Directionary

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/ About the project

Led end-to-end design of Directionary , a crowdsourced wayfinding app for blind and visually impaired users, built with Guide Dogs Singapore and NUS. I owned the full product from concept to MVP, spanning service design, accessibility-first interaction design, and stakeholder alignment.

The real challenge was designing for users with deeply established navigation habits built through Orientation & Mobility (O&M) training. Testing with five blind users, specialist trainer and O&M trainer challenged every assumption — blind users think in route steps and need a tool that earns its place alongside their training, not one that replaces it.

Received funding and currently in ongoing development.
Estimated launch: Q4 2026.
Thesis & Final Year Project under the guidance of Dr. Jung Joo Lee

/ Credits

Client:

Guide Dogs Singapore

Designers:

Daryl Pong

Developers:

Jerome Kwek

/ Year

2025 - Ongoing

/ Links

🔒 View Case Study

📄 View Dissertation

45% ↑

Learning Speed

100%

Task Success Rate

34K

Funding

NEAT

IP License

Navigation isn't just left and right. An O&M route breaks down into dozens of discrete steps, each requiring clients to build spatial memory and motor recall using their white cane.

A full design system built from scratch, covering typography, colour tokens, buttons, components, icons, and templates to ensure consistency and scalability across the product.

Screen reader behaviour documented for key elements, specifying labels, reading order, and interaction states for developer handover.

Early concept validation with an assistive technology expert, testing flow logic and catching platform-specific behaviours across iOS and Android before committing to the interaction model.

Observing blind users navigate the prototype in real conditions, watching how they naturally interact with the app revealed what no usability script could.