Project overview
The Product
A comprehensive cross-platform tool designed to empower parents, educators, and caregivers of disabled children by providing a centralized resource for discovering and accessing suitable sports activities.
Project duration
July 2022 to December 2022
The problem
Most children with Autism are educated in segregated classrooms with children with similar disabilities which limits interaction with typical peers. Outside of school, children with autism are often ostracized due to their unusual or compulsive behaviors.
The goal
Sportable offers children the opportunity to improve their self-esteem and social skills, increase their communication & leadership skills and teach them how to sustain lifelong physical activity. This helps them build a foundation for a healthy, productive and fulfilling life.
My role
UX designer leading the app and responsive website design from conception to delivery
Responsibilities
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wire framing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs, determining information architecture, and responsive design.
Initial survey
Before diving into an app concept, it's crucial to assess if an app is the best solution. A LinkedIn survey revealed people are open to various solutions, with 28% considering an app viable for finding sports activities for their disabled children. This significant interest justifies developing such an app.
Understanding the user
User research summary
The research has the purpose of defining core tasks to be established for this specific tool. We would like to verify the first steps of the research as laid out in the low-res prototype, and also find out further users need as they search for a sports activity for their children/students.
Personas
Persona 1
Persona 2
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Competitive analysis
Analysis of current scenario of services (apps or websites) that provide or facilitate in the search for sports and activities for children with disabilities.
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Ideation
The need for a prominent search box and a strong visual are explored on the Crazy8 exercise to find the right balance for an impactful presence.
Design stage
Digital wireframes
Users asked for a strong search capability coupled with a strong visual hero image. The filter option has been added as a link to the onboarding section
Low-fidelity prototype
To prepare for usability testing, I created a low-fidelity prototype that started from the home page and featuring a search box and a strong visual showing the flow after search results.
Usability studies
Study type:
30 minutes moderated usability study in New York City with 3 participants
Usability study: findings
The primary issue of the search methodology was addressed at length.
1. Search bar
- Search bar is too small
- Search box needs to be made more prominent
- Search bar is too small
- Search box needs to be made more prominent
2. Filter
- Advanced search options (filters) are too many and shouldn’t be modal
- Add onboarding process with additional search preferences
- Advanced search options (filters) are too many and shouldn’t be modal
- Add onboarding process with additional search preferences
3. Profile
- Search bar is too generic
- Add search options to search bar to link to profile
- Search bar is too generic
- Add search options to search bar to link to profile
Mockup
High-fidelity
prototype
prototype
Implemented peer feedback by changing the user flow of the onboarding.
Profile was expanded to include search filters through 4 steps.
Homepage visual hero was balanced with a search bar that connects to the profile.
Accessibility
considerations
considerations
1. Provide access to users who are vision impaired through adding alt text to images for screen readers
2. Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies such as screen readers and magnifiers
3. Use HTML tags and attributes correctly, and provide adequate metadata for search engines.
Responsive Design
IA: Sitemap
The goal was to create a clear and organized structure for the content to improve the user experience and make it easier for users/visitors to find the information they are looking for.
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The designs for screen size variation includes mobile, tablet, and desktop.
The design is optimized to fit specific user needs for each device and screen size.
The design is optimized to fit specific user needs for each device and screen size.
Takeaways
Impact
The app promises to be extremely useful to parents and educators who need a reliable tool to find the right place for their children and students sports activities.
Also important are the resources they can find to help match the specific needs of each child with the right activity.
Also important are the resources they can find to help match the specific needs of each child with the right activity.
What I learned
This project has so many layers that I made the choice to put out something basic and then expanding once the tool is established and functioning at its basic level.
Next steps
1. Conduct another round of usability studies to validate whether the pain points users experienced have been effectively addressed.
2. Add more educational resources for users to learn about autism and disabilities.
3. Conduct research on how successful the app is in providing the service to parents/educators.
