My Journey app

A mobile app that breaks the transition into timely micro-steps, co-planned with an APL coordinator.

This project aimed to understand why many students with intellectual disabilities (ID) struggle to move from adapted high school to work, and to design a service that makes this process clearer, starts earlier, and builds confidence. We began by interviewing stakeholders such as schools, employers, teachers/APL coordinators, Arbetsförmedlingen/Samstart, parents, and students. We found issues at different levels, including weak collaboration, missing information, and daily challenges like low self-confidence and overprotective home environments. Our goal was to make things easier without policy changes or extra funding, by creating more clarity and support within the current system. We expected that a practical, step-by-step tool would help students be better prepared and reduce the number who drop out after graduation.

(01) Background

We identified three main challenges: how institutions work together, how information is shared, and how students gain confidence and independence in daily life. From these, we saw four areas to design for: information and communication, involvement and engagement, confidence and independence, and technology. This led to three early ideas: an AI Assistant, a Digital Assistant at Work using AR or a smartwatch, and a Role Model track to help students see success as normal and boost self-belief. After mapping value and getting feedback from stakeholders, including Samstart, we decided to focus on a Journey Map. This concept gives students clear guidance early and often, without changing the whole system.

Prototype development

We started with simple paper prototypes to show how things might work and encourage teamwork. Then we used Figma to create wireframes and later high-fidelity prototypes that resembled the final product. At one point, we moved too quickly toward a GPT-style assistant, but supervisor feedback helped us realize we needed to focus on the journey first and add AI later. Each stage helped us see what materials, interactions, and content were needed. The team worked together using shared tools to edit and test the prototypes.

(02) The Process

The outcome

The final concept, called My Journey, is a mobile app that breaks the transition into smaller, timely tasks over semesters, months, and weeks. These tasks are planned with an APL coordinator or advisor, so students can start getting ready earlier. The Home or Journey Map shows students their progress and what to do next, like reflecting on skills, contacting a workplace, documenting a hobby, watching a how-to video, or booking a coaching meeting. The Profile page lets students share basic information such as contact details, résumé, skills, and interests, which coordinators can use to match them with APL internships. The News Feed mixes inspiring role-model stories, official updates from the school or Arbetsförmedlingen, and short educational content like how to build a résumé. Finally, the Journey Guide is an AI chatbot trained on official documents that answers questions in simple language and points to next steps, making information easier to access without replacing human support.

We kept in touch with stakeholders through regular check-ins, including Arbetsförmedlingen and Samstart. Their feedback showed that clear and timely information is more important than changing the whole system. Both students and staff found a roadmap easy to use, and they agreed that inspiration should begin before the last year of school. The evaluation stressed the need for simplicity, clear next steps, and building confidence, which helped us decide which features to focus on in the final version.