SayPlay
A digital AAC app for children with Cerebral Palsy.
Role
Project Lead
Timeline
May 2025 - August 2025
Team
1 Project Lead, 2 Developers
Tools
Figma, Muro, Porcreate
✨Overview
During the summer of 2025, I had the incredible opportunity to work with the United Cerebral Palsy Center of Greater Cleveland to designed a digital AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) interface specifically for children with cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of neurological disorders that affect movement, muscle coordination, and posture. Many children with CP experience speech and motor impairments that make traditional communication challenging, which is where AAC tools play a vital role in giving them a voice.
✨The Problem
Children with cerebral palsy often experience significant speech and motor impairments that make verbal communication difficult or impossible. While AAC tools exist to support expressive language, many are designed without considering the unique cognitive, physical, and emotional needs of young children with motor impairments.
This results in tools that are unintuitive, disengaging, and difficult for children and caregivers to use consistently. There is a pressing need for an accessible, adaptable, and engaging AAC platform that empowers children with cerebral palsy to express themselves more independently and meaningfully — both at home and in therapy settings.
How might we design an AAC system that doesn’t just serve as a tool, but as a playful, emotionally intelligent companion, and how can we support working memory limitations while making communication a fun, socially enriching experience?
✨The Solution
With help and insights from therapists, caregivers, and children at the United Cerebral Palsy Center of Greater Cleveland, I created SayPlay — a digital AAC platform thoughtfully designed to meet the unique needs of children with cerebral palsy. The app integrates emotional expression, social interaction, and playful learning, combining accessibility with delight! SayPlay empowers children to express themselves confidently — not just with words, but with play, emotion, and connection.
✨Competitive Analysis
To gain a better understanding of AAC apps and what is currently being offered in the market I analyzed 5 different apps: Proloquo2Go, TouchChat HD, LAMP, CoughDrop and Avez AAC.
Strengths
✅ Clinically trusted and widely used
✅ Rich vocabulary and customization
✅ Strong language development tools
✅ Therapist and caregiver support features
Weaknesses
❌ Overwhelming for young users
❌ Lacks playfulness and emotional expression
❌ No co-play or social interaction features
❌ Slow, layered navigation hinders communication
A more detailed analysis:
✨User Research
To get a wholistic understanding of the user needs and pain points, I volunteered at UCP for 8 weeks, working alongside speech language pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists and children with Cerebral Palsy.
During my time, I had the opportunity to interview therapist and work with the children, and here is what I gathered from the experience.
💡 User Personas
Sarah, Age 6
Lila is a 6-year-old girl with spastic cerebral palsy. She attends weekly occupational therapy and is highly curious, though she tires easily and struggles with fine motor control.
Needs
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Consistent use of aided language input
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Activities that integrate AAC use (e.g., making choices, telling a story, labeling actions)
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A therapy tool that supports symbol-based interaction and customization
Goals
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Communicate thoughts, choices, and emotions clearly
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Improve fine motor skills to better interact with both physical tools and her AAC interface
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Play and purposeful communication
Frustrations
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AAC tools that are visually cluttered and hard to access
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Limited vocabulary options that don’t reflect her personality or interests
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Long wait times and overly complex instructions
Needs
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Regular, clear updates from the therapist in parent-friendly language
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Home-based activity suggestions that are quick and feasible
Maya, Sarah's Mother
Maya is a 39-year-old single mother of two, working full-time as a nurse. Her younger child, Leo, has CP. She is deeply involved in his care but struggles to keep up with every detail of his therapy progress due to her busy schedule.
Goals
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Stay informed about her child’s progress
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Support therapy carryover at home
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Understand how to advocate for her child in school and medical setting
Frustrations
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Lack of visibility into what happens during therapy
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Not knowing how to reinforce therapy skills at home
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Difficulty finding reliable, personalized resources
John, Occupational Therapist
Lila is a 6-year-old girl with spastic cerebral palsy. She attends weekly occupational therapy and is highly curious, though she tires easily and struggles with fine motor control.
