Research question. How can Grounded look recognisable and warm while making a changing airport journey easier for an autistic adult traveller to understand and act on?

Brand intent

Grounded is a proposed travel-information and optional-support service for autistic adults travelling independently through airports. When journey information changes, it helps a traveller see what is current, understand what has changed and choose what to do next.

The brand is for adults who want to retain control over their own journey. It should make useful information easier to find without assuming that every traveller wants the same amount of help, has the same sensory preferences or feels a particular way. The app can offer written guidance, optional spoken guidance and routes to support, but the traveller decides whether to use them.

Mission

Help independent travellers keep their bearings when airport information changes, through clear current facts and support they control.

Vision

A more connected airport journey in which changes are easier to understand and practical support is available by choice.

This is an ambition for the project, not a claim that Grounded can remove uncertainty, change airport conditions or guarantee a particular emotional outcome.

The audience is the test for the identity

Maia’s Critical Report included a literature review and a questionnaire completed by ten self-declared autistic adults. It identified themes around independence and control, changing support needs, sensory environments and fragmented journey systems. These findings explain why Grounded is investigating clear updates, continuity and optional help. They do not establish that all autistic adults want a colourful interface, a mascot, audio or the same kind of reassurance. The sample is small and self-selected, and it did not test this identity.

That evidence sets a practical standard: the operational message must work without the decorative brand layer. A traveller should be able to identify the new gate, tell it apart from the previous gate, and understand the next available action without reading the mascot’s expression or interpreting a colour. Warmth can make the service more recognisable, but it cannot substitute for accurate information or user choice.

What other identity systems show

A useful identity is more than a logo or a palette. Reviewing official guidance from Apple and NHS digital services suggests that public-facing identities connect visual recognition with repeatable rules for content and interface behaviour. This is a synthesis of those systems rather than a universal checklist.

• Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines treat branding as part of an interface that must work with platform conventions. Apple cautions against using brand colour so broadly that it overwhelms the interface, and says a brand typeface must remain legible at different sizes and support accessibility features. Its wider guidance also treats consistent behaviour and accessibility as core design principles. This is relevant to Grounded because a distinctive identity still needs to leave room for familiar iOS controls, larger text and clear information hierarchy. Apple: Branding · Apple: Design principles
• NHS digital services describe their voice as consistent, factual and empowering, while allowing tone to change with context. Their design system documents typography, headings, links, lists and contrast as reusable service rules. This shows how trust can come from predictable use of language and components, not only from a logo. For Grounded, the lesson is to keep the change message direct, and let optional guidance carry more warmth. NHS: Voice and tone · NHS: Typography

These are useful organisational and interface precedents, not direct evidence about autistic adults’ brand preferences. The project can learn from their consistency and explicit rules while testing its own tone and visuals with the intended audience.

Decisions so far

The pages below document the reasoning in more depth. These are working decisions at different stages, not all final or user-tested.

| Identity element | Current direction | Status and reason |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Purpose and audience | Airport travel information and optional support for autistic adults travelling independently. | Working foundation drawn from the project question and Critical Report. This defines the intended audience, but does not mean every autistic traveller has the same needs. |
| Name and slogan | Grounded · “Different needs. One connected journey.” | Preferred working pairing. “Grounded” carries associations of orientation and steadiness, but also has possible meanings around aircraft being prevented from flying or therapeutic grounding. The slogan clarifies the intended direction without proving that people will read it as intended. See GDE751: Week 18: Brand Name and Slogan. |
| Brand voice | Direct, adult and factual for operational updates; warm, optional guidance for moments where a traveller chooses more help. | Working voice principle informed by Apple, NHS and cognitive-accessibility guidance. Tone should follow the task, not assume the user’s feelings. Spoken guidance should be opt-in. See GDE751: Week 18: Voice & Identity. |
| Colour roles | Lilac for the journey motif; lime for the small character and primary action; warm off-white and charcoal for adaptable surfaces. Pink, aqua and yellow remain exploratory supporting colours. | Roles are provisional; exact values, contrast and light/dark behaviour still need verification. Colour must not carry gate or status meaning on its own. See GDE751: Week 19: Brand Colours.. |
| Typography | Use native iOS system typography for interface text, with a clear distinction between current gate, previous gate, action and supporting details. Keep the wordmark and slogan adult and legible. | Working direction rather than a tested final identity. Dynamic Type, enlarged text, screen-reader order and real-device legibility remain to be checked. See GDE751: Week 19: Choosing Typography.. |
| Journey motif and information panel | An abstract route line can connect the journey; a contained panel can hold current and previous gate facts. | Promising composition studies, not a final layout. The route must not look like verified map data unless it is connected to a real source. |
| Mascot | A lime open-loop character is the current candidate for a small recurring companion. | Provisional and not evaluated by participants. It must not communicate operational facts, infer emotion or be required to use the app. See GDE751: Week 19: Mascot: From Reference to Companion. |

