Being able to design for different perspectives and preferences is a real skill, and it’s extremely difficult. It can become even harder when designing for neurodiverse audiences, where people are hard-wired in unique ways. However, being able to cater to neurodiverse preferences is extremely important.

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Designer Kalina Tyrkiel says between 15-20% of people around the world are neurodiverse, which is a significant proportion. Various conditions such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorders, and autism can have considerable impacts on how people interact with interfaces and platforms. By considering these implications, designers can dramatically improve the accessibility of their work and improve engagement for neurodiverse individuals. Even simple tweaks like using an actual number instead of writing it out (i.e., 1 instead of “one”) can make a huge difference. 

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Kalina explores universal tips and techniques that allow designers to cater for neurodiverse audiences.

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Kalina’s background 

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Kalina Tyrkiel is a content designer with a unique background that spans both technical UX skills and a human-centric approach to design. She primarily works as a designer for Polish healthtech company DocPlanner, connecting users with relevant health services. Her background as a trained psychologist significantly supports her work and provides a deeper understanding into how people think.  She is also a UX writing trainer and university lecturer, which further speaks to her expertise.

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Contact Details:

You can find Kalina on LinkedIn.

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Words that welcome: content design with neurodiversity in mind 📖

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Neurodiversity is often misunderstood by society at large. Neurodiverse conditions often exist on a spectrum, and solutions that work for one person don’t necessarily work for someone else. Similarly, neurodiversity often comes in batches. Kalina outlines how 60% of people with ADHD also have traits of autism. This further complicates their perspectives and needs.

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So this leaves us with a pressing question. How can designers cater for all people with such different needs? Kalina describes how designing for a neurodiverse audience is actually not much different from designing for a neurotypical audience. For example, on any given day, individuals experience varying levels of stress or relaxation which impacts their energy and attention levels. 

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What to keep in mind when designing for neurodiverse audiences 

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1. Provide clear instructions

• Use bullet points and lists for better scannability
• For different options, use if/then tables
• Reduce the probability of displaying an error message. For example, when requiring a new password, outline password requirements up front.

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2. Make the purpose clear

For example, ensure the title aligns with the content the user can expect. Misalignment can create significant confusion for neurodiverse audiences.

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3. Don’t justify text

Justifying text and varying the spacing between words makes it harder to read, particularly for dyslexic users.

4. Include different ways to access content

For example, some people may prefer voice search, others may prefer content that’s not in a video. Again, this is no different from neurotypical audiences.

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5. Keep it simple 

The simpler the interface and the simpler the copy, the better. Pay attention to consistency too - if a platform or site varies a lot, this can be confusing. 

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Why it matters 💥

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Considering neurodiverse audiences in the design process is critical in making platforms easy to use for all people. The needs of neurodiverse users can amplify problems or create critical issues out of something that’s a minor inconvenience for someone else. Again, a 15-20% audience is not insignificant, so it pays to be mindful of their needs. So how can you actually do it?

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Hire for diversity 🌍

Having diverse teams can bring a broad array of perspectives to the design process. Just remember that not all neurodiverse people think the same. Dr Stephen Shore said “when you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism”.  Think about diversity as creating preferences, rather than labels. Ask respectfully about someone’s preferences and don’t judge them (or others) based on their condition.

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Tools and techniques 🛠️

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• In videos, use closed captions, not just subtitles - they can be much more user-friendly. Keep them to 40 characters per line, and up to two lines of similar length. 

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Interestingly, closed captions and subtitles are also being more and more preferred by younger generations. 

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• Kalina recommends Hemingway as a tool to keep language simple and consistent.
  
• Neurodiversity.design is a website that enables designers to get insights about fonts, typography, interfaces and other general design elements with an eye to neurodiverse audiences.

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Tania Hockings is the Senior Digital Content Advisor at ACC and has a passion for creating content that caters to users (not the business). Co-presenter and co-author Amy Stoks is a Senior Experience Designer at PwC’s Experience Centre and possesses a love of empathy and collaboration. Ahead of their presentation at UX New Zealand 2017, Tania and Amy share their experience creating a content strategy while working on a project for the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC’s no-fault scheme helps pay the cost of care for everyone in New Zealand if they’re injured in an accident).It’s a truth universally acknowledged that before you start writing content you’re supposed to have a content strategy. Three months out from launch of the new acc.co.nz beta site, we did not have one. Nor did we have a lot of time, very much resource or a completed content audit.However, we did have:

• Some pretty good design principles, based on user research
• A list of the 37 priority tasks that our users needed to do on the acc.co.nz website
• One content writer (Tania) and one part-time content consultant (Amy)
• A deadline
• Freedom to do whatever we needed to do to get content live for the beta launch.

Here’s a quick look into how we created a content strategy for acc.co.nz without actually realizing it.

