Making Public Transport More Accessible for Neurodivergent Commuters with Neuwo.

Overview

Neuwo is an intelligent companion designed for neurodivergent individuals to help them plan, prepare and commute better everyday using public transport. It emerged as a concept through the CivVic labs accelerator in 2024.

As a Product and Experience Lead, I led product development from discovery to the beta stage product and helped shape the experience for early concepts.

Context on the problems

Everyday commuting is a daily struggle for 20% of the global population, including 7.8 million neurodivergent Australians who make up 30% of the country's population.

This neurodivergent population includes people who are autistic, dyslexic, have ADHD, or live with other learning and intellectual disabilities.

For these commuters, public transport isn't merely inconvenient—it's a daunting challenge that limits their opportunities and leads to social isolation.

This is where Neuwo intervenes to solve critical problems!

Objectives

We aimed to begin the Neuwo design and development with an MVP that caters to key features designed to suit user needs.

For MVP, our objectives were aligned to build a functional prototype that configures a complex algorithm and saves every planned trip based on individuals preferences (Limited at the moment in majority of the navigation tools).

My individual responsibilities include designing an end-to-end experience and lead the full-stack development of the MVP.

Team structure

The team is structured with 2 co-founders from Design and Research background, a software development team, branding team and advisors.

A design thinking approach to build a viable product and build core functions to support future-state vision.

Discovery and Research

Through in-depth interviews with 30 participants, we explored public transport experiences from multiple perspectives. Our participants included autistic, dyslexic, and ADHD commuters, as well as care providers and transport experts, helping us identify key behavioural patterns.

MVP approach

As an early-stage concept, we adopted an MVP approach for app development with a delivery target of January 2025

Evaluate and define

We tested initial concepts with 20 participants to gather feedback on three key areas: planning and scheduling, reminders, and connected vehicle experience.

Strategic alignment with the team

We combined insights from our initial research and user testing to align with our future vision and identify the most valuable features for Neuwo 1.1.

Experience Mapping

Based on our findings, we developed experience principles and created journey maps to identify opportunities for delightful moments throughout the customer experience.

Features prioritisation

Through developer workshops, we analyzed technical constraints, data requirements, and feasibility to achieve our desired experience. Based on this analysis, we finalized the MVP feature list.

Design Iterations and UI Handover

Utilising the blue prints I created low to mid-fidelity wireframes that incorporated user feedback and preferences. After completing the wireframes, I collaborated with the UI Designer to bring these prototypes to life incorporating our branding guidelines.

Outcome