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Kiran

Reason Digital / Together Trust

:: Digital Empowerment | Social Design, UI/UX Design

Industry Leader: Matt Kendall (IDEO U)
Team: Eric Nebe, Marc Tobia, Akanksha Singh, Aakanksha Vira

Project Duration: 6 weeks








Challenge


“How might we bridge communication between neurotypical and neurodiverse individuals?”







Our Approach


How might we help individuals with ASD prepare and feel comfortable in job interviews?


 




Tools Used


︎ expert interviews
︎ in-depth interviews
︎ desk research
︎ design thinking
︎ theory of change
︎ user journey mapping
︎ download sheet
︎ prototyping
︎ user testing



















User journey map


(Left) Download Sheet, (Center) Design thinking: Could be, Should be, Will be, IS, (Right) Dotmocracy on ideas


(Left) Features planning, (Right) Low-fi Prototyping



Process:


Disclaimer:
Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that a person can be mildly, moderately, or severely autistic. What's more, while everyone with autism has certain core symptoms, many people also have additional associated symptoms such as intellectual or language impairments.To help clinicians (and others) better describe individual cases of autism, the creators of the official diagnostic manual (DSM-5) developed three "levels of support." We will be focusing on Level 1.


We talked to...


︎ 8 ASD Individuals
︎ 3 Educators
︎ 1 Parent with an ASD Child
︎ 3 ASD Experts






Problems:



Key Insight 1 | ASD individuals suffer from high unemployment rate.
--

“National data indicates that the vast majority of adults with autism are either unemployed or underemployed,
with estimates ranging to as high as 90% .”

Just 15% of those with autism have full-time jobs according to NAS research, while another
9% are in part-time work.



Key Insight 2 | Job interviews are a huge barriers to employment because of the requirement for good communication skills.

--
Autism is not an illness or disease. It means people’s brains works in a different way from other people.

ASD symptoms might include little or inconsistent eye contact, appearing to not listen, facial expressions
not matching words and having trouble understanding another’s point of view.

“ I don’t mean to be rude, that is not my intention ” - Martin, 58, Spain


Key Insight 3 | ASD individuals are making an effort to improve their social skills.

--
Records himself and talks to his mother to practice for interviews - Abi, 22, UK
Role playing is a helpful tool to mitigate anxiety during interviews - Mark, 60, USA







Proposal:
Kiran is a mobile application to help those on the Mild Autistic Spectrum prepare for job interviews.




Key features:

1. Interview simulations: Integrated face and voice analysis to improve communication skills.





With these findings, we created the main feature of the app: interview simulations via the KIRAN bot.
Individuals can prepare for interviews by having a mock call with the Kiran bot.
And through face and voice analysis (for which there is existing technology), Kiran bot provides feedback
on performance to help improve communication skills.


2. Measuring progress: Log of past recordings with detailed information on performance.



Measuring progress is important to review performance over time.
All the past interviews can be reviewed to track areas of strengths and what needs improvement.


3. Creating a success plan: Predictability vs. uncertainty


Individuals with ASD often have a hard time in unpredictable situations, and this arouses anxiety.
With our calendar tool, users can create a game plan for the interview or set new goals
for skills they want to improve.


4. Kiran for employers: Build mutual empathy by educating employers to better respond to ASD patterns.


Kiran the bot here functions to emulate characteristics of someone with ASD.
Kiran helps Employers to build empathy and help them understand what communication
is like for a person with ASD.



The onboarding process begins with tools to understand how much do the employer
know about ASD conditions, to assess level of assistance needed in the future interactions.

We also added resources and tools to assess how ready their workplace is for ASD individuals
and to determine what resources do they need to build a neurodiverse workplace



Design considerations:

1. Levels to help progress


To help ease the user into the experience and build confidence interviewing,
there is a level system where the interviewing gets harder and more real as they progress.
Initially we start with interviewing with Kiran, but later on, Kiran can be configured
to have a different persona, the user can role play different conditions,
and even talk to a real life person.



2. Personalisation

Individuals with ASD may find certain colors  and font types distracting,
to help overcome this, we designed our app, select font sizes, font type, and color schemes









Kiran is not a solution, but more of a TOOL for those with ASD.


By providing them a platform that increases thei likelihoo of professional success, individuals wit ASD can improve their
communication skills decrease their anxiety, and in essence, and get the CONFIDENCE they need, to be in full control
of their lives.








Feedbacks


We tested our prototype with users and experts and they had encouraging words to share and helped to validate our ideas.


“ This is a very good tool, especially for people like me ” - Dave, 53, USA


“ Mock interviews will help people adapt ” - Abi, 22, USA

“ Very well considered ” - Simon Wallace, Researche and Director (AT Autism)