The next version of Grounded would start with the gate-change journey. I want to invite more autistic adults to try it on their own phones and give them a task they can complete without me talking them through it. I would ask them to identify the new gate, explain what they would do next and resume the route after declining support. I would record where they pause, where they look for confirmation and whether they need help from me. That would give me a better basis for deciding what a first usable release should include.
I would also test the points where the app has incomplete information. One scenario could give the traveller an older update and a departure board showing something different. I would see whether they understand which information is current and know where to check. Family View would need its own two-person test: can the traveller see what they are about to share, and can the recipient tell the age of the phone update and the status of the flight?
I want to use Grounded as the basis for a PhD application. The question I would take forward is how airports can communicate an unexpected change and offer support while leaving autistic adults in control of their journey. The app gives me a way to make that question concrete. I can compare different ways of presenting the same information and change one part of the interaction when people show me where it breaks down.
I would like the doctoral work to begin with autistic collaborators helping to decide which situations matter and what a good outcome feels like. I would explore methods that let people contribute in ways that suit them, including written responses and interviews. From there I could compare a shared-information route, a phone-led route and a coordinated route in realistic tasks. I would want to understand both what people can do and what it costs them in effort, attention or reliance on someone else. The research would also need new participant permissions and a clear account of what information is collected during each test.
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The question I want to keep asking is how much control a design gives the traveller and how much work it takes to use that control.
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I would show an airport team the departure board and phone side by side. I would use the same gate change to work through who confirms the update, how it reaches each place and where someone can check if the sources disagree. There is an opportunity for Grounded to influence the whole communication sequence, including what happens when a traveller needs to find a person or a quieter space. That depends on real information about routes and conditions and on who can act when support is requested.
I would evaluate audio and wearable prompts separately. This would let me ask when a spoken instruction helps and when it competes with announcements. For a wearable, I would first want to know whether a prompt adds anything to support the traveller can already open by hand. If there is a reason to explore other forms, I would compare them with the people who might wear them and include the effort of connecting, wearing and removing them in that discussion.
I can see Grounded becoming an identity that a traveller recognises across the app, a shared display and a guide they might use before travelling. I would carry the same plain wording and attention to the next action across those places. The option to turn off the character has made me think about how the identity can still feel familiar through type, colour and language. A traveller could choose a quieter version of the interface and still recognise the same service.
I want to take this work into a junior UX or app design role and into my doctoral application. In a role I would like to learn how a team takes a feature through research, design, development and support after release. Through a PhD I would like time to study the decisions that need a longer view, including how autistic travellers define useful support and what airport teams need to make it available. In both settings I want to keep building my skills in co-design, accessibility auditing and data privacy. The question that brought me here is still personal. I want to know what would make an independent journey feel possible on someone’s own terms.