Unnavigable navigation: making the unnavigable, navigable in complex systems

Theme: Lived Experience  | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

The world of special educational needs and disability is a complex place.

There is a web of practitioners, schools and experts and huge investment. However, families and young people can feel lost whilst they try to navigate the system. We tried to reimagine this complex web, ensuring the needs of children, young people and their families are at the heart of it.

We need to help young people and their families to navigate a complicated system, raise and support aspirations whilst also helping families to know the steps they need to take along the journey.

This means expanding the support network of professionals, listening to real life stories and ensuring we take actionable insights from their stories to empower users.

In this talk, Jo will make the case for exploring problem spaces with a number of lenses using inspiring and relatable examples. 

We will share our tools and learning to support teams seeking to include a wider group of experts and lived experience to use research and design more purposefully to achieve change.

This session aims to tell the story of what we did and how it is ok to push against the system of waterfall practice to look at problems with a different lens. We will share video, audio and prototyping in the presentation to bring to life the different lens and stories we heard. We will also be able to share the prototype solution.

Participant takeaways:

• The power of including user voice to influence the system

• Real-life examples from relatable contexts

• Approaches and tools to help you navigate the unnavigable in a complex system