A graphic designer’s reflections on building a neuro-inclusive website
Published on 13 June 2024 • Written by Dr Lisa Colledge
I was proud to receive such a positive response to launching my website a few weeks ago. The designer, Creative Consultant Merina Burda, and I had worked hard to make it accessible for both neurodivergent and neurotypical visitors.
In this article, I am happy to share Merina’s reflections and advice on designing and building a neurodiversity-inclusive website.
Three key takeaways
Enhanced usability: applying neurodiversity-inclusive design principles in website design brings benefits to everyone, including neurotypical visitors. Improving the user experience will increase the conversion rate overall.
Simplicity and focus: keep focused on the core audience and function of the website as you design it. It’s easy to be enthused by new functionalities offered by the website buidling platforms, such as animations and sliding panes, but consider whether they really serve your needs. A simple, clean, uncluttered website might serve your needs better.
Learn, iterate and adapt: keep on learning, and be willing to rework elements as you gain new insights.
I was proud to launch my website at the start of May.
My primary goal was to make sure that visitors found it easy to focus on the content, whether they were neurodivergent or neurotypical. Taking inspiration from neurodiversity-inclusive best practises resulted in a website that offered accessibility, as well as being aesthetically appealing.
I shared an article about the steps that we took to neurodiversity-inclusive. And I was happy to receive so much positive feedback about the website, exemplified by this comment.
“The site is very clean, uncluttered and straight forward. It’s very easy to navigate and right away makes it clear what it’s about.” Opal Pitzler
There is always room for improvement, and we iterate the website regularly. I have also sought out feedback and been vigilant in looking for best practises elsewhere. I’ll continue to share my learnings in future articles.
The focus of this article is to share the reflections of Merina Burda on building my website. Merina is the other half of the ‘we’ I have referred to. She is the Creative Consultant behind Burda Consulting, with two decades of experience in graphic design and marketing. I thoroughly enjoyed the design and build experience; she notes the learning journey that I sent her on, and she also challenged and supported me to improve how I communicate my value and services.
We have a great partnership, and did a better job together than either of us could have done alone — which is the very essence of working cultures inspired by neurodiversity-inclusion.
And now, over to Merina.
What were your key learnings in building this neuro-inclusive website?
I was reminded to keep things simple.
I consider my design style very clean and minimalist, but I still had to remind myself multiple times during this build that things shouldn’t overlap, don’t put words over photos, and many other little instances.
I love how it turned out and it makes me consider that sometimes as designers we get excited about new functions and capabilities but we can’t let those things distract us from the core of the function and design.
Everyone always talks about making things “user-friendly” but I think we need to step back and ask ourselves what that really means to the broader population and make sure everyone is being included.
How did you find the website design and build experience?
I really loved the experience and working with Lisa made one of my favorite parts even better. I love doing research before writing the site map and designing the wireframe, and she sent me a variety of articles and facts which sent me on a learning journey that I greatly enjoyed.
That’s not to say there weren’t moments when I would forget one of the recommendations and then have to redesign something. But reworking things comes with learning, and now those pieces that have been reworked are honestly some of my favorites.
I also discovered that many of the things I prefer and enjoy when I visit websites actually fall under neuro-inclusive practices. I’ve always avoided auto-play videos, sounds, and too much movement, but I never really thought about why. Now looking back, it’s because, as Lisa always says, making improvements based on neuro-inclusive practices actually bring benefits to everyone.
I’ve studied UX (user experience) design practices and that’s all about how individuals interact and navigate anything from a website to a product. I think designing with neuro-inclusivity in mind will only benefit the overall user experience and will therefore decrease the bounce rate and increase the conversion rate for the business.
What will you do differently in your next web design project?
I will definitely talk to my clients about site animation and whether that’s really a good fit for their audience. Learning that even the most subtle movement can be distracting or make a website harder to navigate made me reconsider how I build websites.
Most building platforms, like Squarespace, have subtle animations and movement automatically built into each section to the point that you need to continually turn them off manually while building.
I have a lot of clients who want more animations or sounds or auto-play on their videos but now we can talk about what is enhancing their website and how we can minimize those things to become more inclusive.
What would you advise people to do differently when they are designing?
Use fewer animations and movement on your website.
Consider a more neutral color palette instead of bright, bold colors.
Be direct and stay on point with your messaging.
I'm Lisa, and I help leaders create inclusive cultures that embrace all neurostyles. By empowering every team member to contribute at their best, while fostering mental well-being, you will boost innovation, retention, and talent acquisition—leading to enhanced business performance.
Click here to learn more about how my services can transform your team.
