AI resource management platform for professionals supporting youth with disabilities
• Client Project • User Research •
Product Discovery • AI Chatbot
Designing an AI-powered resource management platform for professionals assisting youth with disabilities, with a focus on interactivity and inclusivity
Transition professionals play a vital role in guiding youth with disabilities from high school to adulthood. However, they often struggle with accessing resources, tracking progress, and collaborating effectively. My key contributions to this project included formative and summative research, generative research, market analysis, affinity mapping, design system creation, UI design, and usability testing— all with a strong focus on building an inclusive, interactive, and accessible learning platform for professionals supporting the youth.
Fall '23 Capstone Client Project
In collaboration with the Luddy School of Informatics, we tackled a crucial issue faced by transition professionals who assist youth with disabilities in navigating life after high school. This case study showcases how we designed a user-friendly platform aimed at solving these challenges, improving the support system for youth with disabilities during their transition.
Responsibilities: Formative & Summative Research, Generative Research, Market Research, Affinity mapping, Design System, UI Design, Usability testing
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Google Suite
Timeline: 12 Months
Team: Collaborated with 5 HCI students
Problem
HMW design a digital resource management platform for educators to use AI for creating tailored resources and facilitating seamless collaboration to support youth with disabilities in their transition to adulthood?
Transition educators who support youth with disabilities often face significant challenges in accessing the right resources, tracking progress, and collaborating with various stakeholders. The existing platform has limited interactivity, lacks personalized features, is difficult to use, and doesn't offer tailored support, making it challenging to manage and assist effectively.
Getting to know the client's vision and perspective
User Groups (Stakeholders)
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Professionals involved in supporting youth with disabilities (ages 12-30 Yrs)- Special educators, school administrators, therapists, and disability service providers.
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"The platform has great potential." – With over 750 users in six weeks, there’s a global opportunity for engagement.
User Needs & Preferences
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"Time is limited." – Professionals are overextended, so learning must be concise and efficient.
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"Multitasking is the norm." – Content should be relevant, engaging, and easy to apply immediately.
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"Learn by doing." – Users prefer interactive experiences that allow them to implement knowledge right away.
Opportunities
"We are in a new AI world and would like to provide innovative professional learning opportunities and spaces for users that are overworked and tired. - client
We would like to create a learning space where they can learn from one another and share resources". -client
"We need to stand out." – The platform must offer fresh, engaging learning experiences beyond typical webinars and PowerPoints. - Client
Client
Challenges
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"Breaking old habits is tough." – Traditional professional development has failed many practitioners.
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"We are starting from scratch." – No existing structure—just a vision and goals.
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"Innovation is key." – The challenge is to create something fresh and impactful.
Solution
Transition Discoveries Educators Platform- Key Features
The Transition Discoveries Resource Management Platform is an interactive and inclusive platform that provides:
01
Centralized Dashboard
The Professional’s Dashboard on serves as a centralized hub for monitoring student progress, managing educational resources, and overseeing professional development activities.
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AI Chatbot for Personalized Support
The platform offers personalized support tailored to each student's unique needs and challenges, while providing 24/7 accessibility to resources and assistance from anywhere. It serves as a centralized hub, connecting professionals and students with relevant resources, services, and support networks both within and outside the educational institution, ensuring comprehensive support and guidance.
03
Lesson Planner: Tailored to Every Student’s Needs
The AI chatbot creates customized lesson plans tailored to each student's unique needs, abilities, and learning styles, ensuring maximum engagement and accessibility. This automation saves educators valuable time by streamlining lesson planning, especially for students with disabilities, enabling more effective and inclusive education.
01 Formative Research
To gather insights that help shape the design process, define user needs, and identify the core problems to solve
We conducted ethnographic Studies, followed by user Interviews, a user survey, and persona development to uncover the underlying problems and gain insights into the special education domain. Our focus was on understanding key elements such as legal frameworks, cultural sensitivity, inclusivity, various types of disabilities, individualized education programs (IEPs), technology inclusion, and the gaps in providing resources and fostering collaboration.
