Best Buddies Connect
End-to-end application design
Best Buddies Int.
UX Designer
100 hours
The Story at a Glance Overview
I designed an end-to-end application for Best Buddies International, an organization I deeply admire. This project was not only a professional challenge but also a personally meaningful way to support a cause I care about.
What is Best Buddies?
A non-profit that creates opportunities for inclusion and connection for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
What's the problem?
People within the Best Buddies community (members, staff, and volunteers) needed a centralized communication tool. They wanted a place to share notifications and reminders about upcoming events, send photos, and safely connect with each other outside of social media.
The solution?
A safe, all-in-one communication app for the Best Buddies community- featuring program-specific group chats, direct messaging, hobby-based groups, and leader announcements to keep members connected and informed.
Let's dive in! Research
Great user experiences always begin with research. While I admired Best Buddies and wanted to design something meaningful for them, I didn’t want to build an app just for the sake of it. I needed to understand the real challenge before creating a solution, and research was the first step.
Competitive Analysis
To build a strong foundation, I first explored what was already out there. Which apps were serving the IDD community? How did they function, and what needs were they addressing? Compiling these insights into a competitive analysis helped me understand the landscape and identify opportunities for this project.
🔎 Findings
💜 Meetup / Bumble For Friends → Great for connections, but lack accessibility and support
🌍 Sociability → Focuses on accessibility, but only for physical spaces
✨ Gap → No app balances relationships, support, and inclusion like Best Buddies
🌈 Opportunity → Design an app that connects buddies, volunteers, caregivers, and staff in an accessible way
Goals Going Into User Interviews
Understand when, how, and why members would use the app.
Identify the most useful features and functions for members.
Explore current engagement methods and communication
Uncover pain points and accessibility needs for inclusivity.
Who I talked to
Best Buddies' Minnesota Program Manager
2 Best Buddies' Adult Friendship Volunteers
2 Best Buddies' Members with intellectual and developmental disabilities
What I Learned
When, how, and why members would use the app
Stay updated with event notifications
Communicate with chapter members
Build friendships and connections
Most useful features and functions
Chat and messaging
Events calendar & reminders
Photo gallery & notifications
Current engagement methods & tools
Info spread across website, email, social media, Facebook
Hard to find up-to-date details
Causes confusion for members
Pain points & accessibility needs
Current system takes too much time/effort
Wide range of ages and program types
Need for one inclusive, centralized solution
From Sparks to Strategy Define
My research uncovered tons of ideas and possibilities for a Best Buddies app. Community members shared features they’d love to see, and it was clear there were many directions I could go. Before moving into design, I had to step back, sort through the insights, and pinpoint the core problem and solution to focus on.
Affinity Mapping
After gathering research, I organized quotes and ideas from user interviews into themes. This made it clear which issues carried the most weight and impact. Using FigJam, I grouped the sticky notes into three main categories, each with smaller supporting themes.
1) Communication & Information Access
Members expressed a need for timely, accessible, and centralized communication. Information is currently scattered across multiple platforms, which can cause confusion and missed events. Participants want a single, reliable source for updates, reminders, and two-way communication, with accessibility features that support varying abilities and preferences.
2) Connection & Community Building
Best Buddies participants value relationships and want tools that strengthen friendships, foster a safe and inclusive community, and celebrate shared experiences. Members seek ways to share memories, engage in fun activities, and connect in spaces that feel secure, especially for those who prefer to avoid public social media.
3) Organization & Participation
Coordinating events, volunteers, and participation requires significant time and effort. Members and leaders want simpler, more visual tools for planning, registering, and tracking events, along with accessible design that works for everyone. Reducing friction in organization would help more people stay involved and engaged.
Affinity mapping helped me uncover key themes and clarify core problems, which directly informed the next steps of the design process.
User Personas
To design an app that truly supports the Best Buddies community, I created personas to bring member and volunteer experiences to life. Samuel and Dana’s stories reflect the excitement, goals, and challenges that shaped the design.
Choosing the Core Feature (challenge!!!)
With so many ideas from interviews, picking just one felt impossible. I couldn’t build everything Best Buddies deserved—yet. My mission: create a spark that could grow. Focusing on a chat app let me tackle multiple community needs in one place, turning a tough choice into a clear direction.
✨ Why Chat?
