--- title: "How I designed for those I couldn't understand" description: "What I learned about designing for children with autism — and why it changed my approach to every project after." slug: how-i-designed-for-those-i-couldnt-understand publishDate: 2026-04-21 author: Igor Dobzhanskiy tags: [UX Research, Accessibility, Education] --- *What I learned about designing for children with autism — and why it changed my approach from now on.* ## The Beginning There's one thing designers do automatically — they put themselves in the user's shoes. You're designing an app for athletes, so you go for a run and think about where it's awkward. You're designing a health tracker, so you remember what it was like trying to make sense of your own lab results. Even for complex B2B systems — at least you can imagine someone scanning a table looking for what they need. Empathy through experience is the foundation of our work. But what do you do when the user sees and feels the world in a way you physically can't imagine or replicate? A few years ago I joined a product that was being built for **children with autism and special needs**. I quickly realized that the standard approach — "put yourself in the user's shoes" — wouldn't work here. Not because I didn't try. Because I physically can't perceive the world the way these children do. The obvious answer: test it. But our audience was children. Pulling them into user tests constantly wasn't possible, and it didn't make sense at that stage anyway. So I did the only thing left — I went into research. A few weeks in scientific papers, architectural guidelines, and clinical studies. Those weeks changed the product, and changed how I think about accessibility altogether. Over my career I've worked on products that save lives and generate millions. But RIQ stands as the most important one. This article is about what I learned there. ## A bit of context: the product **Raise Your IQ (RIQ)** is not your ordinary learning game. At its core is an algorithm that was developed and refined by founders and scientists for over than 50 years. The main idea: improving cognitive abilities through pattern-matching tests. Simple in mechanics, deep in impact. The primary audience is **children with special needs and autism**. Alongside them — older adults who use the app to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's. Scientific approach, serious responsibility. I joined during active development. There were three of us designers — restructuring existing functionality, improving flows, adding new features. But before opening Figma, I wanted to understand one basic thing: *how do our users actually perceive what they see on screen?* ## Where I started The first place I went was DesignMantic — their guide *"20 Guides Every Graphic Designer Should Read Before Designing for Autism."* It didn't give me concrete answers, but it gave me a list of topics to dig into: colors, fonts, screen structure, animations, state transitions. A solid starting point. > **First insight from there:** People with autism perceive colors differently — due to heightened sensory sensitivity. Not "slightly differently." Fundamentally differently. That made me take the color question seriously right away. Source: [designmantic.com/community/designing-for-autistic.php](https://www.designmantic.com/community/designing-for-autistic.php) Then I went looking for scientific research. And here came the first real surprise. I found the Grandgeorge & Masataka (2016) study — and it turned out that until 2016, nobody had ever studied color preferences in children with ASD. Not once. This was the first study of its kind. > **What they found:** 29 boys with ASD and 38 neurotypical peers. Six colors offered. Result: children with ASD were significantly less likely to choose yellow, and significantly more likely to choose green and brown. The researchers' conclusion: yellow triggers sensory overload due to the hypersensitivity characteristic of ASD. Source: [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5179595/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5179595/) ## Insight 1: Color is physiology, not taste After the first study I understood that the color question here is completely different — it's not about "what looks good." It's about what literally happens in a child's nervous system when they look at a screen. I went deeper and found GA Architects — an architecture firm that designs spaces exclusively for people with ASD. They ran a study with the University of Kingston: they showed 85 colors to children with autism and asked them to select the ones that felt comfortable. > **What the children chose:** Muted tones, mixed with grey. A strong preference for the blue/green sector. Saturated and bright colors — rejected. One additional detail: patterned floors and backgrounds are also a problem — they disorient and increase anxiety. Source: [ascel.org.uk — Colour palette for people with autism (GA Architects PDF)](https://ascel.