Designing for ADHD: in search of guidelines

Children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are a group at risk of marginalisation and isolation from their peers, as they are often placed in the same educational settings as more able children, despite having quite different needs. This paper explores how software designers who are not familiar with this group of users could use their existing knowledge of usability issues to design software that avoids excluding these children, while still designing software that is usable for all. A series of 15 guidelines are proposed from a survey of literature and recommendations, which were found to compare closely with usability guidelines in many cases.