💬 Safe connection → Direct + group messaging just for Best Buddies
📅 Stay informed → Event reminders + announcements sent right in chat
📸 Share moments → Group photo sharing doubles as a gallery
🔔 Real-time updates → Push notifications keep everyone in the loop
By focusing on Chat, I built a strong foundation where other features could naturally live—without overcomplicating the MVP.
Crafting the Experience Design
Time to turn ideas into screens! I leaned on research and familiar app patterns to craft
an experience that felt natural and easy to navigate.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
During my five user interviews, Facebook Messenger was consistently mentioned as a main way people communicated. Slack and iMessage also came up frequently. Because of this, I designed my early wireframes to mirror familiar chat apps.
Using recognizable patterns means users know what to expect—it feels intuitive because it works the way they’re already used to. While I love creativity in design, in this case, simplicity and familiarity were key. By keeping the wireframes straightforward and similar to existing apps, I focused on delivering the most usable experience possible.
Low-Fidelity User Testing
Stop!
Stop! Before jumping into high-fidelity, I paused to test my low-fi wireframes with users. This helped me confirm I was on the right track and focus on one key challenge: the bottom navigation bar.
I aimed to keep navigation simple—just profile and chat. But because the app serves a community with intellectual and developmental disabilities, I also considered putting accessibility settings front and center. To test this idea, I gathered feedback from users, my design mentor, and group workshops.
The feedback made my choice clear—settings needed to be in the main navigation. Accessibility shouldn’t be hidden a few taps away, especially in an app built for this community. It wasn’t the typical design move, but in this case, breaking convention meant honoring the project’s core purpose: putting accessibility first.
UI Kit
I put together a UI kit to keep everything consistent and easy to scale if more designers joined in. Honestly, it was one of the most fun parts—I got to lean into Best Buddies’ bold colors and playful energy to create components that feel warm, approachable, and full of heart, just like the community itself.
I made sure all text and icon colors passed contrast tests, ensuring readability across different devices and for all users. I also carried over Open Sans from the Best Buddies website—a clean, highly legible typeface that supports clarity and consistency. The result is a simple yet impactful design system that balances brand alignment with accessibility.
High-Fidelity Wireframes
With the colors, typography, and components in place, I brought everything together into polished high-fidelity designs. The goal was to create an experience that feels inviting and exciting to use, while remaining simple, clear, and highly user-friendly.
A few up close details
Watch it Work!
Prototype in Action Testing
With the designs in place, I built a prototype to be tested by potential users.
User Testing Overview
5
Participants
7
Tasks
100%
Completion & Satisfaction
"I liked how easy it was to create a group chat."
"It feels really straightforward."
"It feels similar to other apps so that made it pretty intuitive to use."
"I would not have done anything differently."
Testing was highly successful—all seven tasks were completed with 100% success. Users found the app easy, intuitive, and clutter-free, especially appreciating the simple bottom navigation and clean design with Best Buddies’ purple. Key actions like creating group chats and messages felt smooth, and settings were described as straightforward and accessible. No major issues were identified.
Final Thoughts Wrap Up
Designs? Check. Testing? Check. So… what was it all for?
Wrapping up
This project was both rewarding and a chance for major growth as a UX designer.
Unique research
I worked directly with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), which is an opportunity not often seen in standard user research.
Personal Alignment
Designing accessible technology has always been important to me, and this project allowed me to create something meaningful for the Best Buddies community.
Future Potential
There’s room to explore launching a minimum viable product and expanding features to deliver an even richer experience.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges was staying patient while scheduling user interviews.
Delays: Connecting with participants in the organization took longer than expected.
Time Pressure: With a sprint timeline, I briefly considered pivoting to an easier project.
Commitment: I stayed the course because the work mattered, and once interviews happened, I was grateful I persisted.
Reflections & Opportunities
Given more time and resources, I would have explored additional features to support Best Buddies events, such as a visual calendar. While the project focused on creating a strong minimum viable product, the community’s needs extend beyond a single feature, highlighting the potential for a broader, more comprehensive solution.
Impact
I am most proud of how effective the designs turned out and how well the user testing went. Every person I spoke with in the Best Buddies community expressed excitement about the project, asking, “Is this really going to happen?” followed by, “Because I would LOVE for it to actually happen.” This response reinforced how technology can genuinely connect and improve experiences for everyone in the IDD community. It has strengthened my belief in the power of thoughtfully designed tech to create meaningful impact.
Thanks for reading!
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