navi | Devpost

Inspiration

When we were deciding what senses to focus on for this prompt we knew we wanted to do a project that helped those that may have an impaired sense. As UX designers we wanted not just the user to survive but to thrive and have accessible technology that gave them that ability. We were heavily inspired by other senses found in nature that we don't possess, like echolocation and distant sense via electroreception. Amazing technologies like LiDAR and haptic feedbacks were a great way of taking those organic senses and translating them to senses we experience in our everyday life.

What it does

Our project, navi, is a speculative sensory augmentation tool that measures spatial awareness and translates environmental data into auditory and haptic signals, thus allowing visually impaired users to perceive physical space through enhanced hearing and touch.

How we built it

We first based our build on a mountain of research, making a product for those visually impaired as sighted designers means we had to face our biases and research the lives, struggles, the wants, and especially the needs of our audience. Through this research we took the most commonly available tools for the visually impaired user, guide dogs and white canes, and thought about how to improve on such a tool with an app. Cross referencing and trying out other available accessibility tools for the visually impaired, like Be My Eyes and Blind Touch Demo, gave us a better sense of who we're designing for and what they need. Afterwards we created many sketches in pen & paper we translated it over to Figma Make. The output was beautifully crafted UI screens but our top UI priority with this project is that it had to meet WCAG standards in both colors, typography, and touch target sizes. Through lots of iterations and fine tuning, we created Navi.

Challenges we ran into

Keeping UI/UX both beautiful and delightful while also being robust and usable for our visually impaired users was a challenge. As sighted designers designing for accessibility we wanted to keep in mind our biases and how our experiences may affect our design choices. It's difficult to build an app but it's even more difficult to build an app that has to work for a spectrum of visually impaired users, from those who can see shapes and colors only, to those who can only see lights and shadows through small pinholes.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting it done in 4 days was a tremendous success! Our team hit the ground running and roles were divided to play to everyone's strength. We created not only a delightful app but a delightful and fun story to go along with it that highlights the challenges those visually impaired go through everyday. If anything we're most proud to try and serve and represent a wonderful community through the language of design.

What we learned

For most of the team this was the first time we used Figma Make, so becoming prompt engineers in only 4 days was quite the learning experience. Creating a project concept and a full blown prototype within that time frame taught us to constantly iterate and always be open and not married to our design. Many things were scrapped, recycled, and remade for the better of the team's vision. Working in a team environment on such a monumental project taught us collaboration and girlhood! We bonded over coffee and our shared love of design at the end of the day.

What's next for navi

We believe that the concept of navi can be a reality, truly and wholeheartedly. There's so much good that tech can do and so often accessibility is overlooked even in the big 2026. Navi can in the future become integrated in new emerging devices like meta glasses or even use Air Tag technology for better the haptic and auditory inputs.