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The "Trim" is our most minimalistic, taking into account the fact that it's incredibly easy for people with ADHD to get distracted by any excess information on the page. We hope that this design will reduce distractions for people with mild ADHD as well as increase physical engagement with the webpage that they are reading.
The design breaks apart walls of text into small, manageable chunks, presenting each to the user at a time, while fading out the background to minimize distractions.
Learnability: High
- simple
- buttons are clearly labeled and obvious
Efficiency: Low
- user navigates between consecutive segments by pressing right or left arrow keys on their keyboard, or click the arrow buttons with their mouse
- many clicks to get through a single webpage
- the amount of content presented at a time is very limited
Safety: High
- there are very few actions a user can take at any point in time
- all actions are represented by large, externally consistent buttons
- easy to return to previous chunk by clicking left button if right button pressed too many times
The "Trim" is our most minimalistic, taking into account the fact that it's incredibly easy for people with ADHD to get distracted by any excess information on the page. The design breaks apart walls of text into small, manageable chunks, presenting each to the user at a time, while fading out the background to minimize distractions. The user navigates between consecutive segments by clicking right or left arrows on their keyboard (or the arrows with their mouse). This reduces the efficiency of the design, as it takes many clicks to get through a single webpage and the amount of content presented at a time is very limited. The design is very safe, however, because there are very few actions a user can take at any point in time, all of which are represented by large, externally consistent buttons that can be easily undone (for example, clicking the left arrow after accidentally clicking the right arrow). Additionally, the simplicity makes this design quickly learnable to our users. Mainly, we hope that this design will reduce distractions for people with mild ADHD as well as increase physical engagement with the webpage that they are reading.
Storyboard 2: Read
The "Read" design was a more extreme design, optimized for those students with severe ADHD, or even with both ADHD and eyesight problems. Some ADHD sufferers expressed that simply the act of reading is difficult, and that they often like content to be presented through different formats and media. While they would often gloss over sentences when reading them, they wouldn't be as prone to zoning out when someone is talking to them directly. To address these requests, we created this design as an audio interface for the webpage, much like a screen-reader. The user can ask for the software to read the headings, select a specific heading that they want it to read, repeat a particular section, etc.
Learnability: Low
- requires some training to learn what voice commands are available to the user (select section, repeat section, etc.)
- users may have to experiment with settings before finding the optimal settings for greater efficiency
Efficiency: High
- users can quickly zone in on a specific section of content
- speed of reading voice can be adjusted to get through more material at a faster pace for efficient users
- potential information absorption rate is much higher than "Trim"
Safety: Medium
- can ask software to go back and repeat if command is known
- possible for users to get lost and make errors if commands are inputted incorrectly
The "Read" design was a more extreme design, optimized for those students with severe ADHD, or even with both ADHD and eyesight problems. Some ADHD sufferers expressed that simply the act of reading is difficult, and that they often like content to be presented through different formats and media. While they would often gloss over sentences when reading them, they wouldn't be as prone to zoning out when someone is talking to them directly. To address these requests, we created this design as an audio interface for the webpage, much like a screen-reader. The user can ask for the software to read the headings, select a specific heading that they want it to read, repeat a particular section, etc. The learnability of this design is fairly low, as it requires some training to learn what voice commands are available to the user (select section, repeat section, etc.) The design is efficient. It allows users to quickly zone in on a specific section of content (if they know the commands to do so) and to increase the speed of the reading voice accordingly. For some of our target users, this actually ends up being more efficient -- given that efficiency is measured by how much information the user absorbs -- than the other two designs. The design allows for some safety measures, such as asking the software to repeat a sentence or an instruction, but it is possible for users to get lost and make errors if they are new to the interface.
Storyboard 3: Enhance
Our "Enhance" design is, in terms of amount of content presented, diametrically opposite from our "Trim" design. Some of our interviewees let us know that an abundance of information is not always a bad thing, as long as it is presented in different media (not just long-form text). "Enhance" allows you to plan out several articles or stories that you wish to read ahead of time. Then, once you finish planning and begin reading, it provides you with tools to enhance your understanding of the content -- you can take notes on selected chunks of text in the sidebar, queue tangential links that you may want to visit later (to avoid real-time distraction), and view your progress through your agenda up to that point in time.
Learnability: High
- gamified features and buttons
- features are clearly laid out (points received, timer functions, etc.)
Efficiency: High
- power users can plan out an agenda and read through their chosen articles
- points are given systematically to provide incentive
Safety: Medium
- added functionality may be confusing
- mistakes that users make are not severe
- can delete notes that were created accidentally and go back to chunks that were accidentally skipped
Our "Enhance" design is, in terms of amount of content presented, diametrically opposite from our "Trim" design. Some of our interviewees let us know that an abundance of information is not always a bad thing, as long as it is presented in different media (not just long-form text). "Enhance" allows you to plan out several articles or stories that you wish to read ahead of time. Then, once you finish planning and begin reading, it provides you with tools to enhance your understanding of the content -- you can take notes on selected chunks of text in the sidebar, queue tangential links that you may want to visit later (to avoid real-time distraction), and view your progress through your agenda up to that point in time. Like "Trim", the actual content is presented in shorter chunks. We also are considering gamifying the user experience, giving the user more incentive to finish their reading in an allotted amount of time. This design, although complex, has high learnability, as all of the features are presented to the user very clearly. It is also efficient, as power users can plan out an agenda and read through their chosen articles as quickly as they would have otherwise (without this tool). Safety may be an issue because of the added functionality, but the mistakes that the user can make are not very severe (accidentally adding a note or skipping to the next chunk) so this is not a huge consideration for us.
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