- Preferably using soft, earth tones, but making sure it still has valid color contrast.


Color

- Sans-serif fonts are preferred.
- The text should be in a single column.
- Ensuring to follow the principle of simplicity: “a text box clearly separated from the rest of the content, presented in a single, left-aligned column, using clear fonts. Clear sections and large margins on a page are beneficial too” (Rusakova, 2020).

Image Source: Sarif vs Sans-Serif font

Text

- “Using simple graphics to enhance readability” (Satpathy, 2020)
- Avoid overlap text on images. A solid color background is preferred.
- Using images to convey messages instead of artistic pleasure.
- Avoid using complex designed icons, which could be a distraction.
- “Include images and words next to each other to support the understanding of both” (Rusakova, 2020).

Image Source: DropBox

Image (including Icons & Graphics)

- Avoid distractions-using clear and consistent information structure.
- Aviod complex background pattern/color.
- Using whitespace to organize the layout and make space for different contents.
Presenting information on a single page instead of multiple pages if possible.


Content and Layout

- Call to action: the interaction should be easy to follow and understand. “animations and transitions were positive only when they added a clear benefit to the interaction they supported”(Rusakova, 2020)
- Elements such as automatic pop-up, animation, and autoplay with sounds, and horizontally scrolling should be best avoided.
- Recover from error: Presenting message for errors.	
- Providing feedback: Offering indicators for their task progress.
- Personalization: Supporting users with more freedom and allowing them to personalize some basic settings, such as background, font, and size. Examples: Open Book, The National Autistic Society.


Interaction

- Ensuring users would be able to identify the pages where they are located.
- Multiple navigation options - mouse or keyboard.
- Using descriptive labels.
- Avoid complex hierarchical menus.


Navigation

According to World Health Organization, "one in 160 children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD)."(WHO, 2019). ASD affects people’s ability in communication and behavior, and an autistic designer, Irina Rusakova comments that “they feel most comfortable online — learning, communicating, shopping, and gaming” (Rusakova, 2020). She also mentions that products designed for autistic users should accommodate their needs instead of trying to fix or change their habits and emphasizes the importance of “clear visual structure and consistent layout for similar types of information” in the UI design for autistic people (Rusakova, 2020).

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Arizona State University

- Activity-Centered Design
- Inclusive Design
- Ethical Design
- Industrial Design
- Designing for Autistic People
- Product Design
- Emotional Design
- Systems Design
- Genius Design

Types of Designs

Fabri, A., & Andrews, P. (2016, June 22). Human-centered design with autistic University students: Interface, interaction and information preferences. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-40355-7_15
 
Pavlov, N. (2014, July). User interface for people with autism spectrum disorders. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276495184_User_Interface_for_People_with_Autism_Spectrum_Disorders
 
Rusakova, I. (2020, November 2). Designing for autistic people — overview of existing research. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/designing-for-autistic-people-overview-of-existing-research-d6f6dc20710e
 
Satpathy, L. (2020, August 28). Why designs to accommodate people with autism are better for everyone. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/why-designs-that-accommodate-the-needs-of-autistic-people-are-better-for-everyone-dc5fb2144b15
 
World Health Organization. (2019, November 7). Autism spectrum disorders. WHO | World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders

Designing for Autistic People

Activity-centered design focuses on the behavior surrounding particular tasks. Users still play a significant role, but it is their behavior rather than their goals and needs that is important.

Activity-Centered Design

Inclusive design "empowers designers to create products whose experiences serve as many people as possible."  It is a design process that seeks to create products that are accessible to all, no matter their background.

Inclusive Design

Designs can affect a wide range of people, so it's important to follow principles of ethical design:

-Usability

-Accessibility

-Privacy

-Transparency & Persuasion

-User Involvement

-Focus

-Sustainability

Ethical Design

Industrial design(ID) is the practice of designing and developing ideas for product optimization, such as value, function, system, and appearance, to benefit both users and manufacturers. The focuses of ID include intuitive creativity and the scientific decision-making process. Some examples of ID are iPod and Chair by Charles Eames. It aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors and helps to discover the competitive edges and shortcomings of a given product.

Industrial design(ID)

Product design is the process that is utilized to combine the needs of both users and business goals to create successful products. Product designers use their work to ensure that products are suitable for the company’s long-term business needs. They work to define product goals, create product roadmaps, and ultimately help release a successful product. The main difference between product design and UX design is that product designers are focused on the brand’s product in the market over time. 

Product Design

To create a successful product, there are three levels of emotional design:
1. Visceral design: an immediate, deep-level gut reaction to the product. It’s the first impression.
2. Behavioral design: the product has to feel good, look good, and perform well. It’s about how the product, structure, or system, as viewed by the users, meets their needs and requirements.
3. Reflective design: it’s about self-image, personal satisfaction, memories, reflecting back on the experience.

Emotional Design

Systems design is a structured, rigorous, and holistic design approach that focuses on context and is particularly appropriate for complex problems. In systems design, it is the system (that is, the people, computers, objects, devices, and so on) that the center of attention, while the users' role is to set the goals of the system.

Systems Design

Genius Design relies largely on the experience and creative flair of a designer. Jim Leftwich, an experienced interaction designer interviewed by Dan Saffer (2010, pp. 44–45), prefers the term "rapid expert design." In this approach, the users' role is to validate ideas generated by the designer, and users are not involved during the design process itself.

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