Neurodiversity University
Home Page, Ask an Expert, and The Library
Project Overview
A responsive web application that connects neurodivergent individuals, their caregivers and their partners to vetted experts and curated resources, with accessibility at its core.
Role: Lead UX Researcher & Designer
Duration: 4 months
Deliverables: personas, journey maps, information architecture, wireframes (low to high fidelity), interactive prototype, usability & preference testing, design system
An intuitive, supportive, and highly-customizable resource hub that empowers users to access the solutions and connections most relevant to their needs.
The Challenge
The brief was simple: design a responsive app that connects users with experts.
I centered the project on neurodiversity. Neurodiversity refers to the natural variation in how human brains function and process information. It includes diagnoses of: ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and Tourette syndrome.
These traits are far more common than many realize. Estimates suggest that roughly 15 - 20% of the global population (approximately 1 in 7 people) exhibit some form of neurodivergence¹.
The combination of prevalence and diverse cognitive processing styles creates a context in which access to trustworthy expert guidance is essential.
Defining Expertise
Who defines an expert?
It seemed clear that the person seeking help defines “expert” according to the parameters of their unique needs. For some, it’s a licensed clinician; for others, it is a parent, teacher, or peer who has walked the same path. That insight informed a solution that would expand the scope beyond simple appointment booking.
Problem Statement
Neurodivergent individuals, caregivers, and partners often struggle to find trustworthy guidance that applies to their specific situations. Information about neurodiversity is fragmented across many platforms, varies widely in credibility, and is frequently presented in ways that create cognitive barriers for the very audiences seeking support. In addition, access to qualified experts can be limited by geography, cost, or long waitlists.
Users need a centralized, accessible system that helps them quickly identify trusted guidance, connect with relevant expertise, and locate resources tailored to their needs.
Potential Solution
A responsive, accessibility-first platform that connects users with a broad spectrum of vetted expertise — including clinicians, educators, lived experience perspectives, and curated resources — while enabling users to quickly filter information and identify guidance most relevant to their situation.
An application that centralizes trusted resources and enables remote access to expertise will reduce cognitive load, expand access to support, and help users navigate neurodiversity information with greater clarity and confidence.
Research
To understand the broader landscape of neurodiversity resources, I combined two initial research methods: surveys and interviews to collect direct user perspectives, and competitive analysis of existing platforms. Together, these approaches surfaced both lived experiences and structural gaps across the current ecosystem.
Surveys & Interviews
To capture a range of experiences, I developed a survey and interview guide designed to surface needs and challenges across target audience perspectives.
Participants included:
Neurodivergent individuals
Caregivers and parents
Partners of neurodiverse individuals
Educators
Disability rights advocates
Including representatives across target groups ensured diverse viewpoints were reflected and revealed not only individual needs but recurring systemic challenges across contexts.
User Needs Map
To synthesize the survey and interview data, I created a User Needs Map grouping responses into categories such as goals, pain points, wish lists, and resource gaps.
This visual analysis surfaced recurring patterns across participants, firmly establishing the needs which informed the system architecture.
User Needs Map
Key Insights
Several consistent themes emerged:
Limited Resources for Adults
Most existing resources are child-focused, leaving adult populations underrepresented.
Stigma & Misinformation
Neurodiversity is far more common than many people realize, yet stigma and misinformation still persist.
Gender Bias / Need for Female-Specific Resources
Diagnostic models and research historically skew toward boys, contributing to under/misdiagnosis in females and a shortage of resources tailored to their needs.
Accessibility Across Modalities
Information must be available in multiple formats (video, audio, text) to support diverse cognitive processing styles.
With user needs identified, I examined existing resources to evaluate how well current platforms addressed pain points and wish lists.
Competitive Analysis & Content Audit
To evaluate existing solutions and identify gaps, I reviewed three platforms that reflected key elements of my concept: Autism-help.org (information hub), Psychology Today’s Therapist Directory (expert connection), and Understood.org (customizable resource library).
