Designing User Experiences for Children With Special Needs

Childhood learning is now more screen-based than ever before. Designing user experience for the younger generation is as complex as designing a typical app for adults. It is noted that one in 10 children worldwide has special educational needs. Children with special needs face various challenges in their social, cultural and educational lives. It is also necessary to research and identify the most appropriate ways for them to interact with technology.

As designers, we have the responsibility to create products taking into account that a child has some form of disability and their learning is different from a child without a disability. There is a need to design technologies that can reasonably work in real-world environments. There are stakeholders that need to be involved in the design and adoption of these technologies by children, parents and teachers. Therefore it is teamwork to create delightful experiences for children when they interact with the system.

You will learn

• Types of special needs and why it is important to design for everyone the same experience
• Designing for a complex audience including kids, parents and teachers
• Usability and accessibility information that will make you a better, more inclusive designer
• Proven visual design methods for educational products
• The importance of character design and gamification
• Apps that have succeeded in creating the best digital products for children with special needs