Kid, meet world

Brand New Box partnered with our client to design and build My VCRM, a tailored digital tool that helps young people with disabilities transition into adult life. It turns out, that young people with a map and a plan do better when they launch into the real world. By identifying important community resources and streamlining goal management, My VCRM is a user-friendly platform that simplifies navigation, organization, and goal achievement — all accessible on a cell phone, tablet, or computer.

Background & Context

Our client had been using an online mapping tool previously adjusted to suit their audience’s needs. However, the tool was a mix of necessary and unnecessary features: it lacked essential functionalities for managing community resources while also offering too many options, which led to a confusing user interface. With deep insights gained from years of usage data, our client knew exactly what features were required for their audience. The goal was clear: develop a custom, streamlined solution that addressed these needs directly.

Project Goals & Objectives

Goals:

• Build a custom Virtual Community Resource Map application that meets the specific needs of our client’s audience. Eliminate redundant features that confused users.
• Enable users to organize, navigate, and engage with community resources while tracking independence goals at home, work, and in the community.

Objectives:

• Personal maps: Allow creators - young people with disabilities - to manage a single, customizable map.
• Enable supporters to help! 'Supporters' are users that support and help creators - to set up, edit, and manage maps for multiple creators and to create community maps that serve as templates.
• Give admins control: Provide admins with the tools to manage user accounts, including adding/deleting users and impersonating accounts.
• Content Management: Allow users to create and manage categories for places (with titles, descriptions, goals, and action steps) and add assets that can include images, videos, and interactive forms.

Visual Design

The visual design of My VCRM was a key focus to ensure the interface remained clear, simple, and intuitive. Given that the system would involve a significant amount of user-added and generated content, the design needed to stay clean and uncluttered while still being visually engaging and distinctive. To achieve this, we leveraged the client’s brand identity by incorporating two complementary shades of blue from their brand assets and adding orange as an accent color for pins—making important elements stand out and guiding users through the interface.

In addition, we carefully selected the typefaces to create an inviting and friendly experience. Outfit and Inter were chosen to ensure text is easy to read while contributing to the overall approachable aesthetic of the platform. Outfit’s modern, rounded forms and Inter’s clear, legible style combine to enhance usability and maintain a warm, welcoming look. Together, these design choices reinforce the brand identity, ensuring that every interaction feels both purposeful and accessible.

The Solution: My VCRM

My VCRM is a custom-built Virtual Community Resource Map platform designed with the user in mind. Brand New Box team built My VCRM from the ground up, focusing on accessibility and a simplified, intuitive interface. Throughout development, regular feedback sessions with the client ensured that the application met all functionality and usability requirements for creators, supporters, and admins.

Key features include:
• Personalized Interactive Mapping. Users can explore an interactive map highlighting important places, and activities in their community.
• Customizable Categories & Assets: Creators can set up categories with detailed titles, descriptions, independence goals, and action steps. Within these categories, assets can be added, enriched with images, videos, and forms.
• Role-Specific Functionality: The system has three levels of users: creators, supporters, and admins with different tools and privileges.
• Planning Tool Functionality: gives supporters a comprehensive overview of all categories and assets for each creator they support. This page clearly displays which components of an asset have been completed—including descriptions, images, videos, and forms—providing an organized snapshot of progress. This function fills a critical gap that existed in the previous platform.
• Device Accessibility: The application is fully accessible on cell phones, tablets, and computers, ensuring that users can connect with their community resources wherever they are.

By focusing solely on the features that truly mattered to the client and their users, My VCRM offers a clean, effective interface free of extraneous clutter.

Impact & Results

Since its launch, My VCRM has streamlined how users interact with their community:

• Enhanced Usability: The simplified interface makes it easier for young people with disabilities to navigate community resources and manage their independence goals.
• Improved Organization: Users can now clearly organize places into categories with associated goals and action steps, making daily planning more efficient.
• Effective Support: The distinct roles for creators, supporters, and admins ensure that every user type has the right set of tools. In particular, the new Planning Tool page has proven to be invaluable, giving supporters a comprehensive overview of content completeness—a feature that was missing in the original platform.
• Intuitive Navigation: During training sessions, the client observed that users were diving into the new platform and navigating it successfully with little to no direction. This immediate ease-of-use is a testament to the intuitive design and thoughtful user experience of My VCRM.

Feedback from our client has been overwhelmingly positive, with early indicators showing that users find the new tool more intuitive and supportive of their needs than the previous system.