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1 Distractibility

Problems in Reality:

simple drawing of a woman standing on the street and covering her ears because of the noise

Strong sensitivity to sounds and visual distractions, e.g. in traffic or at the railway station

simple drawing of a man, sitting and reading a book with his hand on his head because of distraction

Long paragraphs in books or instructions have to be read several times because thoughts wander off

simple drawing of a woman being bored of working on a laptop

Lack of endurance for longer activities that do not promise quick success

simple drawing of woman sitting on a sofa and having a thought bubble filled with scribbles above her

Thought chaos: difficulty organising thoughts and assessing actions

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Problems in Digital:

1.1 Unnecessary Elements and complexity

one line drawing of a website structure with boxes and texts
"How simple can you make it and how complex does it have to be?" (John Maeda) Use a clean layout with whitespace and consistent, intuitive menus.

1.2 Everyone hates Autoplay

Simple drawing illustrating a videoscreen with control buttons for pausing
Enabling Autoplay on videos and carousels leads to extreme visual distraction. Just use it very careful and with prominent controls to disable.

1.3 Popups for non-functionally dialogues

Simple drawing illustrating dialogue pop ups for discounts and newsletter subscriptions
Avoid pop-ups for dialogues like newsletter subscriptions or discounts. Use them carefully for important and functionally relevant actions.

1.4 No volume controls

Simple drawing illustrating a sound control bar
ADHD and cognitive people are very sensitive to noises and music. Don't autoplay sound, make sure to enable controls. Keep the default sound level low.

1.5 Text overload

✓ NOT this:
simple drawing of a dialogue box with the long text "Welcome to our online platform. Should you require any form of assistance or guidance, please do not hesitate to engage with our Live Chat feature, conveniently located in the lower right-hand corner of your screen."
✓ Use this:
simple drawing of a text dialogue box with the text "hi there! Need assistance? Just click on the chat bubble to talk to us"
Be precise. Use easy language. keep it short.

1.6 Bad Structure

simple drawing of boxes and lines piling, showing structure
Separate content into meaningful sections and use color and shape for grouping.
one-line-drawing of a head from side, showing a scribbly pattern inside of the head. It introduces a theme with neurodiversity.
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