Elevating the patient voice

by providing a community for those with autism, allowing them to connect, learn, and share their experiences with one another.

Challenge

Identify an opportunity to create a digital solution with the mission of activating the patient voice through social media.

My Role: Art direction, UI design
Time frame: 7 weeks
Tools: Adobe XD

View prototype

🧍Identifying the user

Autism

is a lifelong, nonprogressive neurological disorder typically appearing before the age of 3 years.

1 in 5

of those with autism have lived independently since high school.

Over 75,000,000 people

worldwide are living with autism.

Autistic individuals

often have great difficulty recognizing social cues.

A “spectrum”

due to the wide variation in types and severity of symptoms experienced.

Currently

no medical detection or cure for autism spectrum disorder.

🎯 Defining the problem

Today’s society showcases the ease of communication through social media, but these platforms are not supportive and visually accessible for many people in the ASD (autism spectrum disorder) community. This pitfall deprives them of the chance to build meaningful relationships and seek helpful resources through technology in an environment that is not solely dependent on social cues.

📝 Insights

~80%

of adults with ASD reported using social media networking sites for social connection.

Adolescents with ASD

use technology to increase their independence, enhance their social opportunities, and relieve their anxiety and stress.

Adolescents with ASD

who reported using social media were found to have better friendship quality and great security in their friendships.

🛠️ Crafting a solution

The world of social media makes it increasingly easy for people to communicate and connect over common interests. The nature of technology allows for this to occur without conversation and relationships hinging on an ability to understand social cues. Existing social media platforms focus on meeting unrealistic standards and are prevalent with cyberbullies.

The solution is to provide a community for those with autism, allowing them to connect, learn from, and share their experiences with one another, providing them a safe and accepting platform where their difficulty understanding social cues would not limit their ability to make meaningful connections and relationships.

ChatrFly: An overview

Registration

Available to those with ASD and parents/guardians who wish to monitor activity with a custodial account.

Search & Match

Users are sorted into groups based on their interests, allowing members with similar interests to share photos and posts.

Spotlights & Resources

“Stories” tab gives users access to helpful ASD resources and articles, including advice on how to handle particularly tricky situations for those with ASD, and highlighting user-generated stories.

Safety

Chats are monitored for offensive language & bullying with specific words triggering automatic suspension pending review, ensuring user safety.

📱 User Experience

Onboarding

Primary User

Progress bar provides the user with a sense of certainty in the onboarding process
Option to aggregate content by linking social media accounts
Save tags that allow connection through common interests

Secondary User (Caregiver | Parent | Guardian)

Primary user sends an invitation to secondary user to create a moderator account
Secondary use must confirm relationship to create account

User profile

Request to chat

Ability to grant permission to chat with other users
Prevents unsolicited engagement or surprises
Allows privacy

Community

Community posts are forums based on user interest tags and connections made in-app.

Users can engage with posts on the forums by liking and commenting. Metrics tracking engagement would be hidden on user accounts to prevent social pressures to gain a following. The purpose of this is for users to focus on making meaningful connections through shared interests and find resources devoid of distractions.

Community influencer profile

Well known members of the autism community can be identified with a verified badge on their profile indicating they are a community influencer. Users can discover these profiles and see how others experience, overcome, and manage daily challenges.

Connecting

Using predictive text to assist in guiding conversations, users have the ability to make a selection from a set of AI-generated prompts and phrases designed to make interactions smoother and more engaging.

Discover

Resources

Curated content relevant to goals and needs for users, such as job and school readiness
Promoting healthy lifestyles and independence
Tips on managing symptoms

Stories