to actually test our product with real users due to Sarah Nguyen, who teaches children with autism, allowing us to work with her students. It was evident that the children could not comprehend exactly what to do when they were given the application, but with verbal guidance they picked up the flow quickly, so quickly that our protoypes could not keep up - the screen changes were too slow, causing the children to mis-tap. Both lower and higher-functioning children were able to use the application, almost to the point where it was too easy for them - though that only applied to the mobile version of our application.

When it came to using our actual web application, we were only able to use it via desktop, since it would not load properly through our mobile devices. It was clear that lower-functioning children did not have the motor skills to use a mouse, however higher-functioning children were able to use the application fairly easily.

Our Results

The Speaks app has evolved from a simple vision aimed at helping children with autism improve their social and communication skills to a web-based game. The evolution of this product has been carried out through various stages of prototyping, testing and implementation. We began with identifying a problem, it’s solution, customer segment and value proposition. From this we were able to dive further into our product to determine how it meets the needs of our customers and functions to relieve pain points. After having a clear vision, we began to think about milestones in terms of three weeks, three months and three years.

Our initial three week goal was to determine our minimum viable product (MVP) and research if it has already been done and if it would provide benefit to our customer segment. Our three month plan was to develop a high fidelity prototype and initial version of our MVP. Our MVP includes a scenario-based game for children with autism to familiarize themselves with service personnel, the items or tools they use, and what services they provide. Focusing on our three month goal, we went through various rounds of testing that included an ethnographic interview and usability tests. Through testing, we were able to identify ways in which to improve our current MVP as part of the three year goal which also includes converting it from a web-app to a mobile application, marketing the application to users and determining a system for users to track their progress.