Content principles are a great starting point

We needed more direction than those 37 tasks to get writing, so inspired by our design principles, we wrote some equivalent principles for the content. We decided to start with the tried and tested principles already in play by Govt.nz and GOV.UK — we didn’t have time to reinvent the wheel. We ended up with eight principles for how we would write our content:

1. Do less: only create what is needed and what we can maintain
2. Always have an evidence-based user need: we know why a piece of content is needed and have the evidence to back it up
3. Ask for constant feedback: we use feedback and analytics to understand what people want and need to know, as well as what they don’t
4. Provide a consistent customer experience: our voice is the same across all platforms and our content is accessible for every kind of user
5. Create seamless customer journeys: no dead ends or broken links, no unnecessary information
6. Improve how ACC writes: we build good relationships with content contributors and proactively offer content support and training
7. Ensure transparent ownership for all content: every piece of content has an owner, a business group and a digital advisor assigned
8. Accept that not everything has to live on acc.co.nz: other channels share ACC content, so if ACC isn’t the source of truth for information we don’t put it on acc.co.nz

We made a checklist of what would and wouldn’t live on acc.co.nz according to the principles...and that was pretty much it. We really didn’t have time to do much else because the design of the site was running ahead of us. We also needed to get some content in front of users at our weekly testing sessions.

Sometimes you’ve just gotta get writing

We got stuck into writing those 37 tasks using our pair writing approach, which was also an experiment, but more on that in our UX New Zealand talk. While we wrote, we were living and breathing the content principles: we introduced them to our internal subject experts while we were writing and constantly referred back to the principles to help structure the content.After the beta launch, we had a few more content writers on the team and a bit of time to breathe (but not much!). We actually wrote the principles down and put them into a visual briefing pack to give to the subject experts ahead of our pair writing sessions. This pack covered:

• our principles
• the goal of the project
• the process
• the usual best practice webby stuff.

As we wrote more content, the briefing pack and our process evolved based on what we learned and feedback from our subject experts about what was and wasn’t working.During the same brief intermission, we also had a chance to revisit the content strategy. However, in practice we just did a brainstorm on a whiteboard of what the strategy might be. It looked like this:

And it stayed like that for another six months.We can’t remember if we ever looked at it much, but we felt good knowing it was there.

Seriously, we really need a content strategy...don’t we?

We finally got to the end of the project. The launch date was looming, but still no content strategy. So we booked a room. Three of us agreed to meet to nut it out and finally write our formal content strategy. We talked for a bit, going around in circles, until we realized we’d already done it. The briefing pack was the content strategy. Less a formal document and more a living set of principles of how we had and would continue to work.

Would we do it again?

Yeah, we would. In fact, the ACC digital team is already following the same approach on a new project. Content principles are key: they’re simple, practical to socialize and easy to stick to. We found it really valuable to evolve the strategy as we learned more from user research and subject matter expertise.Of course, it wasn’t all rosy — these projects never are! Some governance and muscle behind what we were doing would have really helped. We found ourselves in some intense stakeholder meetings where we were the first line of defence for the content principles. Unsurprisingly, not everybody agrees with doing less! But we’re pretty sure that having a longer strategy formalized in an official document still wouldn’t have helped us much.The next piece of work for the digital team at ACC is defining that governance and building a collaborative process to design digital products within the organization. The plan is to run informal, regular catch-ups with internal stakeholders to make sure the content strategy is still relevant and working for ACC’s users and the organization itself.

If you remember anything from this blog post, remember this:

Treat your content strategy less like a formal document and more like a working hypothesis that changes and grows as you learn.A formal document might make you feel good, but it’s likely no one is reading it.Whatever format you choose for your content strategy/working hypothesis, make sure you get it signed off and endorsed by the people who matter. You’ll need back up in those inevitably tense project meetings!The acc.co.nz content strategy looks awesome these days — very visual and easy to read. Tania always has a copy in her notebook and carries it with her everywhere. If you’re lucky enough to run into her on the streets of Wellington, she might just show it to you.

Want to hear more? Come to UX New Zealand!

If you'd like to hear more about designing content, plus a bunch of other cool UX-related talks, head along to UX New Zealand 2017 hosted by Optimal Workshop. The conference runs from 11-13 October including a day of fantastic workshops, and you can get your tickets here.

Every month we have fun and informative “bite sized” presentations to add some inspiration to your lunch break.  These virtual events allow us to partner with amazing speakers, community groups and organizations to share their insights and hot takes on a variety of topics impacting our industry. 

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Join us at the end of every month for Lunch n' Learn. 🌯

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Sign up now to stay in the loop.

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Torrey Podmajersky

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A lot goes into good content design (AKA UX writing), but what exactly is that "lot" made up of? Torrey Podmajersky tackled the question with research: What are the skills content designers use in their roles? Torrey's research uncovered 94 skills, and her open survey gathered results from every economic region of the globe, surveying more than 800 people in its first month. The insights into the core skills of content design, combined with the impacts that can be made with those skills, are helping designers make better products by investing in the right efforts.

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Speaker Bio 🎤

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Torrey Podmajersky is the president of Catbird Content and author of the bestselling book Strategic Writing for UX. Torrey helps teams solve business and customer problems using UX and content. She has consulted on and created inclusive and accessible consumer and professional experiences for Fortune 500s and startup clients in consumer, B2B, and enterprise software spaces, including Google, OfferUp, and Microsoft.