Each site offered valuable strengths but also revealed significant limitations, highlighting the opportunity for a more integrated, user-friendly system.
www.autism-help.org
Extensive peer-reviewed content with wide subject coverage
Non-responsive design with dense, text-heavy content
Cluttered navigation and poor text readability
Lacks direct “ask an expert” or contact options
Autism Help Snapshot
www.psychologytoday.com
Visually polished interface with inviting imagery and user-friendly navigation
Comprehensive filters allow users to sort by focus, gender, therapy modality, and more
Contact limited to directory functions - no in-app options for consultation or services
Limited exclusively to licensed clinicians; excludes peer/lived-experience experts
Psychology Today Snapshot
www.understood.org
Strong customization - users can tailor learning paths to individual interests
Wide array of resources tailored for parents, caregivers, and educators
Inviting and accessible UI design
Content breadth is strong, but primarily resource-focused; lacks interactive features
Understood Snapshot
Key Takeaways
Across the three websites analyzed, I observed strong models of usability, customization and resource depth. However, none offered a unified platform that combined expert connection with a curated resource library — or allowed users to choose the form of expertise most relevant to their specific needs.
Personas
I created four personas to represent several distinct audiences Neurodiversity University should serve: neurodivergent individuals, caregivers, and partners. Each persona reflects unique goals, frustrations, and lived experiences. These personas, paired with user stories, helped ensure design decisions were grounded in authentic motivations and real user needs.
User Personas
User Flows & Journey Maps
To bring the personas to life, I developed user stories and journey maps illustrating how individuals might navigate the process of seeking expertise. These narratives captured key steps, emotional highs and lows, and opportunities for design intervention. Together, they informed several core design decisions.
Below is a representative example: Mason, an adult navigating the challenge of seeking an ADHD diagnosis.
User Flow & Journey Map
Information Architecture
To establish a clear structure for the application, I created a site map outlining the primary features and their relationships. I then conducted closed card sorts to validate whether users grouped content and functions in intuitive ways. Feedback from this exercise informed adjustments to categorization and navigation patterns, ensuring site architecture aligned with user expectations.
Site Map
Design Solutions
With the information architecture established, the focus shifted to interface design — progressing from exploratory sketches to wireframes and interactive prototypes.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Translating sketches into Figma clarified scale, spacing, and navigational patterns, while keeping the system flexible and adaptable. At this level, the emphasis was on flow and hierarchy rather than visual polish.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes & Prototype
Mid-fidelity wireframes introduced real copy and refined interface components, setting the stage for prototyping and usability testing.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Interactive Prototype
I created a sprawling mid-fidelity prototype, allowing the full experience to be explored via click-through navigation.
Usability Testing
To evaluate whether the prototype supported intuitive navigation and resource discovery, I conducted usability testing sessions with participants representing the project’s key audiences..
Insights
Navigation cues were not always immediately recognizable
Some participants did not initially recognize the logo as a return-to-home navigation element, suggesting the need for clearer onboarding guidance and stronger visual cues.
Users needed clearer explanations of platform features
Participants occasionally hesitated when encountering core functions of the platform, indicating that brief explanations of each feature would help users understand how different resources and expert services could be accessed.
Key interface details required refinement to improve clarity, accessibility, and trust
Testing revealed opportunities to improve readability and transparency, including increasing the visibility of expert qualifications and clarifying details within the payment flow such as session format and duration.
Design Implications
Usability testing insights led to refinements in labeling, navigation cues, and interface clarity. Onboarding tutorials were expanded to explain core platform features, and contextual help options were introduced so users could quickly revisit explanations as needed.
Final Designs
The final designs realize the vision of a platform that helps users quickly locate trustworthy neurodiversity guidance while supporting diverse cognitive needs. The system brings together multiple forms of expertise within a structured, accessible environment designed to reduce cognitive load and simplify decision-making.
