Deepikaa Raju/Portfolio

Projects

This is Me

Corporate Social Media

Cognitive Compass

Navigation is an essential system woven into the everyday lives of nearly everyone. While the neurodivergent community is well defined, not all needs are visible. Many people exist on the edge between neurotypical and neurodivergent, able to navigate but underserved by fast, noisy, and cluttered systems. This makes travel cognitively taxing and stressful, leading to anxiety, reduced autonomy, and lost engagement and revenue for businesses unaware they are pushing people away.

Project Duration:

Ongoing

Research

Strategy

Speculation

Process

A hybrid approach combining the Disruptive Design Framework and Human-Centered Design Framework, built upon the foundation of the Double Diamond model.

Status

Ongoing

Full Report Coming Soon

Ever followed directions that felt right but somehow ended up in the wrong place? You’re not alone.

I travel a lot for my part-time job, and being on time is non-negotiable. One day, I had a shift at a store in Liverpool Street Station. I arrived early, feeling relieved until Google Maps decided otherwise. The app said the store was “right around the corner.” I circled the station twice, convinced I’d somehow missed it. Turns out, it was on the ground floor… something I only discovered after asking a store security guard. That was just one of many times Google Maps failed me. Can I stop using it? No. Do I need it to change? Absolutely. And if it frustrates me this much, what about the 7 billion people whose brains all work differently?

For the neurodivergent individuals especially those with autism, dyslexia and ADHD/ADD navigation isn’t intuitive.

It's a task

In the UK alone, 1.2 Million people face learning disabilities.
Among them: 10% are dyslexic, 1% are autistic and 5% have ADHD

Some users don’t fit neatly at either end of the neurotypical or neurodivergent spectrum but exist along the fine line between them. While some have found ways to navigate successfully, many still face challenges. Yet, navigation systems remain unchanged for these minds asking the users to adapt to them.

The Tension

The Digital Navigation & Mobility Tech Industry

The systems that guide us maps, apps, and mobility platforms are shaped by a small circle of powerful stakeholders: tech companies, policymakers, urban planners, and mobility providers.

Market goals dominate design priorities, while inclusivity is left as an afterthought.
The result? Users are expected to adapt to the system, not the other way around.

User's are expected to adapt to the system not the other way around

How much does the exclusion currently cost the businesses?

This exclusion in the UK is annually costing the businesses approx. £26B

Figuring out where the gap lies

Framework and the Methods

Bias, often present in human-made systems, can lead to exclusion. To counter this, I combined the Destructive Design Framework, IDEO’s Human-Centred Design, and the Double Diamond method challenging the status quo, keeping users at the core, and balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability respectively.

I started with a contextual review that stretched from the first recorded navigation methods in 1300 to today’s systems in 2025, digging into the laws, business models, and even how the human brain processes wayfinding.

This set the stage for System Mapping and uncovering its power dynamics. A detailed Stakeholder Map showed exactly where influence and resources are concentrated and where they’re missing entirely.

To sharpen the problem definition, I used 5W1H to strip the challenge back to its essentials.

All of this fed into a B-PESTLE Analysis, which revealed the forces shaping navigation’s future:

Accelerators like AI, IoT integration, and AR navigation.
Blockers like policy gaps, a lack of neurodivergent testing, and inconsistent accessibility standards.

Using these findings, the Trend Triangle highlighted two powerful, opposing forces: technological development and accessibility. These became the axes for a Scenario Matrix, plotting out multiple possible futures.

The most desirable?

To make that vision real, I used a Backcasting Timeline to work backwards from 2050 to today defining the innovations, policy shifts, and cross-sector collaborations needed to make it happen. The insight was clear: if we want that future, the action needs to start now.

A technologically and emotionally inclusive navigation ecosystem, in collaboration with nature, by 2050

Behind the Scenes

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deepikaraju09@gmail.com