Building a Safe Down Syndrome Community for Parents.
The Down Syndrome Diagnosis Network (DSDN) is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting parents and families navigating a Down syndrome diagnosis. DSDN needed a digital platform that fostered community, provided resources, and ensured a safe environment for parents to connect and share their experiences.
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The Challenge
Parents receiving a Down syndrome diagnosis for their child often feel overwhelmed and isolated. While support groups existed, many relied on fragmented social media platforms that didn’t offer the privacy, accessibility, or dedicated resources families needed. Down Syndrome Diagnosis Network (DSDN) recognized the need for a secure, parent-first community where families could find support, resources, and connection without noise or outside distraction.
The challenge was to design a digital community that felt safe, trustworthy, and easy to use for people in emotionally sensitive situations. The platform also needed to provide moderators with tools to manage conversations and keep the environment supportive. We worked with the DSDN team to put together a user-centric approach to developing a new social platform while strategizing how to effectively transition over 20,000 existing users from their existing Facebook Groups network.
Our Approach
We collaborated with DSDN to create a platform centered on connection and safety. To ensure alignment with our client’s vision and goals for DSDN, we conducted in-depth workshops focused on understanding the platform’s objectives, users, and user journeys. Central to these discussions were the challenges parents encounter when broaching sensitive topics, the importance of feeling heard and valued within the community, and the value of the community serving as an active resource for parents navigating the complexities of Down syndrome.
From the insights gathered, we distilled the project’s needs and objectives into three overarching pillars of value for DSDN: community, safety, and accessibility. These pillars encapsulated the collective aspirations of parents, moderators, and of the platform itself, identified through our workshops and research.
Drawing from our understanding of the most pressing challenges faced by parents and moderators, we prioritized features that would deliver the highest impact in enhancing user experience and achieving platform goals with considerations to the three values we identified. This involved creating a robust information architecture and identifying key features on a value and effort matrix to effectively identify the following phases of design and release. By distilling our insights into actionable design decisions, we laid the groundwork for a platform that is not only intuitive and user-friendly, but also deeply resonant with the entirety of the DSDN community.
- Conducted usability studies with parents and moderators to uncover key needs
- Designed a UI/UX system that emphasized clarity, accessibility, and emotional sensitivity
- Developed private groups and role-based permissions through custom web app development
- Built moderation dashboards to allow leaders to manage conversations proactively
- Ran usability testing to ensure ease of use for all audiences
The Impact
The DSDN platform launched as a trusted space for parents and caregivers, bringing measurable value to the community. Families who once relied on fragmented tools now had a central hub designed just for them.
Following the completion and approval of our designs with the clients, our development team swiftly transitioned into building the platform for iOS and Android, with English and Spanish translations. This transition was facilitated by the use of annotations implemented throughout the design process. With the designs thoroughly documented, our development team laid the groundwork for the app’s testing phase and eventual rollout to users.
Our team and the DSDN team eagerly anticipate the app’s full release following the ongoing initial rollout with a select number of user groups. Collaborating closely with the DSDN team, our efforts are driven towards optimizing usability and functionality through active involvement. As we continue to gather feedback, we are both excited to see the DSDN platform’s release, and opening up the community to provide a safe, inclusive space for even more loving parents.
- Increased community engagement and retention through private group features
- Gave moderators tools to maintain a safe, supportive environment
- Improved accessibility for families across different devices and technical levels
- Strengthened DSDN’s ability to deliver resources and foster connection at scale
Project Review
DSDN Team
“Goji Labs helped us build a platform that truly serves our families. It feels safe, accessible, and supportive—exactly what our community needs.”