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/public/Colour%20palette%20for%20people%20with%20autism.pdf) Then I found a detailed clinical breakdown on mywellnesshub.in — color by color, and lighting too: > **Colors:** Green and blue — calming, reduce anxiety. Pastels — comfortable for general backgrounds. Red — can overstimulate, use only as accent. Yellow — increases alertness, but in a saturated form risks overloading. Neutral/muted — safe in any context. > **Lighting:** Flickering and bright artificial light is also a trigger. Fluorescent lamps — eliminate. Preference for natural light or soft, diffused artificial light. Dimmer switches matter because lighting level directly affects how color is perceived. Source: [mywellnesshub.in/blog/color-preferences-in-children-with-autism/](https://www.mywellnesshub.in/blog/color-preferences-in-children-with-autism/) ### What we did in RIQ Here I ran into an uncomfortable situation. Yellow — one of the most problematic colors for children with ASD — **was already the primary accent color before I joined the project**. It was a decision made by the previous team, and redoing everything at that stage of development didn't make sense. But the research gave me concrete arguments for improvement. We reduced the yellow's saturation, removed harsh contrasts, made the overall palette softer. It looked different — and felt different. For V2, we planned full color customization — parents or the child themselves would be able to adjust brightness to their needs. One child handles a moderately bright yellow fine; for another it's overloading. There's no single correct setting here. > **Lesson:** When you join a product with decisions already made — you can't always rebuild everything. But research gives you arguments to improve what's there. Sometimes that's enough. ## Insight 2: Typography is also accessibility While I was researching color, a thought kept nagging at me. If sensory sensitivity in children with ASD is heightened — could that affect not just colors, but how they read text? I started looking into dyslexia and ASD — and found a very clear correlation. **This was my own hypothesis** — and the research confirmed it. A significant portion of children with autism also show signs of dyslexia: letters swim, flip, or merge together. DesignMantic turned out to be useful here too — they covered the concept of **dyslexia-friendly fonts** in the context of ASD. > **OpenDyslexic:** A font with intentionally heavier bottoms on each letter — easier for the brain to correctly orient the symbol when its "center of gravity" is clear. Built specifically for dyslexia and shows real improvements in reading speed and comfort. > **Arial:** Among standard fonts — one of the most friendly one. Clean forms, no serifs or decorative details, even spacing between letters. The key: b and d, p and q — look distinct enough not to be confused. > **What to avoid:** Decorative fonts, italics as body text (not accent), too-small sizes. Anything where visually similar letters become mirror images of each other — that's a problem. Source: [designmantic.com/community/designing-for-autistic.php](https://www.designmantic.com/community/designing-for-autistic.php) ### What we did in RIQ We established minimum text sizes in the design system. Chose a font with clear, simple letterforms. Italics and decorative elements — removed from body content. At first glance these seem like basic rules — but for a child who's already spending effort on reading, the difference between a legible and illegible font can determine whether they even finish reading the task instructions. ## Insight 3: Sensory control is a baseline need, not a bonus Next — animations, sounds, screen transitions. This is where I ran into a topic that turned out to be much more serious than I expected. I knew that people with autism need predictability. But I underestimated how sharply pages and flows show up in digital products. An unexpected screen change — for some children with ASD, this is a real sensory shock, requiring recovery time, not just a second to switch. > **CHOP:** Avoid sudden visual changes without warning. Give children time to prepare for transitions between activities. Predictability and consistency — not a suggestion, a requirement. Source: [research.chop.edu/car-autism-roadmap/autism-friendly-design-ideas](https://research.chop.edu/car-autism-roadmap/autism-friendly-design-ideas) Then I found material from Otsimo — they build educational products for children with ASD and wrote very concretely about animations and sounds. Not abstractly, but with examples and explanations of why. > **Animations:** Unexpected movements, flashes, fast transitions — sensory trigger. But that's not a reason to remove animation entirely. If a child understands that movement is about to happen — they're ready for it. The problem is specifically in unexpectedness. > **Sounds:** Some children with ASD have hypersensitivity to certain frequencies, or simply to an unexpected sound. A reward melody that plays without