Design for autism
I remember the first drafts and prototypes I made a few years ago, when I decided to create computer games for autistic children. I hope no one will see them and they remain undiscovered. ☺
In 2014, when I met Ogi (software engineer) and Zsombor (researcher psychologist), my current colleagues, I already knew we must work together. Based on the latest research we set up guidelines to make it easier for ourself to design the right user interface for our games with autistic people in mind.
In this article I want to share our experiences that we got at Auti-mate so far. Please note we are also at the beginning of this research, if you have any feedback related to our findings, send a mail to samuel.toth@auti-mate.com. Thanks!
Our persona
First, if we want to design a software, we need to know the target audience that will use it in the end. We must understand the way they are thinking, the cause of their actions, their feelings, everything about them that helps us to build a product that meets their needs.
Autism is a developmental disorder. We know very little about its causes; it starts in childhood, lasts for a lifetime and there is no cure available, only therapies that can improve skills.
The autistic brain does very poorly at compressing and filtering incoming information (something that the typical brain does very well). As a results people with autism tend to perceive every detail and each little nuance of the world at the same “intensity”. This overwhelming stimulation leads to elevated stress and confusion, especially in crowded and noisy places, or rapidly changing environments.
The result is that autistic people are fond of things that are fixed, the daily routines, or already known informations — the number of PI, pictures, movies, train schedules, mechanical systems, everything that is predictable and won’t overwhelm their brain by processing incoming new data.
So, how this affects the User Interface?
The way how we can help these people not to be overwhelmed by too much information is basically three things:
1. Reducing the stimuli
We have really great tools to reduce the amount of visual information for the users. We can avoid showing contents that is not relevant, or is not an essential part of the current task. Less, but more. Also, the content that is remaining doesn’t need to be visually intense, so picking the right colours and using only smooth animations are really meaningful here.
Flat design is an obvious choice to follow: textures, decorations and gradients are way too much visual data that we doesn’t want to show.
Abstracts elements: instead of cute animals, fruits or flowers as symbols in the games, we are on using only abstract shapes. The reason is that we want the children focusing on the task, and not on the pictures. The only exception is when we really want to show certain objects to the players and make them understand what is on the picture — in this case we recommend using real photos and not drawings.
2. “Pre-processing” the information
Pre-processing the information is like offering a sandwich instead of the raw materials, so the one doesn’t need to wash the salad and cut the cheese. ;-)
In visual design pre-processing means we “pack” the data into a form that we can understand the easiest — so the most intuitive — way. This is the essence of visual communication. There are many principles to use to achieve that, like the good old Gestalt laws. Also using small details consistently is a great help, i.e. a little shadow on components that need to be interacted with, or dotted borders to mark placeholders.
The visual structure has a key role in our games. We are consistent in building up the layout — on the left our players can continuously see how many tasks they need to solve, and where they are in this progress.
The actions always need to be applied in the middle. We use the right side to show the goal of the task when we need it (like the pattern sample on the illustration above, that needs to be replicated).
This approach was inspired by the TEACCH visually structured teaching method for autistic people.
3. The use of easy-to-read visuals
We know that the human brain reads geometric shapes much easier and faster than non-regular blobs. This is the simple reason why designers draw logos from simple geometric shapes. Even if the result is more complex than a simple circle, it’s much faster to process the visual information in brain.
For Auti-mate this means not to use sketchy, drawing-like illustrations.
Also I believe the user interface is not the place to express our artistic talents. Not is this case.
Non-verbality: Since autism has a strong negative impact on verbal communication skills most of the time, it’s better not to use textual content. Of course, the only exception is when improving verbal skills is on the purpose.
Autism-friendly game behaviour
Game design has a wide palette of components that can be used to engage people and keep up the motivation to play. My experience is that the audience defines the right tools — Bioshock and Monument Valley probably doesn’t engage the same kind of personalities. Autistic children also have their own nature. If we design for them, we must respect that.
Don’t use negative feedback! In most of the cases game designers use negative feedbacks to motivate the players performing better, giving them a challenge to achieve, and to control the flow. When this happens the player knows they must try harder.
This can easily lead to a situation you want to avoid, if your player is an autistic kid. You should never punish them to perform better! Don’t add limited time or amount of steps, games should be like endless mode.
What you should do, is to reward them, when they perform well. When they finish a task, show them they did it well. They don’t need so much as a reward, a simple visual feedback about their success makes them happy.
Focusing on strengths
Auti-mate games are unique by building on the autistic savant skills. We want to give the sense of achievement to the children, so they can find their success in different challenges. This builds their self-esteem, motivating them to open more to the world.
Also we may discover skills that can turn into a job in the future for them. For example if we find a kid performing pretty well in several visual skills, we can try to bring them closer to a profession that covers that area.
The idea was inspired by Temple Grandin, a famous and successful professor who reformed the livestock industry in the United States (watch the movie). Temple is one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the list of Time magazine. She is an autistic person.
More about us
Thanks for reading, we are looking forward to your feedback.
You can also find us on the following links:
