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Transition Discoveries

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Duration

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12 Months

Team

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5 Members

Tools

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Figma, FigJam 

Google Forms 

Contribution

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Formative Research, Design System, Affinity Mapping, Wireframing Prototyping, Visual Design and Usability Testing

Problem Background

​

Navigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood is especially challenging for youth with disabilities, who face unique obstacles across various domains. Our initiative focused on creating a professional development section on the Transition Discoveries (TD) website, dedicated to mentors and educators.

How can we ensure professionals assisting youth with disabilities have access to tailored digital platforms, bridging resource gaps and supporting their transition into adulthood effectively?

Pain Points​

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Ethical failure: Societal negligence towards equity and justice.

Social exclusion: Barriers preventing full societal participation.

Complex Transition Needs: Youth with disabilities face unique and varied obstacles during the transition to adulthood, requiring tailored support.

Psychological trauma: Mental health issues from discrimination.

Unrealized potential: Talents and contributions remain untapped

Solutions​

Transition Discovery can create a professional development section for mentors and educators, offering user-friendly tools and resources. This will support youth with disabilities in their transition to adulthood by providing personalized content and fostering an inclusive environment.

Key Features

01

Dashboard

The Professional’s Dashboard on serves as a centralized hub for monitoring student progress, managing educational resources, and overseeing professionaldevelopment activities.

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02

AI Chat Box

The AI chat box offers personalized support tailored to each student's specific needs and challenges, and provides 24/7 accessibility, making resources available at any time, regardless of location or time zone. It also serves as a centralized hub for connecting professionals and students with relevant resources, services, and support networks both within and outside the educational institution.

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03

Lesson Planner Customization and Adaptability

The AI chat box creates personalized lesson plans tailored to each student's needs, incorporating universal design principles to ensure accessibility and support diverse learning styles. This automation saves educators time by efficiently generating lesson plans, especially for students with disabilities.

Focus Area

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Youth Development 

Learning about your strenghts, preference, goals and how to take charge of your life!​

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Transition Planning

It's all about planning for life 

after high school

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Employment

Choose a career that aligns with your interests and long-term goals.

Diving deeper into the process

Ethnographic Studies

8+

Competitor analysis

Feature

Development

400+

minutes of interviews with professionals and youth

Usability 

Testing

10+

Research Papers

Stakeholder

Feedback

Initial Background Research:

We began with an extensive background study on Transition Discoveries and their website, examining relevant literature on the transition experiences of youth with disabilities. Our research highlighted the critical role of personalized transition planning, the importance of support networks, and the need for inclusive services to facilitate a smoother transition to adulthood.

Interview Script

We developed an interview script to collect insights from professionals working with individuals transitioning from high school to adulthood. The script covers user demographics, key challenges, and resource needs, ensuring our platform meets the expectations and requirements of those supporting youth with disabilities.

Competitor Analysis

In our competitive analysis, we examined five competitors, each offering unique approaches to the client's application. This investigation revealed valuable insights into the market landscape, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses .

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Easy navigation and engaging visuals

Lack of variety in training module images and contusion in content visualization for disabilities

Visual Elements

Usability and

Consistency

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Intuitive navigation and visually 

appealing graphics

Lack of categorization in the 

training module and confusing 

navigation to resource files

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Efficiency and User Support

Simple introductory words for userfamiliarity & easy navigation

Poor visual appeal, less interactive elements and confusing disability explanations 

Information Hierarchy

The work can be repetitive and ​

boring

Lack of organization in support

topics and confusion in the term

"resources" 

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Survey Insights

We received 18 insightful responses, providing a detailed snapshot of professional engagement and support for transitioning youth.
Age Groups Supported: 18–22 years above (college, university, and beyond)
Educational Settings: High school (56.3%), college/university (43.8%), middle school (31.3%).

Intellectual 

Disabilities

81.8%

75%

Developmental

Disabilities

Learning

Disabilities

62.5%

56.3%

Physical

Disabilities

Sensary

Impairment

31.3%

Common Job Titles: Special education teachers (25%), Consultants (12.5%)
Other positions (6.3%): Transition coordinators, program specialists, research associates, student advisors, individual mentors, directors/faculty, advocates, and administrative roles.

Transition Discovery Needs

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Empowering Youth with Disabilities

Building a Supportive

Network

Integration of Experience and Knowledge 

Increasing Inclusive Opportunities 

Focus on the challenges that young people with disabilities encounter as

they transition into adult life after  high school.

Establish a powerful network of realtionships

among youth with disabilities, their families and supporting professionals.

Create a platform where professionals and families can contribute insights, best practices, and success stories to inform and guide others.

Encourage communities to activity participate in decision making processes, ensuring a holistic and community-drive approach. 

The Challenges 

After conducting thorough analysis using various methods, we pinpointed the primary pain points experienced by users. We Identified some key issues

1

A very cluttered header

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2

No search bar

3

Repetitive content

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Brainstorming Features!

With our newfound knowledge of the pain points, we brainstormed a list of all the features that would work for TD. We also considered all the previous research and consulted users before devising this!

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Information Architecture

Given the initial lack of a professional website design, we aimed to address deficiencies in the youth segment of the project. Consequently, we developed a more streamlined information architecture, resulting in an improved professional website.

Old Information architecture

Old Information architecture

New Information Architecture

New Information Architecture

Old Information Architecture

New Information Architecture

Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

We generated mid-fidelity wireframes with different designs to assess our solutions and refined them into high-fidelity iterations. Through this process, we eliminated redundancies and enhanced essential features as needed. 

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The Dashboard

  • Functions as a central platform

  • Tracks student progress

  • Organizes educational materials

  • Supervises professional development tasks

Lesson Planner

  • Enables the creation of personalized lesson plans

  • Tailors plans to the individual needs of students

  • Adapts to students' abilities

  • Considers various learning styles

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AI Chatbot

  • Personalized Suppor

  • Accessibility and Availability

  • Resource Referral and Guidance

Evaluation

User Testing + Data Synthesis:

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Method: Conducted think-aloud evaluations with stakeholders coupled with expert heuristic analysis based on Nielsen’s 10 usability principles.

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Participants: 2 Transition planning stakeholders, 1 UX expert.

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Focus: Evaluated the onboarding sequence, main dashboard, resource navigation, and tool interaction within the prototype.

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Data Collection: Sessions recorded for verbal feedback; notes taken for non-verbal cues.

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Data Analysis: Utilized affinity mapping to group feedback and identify key themesaround usability challenges.

Average Ratings (Likert Scale from 1-5):

05

04

03

02

01

Over all ease of use 

Navigability

Visual Design

Feature Functionality:

Interactivity:

Key Feedback & Suggestions:

"The onboarding is comprehensive but could be more engaging with interactive
elements."
- Stakeholder 1

"Streamline the navigation menus by grouping related items together and using clear, descriptive labels."- Stakeholder 2

"The main dashboard is functional but needs clearer prioritization of tasks." - Heuristic

Final Designs 

Dashboard

AI Assistant

Lesson Planner

Chatbox