warning — for one child, motivation; for another, stress. > **Control:** Giving parents or the child the choice — whether to disable or not — matters more than picking the "right" default setting. Because the spectrum is literally a spectrum: everyone is different. Source: [medium.com/otsimo/designing-ui-ux-for-children-with-autism-in-touch-devices-bdd4c7741586](https://medium.com/otsimo/designing-ui-ux-for-children-with-autism-in-touch-devices-bdd4c7741586) ### What we did in RIQ to match new findings In V2 we added a Game Settings screen with three toggles: - **Animation in the app** — disable animations - **Sounds** — disable sounds - **Vibrant colours** — switch between saturated and muted palette These are essentially three levels of sensory control — parents or the child can calibrate the environment to their needs. One child plays with all animations and sound on. Another — in quiet mode with minimal transitions. Both are valid, depending on the person. These features were planned for V2 so we could gather real feedback from V1 users first. But the designs and tests were already in place. ## Insight 4: Make time visible The last insight — probably the most practical one. It came from materials by Indiana University Institute on Disability and Community on transition strategies for people with ASD. The problem: **time is an abstract concept.** The phrase "just one more minute" or "we're almost done" — for a child with ASD, this is just a string of words. They can't feel how long that is, and can't prepare for the fact that something is about to change. > **Visual Timer (e.g. Time Timer):** Shows remaining time as a shrinking colored sector — like a clock face. The child sees time visually, physically. Research: this kind of timer helped students with autism independently transition between activities throughout the day — without stress and without adult prompting. > **Visual Countdown:** A set of objects or numbers removed one by one. Not tied to seconds — the pace can be adjusted based on the child. A more flexible option where predictability matters more than precision. Source: [iidc.indiana.edu — Transition Time: Helping Individuals on the Autism Spectrum](https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/transition-time-helping-individuals-on-the-autism-spectrum-move-successfully-from-one-activity-to-another) ### What we did in RIQ — two solutions When I joined the product, training sessions launched **immediately**. No transition, no preparation. The child hadn't oriented themselves yet — and already needed to respond. That's exactly the situation that triggers anxiety. **Solution 1: Countdown before start** Before each training session — three seconds: 3, 2, 1, GO! Not a small digital timer in the corner, but an animated countdown in the center of the screen. Three seconds isn't much. But it's enough for the child to understand: something is about to begin. The rhythm 3-2-1 is itself predictable — and that's exactly the point. **Solution 2: Timer inside the task** Inside the test, there are 30 seconds to answer. So we used a clear visual timer that shows the child when their time is running out, and added smoother transitions between screens to avoid startling children with sudden changes. ## Sources 1. [designmantic.com/community/designing-for-autistic.php](https://www.designmantic.com/community/designing-for-autistic.php) 2. [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5179595/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5179595/) — Grandgeorge & Masataka (2016) 3. [ascel.org.uk — Colour palette for people with autism (GA Architects + University of Kingston)](https://ascel.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/public/Colour%20palette%20for%20people%20with%20autism.pdf) 4. [mywellnesshub.in/blog/color-preferences-in-children-with-autism/](https://www.mywellnesshub.in/blog/color-preferences-in-children-with-autism/) 5. [research.chop.edu/car-autism-roadmap/autism-friendly-design-ideas](https://research.chop.edu/car-autism-roadmap/autism-friendly-design-ideas) 6. [medium.com/otsimo/designing-ui-ux-for-children-with-autism-in-touch-devices-bdd4c7741586](https://medium.com/otsimo/designing-ui-ux-for-children-with-autism-in-touch-devices-bdd4c7741586) 7. [github.com/otsimo/autism-colors](https://github.com/otsimo/autism-colors) 8. [iidc.indiana.edu — Transition Time: Helping Individuals on the Autism Spectrum](https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/transition-time-helping-individuals-on-the-autism-spectrum-move-successfully-from-one-activity-to-another) 9. [overlayfacts.org/blog/digital-accessibility-web-design-for-autism/](https://overlayfacts.org/blog/digital-accessibility-web-design-for-autism/) 10. [sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042816000471 — Usability Guidelines for ASD](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042816000471) Subscribe to my [Telegram channel](https://t.me/dobzha_pro_design) if you'd like to read more about my research and work.