Addressing Accessibility Needs in Wayfinding
MABLE is an indoor wayfinding app built to make navigating new spaces
easier to navigate. Unfamiliar locations like hospitals and airports can be
incredibly confusing and stressful to navigate, especially for blind,
low-vision, and mobility-impaired visitors. This page is a summary of my work on MABLE, including user research, design explorations, prototyping, and evaluations aimed at improving accessible indoor navigation.
Phase 1 (MABLE app): Jan 2025 - December 2025
Phase 2 (Smart-glasses research): Jan 2026 - May 2026
Role
In Phase 1, I worked as part of a capstone team of 6 to define the
problem, understand the competitive landscape and recommend a business plan.
In Phase 2, I individually led the research, design, and Wizard-of-Oz study design shown on
this page.
Research Steps Taken:
(The first two steps were completed with my capstone team; the rest were my individual work.)
- Defined the problem: confusing hospital layouts cost hospitals money, damage their reputation, and add stress to patients, staff, and families
- Built a competitive matrix, comparing indoor navigation products available today
- Reviewed current research on wayfinding and low-vision navigation
- Identified and profiled the user populations this project needs to serve: blind users, low-vision users, and users with mobility impairments, each with different needs
- Mapped the user journey, tracing how someone actually navigates an unfamiliar space today and where that breaks down, which pointed to indoor GPS failure as the main friction point
- Defined the core user needs and design requirements coming out of that research: hands-free interaction, low cognitive load, precise instructions, safe navigation through crowds and crossings.
- Translated journey-map pain points into specific UI/UX recommendations
- Compared hardware options, including HoloLens 2 and Meta Ray-Ban glasses, on cost, battery life, and accessibility, and selected Meta Ray-Ban glasses. Defined the system's required inputs (camera, microphone, GPS) and outputs (audio and haptic feedback)
- Mapped the user flow: from selecting the destination to the cues needed until arrival
- Designed a Wizard-of-Oz study to test the concept with real users before building the actual hardware and software
- Wrote technical specifications and a business case for accessibility-focused smart glasses
How BVI users navigate today