Design + Low-Fidelity

Prototyping

Industry Team Project, Spring 2026

Intro

For the next few weeks, we’re going to go through a design process, which involves gaining clarity on:

1. What actions (verbs) this app should support
2. Why these actions have value to the various stakeholders
3. How to sequence these tasks into journeys
4. How to break these journeys up into specific screens and features that we can put on the roadmap!

Today we’re transitioning to design!

Good design requires making lots of small decisions and going through a process to ensure that those decisions actually meet the needs of your users. This requires you to:

0. Clearly articulate why, specifically, the technology you’re building is important…and for whom.
1. Identify specific actions (verbs) your system will support.
2. Translate these verbs into specific paths through the system (user journeys)
3. Create screens / features from this list
4. Group into ownership areas
5. Get feedback early and often (shifting left)

0. Why is this app important and for whom?

• Parents with children who have motor delays
• social support and community
• access to providers (facilitating connection / resources for kids)
• educational for parents – to support for their child
• confidence
• Researchers at Emory
• analytics – usage, completion, feedback (maybe)?
• does this tool work – does it create results
• a way to create / edit the modules / courses
• enroll users
• Who are the providers / facilitators?
• easier access to helping parents
• what parents have completed and when?

1. The app provides a way for _______ to _________.

Parents / caregivers

A way to….

• log in
• sign up
• edit profile – sharing level, other data (age, sex, etc.)
• track progress
• join the discussions / zoom links
• know when to do what
• receive and view notifications
• interact with each other:
• create forum posts: sharing knowledge; asking questions/advice to clinician; emotional support

• resume incomplete modules
• dark mode / light mode
• ask clinicians questions
• join their cohort ?
• complete modules
• take quizzes
• view slides / videos / pdfs / links
• see list of modules from the course
• list of courses
• tailored resources:
• (region, age of kid, type of motor delay, free/paid).
• sharing contact info selectively / privately
• posting anonymously (but admin knows)

1. The app provides a way for _______ to _________.

Researchers / admins

• view user progress
• contact parents
• reminders and notifications
• consolidate data across courses, cohorts, etc.
• A way to export the data
• add/remove users to cohorts
• edit / add posts and courses.
• a way to have audio (press play so that they can deal with their kids

• ensure consistency in templates, format, etc.
• content moderation (post quickly), but a way to “report”
• way to block people from posting
• add / invite clinicians to groups

1. The app provides a way for _______ to _________.

Clinicians / providers

• post events
• host events
• notify everyone
• follow-ups
• see the progress of everyone in the cohort
• moderate the forum for their group
• Extra profile info (credentials, book an appointment, bio, degrees)

TODO: not every user has children (different profile types)

• reporting back to research (this is what i’ve noticed, getting feedback, etc.)
• sharing contact info

2. User Journeys (AKA, a Series of Tasks)

Let’s take one of the “a way to ________” statements and convert it to a user journey.

• Example (Parent): What would a parent actually do (step by step) if this app is truly “a way to know what to do each day”?
• Example (Admin): What would an admin actually do if the app provided “a way to organize curriculum”?

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2. Sample User Journey

https://mantine.dev/core/timeline/ (Ethan)

1. Receives daily reminder notification (“Today’s activity is ready.”)
2. Opens the app
3. Sees a clear daily reminder card on the home screen with a clear message
• example: Today’s module, estimated time to complete (10 minutes), progress status
4. Taps “Start”
5. Watches short video explaining exercise

6. Sees simple step-by-step instructions
7. Optionally downloads printable guide
8. Completes quick check-in question (“Did your child attempt this today?”)
9. Marks activity complete
10. Sees encouraging success message & updated progress bar

3. Features

Now we convert a series of tasks to actual features. Every verb in the journey becomes a feature card.

Example: “A way to know what to do today”

• Daily reminder
• Home dashboard
• Assigned module preview
• Progress indicator

4. Ownership Areas

Now that we have our now have our actions, user journeys, and feature list, we need to group these into 6-8 meaningful ownership areas?

Each ownership area should:

• Support a clear user outcome
• Contain 3–5 related features
• Represent a coherent flow (not just one screen)
• Be large enough for 2-3 people (team) to design

4. Ownership Areas: Potential Groupings

Parent-Facing

• Authentication & Onboarding
• Home + Daily Focus + Timeline
• Course / Module Viewer
• Quiz & Completion
• Community / Forum

Admin-Facing

• Course Builder
• Cohort Management
• Analytics & Progress Monitoring
• Moderation

Ask yourself: If this slice disappeared, what user outcome would break? If the answer is “nothing important,” it’s not a real slice.

5. Each Design Team (groups of 2-3) will…

Chooses one ownership area and define:

• The user goal it supports: What problem is this helping solve?
• List the main actions in order.
• The entry point: where does the user start?
• What does done look like?