

Ask HN: Please review my webapp (and help with autism research) - javanix

For the past 6 months or so the lab I work at has been working on a system to administer studies and surveys related to autism. We wanted something more customizable than something like SurveyMonkey, so I was tasked to create our own version.<p>You can see the result at http://thegatewayproject.org<p>Usability was extensively tested and geared towards autistic and disabled, so the design and layout is very simple.<p>Note: by default, registration will only enable the first survey, which is pretty basic and unremarkable. If you'd like to check out some of the more sophisticated ones, shoot me an email at sngardner {AT: wisc.edu with [HN] in the subject and I'll set you up with a test account.<p>Thanks for any feedback you can give us, and feel free to email me directly at sngardner {AT: wisc.edu if you have any technical questions / bug reports.
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pedalpete
I don't know much about autism, but I would suspect that when dealing with any
challenged groups you would want to use a design that is high-contrast with
simple layout.

There is a lot of text to read on your homepage, and the menu on the left is
fairly plain (which is good), but doesn't really stand out.

Also, using 3 lavenderish colors don't provide a contrast between different
sections.

Why have multiple pages for registration and email? why not just have that on
the home page?

When I create an account, it doesn't just give me access to the site, it makes
me then login from the login page. This could be done better, when I create an
account, just have it log me in.

Once logged in, I again have WAY too much text telling me about ?? i don't
know because I can't be bothered to read so much. You should be able to
visually display this info so that so much text isn't needed.

The first page again has a list of 9 options for the first question. I think
that is way too much, it is overwhelming. And I think most people don't know
what type of connection they have.

Then when you get into 'sex', it gets REALLY interesting... Really?? there are
5 different types of sex?

anyway, I think you get the point. I can't imagine somebody who has any
disability having an easy time with this.

But as I said, I don't know much about autism, so maybe this is the type of
information organization which makes sense to them.

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javanix
Thanks for taking the time to respond. You've managed to come up with
suggestions that would result in the first iteration of the software I came up
with.

The results of the focus testing we did (mostly with a group of autistic
adults) ended up resulting in most of the peculiarities you described.

Incidentally, if anyone has any experience doing design work for disabled
individuals, I'd love to hear your design processes. This project had a
decidedly "too many cooks in the kitchen" sort of feel to it, and though I
think it turned out pretty well I think the process could have gone smoother.

~~~
pedalpete
WOW!, that is VERY cool. It just goes to show that the most important thing is
know your audience.

However (and this is just a suggestion), now that you have this new version,
and I suspect the old version, maybe you could do a side by side comparison to
see how your targets actually interact with the different designs.

It's entirely possible that your subjects ask for one thing, when they really
prefer another.

<http://noisebetweenstations.com/personal/weblogs/?p=1742>

