ADHD & Online Learning
Learning Experience Design | User Research | User Interface Design
The Problem
Online learning can be a very fraught experience for neurodivergent students. “Neurodivergence” refers to neurotypes that stray from what is considered "neurotypical." This includes cognitive conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and Tourettes.
As part of my larger graduate Capstone project, Improving the online learning experience for adults with ADHD, I identified online discussion boards as a critical friction area for students with ADHD participating in online learning communities. As one survey respondent said, "Discussion boards were hard to follow. It felt overwhelming to participate in the discussion."
My Solution
Over ten weeks, I conducted substantial primary and secondary research to create a learning design framework to support adult students with ADHD in higher education. Using this framework and emerging industry guidelines for designing for neurodivergent users, I redesigned the discussion board interface for Canvas (a popular learning management system used by institutions of higher education). This updated interface addresses key visual and content design needs to support students with ADHD and allows for increased flexibility with a "network" view to help students visualize the discussion flow.
My Role: User Researcher, UX/UI Designer, Learning Designer
Northwestern University Distinguished Capstone Award Winner
Current Discussion Board Experience
Canvas discussion boards are hosted in an incredibly cumbersome interface. Many instructors use discussion boards in the following way: they pose one or two questions to the class and ask each student to post their response to the questions and respond to two of their fellow students. This question-posing system and the existing interface lead to a text-heavy discussion board with minimal visual interest that requires a lot of scrolling and reading for students to engage with it. Additionally, the existing interface design makes it difficult to distinguish between original posts and replies.
Addressing the needs of ADHD students
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Clearly define expectations for participation
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Include due dates and reminders
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Improve the page hierarchy
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Make calls-to-action clear
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Add interactive and multimedia elements
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Encourage students to communicate in the format that works best for them
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Connect the discussion to students' personal interests and passions
Wireframes
With a clear understanding of what adult students with ADHD need to effectively engage with online discussion boards, I used to Figma to iterate and test interface designs. The visual design of the final mid-fidelity prototype was informed by best practices from the Neurodiversity Design System and the World Wide Web Consortium’s Cognitive Accessibility Guidelines.
Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3