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Grab your lunch, invite your colleagues and we hope to see you at our next Lunch n’ Learn! 🥪

Ah, content audits! If you need to work on a website redesign, information architecture revamp, or a site migration, one of the first things you’ll need to do is a content audit.Most likely a website redesign project will need some amount of re-organization because users can't find anything on the site. First, you’ll need to know who your users are. You’ll find out what it is that the users of your website are doing or looking for. You’ll conduct some preliminary user interviews to ask your project stakeholders what they think their users are looking for. Maybe you’ll get to ask actual users of your website.Then you’ll realize that you could also find out if the website correlates with what your users expect to be able to find. If you only knew what was on your website in the first place...You’ll need to do the content audit. You can’t avoid it now. The spreadsheet comes out. You start your inventory, add the metadata, and add columns to make sense of cells.It was arduous, and it was worth it. Once you do the content audit, you’ll be able to conduct card sorting and affinity mapping to find out what your users are looking for.It reads like a children’s book, doesn’t it? “And then content lived happily ever after...”But, content audits are iterative, not a once in a project cycle activity. Like a routine checkup or a yearly exam, a content audit is essential to keep content relevant and valuable to your users.Conducting a content audit is one of the first steps in putting together a card sort. You need words on a card, right? Your content audit is where you’ll find them.Incidentally, “how to do a content audit” articles are plentiful, but this will be one that focuses on how a card sort makes use of a content audit.

What is a content audit?

Content audits start off as inventories. They tend to be massive spreadsheets that contain, among other things, metadata about the content you’re keeping track of. For example, an inventory may start as a list of companies, occupations, or cities. Then someone may come along and start collecting empirical metadata around these things. The list becomes a list of the top global brand companies, the best occupations for 2017, or the most dangerous cities in the world.Maybe you’re keeping track of what books you have, what you’ve read, what you haven’t read. Maybe you’re keeping an inventory of your kitchen pantry. Maybe you’re collecting a list of movies and films you should watch or keeping a bucket list of places you want to visit.Consider the scope of these three inventories:

• A full content inventory. A complete listing of all site content, including pages, images, videos, and PDFs. If you consider a kitchen taxonomy, this includes everything in the kitchen, (including books, recipe binders, kitchen equipment, refrigerated items).
• A partial content inventory. A subset listing of content slicing across the site. For example, most popular, site hierarchy, or items used within a defined period of time. A partial kitchen inventory would cover everything used in the past 6 months.
• A content sample. A listing of example content from the site. For instance, a specific category or location. A content sample of kitchen inventory could cover the pantry or the spice cabinet.

Quantitative content inventories

Content inventories are the quantitative kind. The purpose of this list is to know how much content you have, and how many of each different kind. There are 12 countries I want to visit in Asia. I’ve already visited 10 of the 50 states in the United States. There are over 800 pages in the five websites that I’m consolidating.Content inventories give you numbers to work with and provide a current state of affairs before you go making changes. You’ll be able to refer to this when you talk to content owners.

Qualitative content inventories

Content audits focus on the qualitative. You add an evaluation of the content (which is qualitative) to that initial simple inventory. The most common is ROT analysis: redundant, obsolete, and trivial. Another type of analysis looks at tone and voice. Kristina Halvorson, in her book Content Strategy for the Web, chunks qualitative data into six groups: usability, knowledge level, findability, actionability, audience, and accuracy.The information you collect in your audit depends on what you want to know. If “easy to understand” is a KPI that you or the business wants to measure, then you’ll want to include readability scores. Every content audit is custom-fit for the purposes of each project.In essence, content audits are lists of things you want to track and your assessment of that thing — whatever that thing is. Things can be physical content as well as digital. Are those spices too old and should be thrown out? Is that travel destination in the midst of political turmoil and should it be taken off the list (for now)? Is that movie now available for streaming? How many of those 800 pages are worth of keeping or updating and how many of those could we archive and take offline?

Content audits are pivotal documents

Content audits are living documents. They need to be updated on a regular basis to maintain a certain level of content quality and relevance. They are pivotal documents, shared across various disciplines, used for various purposes.Search engine optimization (SEO) tools create site crawls that capture page titles, URLs, page elements, and position within a site hierarchy. They are spreadsheets that look and feel deceptively like content inventories. And they essentially are.Content audits are converging:

• SEO specialists conduct SEO content audits to identify thin content, accessibility, indexability, duplicate content and such.
• Content strategists and information architects conduct inventories and audits to determine what content exists, where it lives, when it was last updated, and who owns it.
• Taxonomists mine content inventories for categories and content terminology.
• Search analysts collect keywords to supplement site search.

Content audits are pivotal documents that have many different uses.Someone adds site analytics to the document, then readability scores, then BOOM! There are now even more ways to pivot the table — top landing pages, top pageviews, highest bounce rate, high word count, low word count, oldest content, newest content — where do you want to start?