Learn from two dyslexic UX designers and one UX researcher as they journey through what it means to see the world from different perspectives and how to harness this power for design thinking. Dive into the dyslexic perspective and learn techniques to help you solve complex problems and unlock your creative potential. The talk was given at Big (D)esign / September 2017 By: Jennifer Keene-Moore Anita Barraco Cator Sophi Marass

1. Unlock your own
design thinking
potential
Anita Cator
Jennifer Keene-Moore
Sophi Marass

2. WE ARE…. two dyslexic UX designers and one UX researcher as they
journey through what it means to see the world from different
perspectives and how to harness this power for design thinking. Dive
into the dyslexic perspective and learn techniques to help you solve
complex problems and unlock your creative potential.

3. Growing Up
Dyslexic
What does it
feel like?

4. 4
Remember a day
where you really
killed it…

5. 5
Remember a
time that
you felt less
than
perfect…

6. 6
Imagine …
if nobody could
see your super
powers…
Just your
failings..

7. 7
The three R’s of Education
Refers to the foundations
of a basic skills-oriented
education program in
schools: reading, writing
and arithmetic.

8. 8
Growing Up Dyslexic
“School was a struggle
for me, people just
thought I was thick. I
really needed someone
to help me understand
my strengths”.
by Jamie Oliver

10. 10
Growing Up Dyslexic
“Dyslexics are round pegs
in square holes when it
comes to school. We
don’t fit that well unless
our way of thinking is
recognized and
supported”.
by Kate Griggs Founder
Made By Dyslexia

11. The world sees dyslexia
as a disadvantage. It's
not.
One in ten people are
dyslexic, accounting for
more than 6.5 million
people in the United
Kingdom yet only 3% of
people think it is a
positive trait (YouGov
research 2017).

12. Did you know, that 40% of self-made
millionaires are dyslexic?

13. Myths About
Dyslexia
Can’t Read
Unintelligent
Lazy

14. Myth Busters
Reading with your eyes is the best way to learn.
There are three types of reading:
1. Eye reading (paper),
2. Ear reading (books on tape)
3. Finger reading (braille)

15. Myth Busters
Dyslexic students are unintelligent or lazy, and
including them or providing accommodations lowers
classroom standards.
• Dyslexia—difficulty with standard reading—has
nothing to do with a person’s level of intelligence.
• Measuring students on resiliency and their
strengths rather than spelling is better.
• The SAT has an extremely poor track record in
predicting who will do well in college.

16. Myth Busters
Dyslexia can be fixed. Or they will grow out of it.
• There is no cure for dyslexia, because it is not a
disease. Instead the focus should be on
integrating this persona, building on strengths and
strategies.
• A dyslexic person will never be in the top half of
mainstream reading ability compared to their
peers, but they can still go on to be very successful
in school and in life.

17. ”Dyslexic
minds have
created
some of the
worlds
greatest
inventions,
brands and
art.”
By Kate Griggs,
Founder Made by Dyslexia

18. • Thomas Edison, Inventor
• Pablo Picasso, Artist
• Andy Warhol, Artist
• Alexander G Bell, Inventor
• Mahammed Ali, Boxer
• Albert Einstein, Mathematician
• Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft
• Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple
• Steven Spielberg, Director
• Agatha Christie, Novelist, Playwright
• Magic Johnson, Basketball Hall of Famer
• Walt Disney, Animator and founder of Disney Corp
• Gary Cohn, the President & COO of Goldman Sachs
• Ann Bancroft, Author, Teacher, and Adventurer
• Barbara Corcoran, Investor and Shark Tank TV Star
• Erin Brockovich-Ellis, Legal Clerk & Environmental Activist
• Carol Greider, Microbiologist; Nobel Prize in Medicine (2009)

19. “It’s time we all understand dyslexia properly, as a
different thinking skill-set, not a disadvantage”.
Sir Richard Branson - Ambassadorial President Made By Dyslexia

20. What is
Dyslexia
Neurodiversity
Incidence
Growing Up Dyslexic

21. Neurodiversity and Dyslexia
• Neurodiversity reflects the wide range of human
brains and minds – the infinite variation in
neurocognitive functioning within our species.
• “Normal” is a concept best left to clothes dryer
settings and not to be used for screening out people
from university acceptance or job recruitment.
• A Neurominority is a group of people who have
similar brain functions.
• Dyslexic people are considered a neurominority but
like all groups, they cover a range of functions.

