Spotable: finding accessible venues and routes
Spotable
Helping people navigate the world with confidence.
UI, UX, Accessibility
Introduction
A personal project my brother and I built for our disabled cousin, helping him find accessible venues and accessible routes.
Year
2026
My Role
Product Designer
Status
TestFlight
Overview
Why this project matters
While accessibility information exists, it's often fragmented, outdated, or difficult to trust. Users frequently need to search across multiple websites, reviews, and social platforms to understand whether a venue will meet their needs.
For someone with a disability, that turns a simple night out into a research project, and often it's easier to just stay home.
04
Research
What people need before leaving home
To understand the problem space, I audited existing accessibility platforms and spoke with disabled users about what they weigh up before leaving home. Three themes surfaced again and again: trust, confidence, and quickly understanding whether a venue will work. I grouped people's own words under each to see what mattered most.
Ideation
Designing for confidence
Early exploration focused on a simple question: how quickly can someone determine whether a venue will work for their needs?
Rather than treating accessibility as a collection of features, the goal was to create an experience that helped people discover venues, understand key information, and make confident decisions before leaving home. Through rapid prototyping and iteration, three principles emerged that shaped the final product.
Discovery
Explore how users find venues through maps, categories, and search, reducing the effort required to uncover relevant places.
Decision Making
Prioritise the information users need most, surfacing key accessibility details early while keeping more detailed information available when required.
Personality
Create a visual language that feels welcoming and approachable, balancing trust and clarity with a sense of optimism and fun.
Final Design
Bringing personality to accessibility
Many accessibility platforms focus solely on functionality. Spotable combines trusted venue information with a playful visual identity, creating an experience that feels friendly, optimistic, and easy to use. By making accessibility information more approachable, the product encourages exploration while helping users make informed decisions with confidence.
Onboarding
Discover Venues
Venue Details
Leave a Review
Workflow
Prompt. Prototype. Refine. Repeat.
Spotable was built using a workflow that moved from design system creation to front-end prototyping and backend integration. Establishing components early, testing them in a live environment, and refining them against real functionality created a faster and more collaborative path from idea to product.
Establish the Design System
Used Figma, Claude Code, and Figma MCP to create the product's core components, patterns, and foundations.
Design System
Build the Application
Translated designs into React components using Claude Code and VS Code, testing interactions in a real browser environment.
Build
Connect & Refine
Integrated with the backend, validated decisions using real data, and iterated towards the final product.
Connect & Refine
Retrospective
How has this project improved me as a designer?
Spotable was my first project using Claude Code and Figma MCP as part of a serious design workflow. Moving between design, prototyping, and implementation allowed ideas to be tested earlier, building confidence in both decision-making and execution. It also reinforced the importance of validating assumptions with a broader range of users.
Build Earlier
Translating designs into working components from the outset created faster feedback loops and exposed usability issues that would have been difficult to identify through static screens alone.
Trusting Instincts
Working at a faster pace strengthened my confidence as a designer. Rather than over-analysing decisions, I could prototype ideas, test them quickly, and iterate based on what worked.
Validate More Broadly
The project was inspired by my cousin's experiences, which provided a strong foundation. However, involving a wider range of users would have challenged assumptions, uncovered additional needs, and ultimately led to a stronger product.
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