Needs
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A flexible interface that adapts to a range of abilities
Easy-to-use data tracking and session planning tools
Visual elements to sustain child attention
A way to share progress and activities with parents post-session
Goals
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Help children meet developmental and motor goals
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Track progress over time
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Report outcomes to parents and healthcare teams
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Customize therapy based on child’s abilities
Frustrations
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Existing tools often lack adaptability
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Manual tracking takes up time that could be spent engaging with the child
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Difficulty maintaining consistent communication with parents
✨Design Process
💡 Sketching and Ideation
💡 Wireframing
💡 Iterations
✅ Clear linear flow helps guide young users step-by-step
✅ Limited visible choices reduce cognitive overload
❌ Requires frequent category switching to build sentences
❌ Full sentence view not visible until completion
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✅ More choices visible per category, encouraging creativity
✅ Flexible, non-linear building for advanced users
❌ Potentially overwhelming for beginners due to many empty slots
❌ Higher visual clutter can reduce focus
I ultimately chose Iteration 1, as its linear category flow and limited on-screen options reduced cognitive load and made the sentence-building process more predictable for young users. While Iteration 2 offered more flexibility and choices, user testing revealed that the grid of empty slots felt overwhelming and visually cluttered. Iteration 1’s guided approach supports early AAC learners by providing structure and minimizing distraction.
✅ Clean, minimal layout lowers distraction
✅ Easy to scan and tap for users with motor challenges
❌ No quick-action shortcuts; navigation is slower for repeat tasks
❌ Less dynamic navigation, forcing step-by-step flow
✅ “Let’s Talk,” “Let’s Play,” and “Story Builder” provide faster task switching
✅ Multi-purpose layout supports different activities
❌ Extra buttons add visual complexity
❌ Mixing actions with categories can blur task focus
I ultimately chose Iteration 1, which keeps the layout simple with only core categories displayed. Earlier versions incorporated additional quick-action buttons, but these were found to blur the focus of the task and add unnecessary visual complexity. The streamlined grid in Iteration 1 offers a cleaner, more approachable interface, helping users focus on communication rather than navigation.
✅ Large, friendly visuals ideal for pre-readers
✅ Ample spacing reduces tap errors for motor-impaired users
❌ Relies heavily on memory of friend’s photo without name labels
❌ Not space-efficient; more friends mean more scrolling
✅ Combines text and visuals for better identification
✅ Scales well for large friend lists without excessive scrolling
❌ Smaller tap targets may be harder for young users
❌ Less playful and inviting than the grid layout
I ultimately chose Iteration 1, which uses large, circular avatars for friend selection. The grid layout tested better with young or pre-literate users, who could quickly recognize friends visually. While the list view in Iteration 2 scaled better for larger friend lists, it felt less playful and reduced tap target size, making it harder for motor-impaired users to interact confidently.
✨Key Features
💡 Personalisation and Custom Avatars
Children can choose their own playful avatar to represent them as they navigate the platform. These customizable characters help create a sense of ownership, comfort, and fun, making communication more engaging and less intimidating.
💡 Social Communication Tools
With the Add Friends feature, children can connect with peers, caregivers, or classmates in a safe and supportive space. They can choose friends to play with, join interactive games, and practice communication in real social settings.
💡 Personalized Profile Settings
With Personalized Profile Settings, caregivers can tailor the platform to match their child’s communication style whether they speak in full sentences, use words and phrases, rely on gestures, or communicate with AAC.
💡 Positive Feedback and Motivation
The Adaptive Home Page grows and changes with each child’s progress. It highlights their favorite activities, most-used communication tools, and personalized learning modules making every login feel familiar and supportive. By
✨Design System
✨Reflections
💡 Key Takeaways
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Designing for accessibility requires deep empathy and iteration.
Working with children with cerebral palsy taught me that accessibility is never one-size-fits-all — every detail matters, from button size to color contrast to the cognitive load of each interaction.
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Collaboration with real users is everything.
Partnering with therapists, families, and children at UCP grounded every design decision in lived experience. Their insights shaped SayPlay into something more meaningful than I could have built alone.
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Emotion and play are powerful entry points for communication.
I learned that emotional expression and play-based storytelling aren’t “extras” — they’re essential building blocks for connection, confidence, and language development in AAC contexts.
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The best interfaces disappear.
My goal wasn’t just to make a functional app, but to design an experience that feels natural, joyful, and intuitive — one where the technology gets out of the way and the child’s voice takes center stage.
💡 Next Steps
✅ Pilot Testing with Therapists and Families
✅ Develop a No-Code MVP
✅ Explore Research + Publishing Opportunities
✅ Advocate for Child-Centered AAC Design