Key design outcomes include:
Accessible visual design
Research-informed color palette and typography choices that support readability across diverse cognitive processing styles.
Reduced cognitive load through structured information
Clear navigation and filtering systems that centralize fragmented resources and allow users to quickly locate guidance relevant to their specific situations.
Expansive definitions of expertise
Support for multiple forms of expertise — including clinicians, educators, lived experience perspectives, and curated knowledge resources — allowing users to choose the guidance most meaningful to them.
Improved access to critical support
Remote consultation options and curated digital resources reduce barriers created by geography, availability, and traditional service waitlists.
High-Fidelity Wireframes: The Library & The Commons
Reflection
One of the central principles that guides my design work is empathy — an interpretive approach that seeks to understand not only what users need, but the context and nuance behind those needs. In the Neurodiversity University project, this perspective led me to question what “expert guidance” might look like across a diverse user base.
My early assumption was that the type of expertise desired would vary widely depending on a user’s circumstances and goals. User interviews confirmed the importance of providing multiple forms of guidance rather than defining expertise through a single lens. This insight expanded expert connection beyond simple appointment booking into a broader resource hub, allowing users to filter and navigate information according to their unique needs.
This project reinforced the importance of designing systems that center user agency. When systems empower users to access resources that reflect their own context and priorities, they become more meaningful and effective.
Neurodiversity University
Home Page, Ask an Expert, and The Library
Project Overview
A responsive web application that connects neurodivergent individuals, their caregivers and their partners to vetted experts and curated resources, with accessibility at its core.
Role: Lead UX Researcher & Designer
Duration: 4 months
Deliverables: personas, journey maps, information architecture, wireframes (low to high fidelity), interactive prototype, usability & preference testing, design system
An intuitive, supportive, and highly-customizable resource hub that empowers users to access the solutions and connections most relevant to their needs.
The Challenge
The brief was simple: design a responsive app that connects users with experts.
I centered the project on neurodiversity. Neurodiversity refers to the natural variation in how human brains function and process information. It includes diagnoses of: ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and Tourette syndrome.
These traits are far more common than many realize. Estimates suggest that roughly 15 - 20% of the global population (approximately 1 in 7 people) exhibit some form of neurodivergence¹.
The combination of prevalence and diverse cognitive processing styles creates a context in which access to trustworthy expert guidance is essential.
Defining Expertise
Who defines an expert?
It seemed clear that the person seeking help defines “expert” according to the parameters of their unique needs. For some, it’s a licensed clinician; for others, it is a parent, teacher, or peer who has walked the same path. That insight informed a solution that would expand the scope beyond simple appointment booking.
Problem Statement
Neurodivergent individuals, caregivers, and partners often struggle to find trustworthy guidance that applies to their specific situations. Information about neurodiversity is fragmented across many platforms, varies widely in credibility, and is frequently presented in ways that create cognitive barriers for the very audiences seeking support. In addition, access to qualified experts can be limited by geography, cost, or long waitlists.
Users need a centralized, accessible system that helps them quickly identify trusted guidance, connect with relevant expertise, and locate resources tailored to their needs.
Potential Solution
A responsive, accessibility-first platform that connects users with a broad spectrum of vetted expertise — including clinicians, educators, lived experience perspectives, and curated resources — while enabling users to quickly filter information and identify guidance most relevant to their situation.
An application that centralizes trusted resources and enables remote access to expertise will reduce cognitive load, expand access to support, and help users navigate neurodiversity information with greater clarity and confidence.
Research
To understand the broader landscape of neurodiversity resources, I combined two initial research methods: surveys and interviews to collect direct user perspectives, and competitive analysis of existing platforms. Together, these approaches surfaced both lived experiences and structural gaps across the current ecosystem.
Surveys & Interviews
To capture a range of experiences, I developed a survey and interview guide designed to surface needs and challenges across target audience perspectives.