22. Dyslexia – By the Numbers
40 million American children and adults have dyslexia.
US population

23. What is Dyslexia?
International Dyslexia Assoc.
Learning Disability
Neurobiological
Accurate Word Recognition
Fluent Word Recognition
Phonological Component
Reduced Reading
Experience
Low Vocabulary
Growth
Impacted Background
Knowledge
Problems with
Can result in …

24. Attributes Defining this Neurominority
• Reading
• Spelling and handwriting
• Short term memory
• Numbers – Dyscalculia
• Brain illumination patterns
• What this presentation is
about….
“Disabilities” “Strengths”

25. Neurodiversity in
UX Teams
• We are talking to YOU:
• the Dyslexic designer –
how to enhance your
own design thinking
potential.
• the colleague of Dyslexic
designers – how to make
the most of your team.
• Lessons Learned:
• Shorten your emails if
you expect them to be
read.
• Don’t make them write
on the board in front of
clients.

26. Unlock your own
design thinking
potential
Dyslexia Thinking Advantages
Tap Into Dyslexia Thinking
Unlock Your Own Design Thinking

27. 27
The Dyslexic Advantage:
Unlocking the Hidden
Potential of the Dyslexic
Brain
by by Brock L. Eide M.D. M.A. (Author),
Fernette F. Eide M.D. (Author)
The book used the acronym MIND
strengths to categorize the strengths
those with Dyslexia have.
Dyslexia Thinking Advantages - The MIND Strengths

28. 28
Dyslexia Thinking Advantages - The MIND Strengths
Material Reasoning
• Visualizing (75% of dyslexics
are above average at
Visualizing).
Interconnected Reasoning
• Connecting (80% of dyslexics
are above average at
Connecting).
• Imagining (84% of dyslexics
are above average at
Imagining).

29. 29
Narrative Reasoning
• Communicating (71% of
dyslexics are above average at
Communicating).
• Exploring (84% of dyslexics are
above average at
Exploring).
Dynamic Reasoning
• Reasoning (84% of dyslexics are
above average in Reasoning).
Dyslexia Thinking Advantages - The MIND Strengths

30. How can you harness these
super powers in your own
design thinking?

31. Material
Reasoning
Get up and move
Use your hands
Make 3D artifacts

32. 32
Business Origami
Participants can work in teams or
individually
Each participant or group is given a stack
of origami pieces that represent processes
or touchpoints with the product
45 minutes to build a journey
domonstrating how they go about
completing their work

33. 33
Buy a feature
Participants work in teams of 4-5 people
Teams are given a stack of poker chips or
fake money and a selection of content
pieces they can choose from to build their
ideal product.
They will have to negotiate and work
together to purchase content options.

34. 34
Ideal Future Workshop
Participants work individually
Have available a variety of supplies :
pipecleaners, play-doh, markers, paper
Have participants think about the product
or feature and then use the materials to
build an abstract object that has
characteristics of their ideal solution.

35. Resources
To grow your material reasoning skills

36. InterconnectedR
easoning
Look for similarities
Make connections
Plan in a visual way

37. Get it up in the wall
Take all of the assets you have collected
from workshops and get them up on the
wall
Use stickers and post-its to mark patterns
and ideas
For the assets from the Business origami
workshop, we used dots to mark areas of
the flow and resources that were similar
to help with our new IA.

39. Mood Boards
Collect thoughts and notes in a mood
board where you can look across ideas
and see connections
Share access to this board with all team
members.
Invision Board is a really lovely tool for
doing this is a digital space if you can’t
collaborate in a physical one.

40. Mind Maps
For tackling anything from an ideation
brainstorm session to outlining an
information architecture.
Make sure all team members have access
and can participate in the planning.
Use free web tools that are built for
collaboration.

41. This is like that…
Look for patterns across different types of
products that you can leverage as inspiration.
Zapier has an “App Directory” that you can
use when trying to find inspiration or an
industry standard.
(e.x. a CRM or a payment collection app)

42. Narrative
Reasoning
Story telling
Story boarding
Approach the problem visually

43. Make a story
Not everyone on your team will understand
and appreciate the user journey like you will.
Not everyone on your team will be able to
look at persona data points and see a human
with wants, needs and feelings.

44. Approach the problem visually
If your users think very differently from you,
find a way to get them to speak your
language.
If you are a visual thinker, give them an
activity that looks at the problem visually.
Consider, maybe some of your users are
visual thinkers too. What can you do to better
accommodate all types of thinking.

45. Dynamic
Reasoning
Think about the future (and the past)
Wear different hats (metaphorically)
Keep testing

46. Wear different hats
When working through a design, actively
spend time thinking about what could go
wrong.
Look at the design from other
perspectives, think about how others
might see it and the problems they might
encounter.
Think about every possible thing that
could go wrong and try to break your own
design.

47. Learn all the things….....
At the beginning of a new project, learn as
much as you can about your industry, your
organization and your products.
Talk to everyone, get their perspective about
they way they see the future of the company.
Get access to all past user research and
product analytics.

48. Test for the future
Define the KPIs at the beginning of a
project so you know where you want to
go and how you are going to get there.
Contually test against those KPIs in
order to track progress and keep your
goal in mind.
Share findings with the entire team so
everyons is on the same page.

49. Go make something!