Understanding the Educators’ Environment and context of youth with Disabilities through interviews
Transition professionals (such as teachers, mentors, counselors, etc.) who work with these youth often face challenges in their roles. By interacting and observing them revealed their unique needs, struggles, tools they use and how they collaborate with others. Their day-to-day tasks, such as class activities, social interactions, or work placements, to understand the obstacles they face.
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%).
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.
Focus Areas
02 Evaluative Research
Identifying the areas of improvements, opportunities within current website
We conducted a thorough analysis of the existing platform to pinpoint usability issues, navigation challenges, and areas that hindered the overall user experience. Through Heuristic Evaluation, Usability Testing, and User Feedback, we identified specific pain points related to accessibility, content clarity, and the effectiveness of the platform’s interactive elements. Additionally, we mapped the current user journey to understand how users navigate the site and where they face challenges, particularly in the areas of content discovery and collaboration tools for professionals supporting youth with disabilities.
Models of Target Users and Activities:
03 Generative Research
Discovering new ideas, exploring possibilities, and understanding user needs
In this phase, our focus was on uncovering new insights that would shape our platform’s design by understanding the unique needs and challenges faced by professionals assisting youth with disabilities. To explore creative solutions and generate fresh ideas, we utilized the following methods:
Competitor Analysis
We looked at 4 direct competitors and 1 indirect alternative solution, all of which take different approaches to addressing the specific product/application our client is interested in. While each competitor has advantages and disadvantages, investigating these alternatives has provided valuable insights into key strengths and weaknesses in current solutions, as well as areas where our platform could stand out by offering more tailored, accessible, and collaborative features.
Now, brainstorming features and finding ways to include GenAI
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!
User Flow Revamping
At the time, the project lacked a professional website design, presenting an opportunity to address deficiencies in the youth segment. We leveraged these insights to create a more streamlined information architecture for the professional platform. I led the process of mapping both the old and new user flows from scratch, uncovering navigation challenges and establishing a clearer, more intuitive user journey.
Check out old and new user flow here
Old User Flow
New User Flow
05 Design
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
We generated low-fidelity wireframes to assess our solutions, subsequently refining them into mid-fidelity iterations. Through this process, we eliminated redundancies and enhanced essential features as needed.
Dashboard
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Organizes student progress
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Professional development courses
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Resource management
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Schedules
Custom Lesson Planning
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Customizable tools to adapt to different learning needs and disabilities of student
AI Chatbot
1. Offers 24/7 assistance, AI -resource recommendations for specific disability, and accessibility features.
06 Summative Research
Evaluating the effectiveness of the design: User Testing + Data Synthesis
Average Ratings (Likert Scale from 1-5)
Key Feedback & Suggestions
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“The onboarding is comprehensive, but could be more engaging with interactive elements.”
-Stakeholder 1
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“Consider using breadcrumb navigation for better user orientation in resource sections.”
- Stakeholder 2
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“The main dashboard is functional, but needs clearer prioritization of tasks.”
- Heuristic
Final Designs
Dashboard
Organizes student progress, professional development, and resource management in one place.
AI Chatbot
AI Chat box, create custom lessons
Lesson Planner
Recourses, Tools, Report Cards and Integrations
Reflections
AI opened up new possibilities!
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Reflecting on my experience designing AI solutions for accessibility, I gained a deeper understanding of how diverse and complex the needs of users with disabilities are. Balancing the unique requirements of various groups—such as visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments—pushed me to rethink how AI can be leveraged to create inclusive experiences.
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I learned the importance of continuously iterating based on real user feedback. The key to effective accessibility is not just following guidelines but understanding how users with disabilities interact with technology in the real world.
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This experience reinforced my belief that AI can be a powerful tool in making the digital world more accessible. The potential for AI to create personalized experiences—whether it’s adjusting content for cognitive impairments or providing adaptive learning for neurodiverse users—has the power to transform accessibility in ways we’ve only begun to explore.