Participants included:
Neurodivergent individuals
Caregivers and parents
Partners of neurodiverse individuals
Educators
Disability rights advocates
Including representatives across target groups ensured diverse viewpoints were reflected and revealed not only individual needs but recurring systemic challenges across contexts.
User Needs Map
To synthesize the survey and interview data, I created a User Needs Map grouping responses into categories such as goals, pain points, wish lists, and resource gaps.
This visual analysis surfaced recurring patterns across participants, firmly establishing the needs which informed the system architecture.
User Needs Map
Key Insights
Several consistent themes emerged:
Limited Resources for Adults
Most existing resources are child-focused, leaving adult populations underrepresented.
Stigma & Misinformation
Neurodiversity is far more common than many people realize, yet stigma and misinformation still persist.
Gender Bias / Need for Female-Specific Resources
Diagnostic models and research historically skew toward boys, contributing to under/misdiagnosis in females and a shortage of resources tailored to their needs.
Accessibility Across Modalities
Information must be available in multiple formats (video, audio, text) to support diverse cognitive processing styles.
With user needs identified, I examined existing resources to evaluate how well current platforms addressed pain points and wish lists.
Competitive Analysis & Content Audit
To evaluate existing solutions and identify gaps, I reviewed three platforms that reflected key elements of my concept: Autism-help.org (information hub), Psychology Today’s Therapist Directory (expert connection), and Understood.org (customizable resource library).
Each site offered valuable strengths but also revealed significant limitations, highlighting the opportunity for a more integrated, user-friendly system.
www.autism-help.org
Extensive peer-reviewed content with wide subject coverage
Non-responsive design with dense, text-heavy content
Cluttered navigation and poor text readability
Lacks direct “ask an expert” or contact options
Autism Help Snapshot
www.psychologytoday.com
Visually polished interface with inviting imagery and user-friendly navigation
Comprehensive filters allow users to sort by focus, gender, therapy modality, and more
Contact limited to directory functions - no in-app options for consultation or services
Limited exclusively to licensed clinicians; excludes peer/lived-experience experts
Psychology Today Snapshot
www.understood.org
Strong customization - users can tailor learning paths to individual interests
Wide array of resources tailored for parents, caregivers, and educators
Inviting and accessible UI design
Content breadth is strong, but primarily resource-focused; lacks interactive features
Understood Snapshot
Key Takeaways
Across the three websites analyzed, I observed strong models of usability, customization and resource depth. However, none offered a unified platform that combined expert connection with a curated resource library — or allowed users to choose the form of expertise most relevant to their specific needs.
Personas
I created four personas to represent several distinct audiences Neurodiversity University should serve: neurodivergent individuals, caregivers, and partners. Each persona reflects unique goals, frustrations, and lived experiences. These personas, paired with user stories, helped ensure design decisions were grounded in authentic motivations and real user needs.
User Personas
User Flows & Journey Maps
To bring the personas to life, I developed user stories and journey maps illustrating how individuals might navigate the process of seeking expertise. These narratives captured key steps, emotional highs and lows, and opportunities for design intervention. Together, they informed several core design decisions.
Below is a representative example: Mason, an adult navigating the challenge of seeking an ADHD diagnosis.
User Flow & Journey Map
Information Architecture
To establish a clear structure for the application, I created a site map outlining the primary features and their relationships. I then conducted closed card sorts to validate whether users grouped content and functions in intuitive ways. Feedback from this exercise informed adjustments to categorization and navigation patterns, ensuring site architecture aligned with user expectations.
Site Map
Design Solutions
With the information architecture established, the focus shifted to interface design — progressing from exploratory sketches to wireframes and interactive prototypes.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Translating sketches into Figma clarified scale, spacing, and navigational patterns, while keeping the system flexible and adaptable. At this level, the emphasis was on flow and hierarchy rather than visual polish.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes & Prototype
Mid-fidelity wireframes introduced real copy and refined interface components, setting the stage for prototyping and usability testing.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Interactive Prototype
I created a sprawling mid-fidelity prototype, allowing the full experience to be explored via click-through navigation.
