We designed "Me, Myself and You" (MMY), a board game for adults with Autism with the local Autism community. By working with the community (rather than for) and leveraging empathy in action, our team co-created an impactful product with lasting effects. We're excited to submit our workshop proposal for this upcoming SxSWedu conference to help showcase our process for others to use in the problems they are passionate about solving in this space! Thank you for your time and consideration, Team MMY (Nina, Devika and Claire)

1. C L A I R E J A C O B S O N | N I N A L I G O N | D E V I K A P A T E L
Empathy in Action:
Designing for Neurodiversity
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2. A multiplayer board game for adults with autism
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4. CHALLENGE APPROACH IMPACT SXSWedu THANKS
CHALLENGE

5. The Challenge
As individuals with autism cross the legal threshold into adulthood,
they face a staggering decline in resources that were once readily
available to them.
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6. The years immediately after high school are
when people create an important foundation
for the rest of their lives, yet many families with
children with autism describe leaving high
school as falling off a cliff because of the lack
of services for adults with ASDs.
-Paul Shattuck, PhD.
“
” 5

7. Research has shown that…
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8. Individuals with ASD are significantly
more likely to
never see friends
never get called by friends
never be invited to activities
and be socially isolated
- Journal for Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2014.
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9. This is a problem because…
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10. 50,000
youth with autism transition to adulthood
each year, losing access to many of the
resources they once depended on.
- National Autism Indicators Report: Transition into Young Adulthood, 2015.
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11. CHALLENGE APPROACH IMPACT SXSWedu THANKS
APPROACH

12. To learn as much as we could about Autism Spectrum
Disorders, we turned to the expertise of a wide
variety of individuals and organizations within
various autism communities
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13. Individuals on
the Spectrum
Community
Organizations
Prevocational
Programs
Developmental
Pediatricians
Autism
Researchers
Independent
Living Centers
Caregivers
OTs/SLPs &
Special Ed
Project SEARCH
Dr. Paul Shattuck
Shire House
Abilities United
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14. We heard moving statements like…
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15. People are so busy trying to
fix them, they forget they
need real experiences.
“
”- Janet Lawson, Autistry Studios
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16. And powerful stories like Jacob’s…
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17. Jacob
is 24 years old. He has a passion for cognitive psychology and lives in
an independent living center with two older roommates. He struggles
to get along with them because he feels like they have nothing in
common, like they have nothing to connect over
I’m in college but my roommates
are not, so we don’t get along
“
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18. OUR APPROACH
Through extensive research, prototyping, co-designing (with our users),
and iteration, we unlocked a process that resulted in the design and
implementation of a highly impactful product.
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19. PROTO 1
A ques0on-answer based
game where players
progress toward the center
of the board by making
connec0ons between their
answers
PROTO 2
A game that encourages
players to connect by
engaging each other in a
topic that par0cularly
interests them, also known
as a “special interest”
PROTO 3
A game of ques0on cards
that help players learn new
things about their peers.
PROTO 4
Me, Myself, and You, a game that
uses ac0vity and ques0on cards to
facilitate social connec0on and
interac0on. Players work together
to complete challenges and
ul0mately must all reach the end
together in order to win.
On to manufacturing.
Stay tuned!
PROTO 5
MMY gets a faceliI with new
colors, card design, a refined
board layout, fine tuned
ques0ons, and clearer
instruc0ons.
Design
&
Iteration
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20. Devika facilitates a test of one of our prototypes at an assisted living center for
individuals on the spectrum.
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21. MMY, a multiplayer board game to facilitate social connection between adults with
autism. Co-created with individuals on the spectrum; everything from the language
used, to the colors, to the texture of the player pieces, is design with our users in mind.
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22. 20
Students from Palo Alto Unified School District’s Project SEARCH program play MMY.

23. IMPACT
D I S C O V E R P R O T O T Y P E IMPACT SXSWedu THANKS

24. Reach
After a successful Indiegogo fundraising campaign we produced 50 games
that are currently being played in schools and homes across the US and
globally in Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa.
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Awards + Recognition
2016 Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America Conference
Winners of the Student Design Competition and award for Device Most Likely to be Commercialized
2016 San Francisco Autism Society of America Conference
Presented Me, Myself, and You in a workshop session
2016 FastCo. Innovation by Design Awards
Honorable Mention

25. Devika presenting MMY at the 2016 San Mateo Maker Faire
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26. User Feedback
We are a family of five. Two of our kids are autistic. Jake is 15 and Caleb is 13. Our eldest
son, Micah, 17, who is not on the spectrum but is always eager to find a tool to engage
more with his younger brothers since they do not share many interests.
I was surprised by how excited and over the top Micah was about the game. I really believe
Micah was looking for something else to interact with his brothers with.
Jake was the least keen to play. He doesn’t like anything new – that goes for every aspect
of life. So, we were ready for him to be less open and receptive. However, as the play
continued, Jake became more engaged.
Caleb likes games and so he jumped right in – he particularly liked the concept that he
could come up with something goofy if he wanted to – which he did – more than once. He
was all in from start to finish.
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27. User Feedback
I am a SLP at the high school level, and have used your game activity with 4
different language groups working on pragmatic skills. Overall, the game is
fun. It stimulates conversations and sharing of insights into likes/dislikes
etc. of group members.
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28. CHALLENGE APPROACH IMPACT SXSWedu THANKS
SXSWedu

29. Now we want to share our process at SXSW so
that other designers and educators can have the
tools to approach inclusive design challenges in
their own communities.
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Our hands on workshop will provide…

31. 1.
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A distilled set of design
practices to apply to the
problems you are passionate
about solving.

32. 2.
Concrete tools to define your
problem statement, research,
co-create, prototype, iterate,
and integrate your findings
into your design.
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33. DefineResearch Prototype
Co-Create Iterate
Integrate
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Build empathy and
rapport Align on a common
goal
Build to learn
Engage users and
build support
Define a problem
statement
Rapidly iterate with
actionable feedback
Create lasting impact

34. 3.
Strategies to leverage these tools
and and apply them to problems
you’re interesting in solving for
underserved communities with
diverse perspectives.
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35. 31
Our goal is that you leave our workshop feeling
confident, creative, and ready to tackle tough
problems through research, co-creation and a
leap into ambiguity.

36. CHALLENGE APPROACH IMPACT SXSWedu THANKS
THANKS

37. T H A N K S
a big thank you to
Project SEARCH
Foothill College
Shire House
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Autistry Studios
Abilities United
Ada’s Cafe
Dr. Aaron Nayfack
Dr. Sophia Colamarino
Dr. Deb Kahrson
Dr. Paul Shattuck
Brian Cordero (Project SEARCH)
Jennifer Zevelos (Project SEARCH)
Jill Escher
Dave Jaffe
Indiegogo Supporters
Rehabilitation Eng. Society of N. America
Stanford Design Department
Stanford Product Design Teaching Team
San Francisco Autism Society of America
Shilpa Sarkaar (Designer + Mentor)
Our Classmates, Friends, and Family

38. T H A N K Y O U
memyselfandyouteam@gmail.com
PlayMMY MMYTeam @MMY_Team playmmy.com| | |

39. PlayMMY MMYTeam @MMY_Team playmmy.com| | |