Visual studies: route, panel and companion

The sketches compare three visual ideas: a route line for continuity, a contained panel for gate facts, and a larger portal shape for a sense of transition. Their job is to make the developing visual language visible, not to claim that a design has already been validated.

The route line can connect moments in a journey, but risks being mistaken for a literal map. The ticket-like panel can separate current and previous gate information, but should not crowd out the action. A portal can make the change feel expressive, but may introduce extra visual effort. The current hypothesis combines a restrained route motif with a clear information panel; its reading order still needs testing.

Functional symbols such as location, next-step and close controls should remain familiar and consistent with iOS patterns. The abstract route mark and mascot are decorative identity elements. This distinction follows accessibility guidance that colour or a visual cue should not be the only way to understand information. The gate, status and action need explicit labels. W3C: Use of Color · Apple: SF Symbols

Grounded’s app do’s and don’ts

| Do | Don’t |
| --- | --- |
| Put the current gate and change in the clearest position. Label the previous gate as previous. | Make the traveller infer which gate is current from colour, position alone or a character’s expression. |
| Pair colour with words, hierarchy and familiar symbols so information remains available to people who perceive colour differently. | Use colour as the only signal for a changed, cancelled or completed state. |
| Offer one clear next action, with additional route or support options available by choice. | Start audio, assistance or a multi-step explanation without the traveller asking for it. |
| Keep written and spoken guidance consistent; let the person replay, pause or dismiss audio. | Let a playful voice soften or obscure an important operational fact. |
| Use adult, literal, respectful language. Explain unavoidable airport terms and state what is known. | Use babyish praise, therapy language, or claims such as “you are safe” or “you feel calm” without evidence. |
| Keep the mascot small, optional and separate from gate facts. Make the core task work if the character is hidden. | Let the character cover the destination or imply it knows how someone feels. |
| Label sample or illustrative journey data clearly and identify what source a real update would use. | Suggest that the prototype has a live airport connection, verified route or confirmed staff support when it does not. |
| Check the interface in light and dark appearances, with larger text and assistive features. | Treat a contrast calculation or one successful screenshot as proof that the whole experience is accessible. |

These rules translate the brand promise into interface checks. They also keep the visual identity honest: Grounded can offer orientation and choice, but the airport remains a complex shared environment and the traveller remains in control.

What is still missing

The identity has a clear purpose and a set of promising visual roles, but it is not a finished brand system. The next work should close these gaps in order:

1. Test the intent and name: ask intended users what “Grounded” and the slogan suggest before explaining them. Check for the airport, therapy and “grounded aircraft” readings.
2. Complete the visual system: settle exact colour values and roles, confirm type scale and weights, and define logo/wordmark, spacing, line work, illustration and icon rules. Recheck contrast and legibility across light and dark appearances and enlarged text.
3. Evaluate the visual hierarchy: compare the route motif, information panel and mascot against the same gate-change task. Check that current gate, previous gate and next action are found without relying on decoration.
4. Check content and audio together: test the written update and optional spoken version, including pace, pronunciation of gate codes, replay, pause and quiet defaults.
5. Review with autistic adult travellers: use task-based feedback to find out what is clear, what feels respectful, what is distracting and where choices are missing. The current research and visual references cannot answer those questions by themselves.

Brand summary: Grounded should be an adult, dependable travel-information brand with a distinctive but restrained personality. It makes changes explicit, keeps the traveller in control, and offers support without presuming it is wanted.