Usability Testing
To evaluate whether the prototype supported intuitive navigation and resource discovery, I conducted usability testing sessions with participants representing the project’s key audiences..
Insights
Navigation cues were not always immediately recognizable
Some participants did not initially recognize the logo as a return-to-home navigation element, suggesting the need for clearer onboarding guidance and stronger visual cues.
Users needed clearer explanations of platform features
Participants occasionally hesitated when encountering core functions of the platform, indicating that brief explanations of each feature would help users understand how different resources and expert services could be accessed.
Key interface details required refinement to improve clarity, accessibility, and trust
Testing revealed opportunities to improve readability and transparency, including increasing the visibility of expert qualifications and clarifying details within the payment flow such as session format and duration.
Design Implications
Usability testing insights led to refinements in labeling, navigation cues, and interface clarity. Onboarding tutorials were expanded to explain core platform features, and contextual help options were introduced so users could quickly revisit explanations as needed.
Final Designs
The final designs realize the vision of a platform that helps users quickly locate trustworthy neurodiversity guidance while supporting diverse cognitive needs. The system brings together multiple forms of expertise within a structured, accessible environment designed to reduce cognitive load and simplify decision-making. Key design outcomes include:
Accessible visual design
Research-informed color palette and typography choices that support readability across diverse cognitive processing styles.
Reduced cognitive load through structured information
Clear navigation and filtering systems that centralize fragmented resources and allow users to quickly locate guidance relevant to their specific situations.
Expansive definitions of expertise
Support for multiple forms of expertise — including clinicians, educators, lived experience perspectives, and curated knowledge resources — allowing users to choose the guidance most meaningful to them.
Improved access to critical support
Remote consultation options and curated digital resources reduce barriers created by geography, availability, and traditional service waitlists.
High-Fidelity Wireframes: The Library & The Commons
Reflection
One of the central principles that guides my design work is empathy — an interpretive approach that seeks to understand not only what users need, but the context and nuance behind those needs. In the Neurodiversity University project, this perspective led me to question what “expert guidance” might look like across a diverse user base.
My early assumption was that the type of expertise desired would vary widely depending on a user’s circumstances and goals. User interviews confirmed the importance of providing multiple forms of guidance rather than defining expertise through a single lens. This insight expanded expert connection beyond simple appointment booking into a broader resource hub, allowing users to filter and navigate information according to their unique needs.
This project reinforced the importance of designing systems that center user agency. When systems empower users to access resources that reflect their own context and priorities, they become more meaningful and effective.
Neurodiversity University
Home Page, Ask an Expert, and The Library
Project Overview
A responsive web application that connects neurodivergent individuals, their caregivers and their partners to vetted experts and curated resources, with accessibility at its core.
Role: Lead UX Researcher & Designer
Duration: 4 months
Deliverables: personas, journey maps, information architecture, wireframes (low to high fidelity), interactive prototype, usability & preference testing, design system
An intuitive, supportive, and highly-customizable resource hub that empowers users to access the solutions and connections most relevant to their needs.
The Challenge
The brief was simple: design a responsive app that connects users with experts.
I centered the project on neurodiversity. Neurodiversity refers to the natural variation in how human brains function and process information. It includes diagnoses of: ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and Tourette syndrome.
These traits are far more common than many realize. Estimates suggest that roughly 15 - 20% of the global population (approximately 1 in 7 people) exhibit some form of neurodivergence¹.
The combination of prevalence and diverse cognitive processing styles creates a context in which access to trustworthy expert guidance is essential.
Defining Expertise
Who defines an expert?
It seemed clear that the person seeking help defines “expert” according to the parameters of their unique needs. For some, it’s a licensed clinician; for others, it is a parent, teacher, or peer who has walked the same path. That insight informed a solution that would expand the scope beyond simple appointment booking.
