Pinnacle Platform

On demand coaching App: UI/UX Case study

Pinnacle Platform is an application for the use of IDD individuals which provides 1-1 on demand personal advisors via Smartphone App. With this app, IDD individuals will be able to access Coaches at any time for any problem. Additionally, Coaches will provide proactive outreach, ongoing communication, daily organization and regular monitoring. They will also be providing calendar driven interactions for assessing social, health and work engagements.

The Problem:

The client identified a critical need for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to have regular access to a resource outside of their caregivers for advice and assistance. Many IDD individuals face challenges with daily repetitive tasks, social interactions, work, transportation, and other activities Traditionally, caregivers provide this support, but the clients aim was to offer an alternative solution. By providing access to a dedicated advisor, separate from caregivers, the goal is to foster greater independence among IDD individuals. Over time, this support system aims to equip them with the skills necessary to handle these tasks on their own.

The Solution

We developed an app designed to empower young adults with IDD. The app's key features include live on-demand coaching, by a coach that was assigned to you based on your intake profile, coach-driven calendars, and an extremely accessible interface. As a supplementary resource for IDD individuals and their families, the app needed to provide trusted and trustworthy care. In collaboration with Pinnacle, IDD families, and IDD adults, we crafted a straightforward and accessible solution tailored to meet the diverse needs of users.

Project Goals:

On Demand Coaching

Pinnacle Coaches would provide regular communication via video, audio and text. They would also be building calendars for IDD clients. This would ensure that clients would have some one to remind them about their appointments and engagments.

Designing for both Clients and Coaches

The app has two portals. One is for Clients and the other is for Coaches. Client requirements needed to be fairly simple. Coach requirements included logging, communication avenues, and multiple client calendar management.

Accessible to the spectrum of users

The users in this demographic vary significantly in terms engagement and ability to use a devices. Whatever i designed, It had to be be usable to the most amount of users in the demographic.

Integration of external existing products

There were existing programs we needed to integrate with the new app. I needed to design the new app with the assumption that it would use the code base and data from an existing government database

Process Outline

Step by Step Solutions

01 Discover

Research- deep dive into Respite Care and Dialpad. and how we integrate in the relevant functions.
Identify- What is the range of accessibility we need to provide for our target clients?
Competitor Analysis- review competitor products to identify product position within marketplace
User Interviews- Broad open ended interviews conducted with clients, family members and coaches. This will enable us to define problems, generate (or dispel) ideas, and understand the users needs better.

03 Design

Wire Frames- Low fidelity mockups that explore structure and navigation of application
UI Concepting- Explore several UI directions. Select a style to develop
Custom UI kit- Developed specifically for your project needs in mind
High Fidelity Mockups- Finalized mockups of all features using the selected UI style
Interactive Prototype- connect interactive elements in a click through Figma prototype
Usability Test- Prototype will be tested with several target users. Based on results, wireframes and prototypes are refined and polished and retested until there is minimal friction for users.

02 Define

Persona Development- Personas are documents that describe typical users. Develop 2 personas for our 2 user types. Keeping them in mind during development will help guide our design choices.
MVP: What features are required for the MVP outside the known scope of features?
User Journey Map- take into account of users mental models and the flow of interaction and possible points of contact for all three user types
Information Architecture- creation to define the overall structure and navigation.

04 Deliver

Hand over- export wireframes, and UI kit for the development team.
UI Kits- UI kits consist of various UI components and visual elements including: icons, buttons, badges, checkboxes, toggles, progress bars, text styles, color styles, design elements, etc.
Development support- Available for the development team to answers question they might have about design solutions, resolve any design issues that arise during development and clarify/ amend the design assets as necessary.

Product Research and Discovery

One of the most important first steps in the process was research. After the initial research on the product, competitors and market position, I focused on discovery interviews. I wrote a series of questions for clients and client families. This interview focused on where some of their biggest pain points were everyday. I was also gaging clients ability and interest in using mobile devices. The interviews shed so much light on areas I had yet to consider as well as changing a lot of assumptions I had about the clients. Initially my inclination was to design for a diagnosis. However the interviews yielded the fact that I needed to design for a spectrum of comfort, ability and accessibility.

User Personas & User Journeys

After the user interviews were complete, I used that data to user personas and journeys. My focus was on encapsulating the kind of help that clients would need from coaches. Some clients needed daily interaction while other users needed only an occasional check in. Some clients just needed some one to talk to about social situations, while others were struggling with repetitive every day tasks. The coaches would need to support all of these clients needs in the simplest way possible.

MVP Scope and Wire frames

With the client documentation and the user personas for both Client and Coach in mind I wrote the scope of development for the MVP. Once the scope was outlined and discussed with the engineering team I wire-framed the system in Figma. The team and I reviewed these rough outlines and confirmed that the existing government database and communication codebase would be able to integrate into the new design. Once the designs were confirmed we were ready to move onto high fidelity mockups.

High Fidelity Mockups

View the Prototype in Figma!

Testing the Prototype

Overview:

10x IDD users were interviewed
Some were able to complete the test on their own and some needed the assistance of their care giver
All were asked to complete a series of simple steps while I filled in the gaps about what the interaction would be with their assigned coach

Interview questions:

Can you see yourself using this app?
Can you see yourself calling/texting a coach if you have a problem?
Do you feel you can trust this product and the pinnacle coaches? Why or why not?
Do you think this application is going to help you? Why or why not
Does a coach maintained calendar seem appealing or frustrating? can you elaborate?
What’s the hardest or least appealing part about using this product?
Was any part of the experience confusing or frustrating for you?
What would you add or change about this product if you could? Or how could it be better?

Outcomes:

Everyone responded well to the app and the concept of coaching.
Many were excited about having the additional resource and accountability
Most people were ASD and didn't elaborate on the questions I asked. I received a lot of Yes/No answers with no additional comment. Often their care givers would respond in these areas to give specific examples applicable to that persons life that would have benefited from a coach.
Coach controlled calendars can be great for some people. Coaches can help them tackle tasks they have been procrastinating on, help them arrange their time. (Help them do the things they want to do.) However, other people may exhibit some irritation and chaffing at some one else making their schedule.
The interface is extremely simple, which works well for lower functioning ASD individuals but was slightly alienating to higher function individuals.
Several caregivers mentioned that their IDD adult would need a long period of training and on ramping to be able to interact with coach.

Final Outcomes

After the prototype testing was complete, we were ready for hand off. I collected all of the data, interviews and made additional recommendations outside of the MVP scope.

Future feature recommendations:

A desire for connection: several care givers expressed a desire for their IDD individual to be able to connect with their peers. They were looking for roommates, friends, social events, golf buddies, etc. Many of them wanted to be able to meet each other via the app with the over-site pinnacle coaches would be able to provide.
A group chat for Coaches, IDD adults and their caregivers. Care givers expressed wanting to be able to have more contact with coaches so they could have more over-site.
Daily checklists for repetitive tasks that need to be done every day, but didn't necesarilly need the assistance of a coach to complete.

Pinnacle platform is still underdevelopment, but we hope to launch it early next year!