⚙️ An interactive visual prototype for an operating system aimed at assisting children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in using conventional desktop operating system interfaces more efficiently while minimizing the effects of autism-related hypersensitivity.
🔗 Check out this link for more information! (Cogni+OS Website)
For my MYP Personal Project, I designed and programmed a prototype operating system aimed at assisting children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in using desktop operating system interfaces more efficiently while minimizing the effects of autism-related hypersensitivity. The project was targeted towards children of age 7 to 12 diagnosed with Level 2 ASD.
The programming language Swift was used to create a functional prototype of the user interface. Throughout the research process, I worked with Alan Smerbeck, an associate professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as Sarah Jimenez, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and special-ed teacher.
Undertaking this interdisciplinary project resulted in the successful development of both knowledge-based and transferable personal skills such as structured and modular programming, graphic design, organizational skills, and efficient time management.
- Children with cognition-affecting autism can get confused and become distressed if there are too many items on the screen.
- They may have weaker reading skills, so icons and colours can allow for improved visual memory and easier navigation.
- It is possible for children with severe autism to become distressed when switching focus, therefore slow and streamlined transitions are required.
- Children with severe autism typically respond better to audio than text.
- Children with autism commonly find some fonts, such as Helvetica and monospace fonts, easier to read than other fonts.
- It is more difficult for children with severe autism to detect chromatic targets on a chromatic background, but it is easier for them to detect chromatic targets on a grayscale background.
- Hypersensitivity is closely related to autism, so the colour yellow can be perceived as sensory-overloading.