The audience that I choose was members on the Autism spectrum. I choose to use the spectrum because I did not want to specify the severity. The website is mainly for grade school-aged children, but gender does not matter. Although, because of the website coloring it may attract more males, however, the color was chosen in lew of April 2nd which is world autism awareness day where people wear blue. It is important to design websites with this audience in mind because according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 1 in 59 kids are identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The do’s/don’ts of my poster were chosen with the purpose of not overwhelming my audience with too much clutter and dynamic, functions as I did not want them to feel trapped (Vasile). The first do/don’t is to use simple navigations over complex navigations. This is because websites that take a lot of work to figure out how to move around can cause extreme stress and frustration. My second do/don’t is to use plain English and simple sentences instead of puns, figures of speech, or idioms. This is because if you try and explain something important to a person on the spectrum they may have a harder time understanding exactly what you are trying to say. This can lead to a miscommunication of important information. It is always important to consider what the linguistic needs of your audience are (Ball 13-14). The third do/don’t is to use soft colors over bold colors. This is because people with autism can suffer from sensory overload a lot easier and faster than those who are not. Therefore, to help them have a comfortable experience on the website you need to avoid colors that can overstimulate like bright yellows, oranges, pinks, and greens. My fourth do/don’t is to use consistent layouts instead of dynamic ones. This is also because of sensory overload and frustration. A website that is constantly rotating a slide show of pictures or images may make it harder for a person on the spectrum to focus. Lastly, I said to use the principles of scale to indicate what is more important than other things instead of making every button the size. This is because it makes it easier to navigate the site if you can visually see what is most important without even reading.
Aesthetically, I made several choices to show my audience that I listened to my own do’s and don’ts. First, I kept the background a solid color and design. This is because I did not want the design to be too busy that my audience gets frustrated trying to read the poster. Secondly, I choose all straight lines so that they would not clutter the poster and take away from the words. However, I chose thinner horizontal lines because the thicker ones made the poster really hard to look at and I did not want too much sensory information. I used large and bold lettering instead of thinner font because it is easier to read and quicker which will cut down on frustrations of reading. My decision to choose white lines over black lines was based on the fact that the black lettering and black lines made all of the words and lines appear to blend, but white lettering and black lines were too hard to read. So, in order to create a balance, I used black, white, and navy blues to keep the poster consistent but easy to read. Lastly, I did not give every line an image because I did not want the center of the poster to be off-balance with the sides.
Works Cited
Ball, Cheryl, Jennifer Sheppard, and Kristin Arola. “Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects.” Massachusetts: Macmillan Learning, 2014. Print.
Data & Statistics on Autism Spectrum Disorder. (2019, September 3). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html
Vasile, Christian. “Learning the Basic Elements and Principles of Graphic Design.” 1stWebDesigner, 4 Mar. 2019, 1stwebdesigner.com/graphic-design-basics-elements/.