About the session

The App Should Adapt, Not the User

Adaptive products should not assume there is one correct way to help a user. Effective support begins by understanding what the person needs in that moment, adapting to those preferences over time, and helping them regain control without taking control away from them.

Cyrano is an AI-assisted support app designed around a simple principle: users should not have to adapt themselves to a rigid productivity system; the system should adapt to them. Drawing on early development and conversations with users, this talk explores why different users need different kinds of support – and what adaptive product design can learn from that.

What you will take away

• Design adaptive products around what the user needs in the moment rather than one rigid workflow.
• Let the product learn user preferences over time without taking control away from the user.
• Use early user conversations and experimentation to shape how AI support should behave.

About the speaker

About Casey

Casey Bartholomew is developing Cyrano, an AI-assisted support app exploring adaptive design for people with ADHD. The project combines lived experience, early user conversations, and product experimentation to examine how AI tools can provide useful support without becoming overly prescriptive, diagnostic, or controlling.