Problem Statement
Neurodivergent individuals, caregivers, and partners often struggle to find trustworthy guidance that applies to their specific situations. Information about neurodiversity is fragmented across many platforms, varies widely in credibility, and is frequently presented in ways that create cognitive barriers for the very audiences seeking support. In addition, access to qualified experts can be limited by geography, cost, or long waitlists.
Users need a centralized, accessible system that helps them quickly identify trusted guidance, connect with relevant expertise, and locate resources tailored to their needs.
Potential Solution
A responsive, accessibility-first platform that connects users with a broad spectrum of vetted expertise — including clinicians, educators, lived experience perspectives, and curated resources — while enabling users to quickly filter information and identify guidance most relevant to their situation.
An application that centralizes trusted resources and enables remote access to expertise will reduce cognitive load, expand access to support, and help users navigate neurodiversity information with greater clarity and confidence.
Research
To understand the broader landscape of neurodiversity resources, I combined two initial research methods: surveys and interviews to collect direct user perspectives, and competitive analysis of existing platforms. Together, these approaches surfaced both lived experiences and structural gaps across the current ecosystem.
Surveys & Interviews
To capture a range of experiences, I developed a survey and interview guide designed to surface needs and challenges across target audience perspectives.
Participants included:
Neurodivergent individuals
Caregivers and parents
Partners of neurodiverse individuals
Educators
Disability rights advocates
Including representatives across target groups ensured diverse viewpoints were reflected and revealed not only individual needs but recurring systemic challenges across contexts.
User Needs Map
To synthesize the survey and interview data, I created a User Needs Map grouping responses into categories such as goals, pain points, wish lists, and resource gaps.
This visual analysis surfaced recurring patterns across participants, firmly establishing the needs which informed the system architecture.
User Needs Map
Key Insights
Several consistent themes emerged:
Limited Resources for Adults
Most existing resources are child-focused, leaving adult populations underrepresented.
Stigma & Misinformation
Neurodiversity is far more common than many people realize, yet stigma and misinformation still persist.
Gender Bias / Need for Female-Specific Resources
Diagnostic models and research historically skew toward boys, contributing to under/misdiagnosis in females and a shortage of resources tailored to their needs.
Accessibility Across Modalities
Information must be available in multiple formats (video, audio, text) to support diverse cognitive processing styles.
With user needs identified, I examined existing resources to evaluate how well current platforms addressed pain points and wish lists.
Competitive Analysis & Content Audit
To evaluate existing solutions and identify gaps, I reviewed three platforms that reflected key elements of my concept: Autism-help.org (information hub), Psychology Today’s Therapist Directory (expert connection), and Understood.org (customizable resource library).
Each site offered valuable strengths but also revealed significant limitations, highlighting the opportunity for a more integrated, user-friendly system.
www.autism-help.org
Extensive peer-reviewed content with wide subject coverage
Non-responsive design with dense, text-heavy content
Cluttered navigation and poor text readability
Lacks direct “ask an expert” or contact options
Autism Help Snapshot
www.psychologytoday.com
Visually polished interface with inviting imagery and user-friendly navigation
Comprehensive filters allow users to sort by focus, gender, therapy modality, and more
Contact limited to directory functions - no in-app options for consultation or services
Limited exclusively to licensed clinicians; excludes peer/lived-experience experts
Psychology Today Snapshot
www.understood.org
Strong customization - users can tailor learning paths to individual interests
Wide array of resources tailored for parents, caregivers, and educators
Inviting and accessible UI design
Content breadth is strong, but primarily resource-focused; lacks interactive features
Understood Snapshot
Key Takeaways
Across the three websites analyzed, I observed strong models of usability, customization and resource depth. However, none offered a unified platform that combined expert connection with a curated resource library — or allowed users to choose the form of expertise most relevant to their specific needs.
