Bauen
The ultimate learning experience for the special needs community.
Role: Team Lead, UX Researcher, UI Designer
Brief: Problems with remote studying
Target Audience: Elementary level students with special needs who struggle with remote learning, and caregivers, teachers, therapists that are involved in guiding these students.
Applications: Illustrator, Figma, Miro, Rhino
Problem
Lack of resources and communication for special needs community. There aren’t enough products or platforms for the special needs community to experience better support in their occupation.
Who makes up the special needs community?
Students: Individuals who require assistance with disabilities
Teachers: Academic human resources that provide assistance and accommodations
Caregivers: Provide full care & support for the person in need
Family & friends: Provide moral/financial support for each other
Therapists: Provides mental health support, moral guidance as well as physical training and assistance
We conducted a survey of 20 respondents consisting of 18 questions.
60% of respondents said their student(s) needed help almost all the time and 70% said the students did not have access to the same resources they did pre-pandemic
6 Interviews
After a preliminary survey, we contacted 3 survey respondents and reached out to related professionals for further research.
We separated the responses into positive, negative, and what we thought were neutral, and grouped the similar ones together to create insights.
Some insights we found.
Teachers have a harder time communicating with students and parents
Parents aren’t qualified to effectively teach special needs kids
Parents, teachers, caregivers need help and resources are unavailable or difficult to find
Ideation
Crazy 8s
We began our design concept and ideation process with rounds of ‘Crazy 8s’,
an 8-panel sketch, each broken up by 60 seconds of time.
There’s no such thing as a bad idea. Go crazy!
We voted for the best ideas using our virtual sticky notes and further developed the idea
Solution
A character companion that assists students with special needs and their academic difficulties. It also connects the supporting parties of a special needs student through an app. The parties can monitor and support the student through the product as well as being able to set up educational material and exercises for the student to practice.
