The Problem
Autistic individuals often struggle to express emotions clearly through text, leading to misunderstandings and social withdrawal. This creates a need for supportive tools that help regulate emotions and improve communication confidence.
The Design
Refraze is a hypothetical mobile app designed to help autistic users manage emotional communication through visual prompts and feedback. It guides users to recognise emotional cues, pause before replying, and choose responses that reflect their intentions, fostering mindful and confident interactions. The calming three-step process of Reflect, Rephrase and Grow supports self-paced learning with a clear and gentle UI. The project demonstrates my belief that empathetic, accessible design can create meaningful social impact and highlights my skills in interaction design, user research and visual communication.
Process
User testing and iterative prototyping with my target audience, neurodivergent individuals, guided the app’s development. Their pain points, including difficulties perceiving and understanding emotions in others and impulsive text replies, shaped the structure, tone, and visual choices.