Personas
I created four personas to represent several distinct audiences Neurodiversity University should serve: neurodivergent individuals, caregivers, and partners. Each persona reflects unique goals, frustrations, and lived experiences. These personas, paired with user stories, helped ensure design decisions were grounded in authentic motivations and real user needs.
User Personas
User Flows & Journey Maps
To bring the personas to life, I developed user stories and journey maps illustrating how individuals might navigate the process of seeking expertise. These narratives captured key steps, emotional highs and lows, and opportunities for design intervention. Together, they informed several core design decisions.
Below is a representative example: Mason, an adult navigating the challenge of seeking an ADHD diagnosis.
User Flow & Journey Map
Information Architecture
To establish a clear structure for the application, I created a site map outlining the primary features and their relationships. I then conducted closed card sorts to validate whether users grouped content and functions in intuitive ways. Feedback from this exercise informed adjustments to categorization and navigation patterns, ensuring site architecture aligned with user expectations.
Site Map
Design Solutions
With the information architecture established, the focus shifted to interface design — progressing from exploratory sketches to wireframes and interactive prototypes.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Translating sketches into Figma clarified scale, spacing, and navigational patterns, while keeping the system flexible and adaptable. At this level, the emphasis was on flow and hierarchy rather than visual polish.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes & Prototype
Mid-fidelity wireframes introduced real copy and refined interface components, setting the stage for prototyping and usability testing.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Interactive Prototype
I created a sprawling mid-fidelity prototype, allowing the full experience to be explored via click-through navigation.
Usability Testing
To evaluate whether the prototype supported intuitive navigation and resource discovery, I conducted usability testing sessions with participants representing the project’s key audiences..
Insights
Navigation cues were not always immediately recognizable
Some participants did not initially recognize the logo as a return-to-home navigation element, suggesting the need for clearer onboarding guidance and stronger visual cues.
Users needed clearer explanations of platform features
Participants occasionally hesitated when encountering core functions of the platform, indicating that brief explanations of each feature would help users understand how different resources and expert services could be accessed.
Key interface details required refinement to improve clarity, accessibility, and trust
Testing revealed opportunities to improve readability and transparency, including increasing the visibility of expert qualifications and clarifying details within the payment flow such as session format and duration.
Design Implications
Usability testing insights led to refinements in labeling, navigation cues, and interface clarity. Onboarding tutorials were expanded to explain core platform features, and contextual help options were introduced so users could quickly revisit explanations as needed.
Final Designs
The final designs realize the vision of a platform that helps users quickly locate trustworthy neurodiversity guidance while supporting diverse cognitive needs. The system brings together multiple forms of expertise within a structured, accessible environment designed to reduce cognitive load and simplify decision-making.
Key design outcomes include:
Accessible visual design
Research-informed color palette and typography choices that support readability across diverse cognitive processing styles.
Reduced cognitive load through structured information
Clear navigation and filtering systems that centralize fragmented resources and allow users to quickly locate guidance relevant to their specific situations.
Expansive definitions of expertise
Support for multiple forms of expertise — including clinicians, educators, lived experience perspectives, and curated knowledge resources — allowing users to choose the guidance most meaningful to them.
Improved access to critical support
Remote consultation options and curated digital resources reduce barriers created by geography, availability, and traditional service waitlists.
High-Fidelity Wireframes: The Library & The Commons
Reflection
One of the central principles that guides my design work is empathy — an interpretive approach that seeks to understand not only what users need, but the context and nuance behind those needs. In the Neurodiversity University project, this perspective led me to question what “expert guidance” might look like across a diverse user base.
My early assumption was that the type of expertise desired would vary widely depending on a user’s circumstances and goals. User interviews confirmed the importance of providing multiple forms of guidance rather than defining expertise through a single lens. This insight expanded expert connection beyond simple appointment booking into a broader resource hub, allowing users to filter and navigate information according to their unique needs.
This project reinforced the importance of designing systems that center user agency. When systems empower users to access resources that reflect their own context and priorities, they become more meaningful and effective.