Lilypad is a wellness app that helps autistic and other neurodivergent people find everyday spaces that are compatible with their needs. Creating a unique platform where people and businesses from communities around the world can help disclose and share environmental and social expectations ahead of time, allowing neurodivergent people navigate the world smartly with their sensory and communication needs in mind.
Lilypad builds upon the ASAP's foundation and repackages the data in a more accessible and user-friendly format. In the branding, we shift away from solely autism spectrum disorder and rather open up the product to be a useful tool for anyone including other forms of neurodiversity, language barriers, and those who simply enjoy data & planning.In practice, we transition Lilypad from a web-based directory to a mobile-first tool, making Lilypad easy and intuitive to navigate and use on the go and in the moment.
Our mockups below illustrate how this user interface is built to better sort and locate relevant information for the user, finding places of interest and delivering the most important data right away. We also built in a social component, allowing users to continually grow our platform and provide more frequent reviews from different perspectives.
As part of our step away from the historically restrictive and controversial visual elements commonly associated with autism, Lilypad symbolizes empathy, safety, and diversity.
The name – Lilypad is shorter and easier to remember than the Autism Self Advocacy Program and has a stronger brand potential. Conceptually, lily pads can be thought of as safe places that can support our users, and just like the plant slowly grows and expands, one lily and one business at a time. It also alludes to our wetlands incorporation.
Visual metaphor – There is a growing movement to think of neurodiversity less as a disability and more as a sensory/communicative difference. How neurodivergent people experience the world shouldn't be thought of as lesser, just processed uniquely and differently. Given more control of their environment and the tool to better manage their experience in meaningful individualized ways can make a world of a difference. In this analogy, neurodivergent people could be symbolized by amphibians who are incredibly diverse and unique and have incredible strengths, but similarly can be sensitive to their environment.
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