Cyrano
Overview
For this case study, I worked with a team of classmates to design a solution to a problem that traced to one of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our challenge was to address a problem of our choosing with a creative and innovative solution backed by research and real user need.
We focused on the problem of underemployment among the ASD community. Our research led us to the statistic that over 85% of individuals with ASD are unemployed1 - and a huge contributor to that number is the interview process.
Part of our discovery research included finding direct testimonials. We sourced some of these from social media comments on videos related to ASD and employment struggles.
One such comment that helped to personify the struggle:
I had a 90 minute interview for a job at a company that I have worked at before. It was so hard. I cried after it was over because I was so tired for masking the whole time. They asked me questions that made me uncomfortable, they interrupted me when they thought I was going off topic. It all really made me feel so bad.
This was the jumping-off point for the product our team would design.
My contribution
User research Product design
The team
6 × diverse classmates
Year
2024
Process
Part 1: Discovery
As part of our discovery phase, I facilitated a workshop to help our team finalize our problem statement.
The workshop was based on the 5-Day Sprint framework (Day 1: Defining the Problem). We all contributed ideas, conducted speed critiques, and used dot voting to determine the most popular ideas.
By the end of our workshop, the problem statement was finalized and we were ready to move into the ideation phase.
(Who) Young job seekers with ASD (What) struggle to find meaningful, productive employment (Why) Due to hiring processes that neither accommodate the unique needs nor identify the special skills of those with ASD and may be embedded with subconscious bias in favor of non-neurodiverse individuals.
Part 2: Ideation
The next step in our process focused on ideating solutions for our problem. Outlined below are some of the methods and tools we used to arrive at our solution.
User Personas
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User Flow Diagramming
We mapped out a user journey of a key user persona and identified pain points along the way.
4-Step Sketches
Borrowing another process from he 5-Day Sprint framework, I facilitated a 4-step sketch activity.
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Early Prototyping
I developed a few early prototype ideas to help the team visualize the product idea and collect feedback.
We presented these ideas to industry experts we recruited for feedback, including a principal accessibility researcher at Microsoft and an administrator of extra-curricular programs for an Indiana school district.
The feedback we received from these stakeholders helped to further shape the ideas in the next iterations of design.
Part 3: Iteration
Some of my contributions during the iteration phase included:
- Creating a custom GPT to refine the AI that we intended to help inform our UI.
- Developing multiple versions of the idea to present to the team and determine the best path forward.
- User testing the prototype to determine general usability.
Learnings & Next Steps
The culmination of our project is Cyrano, a pioneering software platform that utilizes an AI model grounded in cognitive neuroscience. This innovative tool is designed to train and assist individuals with autism in mastering interview skills.
Throughout this project, our team gained substantial insights into the industry and learned the importance of collaboration within a diverse group, united by a shared objective and a commitment to solving a real-world challenge.
Looking ahead, we are excited about the potential of Cyrano and are eager to develop it further to benefit real users in the future.